This Bell pepper Pulao is brought to you by a happy accident. I was trying a recipe and realized I didn’t have half the correct vegetables mentioned. And I added a little more tomato. And a lot more ground cardamom. And the result was… delicious! I’m now sharing my little dish with you, based off an original recipe by a cook I admire. This is a simpler version of a yummy little spiced tomato rice, with just bell peppers, onions, and cilantro to top it, and the delicious spices singing a tune that’ll make you excited for dinner!
I’m a huge fan of Vegan Richa. Over the years, I’ve learned so much about Indian cooking, stovetop & Instant Cooker through her books. She recently released an awesome book called Vegan Richa’s Instant Pot Cookbook, which I have been pouring over.
One of the recipes I tried recently was her Tawa Pulao, or spiced tomato rice. I was scrambling for ingredients one busy afternoon and realized I only had bell peppers instead of the vegetables she mentioned! However, I was able to make a simple and delicious dish with what I had on hand, also making a few changes along the way, like additional tomatoes and more ground coriander. This is simple and different enough that I thought it warranted my own blog post on my take of a Bell pepper Pulao, inspired by Richa Hingle’s cooking and original recipe.
Here’s how to make this delicious vegan dish – two ways!
Bell pepper Pulao
Equipment
- 1 Instant Pot Pressure Cooker optional
- 1 large saucepan with lid
- 1 strainer
Ingredients
Seasonings
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon ginger paste
- ½ teaspoon cayenne powder
- 4 cloves of garlic, diced
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon cloves
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon amchoor (dried mango powder)
- 1 teaspoon salt
Main Ingredients
- 16 oz canned diced tomatoes
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 1 yellow or white onion, diced
- 2 teaspoons oil
- ½ yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1¼ cup water
To Garnish
- dash of lemon juice
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
Instant Pot Method
- Before you start, soak the basmati rice for 15 minutes.
- Preheat your Instant Pot with the Sauté setting. Heat the oil, and then cook the cumin seeds & fennel seeds for 30 seconds until then darken. Add the onion & cook for about 2 minutes, until they are translucent. Then, add the garlic and ginger paste, and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Now, add the entire can of tomatoes, with the remaining spices, save for the salt. Cook for 5 minutes and stir.
- Now, add your cut bell peppers, salt, and water. Stir well to make sure nothing sticks to the instant pot.
- Drain your rice and add it to the instant pot. Cancel the saute.
- Now, place on the lid and set Pressure Release Knob to Sealing, at Manual and High Pressure, with a cook time of 5 minutes. Wait for manual release, which will take about 30 minutes.*
- Open the lid, fluff the rice, garnish with lemon juice and cilantro as desired, and enjoy!
Stovetop Method
- Before you start, soak the basmati rice for 15 minutes.
- Heat your oil in a saucepan over medium heat, and cook your cumin seeds and fennel seeds for 30 seconds. Add the onion & cook for about 2 minutes, until they are translucent, while stirring. Then, add the garlic and ginger paste, and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Now, add the entire can of tomatoes, with the remaining spices, save for the salt. Cook for 5 minutes and stir.
- Drain the rice. Now, add your cut bell peppers, salt, water, and rice. Stir, cover with a lid, and cook for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low-medium, and then cook for an additional 5-8 minutes until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Make sure to stir to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom.
- Garnish with cilantro and lemon juice, and enjoy!
Notes
Do We Need All the Spices?
It’s not Indian food unless it has all the spices! Contrary to an (annoying) q’white popular belief, they are not all the same, and unique to dishes — you will be missing a lot of the flavor if you neglect many of the unique spices. You can find many of the ingredients at your local Indian grocery, or online.
The small amounts of cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, and amchoor actually come together to make a spice mix called pav bhaji masala. Originally, Richa teaches you how to make your own pav bhaji masala with her ratios of these ingredients.
It goes as:
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- ½ teaspoon amchoor (dried mango powder)
And you only need one tablespoon of pav bhaji masala for this recipe! But I bungled this up by adding too much ground coriander, which is actually taken out of my chai mix. Which I actually use for everything, so my mix ended up being all over the place! The version I gave in the instructions is the closest rendition possible to my creation, which is why it’s a little off from the ratios given by Richa in the beginning. (But now you know in case you ever need to use pav bhaji masala again.) If there are any ingredients to skip, the amchoor and cloves may be negligible but definitely don’t miss out on the cardamom and coriander!
Why Bell peppers?
If you’re like me, you sometimes start prepping dinner without the ingredients and have to make do. Sometimes, it’s a mess, and other times it’s a eureka moment that gives you a dish such as this. The bell peppers add such a delicious crunch to this recipe that compliments the soft, mushy rice and fragrant tomato. I also think yellow and white onions pair with this dish better, though Richa originally suggests white or red onion. Her original recipe contained red bell peppers, green bell peppers, carrots, and green beans. There was a larger vegetable ratio, but I hope my version is sort of like a lazy, more risotto-type rice you can quickly throw together and give you a simple yummy eating pleasure.
I know I enjoyed it, as the Bell pepper Pulao leftovers were gone for breakfast the next day!
Does it have to be Canned Diced Tomatoes?
Short answer: Yes.
Well, for me. For you, it might be different. I learned a secret when I was studying from my first cookbook, which set the foundation for a lot of habits I have today. Katheryne Taylor explained in her book, Love Real Food, that she always uses canned tomatoes, especially if they’re organic. Apparently, right when tomatoes get canned right when they are ripe, so they’re actually much fresher than tomatoes you might buy at your local grocery store by the time they get to you. Honestly, the Roma tomatoes I usually end up with are not juicy and savory. Some tomatoes are so good, that in Chinese culture, we sprinkle some sugar on them, and eat them as a dessert. That doesn’t really work with what I get, (maybe I’m buying the wrong produce. I’m usually too cheap to buy organic tomatoes, plus they go bad too soon.)
There’s been many times where I made recipes where tomatoes were meant to be a source of liquid, and I ended up bombing the recipe because my tomatoes were too dry. I always thought it was me, until I switched to canned tomatoes. I haven’t had that issue since and the difference has been like trying to make art with kiddie chalk instead of charcoal! You don’t want your food to taste like chalk, do you?
So if you are in a place where you can source the juicy, juicy tomatoes, be my guest! In the meantime, for best practices, I recommend the canned tomatoes if you’re not sure.
If you like this Bell pepper Pulao recipe, you should definitely check out Richa’s amazing book.
I own all three of her books, Vegan Richa Indian’s Kitchen, Vegan Richa’s Everyday Kitchen, and her Instant Pot Cookbook. I can’t recommend this cooking and baking genius enough!
Also, if you’d like to try other Indian-inspired recipes, here are a few others I have on my blog:
Admittedly, despite trying probably hundreds of Indian recipes at this point, I’ve been hesitant to blog about any because I wanted to make sure I was putting my own creative stamp on it, while be true to the essence of this diverse and beautiful cuisine I respect so much. So cheers to my first dish!
Note, this blog post contains an affiliate link from Amazon. I get a small commission if you buy items through the links provided, with no additional cost to you.
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