Spinach Rice / Palak Pulao

Spinach Rice / Palak Pulao, simple and healthy dish with cooked rice and spinach. Its apt dish to pack for kids and adults in their lunch box. Im sure kids will love this dish with some raita.

Spinach is nutritious green and this is the perfect way to add this green in your diet. Spinach has the possible health benefits diabetes management, cancer prevention, asthma prevention, lowering blood pressure, bone health, good for healthy skin and hair and promotes regularity. So you can include spinach weekly once in your diet. 

Please dont over cook the spinach. So here is recipe for you all to try.

Ingredients

• Cooked Rice 2 cup
• Spinach Leaves / Palak 150 to 200 gm
• Onion 1 medium size, chopped
• Green chili 1 or 2 , chopped
• Ginger 1 small piece, chopped
• Tomato 1 small one, chopped
• Mustard Seeds 1/2 tsp
• Chana Dal 2 tsp
• Urad Dal 1 1/2 tsp
• Cashew Nuts few (optional)
• Dry Chili 2 nos
• Curry Leaves few (optional)
• Asfoetida Powder a pinch
• Turmeric Powder a pinch
• Sambar Powder 1 to 2 tsp
• Garam Masala a pinch
• Ghee / Sesame Oil / Sunflower Oil 2 tbsp
• Salt

Method

Clean and rinse spinach leaves, drain water well then chop them finely and keep it aside. Here I used baby spinach, you can use normal Spinach leaves/ Palak. 

Take a wok or big size pan and keep it on medium flame. Add ghee, once its melts reduce the flame and add mustard seeds, once its splutter add chana dal, urad dal and cashew nuts saute until brown. Now add dry red chili and curry leaves saute for few seconds. Now add chopped ginger and saute until it leaves the aroma. Add chopped onion and saute until it becomes translucent. Add chopped green chili and saute for few seconds. Now add chopped tomatoes and saute until soft. Add chopped spinach and cover and cook for 1 minutes. Open and add turmeric powder, sambar powder and asafetida powder, garam masala and salt, mix everything well. Now you get nice aroma. Add cooked rice and combine everything well. Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on low flame. Open and serve this with pickle and curd Or can have as it is. I had it with pickle. 

NB: I siad in the intro its good for kids lunch box, in that case you can omit green chili and dry red chili in the recipe so that its easy for kids to eat, no need to remove chillies while eating. I f you dont like the combination of sambar powder and gram masala then omit garam masala, but i liked it, because add ed a pinch only. Enjoy cooking..