A couple of weeks back, this recipe popped up in my Facebook feed. It is a recipe from the Sanjeev Kapoor’s WonderChef brand. I only had one view and when I was wondering what to cook this weekend, I decided to make this and used what I thought was the recipe.

Navratan traditionally means nine gems and so I decided to make this with nine ingredients, including dry fruits and excluding rice and spices.

Navratan Pulao

Ingredients:

• 2 cups basmati rice, washed and soaked for 30 minutes
• 1 large onion, sliced finely
• 1 carrot, julienned into slightly thick strips
• 1 sweet potato, julienned into the same size and shape as the carrot
• 1/2 cup green peas
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 10-12 cashew nuts
• 10-12 almonds
• 1 handful raisins
• 2 green chillies, chopped into large pieces
• 1 tsp finely chopped ginger
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 4-5 cloves
• 1 large bay leaf
• 4-5 green cardamom pods
• 2-inch cinnamon
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Drain the rice and keep aside
• In a pan, heat the ghee and when warm, fry the cashew nuts, almonds and raisins, one by one, remove, drain and keep aside.
• In the same pan, with the remaining ghee, add the cumin seeds, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf and cardamom and stir for a couple of seconds.
• Now add the chopped chillies and ginger and give it a stir.
• Add the vegetables and stir well.
• Now add the washed rice, the fried dry fruits and salt and stir well.
• If you are cooking this in a rice cooker, pour the rice into the rice cooker, add 3.5 cups of water and check for salt and let it cook.
• If you are cooking on the stove top, add 2 cups of water and let it cook. Check occasionally and add more water if needed.
• You can serve this with any gravy based vegetable or even just with a salad and a raita.