Ravishing Rice Dishes ~ Green Peas Rice

During time crunches, simple dishes, which can be meals by themselves or one pot dishes can be life savers. Particularly in Indian cooking, there are plenty of rice dishes, which fall in above categories and green peas rice is one such dish. Serve this with a cup of raita or plain yogurt and an enjoyable meal is ready for you on plate. If you already have cooked rice, then this dish hardly takes 10 minutes to go from stove to plate.
I took the basic idea of my cilantro rice and cooked this dish today and I think it can be one of the fabulous choices for quick, simple and delicious party dishes.

Ingredients that went into the green peas rice:
Sona masuri / Basmati rice - 1 cup
Frozen Green peas - 1 cup (Fresh ones will do)
Fresh grated coconut - 1 cup (if using frozen coconut, thaw it before)
Cashews - 1 Tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Grated ginger - 1 tsp (Just to give an idea. No need to grate ginger)
Cloves - 4-6 (depending upon the spiciness you prefer)
One inch Cinnamon pieces - 3 or 4
Green chillies - 2 (I used jalapeno. If using small, Indian variety, probably 3-4 will do)
Salt - 2 tsp
Few Curry leaves (Optional)
Oil - 2 tbsp

Preparation:
Cook the rice (with 2 cups of water if using a cooker).
Grind coconut, ginger, chillies, cloves and cinnamon into a paste using a little water if needed.
Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seed, cashews and curry leaves. When cashews and cumin seeds start to turn brown, add the ground paste to the mixture. Fry for about five minutes on low -medium flame. By the time, the raw smell of the paste would be gone and the mixture would be relatively dry (if water has been used for grinding).
Next, add peas and saute for a few seconds. Turn off the stove.
Then add rice and salt to the pan and stir properly till all the rice is coated well with the spice mixture.
Serve hot with some raita / yogurt.

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