Spicy mushroom pulao

My recent favorite…mushroom pulao…one pot pulao dish, healthy and very easy to prepare as mushroom doesn’t take long to cook…and comes out very tasty and you’ll end up asking for more. You can have this guilt free as its packed with all healthy and essential nutrients of mushrooms. When you have all the ingredients ready in hand, this pulao can be done in matter of 15 minutes. Accompany it with some raita, papad and there you go… perfectly tasty and comforting dish on your table in a jiffy.

Ingredients

2 cups chopped mushrooms

1 cup basmati rice

1 medium sized onion finely chopped

1 ts fennel seed, 3 cloves, 2 bay leaves, 1 star anise

1 ts ginger garlic paste

¼ ts turmeric powder, 1 ts coriander powder, 1 ½ ts chilli powder

4 ts thick curd

2 ts oil, 1 ts ghee

2 ts lemon extract

Preparation

It is essential to clean mushrooms properly before use. However clean and packed they come in packets, I make it a point to clean them atleast once. Wipe them with a damp cloth to remove any dirt sticking over it. Then show them over running water. And wipe to dry them again with a clean cloth.

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add the chopped mushrooms, switch off flame, cover the pot and let it sit aside for a while. The mushroom flavors the water and you can it as a broth for the rice.

Take a wide pan. Once hot add enough oil. Temper it with bay leaf, fennel seed, cloves and star anise. Immediately, add the chopped onions. Once they start turning slightly brown add the ginger and garlic paste. Now remove mushroom from the stock and add it to the pan. Keep frying them for 5 minutes. Add turmeric, chilli and coriander powder. Fry them until the masala is incorporated well into the mushrooms. Now add the thick curd, mix everything and keep frying the mixture until all water from curd has evaporated. Add the soaked basmati rice now. Add the mushroom stock, enough salt and bring the mixture to a boil. Now cover the pan and let it simmer in the lowest flame until the rice is done. It may take around 10 minutes. While the rice is ¾th done, add ghee and lemon extract. When the rice is fully done, fluff it gently and serve.

You can have the addition of mint leaves and coriander leaves to the above preparation, but I didn’t as I found the flavor of the pulao to be satisfying even without it.