Mix Vegetables and Rice Casserole

As per me Casserole are the perfect comfort food. When you are not in a mood to cook a complete meal with different variety of veggies, proteins, carbs etc. and still want to eat something light and healthy at home while sitting in front of a TV, it does wonders.

One such comfortable yet healthy recipe is mixed veg and rice casserole. In the recipe shared below I am using fresh lentils (daal), but you can easily substitute this with any leftover daal from previous day.

Ingredients:

1.       Rice, washed and soaked for upto 1 hour -  1 cup

2.       Arhar/Tur dal (yellow lentils or any other as per your choice), washed and soaked upto 1 ½ hour – 1 cup

3.       Curry leaves – 5-6

4.       Cumin seeds – ½ tea spoon

5.       Medium size onion – 1

6.       Peas – 2 Serving spoons

7.       Carrot chopped finely – 1

8.       Capsicum chopped finely – 1

9.       Beans chopped in small either small pieces of diagonal slits – 8-10

10.   Cauliflower flowerets – 6-8

11.   Green chilies sliced – 2

12.   Optional vegetables like mushrooms, eggplant etc can be added

13.   Turmeric powder – ½ tea spoon

14.   Red chilli powder – ¼ tea spoon or as per taste

15.   Garam masala – ¼ tea spoon

16.   Dry mango powder/ Amchoor – ½ tea spoon

17.   Sambhar powder – 1 tea spoon (use this with arhar daal. If you decide to use any other daal just omit this masala)

18.   Clarified butter or desi ghee – 1 serving spoon

Method:

1.       Wash the rice and daal separately and soak them for a couple of hours.

2.       In a pressure cooker add ghee and let it heat.

3.       Add cumin seeds and wait for them to splutter. Add green chilies and curry leaves after that and stir for 30 seconds.

4.       Thinly slice the onions and add them to the pot. Sauté till onions turn translucent.

5.       Add remaining vegetables one by one, stirring each one of them for a minute or so after adding. Add capsicum as the last vegetable as it cooks quite quickly.

6.       Let the vegetables fry for about 2-3 minutes and then add all the dry spices except for salt. Stir for another minute.

7.       Drain water from daal and add it to the pot. Mix and stir for 1-2 mins.

8.       Remove water from rice and add to the pot. Mix well.

9.       Add about 3 cups of water and salt to the pot. Close the lid of pressure cooker and cook on high flame.

10.   Cook on low flame for about 5-8 mins after the first whistle.

11.   You can cook this in an open pot as well. In this case the water to be added will be around 5 cups. You can adjust the water as per the consistency you like your casserole to be in.

The best thing about this dish is that there are no rules. You can add any leftover daal or veggies to it. Many times I am confronted with a situation where I have just one carrot, half a cauliflower, a lonely piece of capsicum lying about in my fridge demanding attention. In such cases such casserole recipes comes to my rescue.

So do not ponder over the leftovers now and enjoy this simple meal.