Mint flavoured rice

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by Deeksha Pathak

Mint flavoured rice happened in my kitchen just by chance. We were kind of bored with plain rice with daal (lentil), so decided to change the menu by changing plain rice into flavoured rice. As my daughter can’t have hot spices, so instead of preparing biryani (pulav is also regular in the menu), I decided to use hara podina/pudina (fresh mint) for flavouring rice. Green mint gave rice a nice flavor with mild spices and one more variety is now added to her menu.

Mint flavoured rice

In India, different types of chutney, like Coriander Chutney (dhaniye ki chutney,    Imli ki meethi chutney    Lahsun (garlic) ki chutney   Tamatar ki chutney  Raw Mango Chutney with Jaggery   are an integral part of our daily food menu. Podina or mint chutney is very refreshing in taste. There is not much difference in the preparation of dhania (coriander) and pudina (mint) chutney, other than leaves. If you already have mint chutney, you can use that for preparing mint rice or else can follow the whole process…

Ingredients:

For mint puree

50 gms green mint leaves
One small tomato
One green chili

Rice 1/2 cup +2 tbsp
Oil 2 tbsp
Cumin (jeera) seeds 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida (hing) powder 1/8 tsp
Small mustard seeds (rai) 1/8 tsp
Mint puree 1/2cup
Water 1/2cup + 8 tsp
Salt   as per your taste
Lemon juice 1tsp

Note :

  1. Red chilli powder can also be added to mint puree to make it spicier.
  2. Use fresh mint leaves for a nice flavour.
  3. If you find that mint flavour is less with the given quantity of mint puree, sprinkle dry mint powder (Homemade Dry Mint Powder/ Podina ka powder).  And next time, add more mint leaves to the puree.
  4. Water quantity and cooking time might be different depending on the different quality of rice and different types of pressure cooker.

Process:

Wash rice nicely and soak them in 1/2 cup of water.

Soak rice for mint flavoured rice

Wash mint leaves, tomato, green chili and chop and grind in the form of puree.

prepare mint puree..

Mint puree is ready for mint rice

Use the remaining 8 tsp water to clean the jar of puree and add that water to the puree.

Heat oil in the cooker and crackle rai, hing and jeera.

Add mint puree and let it cook for 2-3 minutes. Don’t cook puree too much, otherwise, flavor will be lost.

Add rice now along with water followed by salt as per your taste. Close the lid of the cooker and let the rice cook for three whistles.

Add rice in mint puree

Once the steam of the cooker cools down completely, open the lid. Gently mix mint rice together and serve hot with raita.

Add rice in mint puree

Mint flavoured rice is ready

 

Published by

Deeksha Pathak

I like reading, watching movies, listening to music, doing some art and craft, cooking, baking and exploring new ideas. Baking is my new passion!!

90 thoughts on “Mint flavoured rice”

    1. It is now a regular at our home now as Apoorva doesn’t have much options in menu. Podina has refreshing flavour and it cools down the body, so for non spicy food lovers it is a good meal.

      1. Yes ,it was wonderful but the actual schedule for prayer service was also changed in the event of Covid 19 and the community attended prayer services at different times to maintain social distancing.🌹👍🙏

    1. Thanks a lot Stella ☺️
      Getting fresh mint is difficult in winter in other parts of India also. Bangalore has pleasant weather conditions so we get all year round. We have to use a lot dry mint instead of fresh one and I guess dry mint tastes better if we use it in cooked food.

  13. Ooo I like the sound of adding a little more flavour to rice with mint, which is something I never would have thought to try otherwise, and of course a little chilli to give a kick. Sounds lovely! x

    1. Thank you very much for your lovely appreciation Kamal ☺️
      Mint rice came out really nice and now this is regular in our menu. I hope you will like the taste 😊

  18. The last pic shows a brownish colour.. that’s the effect of tomato is it? I’m trying this!! I make it onky with mint chilly and ginger paste .. will try with tomato .. thanks for sharing 😊

    1. You are most welcome HS☺️
      Brownish colour is from mint puree only. If you will add lemon juice after opening the cooker (I didn’t, as my daughter can’t have lemon) it helps in enhancing the colour and taste. If tomatoes are sour, then lemon juice can be avoided.

  19. It looks delicious, Deeksha. Usually, I add some onions and some garlic and ginger to mint leaves before grinding. Just learnt that you can add tomatoes as well. Coriander rice is to be made in a similar method, isn’t it?

    1. Thank you very much😊😘
      for mint chutney I also use onion and ginger. Garlic is not much appreciated by my husband and due to medical condition my daughter can’t have garlic, ginger and lemon. So I have added sweet tomato.
      Herbs or spices, we can add anything which goes well with our taste buds☺
      Yes, we can as well prepare coriander rice also.

    1. Thank you very much Tina😘
      I kept simple ingredients for my daughter but garlic, onions, some more chili, slight addition of whole garam masala can also be added ☺️

  24. Looks delicious! I make a similar palak-pudina rice, which can also be modified into a fake-Italian dish by using olive oil, oregano, rosemary and pepper instead of the regular oil and spices.

      1. Thank You, Deeksha!!! I’m certain I would like it if I would just get myself in the kitchen and coooook!!! 🤣 hope You have a relaxed Sunday as well! Huge Hugs! 🤗💖😊

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