SPINACH & GREEN PEAS RICE

SPINACH & GREEN PEAS RICE

Whenever you have some excess cooked rice available at home, you can put it to best use by making some of these rice varieties which you will find elsewhere in this blog such as Mint Pulao, Lime Rice, and Raw Mango Rice.

Today's dish is adapted from Spinach & Green Peas Rice by one of my favourite cookery experts, the late Ms. Tarlaji Dalal. It is a fairly simple dish yet it turned out to be very tasty. I loved the flavour of the coriander- based masala which complements the taste of the spinach and green peas.

Ingredients:

• Spinach, (Palak), shredded, 2 cups
• Green Peas, boiled , 1/2 cup * Used frozen green peas
• Cooked Rice, 3 cups
• Ghee or Oil, 1 tbsp
• Large Sized Onion, 1
• Green Chillies, finely chopped, 2
• Salt, to taste

 For Making The Paste:

• Coriander Leaves, (Dhania) finely chopped, 1 cup
• Coconut Gratings, 1 and 1/2 tsp
• Green Chillies, roughly chopped, 4
• Lime, 1/2 
• Sugar, 1/2 tsp
• Salt, to taste

Method:

Wash the spinach in several changes of water and shred them. Keep aside
Thinly slice the onion and keep aside
In a mixer, grind together the finely chopped coriander leaves, coconut gratings, green chillies, lime, sugar and salt to a smooth paste using very little water. Keep aside.
Heat the ghee or oil in a broad non-stick pan, when it is hot add the onion and saute on medium flame for 1 minute

Add the finely chopped green chillies and the shredded spinach and saute on medium flame for 2 minutes

Next add the ground paste, then the boiled or frozen green peas and salt
Mix well and cook on medium flame for a couple of minutes
Lastly add the cooked rice, mix well so that the rice is evenly coated with the masala

Cook on medium flame for 2 minutes stirring occasionally

Serve hot with fresh curds or raita of your choice

** The addition of lime juice and sugar while grinding the coriander leaves to a paste helps it to retain its colour
* If you are using freshly made rice, make sure it is adequately cooled before use and that it is well spread out before use so that the grains do not stick to each other.