Colourful Rice: My Healthy Recipe

Looking at a plain white sheet of paper might not be interesting to the sight, but just add some colour to this blank sheet of paper using dark green, red, yellow, orange, and pink crayons and then take a look at the same white sheet. The coloured sheet would look interesting and more appealing to the eye. This was just for making you picturize the dish that I am going to be posting today.

A bowl of plain rice might not be a very interesting option to eat for any meal. But by just adding vegetables of vibrant colours to the rice not only adds colour, flavour, and texture but makes it so engaging to the sight. For me the food that is served at the table has to be inviting to the people and should provide contentment.

Let’s get making the plain boiled rice an interesting, appealing, and an eye-catching option so that when you eat it, you would like to try making it more often.

INGREDIENTS:

Boiled rice – 2 Medium bowl (approximately 100 g raw rice that is boiled)

Bell Peppers- ½ of each- Green, Red, Orange, and Yellow.

Onion- ½ (Medium-sized)

Broccoli-3-4 Florets

Boneless Chicken pieces-6-7 (or as required)

Olive oil- 1 Tbsp (any oil that you use for cooking as required)

Seasoning– Salt, pepper, Chilli flakes, and dry Oregano herb.

Garnish– 1 Boiled egg

Preparation of Vegetables & Chicken: Cut the chicken into cubes. Bell peppers should be chopped and onion should be diced. Chop the broccoli florets.

Note: The chicken and egg are the protein part of the dish. Vegetarians can replace the chicken with Soy chunks or Paneer (cottage cheese), or Tofu.

Method:

Heat a Wok or skillet or Kadai and add the cooking oil to it.  Add the chicken cubes and sauté, season with salt and pepper.

As the chicken gets cooked, put all the cut vegetables into the wok and sauté just enough so the raw taste goes. The vegetables should be crunchy to bite. Season with salt and pepper.

Put the boiled rice and mix well with the vegetables, season with salt, pepper, chilli flakes and oregano. Mix well and serve hot.

Our colourful rice is ready to be served at the dinning table for all to enjoy. I made it this afternoon for lunch and ate with dal fry. It can be enjoyed as it is or any dal preparation would go well with it.  Dal Fry recipe I will post on a later date.

Keep visiting for some interesting versions of the different dishes that I cook in my Kitchen.

Enjoy!

ashu 🙂

ZhatPat rice-My dinner recipe

As the name itself suggests, yes, this is a rice preparation that can be cooked within no time, and without much efforts. After a long day, with the fridge vegetable basket empty, the tummy craving for a yummy meal, but with no inclination for spending much time in the Kitchen, this is the perfect dinner menu for that day. Today I am going to be sharing recipes for the Zhatpat boiled egg rice as well as the Chicken rice that I cook on those days.

Boiled egg rice: 

Ingredients:  Onions, garam masala, salt, and oil of choice for cooking.

Method: Heat a pot on the stove and add oil according to ones cooking requirement, then add sliced onions and fry till they are almost dark brown in color.  For cooking one bowl of rice, I use 1 large onion for frying.  Add the washed rice to the dark browned onion, 1 ½ tbsp of garam masala, salt to taste, and required quantity of water, and cook till rice is half done, then add shelled boiled eggs to the rice and cook till it is completely done.

Cooking the rice along with the browned onions and spices gives the egg rice a good flavour, and the desired brown color. This can be served with a salan or curd raita of choice. Instead of boiled eggs one can try making it using soya chunks.

Zhatpat Chicken Rice:  

Ingredients: Rice, shredded or small chunks of chicken, mint and coriander leaves, garam masala, salt, oil to cook.

Method: Cook the rice with some salt added to it. In a pan heat some oil and add the shredded chicken pieces and sauté adding salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder, and garam masala (ground spices) to it. When the chicken is almost cooked, add chopped mint and coriander leaves.  Add the cooked boiled rice to the chicken and mix it properly so that the herbs and spices are evenly mixed with rice.

The fresh herbs added give a distinct flavor and minty taste, and the green color adds a nice appealing look to the rice. It can be served hot with papad and curd raita of choice.

As you can see, both these preparations do not need longer cooking time or any elaborate preparations, are very simple to cook and yet wholesome, nutritious, and healthy. Try them out and find out for yourself if you like the recipe.

ashu 🙂