The beauty of the peas pulao is in its simplicity. Beautiful grains of fragrant Basmati rice, just steamed green peas and the rich depth of flavor from whole spices make this a gorgeous rice dish to serve with an Indian meal.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of basmati rice, rinsed and drained
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 star anise
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 5 cardamom pods
• 10 black peppercorns
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 cup of fresh or frozen green peas
• 2 cups water

Method

• Place a heavy stock pot with lid on medium heat.
• Add the oil. Once the oil is warm, add in all the whole spices. If you don’t have all the spices listed that’s fine. You can use whatever you have on hand. Sometimes I use just cumin seeds or just cardamom pods. Let the spices release all their flavors in the warm oil. Careful not to burn the spices!
• Once the cumin seeds are sizzling, add in the rice. Sauté for just a minute to coat the grains of rice with oil.
• Now add the water, increase the heat and bring the water to boil.
• Once the water starts boiling, reduce the heat to the lowest setting, cover the stock pot and let the rice cook for about 10 minutes.
• Take off the heat. Do not open the lid for about 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, open the lid to add the peas on top of the rice and cover the pot again.
• Let the steam from the rice warm the peas through. Best to let the pulao sit for about 15-20 minutes.
• Now you can open the lid and gently fluff the rice. All done!

I intentionally skipped adding salt to the water when cooking the peas pulao. If you are serving this with a spicy curry, just salt the plate and you are good to go!