Whenever I pass a chinese restaurant, I always get reminded of the aroma of the hot and sour soup and fried rice which I am very fond of. I am always fond of chinese dishes. I also like the fact that chinese dishes have a lot of vegetables even in the non-vegetarian dishes. And unlike the indian restaurants here in US where the dishes are too expensive, the chinese people serve you enough amount of food for the same price to last the next day too. Anyways, I guess Iam going offtrack here....I just wanted to conclude that Vegetable fried rice can be called as a wholesome dish as it has the rice and lots of vegetables which are important source of dietary fibre. Here Iam including the recipe for vegetable fried rice which infact would appear very colorful if you were to include more vegetables.....as usual, you might find that I include a variety of spices, coz Iam a spice lover by nature:-)
Ingredients:
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Raw rice (preferably Basmati rice): 1 cup
Butter: 1 medium sized cube
Vegetables:
Onion: 2 medium sized nos
Carrot (cut lengthwise or cubes): 1 cup
Green peas: 1 cup
Corn: 1 cup
Green beans (chopped): 1 cup
Tomato (chopped to ver small pieces): 2 tomatoes
Mushroom (optional)(cut in quarters): 1 cup
Capsicum: 2 nos
Crushed Garlic: 3 segments
Minced ginger: 1 tsp
Chopped green chillies: 2 tsp
Coriander leaves: 1 cup
Spices:
Cumin seeds (jeera): 1 tsp
Cloves: 3-4nos
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Chilli powder: 1 tsp
*Nutmeg powder (optional)(jaiphal or jaathikka in malayalam): 1/2teaspoon
Pepper powder: 1 tsp
*Nutmeg is a spice that has various medicinal values associated with it.
Sauces:
Tomato sauce: 3 tbsp
Soy sauce (optional) : 2 tbsp
Oil
Salt
Method:
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- Take a vessel and melt butter in it. While the butter is getting melted, add the basmati rice. Keep stirring until the basmati rice starts turning slight brown. Add 2 cups of water to the vessel and cook the rice until it is just done. Make sure not to overcook the rice, else the rice might become too sticky and the texture of fried rice will not be retained.
- After the rice gets cooked, take off fire and let it cool.
- In another pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil. Add cloves, cumin seeds, garlic and ginger and green chilli. Saute for 10 seconds. Then add onion, and mushroom. Saute until onions turn brown and the juices from the mushroom gets out (you will be able to know this as there will be a nice aroma ).
- **Add the rest of the vegetables, ie, green peas, carrot, green beans, tomato, capsicum, and corn. Add coriander powder, chilli powder, nutmeg powder, and pepper powder. Stir uniformly to mix the spices with the vegetables. Add the tomato sauce and soy sauce. Mix uniformly. Wait until all the vegetables are tender. Add this to the cooked rice and add salt. Mix the rice and vegetables uniformly.
- Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with raita or vegetable kurma. A glass of jaljeera would serve as a drink along with this.
** Variation: You may make egg fried rice by adding one or eggs at this point and mix everything until the eggs become scrambled.
