About:

This is one of my all time favorite one pot dish. It’s fragrant and tastes buttery without dairy. While I enjoy this with flavour of fresh herbs. It’s a lovely addition to a dinner buffet. Whenever I serve it at a party, my guests are intrigued. In this version, I flavored the rice with only three vegetables: Butter beans, peppers and onion.

Health Benefits:

Beans are packed with protein and are very filling. The combination of beans and rice makes a perfectly balanced meal for a vegetarian diet. Butter Bean are also called Val Bean, Valore bean and Indian Bean. The complete plant is edible . The young leaves can be eaten in salad, the older leaves can be cooked.

Yields: 2 servings
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Soaking time: 4-5 hours
Cooking time: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients:

• Brown basmati rice-1cup
• Water-1 3/4cup
• Butter beans/Vaal/hyacinth/avarekalu bean-1cup
• Chopped onion-1medium
• Chopped bell peppers-1
• Fennel seeds-1tsp
• Clove-3
• Cinnamon-1piece
• Cardamom-2
• bay leaf-1
• marath moggu-2
• salt- to taste
• oil-1tbsp

To grind:

• Fresh mint leaves-1cup
• Fresh coriander- a handful
• Desiccated coconut-1/4cup
• Ginger-1/2inch
• Garlic-2-3cloves
• Green chillies-3-4

For garnishing:

• Roasted cashews
• Chopped fresh coriander

Procedure:

• Wash and soak val beans for 4-5hours/overnight. After soaking time drain and set aside.
• Rinse and soak rice for 15-20 minutes. After soaking time drain and set aside.
• Combine ginger, garlic, mint, coriander, green chillies, coconut in a blender/food processor grind to paste by adding some water if required and set aside.
• Now heat oil in a pressure cooker and add bay leaf, fennel seeds, cardamom, cinnamon, Marathi moggu, cloves and saute for few seconds.
• Now add chopped onion, bell peppers and fry for 2-3 minutes.
• Add soaked and drained beans, ground paste and saute for 4-5 minutes.
• Now add soaked and drained brown basmati rice and saute for a minutes or two –stirring gently.
• And the add 1 3/4cup water, salt and let it come to a boil, close the lid and pressure cook for 2whistles on a medium low flame.
• Once cooked allow the pressure to escape before opening the lid.
• Now garnish with some roasted cashews, fresh coriander and serve hot with raita/yogurt dips.

Note:

• I used dry beans here- tender vaal beans can also be used.
• Any canned beans can also be used alternatively.
• Spices can be personalised as per the taste