Skip to main content

Pilaf rice with Chickpeas, and get rid of the pig! 


I am dedicating this post to an initiative from the blog of Norma Carpignano: get rid of the pig (dedicated to the Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi). Presently Italian women are speaking up to ask the resignations of Berlusconi, and bloggers, as usual, have a very original way of doing this, with a recipe :-). 

But since I am vegetarian no pork recipes here, so I am posting a vegan recipe instead.




Pilaf rice with Chickpeas
I am still very ‘timid’ when it comes to Indian spices: I am always scared to burn them, or to use too much, or too little. In particular I am so used to have cloves and cinnamon in sweet dishes that I never know how much to use in savoury dishes.
For this pilaf I just filled up a tbsp of spices, as you can see there are plenty of cumin seeds, but just a little cinnamon and a few cloves, plus a few cardamom pods), still, just the right amount for me to flavour a pilaf for four.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp mixed whole spices (cumin seeds, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom)
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 generous pinch of salt
300 g basmati rice
1 can chickpeas, drained

1 Wash the rice and soak for 30 minutes.
2 Heat 1 tbsp of oil, sizzle the whole spices and garlic.



3 Add turmeric and salt.
4 Add rice, chickpeas and water (just enough water to cook the rice by absorption)
5 Cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©


Con questa ricetto supporto l'iniziativa Liberiamoci del maiale!
Labels:

Comments

  1. VeroFebruary 2, 2011 at 1:12 AM

    :)va benissimo anche una ricetta vegana!!
    baci
    Vero

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 2, 2011 at 8:55 AM

    Looks fantastic

    ReplyDelete
  3. AJFebruary 2, 2011 at 5:23 PM

    Pilaf looks amazing - brings back memories of cooking during uni!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. JoFebruary 2, 2011 at 7:42 PM

    This looks so good!

    ReplyDelete
  5. trinidadFebruary 3, 2011 at 10:11 AM

    simple et délicieux !

    ReplyDelete
  6. KemiFebruary 3, 2011 at 11:50 AM

    Ciao Alessandra!
    lo scopo è che si parli, si dibatta e si dia voce allo sdegno! grazie per aver dato spazio alla nostra iniziativa sul tuo blog!
    Your vegan receipt is absolutely perfect!
    Thanks!
    Kemi

    ReplyDelete
  7. AlessandraFebruary 3, 2011 at 7:34 PM

    Vero e Kemi, son contenta di partecipare, e che se ne parli :-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Couscous & ConsciousnessFebruary 6, 2011 at 3:46 PM

    Yum, Alessandra. I love chickpeas - I often use them in curries or stews, but have never thought of actually putting them in a pilaf - I most definitely need to try this.
    Sue xo

    ReplyDelete
  9. JoFebruary 7, 2011 at 9:38 AM

    Lovely Pilaf, I like it with chickpeas!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to make Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum), and Sweet New Zealand

Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum) Before I start I would like to say that I don't have a sugar thermometer, essential if you are really into confectionery, and that I didn't use much sugar for these Turkish delights. Many recipes use much more sugar, and it is not that I wanted to make a low sugar treat here (it is still pretty sweet), it is just that making it at home really makes me realize how much sugar there is already in my diet, and if I can have something with a little less... well, why not! This method is 'home friendly' i.e. these can be made at home with very little effort and equipment, and the recipe comes from my book  Sweet As...  where I also have the recipe for lavender and orange blossom Turkish Delights. Ingredients 1 l water 300 g sugar 2 tbsp lemon juice 100 g cornflour 1 tbsp frozen raspberries 1 tbsp rose water icing sugar (very little) and cornflour (lots) to dust. In a pot put hal...
9 comments
Read more

Silver beet Paneer, a variation of Palak Paneer

The other day I showed you my curry made with borage , ‘invented’ because I have tons of it in the garden! The other green-leaf crop that does well in Auckland is silver beet. My old plants (from last year!) got so tall that I started collecting only the little leaves from the stalks, and they look like spinach. One of my favourite Indian dishes is Palak Paneer (or Panir), spinach with panir cottage cheese, and this variation is made using my silver beet. I washed (many times!) the small silver beet leaves, and then I steamed them and drain them. In a heavy pot I heated 2 tbsp of vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil) and sautéed for 30 seconds: 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp turmeric 1/3 tsp ground chili then I added 2 roughly chopped shallots and, after 3 minutes, a good pinch of salt and the cooked silver beet. I cooked everything on low for about 20 minutes (you may need to add just a little water if the silver beet is too dry) and then finely pureed the content ...
5 comments
Read more

Home Made Marzipan Sweets

This is another recipe from my book Sweet As , and something that I love to make for Xmas. I would like to say that for marzipan you should get the best almonds around, natural, but here in New Zealand the almonds taste different from the ones in Italy. They are imported, not sure where from most of the time, but they are not top grade almonds. Still, with a few tips, you can make your marzipan taste great even with 'regular' almonds! Buy them natural, not blanched, you need to blanche then yourself or the result will be too dry. To blanch them you need to put them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, and then add cold water and take the skin off, one by one. For this recipe you will need: 200 g almonds 100 g icing sugar 5 apricot kernels. As I was saying before, the almond here have little taste, so I like to collect the stones from apricot and get the almonds out. They are a real pain to crack! In the photo above you can see apricot stones and kernels. The apricot kernel...
13 comments
Read more