This quick-to-make instant pot pulao takes under 30 minutes to prepare. As a matter of fact, it’s probably the easiest and best veg pulao I’ve ever made!
Take ginger, garlic and green chili in a (spice) grinder jar. Blitz it until they are crushed. Remove it and keep it aside.
In the same jar, take chopped tomatoes. Make a smooth puree out of it. (Yes, you can make a puree in the wet jar of the spice grinder.)
Chop the veggies and keep them ready.
Take basmati rice in a colander and rinse under running cold water until water runs clear. Massage the rice using fingers gently while rinsing.
To make instant pot veg pulao, turn on the instant pot with saute mode and add oil.
Once oil is hot, add cumin seeds and let them sizzle a bit.
Add whole spices (peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon stick, green cardamoms, black cardamom and bay leaf) and saute for a minute or until you get a nice aroma of the spices.
Add onion and ginger, garlic, and chili. Mix and cook for 2 minutes or until the onion starts to soften or becomes light pink or translucent in color.
Add tomato puree, turmeric powder and salt. Mix and cook for a minute.
Add veggies, garam masala and kasoori methi. Mix well.
Add rice, water and lemon juice. Stir everything. Cover the instant pot with a lid and keep the valve on sealing.
Pressure cook on manual (high pressure) for 4 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes then do QPR (quick pressure release) by positioning the valve to venting. Once the pin drops open the lid.
Gently fluff up the rice. If you have time, let the veg pulao rest for 5 minutes before fluffing it up (during this resting time rice grains will firm up and don’t break or get mushy while fluffing up).
Video
Notes
If making for guests, roast some cashews before adding the onion. Cashew nuts add a nice crunch to the pulao.
Use ghee instead of oil if making for guests or on special occasions.
Rice:Water ratio: You’ll need 1:1 ratio for the perfect texture of rice (soft, fluffy, separated from each other).
Veggie options:
I have used green beans, green peas, carrot, sweet corn, potato and bell pepper.
A few other options are cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, snow peas, sweet potato (yam), etc.
Chop the veggies into small to medium size pieces so they can get cooked in 4 minutes. If your chop them bigger then they may stay raw or uncooked.
To avoid chopping veggies, use the frozen mix veggies (that contains carrot, corn, green beans, green peas).