Carrot Rice

So yesterday I posted a starter recipe with carrot, and today it’s going to be the main course recipe with carrots. Here comes my carrot rice. Err honestly I am not sure how to name this recipe. These are some of the names that I was contemplating with: carrot palya rice, carrot masala baath, masala rice, carrot pulao. I even thought of calling it as carrot biryani, but I didn’t use any mint leaves or dry masalas, so I finally gave it a generic name – Carrot rice. :-) The main reason behind the naming confusion was because of all the dry powders or masalas that I used for this recipe. I used sambar powder, garam masala, and dagad phool (black stone) powder. I prepared the grated carrot palya/dry curry and then mixed the rice – tada carrot rice is ready. Yes, it’s as simple as that. The addition of dagad phool powder enhanced the flavors, and it tasted like biryani sans mint leaves. This grated carrot curry is a perfect stuffing for parathas too. So either you can prepare rice with it or parathas or just serve it as rice accompaniment.

Without any further ado, here comes the carrot rice – A perfect and flavorful lunch box recipe prepared with grated carrots. It’s a simple recipe, but it’s as delicious as a biryani.

Ingredients:

Oil – 2 tsps. Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp Fennel Seeds – 1 tsp Half of the medium-sized onion chopped Curry leaves – 6 to 7 leaves Grated Carrots – approx. 2 cups (I used three carrots) Sambar Podi – 1 tsp Garam Masala – ½ tsp Kal Paasi Powder/Dagad Phool Powder – ¼ tsp Green chili – 1 Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp Salt – 1.5 tsps. Rice – 1 cup Water – 3 tbsps. + 2 cups (for rice)

Prep – Work:

Peel the carrot skin and grate them. Cook the rice in your preferred way. I cooked the rice in my pressure cooker. For 1 cup of rice, I used 2 cups of water. Once cooked, let the rice cool down. Chop the onions and green chili.

Carrot Rice Recipe with Step-Wise Pictures-

In a kadai, heat the oil. Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds and fennel seeds. As the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the chopped onions and green chilies. Sauté for a minute and add the curry leaves and cook until the onion turns translucent. Now add the chopped carrot and mix well. Add the dry masalas (sambar podi, garam masala, dagad phool powder, turmeric powder) and salt and mix well. Sprinkle 3 tbsps. of water and cover and cook for 2 minutes. Now remove the lid and cook until the water evaporates.

So now the palya/dry curry is ready. Add the cooked rice and mix well. Make sure the carrot mix is nicely incorporated.

That’s it. Carrot rice is ready. This is a perfect lunch box recipe. Serve it with raita or chips.

Recipe Notes

Along with carrots, other veggies can be used, or carrot can be replaced with veggies of your choice. Adjust the salt and spices as per your preference. If using the black stone flower, a small 1-inch piece is sufficient. If you can’t source black stone flower powder, you can substitute with fennel powder or add more garam masala. Ghee/Clarified butter can be used instead of oil, but as I wanted to keep it vegan, I went with oil.

Sending this for BM 71. Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#71http://www.spicingyourlife.in/blogging-marathon