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

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

Crema Bruciata, or Crème brûlée, with nectarines, plums and cherries

The original recipes comes from my book Sweet As... ,  my own recipe which doesn't require steam baking in the oven and includes nectarine slices. Plum slices and cherries were also added here, and the result was delicious!  In Italy we also call this  crema bruciata , but  crème brûlée  is most commonly used now as it sounds sophisticated :-). To make the crème you will need one egg yolk for each 100ml of cream and 1 tbsp of sugar, for this recipes I used 5 egg yolks (thus 500ml cream and 5 tbsp of sugar) and I filled 8 ramekins, plus I had a little left to fill three miniature ones. Of course if you don't put any fruit on the bottom you will need more crème. It is up to you how much fruit you put in, generally I just line the bottom of the ramekins with 4-5 think slices, this time I think I overdid it (thus the leftover crème) sicne stone fruit season is not long in NZ, and I wanted to use more fruit than crème! Don't use watery fruit and remo...
Post a Comment
Read more