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.
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 :
- Red chilli powder can also be added to mint puree to make it spicier.
- Use fresh mint leaves for a nice flavour.
- 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.
- 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.
Wash mint leaves, tomato, green chili and chop and grind in the form of puree.
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.
Once the steam of the cooker cools down completely, open the lid. Gently mix mint rice together and serve hot with raita.
