Spinach Pulav

A healthy nutritious and yummy dish that takes under 10 minutes to prepare. A blessing in disguise for a working mom, especially if your kids like it and are willing to take it for lunch.

Ingredients:

2 packs chopped spinach (I like either the Birds' Eye brand or the Lucerne/Dominicks brand organic chopped spinach)

1 cup basmathi rice (regular white or brown rice is fine too, but the basmathi gives the pulav a special flavor)

2 spoons of sambar, or rasam powder, or vathakozhambu powder (using each of these gives the pulav a slightly different taste)

salt to taste, a tsp of ghee or oil to saute

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 onion chopped

Deep fried paneer cubes (optional).

Preparation method:

Saute the cumin seeds in ghee or oil.

Add chopped onions and saute for a couple of minutes.

Add the basmathi rice, spinach, salt, sambar/rasam powder, and two cups of water.

Cook either on open flame (with the stockpot covered) or transfer contents to a rice cooker.

Serve with yoghurt, raita or any sabji, if a side dish is considered necessary. My kids eat this without anything on the side.

Optional: Adding deep fried paneer pieces after the rice is cooked gives this a rich taste.

A variation to this is carrot-peas pulav, made with frozen peas and carrot combo packets (replace spinach with carrots & peas in the above recipe).