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!