I never had this pulao before my marriage, after my marriage, first time I tried this tawa pulao in Nagpur at my MIL place, very colorful and full spicy with lots of veggies.
This rice recipe is slightly spicy, aromatic and the unique flavorful one-pot meal.
This is non-spicy pulao, but you can spice the tawa pulao as per your taste buds by increasing the quantity of red chili powder in it.
Now-a-days this tawa pulao is very famous in Bangalore too. There are so many street food points and one of this tawa pulao and pav bhaji point is there. But they uses some color and red chilly powder to make it rice more red in color.
The street side vendors use a big tawa for making tawa pulao. For home cooks, this recipe can be made in a kadai (wok).
Even though they call it pulao it is an version of fried rice cooked with Indian spices especially with pav bhaji masala.
You can prepare this pulao with your left-over rice also, but for that just make a tawa-masala and mixed with your leftover rice with it it.
It is instant recipe and can be put together if you have left over rice. Tawa pulao goes best with boondi raita, vegetable raitaor an onion-lemon side salad
You can make end number of rice like lemon rice, Tomato pulao, sweet rice pudding and simple veggie biryani
Let's start to make this flavorful and aromatic tawa pulao recipe with simple step-by-step process.
Ingredients :
For the Rice
Basmati rice or long grained rice - 1 cup
Water for cooking the rice - 3-4 cups
Oil - 2 to 3 drops
Salt to taste (add less salt because we use it in veggies)
For the Tawa masala
Finely Chopped Tomatoes - 2 no (large)
Finely Chopped Onion - 1 no (medium)
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
Butter - 2 tbsp + Oil - 1 tbsp
Chopped carrot - 1 no
Chopped Potato - 1
Green Peas/ Matar - 1/2 cup (frozen or normal)
Chopped Green Capsicum - 1/4 cup
Chopped Bell peppers(Yellow and Red) - 2 tbsp
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp (add as per as your requirement)
Pav bhaji masala - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala - 1/4 tsp (optional)
Salt to taste
Chopped coriander leaves
Preparation Method :
For preparing the rice:
1. Clean and Wash the rice till the water runs clear of starch. Soak the rice in enough water for 20-30 mins. Drain it and then add the rice to a pot.
2. Pour 3-4 cups water in the rice. add salt and few drops of oil. Stir and cover and cook the rice till the rice grains are cooked well.
(don't over-cook the rice too much or make them mushy,it will spoil the texture of pulao)
3. In a strainer, add the cooked rice and let all the water drain away. Once all the steam has passed from the rice, cover the rice with a lid.
1. In a pan or kadai, add oil plus butter melt it. Then add cumin seeds and fry them till they get browned.
4. Stir again and saute the whole mixture till you see butter releasing from the sides. Now add 1/4 cup of water and close the lid till all veggies cooked and all the masala become dry.
6. Garnish with coriander leaves and sprinkle some lemon juice before serving on tava pulao.
7. Serve hot tawa pulao with mixed vegetable raita or mint-cucumber raita , boondi raita or plain yogurt accompanied with papad and pickle.
Enjoy & Happy Cooking :)