Colourful Pilau Rice Recipe

I’ve done that many cook at home curry recipes that I thought it would be a good idea to craft a rice recipe for you all, to accompany your main dishes.

The recipe is simple and easy to follow and thankfully doesn’t contain a whole load of ingredients.

This rice dish is very similar to how your favourite local Indian restaurant will cook it.

If done correctly, the rice will be packed full of flavour, fluffy and not stuck together.

Key Points

• You can now purchase the Pilau Rice Kit from the webstore – each portion will cost just £1.50!
• Don’t cut corners with the rice prep – make sure you wash the starch out of the rice and let the rice sit in water for an hour. Your rice will stick together if not.
• You don’t have to use onions – if you like garlic or mushroom fried rice for example, then swap the onions out for anything you may like. Or, if you’re feeling hungry, why not add all three in!
• Wait for the rice to cool down before adding the food colouring otherwise most of your rice grains will be green and red. You only want a small proportion of the rice to be coloured.
• Remove the aromatics before serving – no one wants to be chewing on a clove.
• Make sure you season the rice with salt – it will transform the dish!

Colourful Pilau Rice

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 15 mins

Time for rice to soak 1 hr

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

  

• 200 g washed basmati rice
• 1 onion roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp pure butter ghee
• 2 bay leaf
• 2 pieces cassia bark
• 4 cloves
• 1/4 tsp green food colouring
• 1/4 tsp red food colouring
• 1 tbsp freshly chopped coriander
• salt to taste

Instructions

 

• Wash your basmati rice until the water runs clear. This will take about 5-6 thorough washes but is a very important step to wash the starch out of the rice. This will stop it from sticking together.
• Leave the rice to soak in fresh water for an hour. This will elongate the rice grains.
• In a saucepan, add the ghee on a medium heat and then add the onions, cassia bark, bay leaf and cloves. If you like garlic in your rice you can add a couple of sliced garlic cloves here too. You want to cook until the onions start to turn golden brown.
• Remove a quarter of the onions from the pan and keep to one side for garnish.
• Add the drained rice into the saucepan and toast for around 1 minute – stirring frequently.
• In the same pan, add enough water to cover the rice. There should be at least an inch between the top of the rice and the top of the water line. Bring the water up to a rolling boil and boil for 6 minutes.
• Drain the rice and then put a lid on top of the saucepan for 5 minutes to steam the rice. This will ensure it's extra fluffy.
• Remove the lid from the saucepan and remove the bay leaf, cassia bark and cloves from the rice. Give the rice a mix around with a fork to fluff.
• It's best practice to let the rice to cool down before adding the food colouring to ensure the colouring doesn't bleed. Take 1/4 tsp of each food colouring and add to a separate small dish with a splash of water.
• Take each colour and drop them into one single spot on the rice. Wait a couple of minutes for the rice to soak up the colouring then mix. Season with salt.
• To serve the rice, reheat in the microwave until it's piping hot and then garnish with the freshly chopped coriander and the golden onions from the previous steps.

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