Pudina Rice

When I was having a casual talk with my sister the other day, she said she prepared pudina rice for dinner using left over pudina chutney. The blogger instinct in me got the recipe from her immediately. I have always been impressed with my sister's presence of mind and agility in the kitchen. She finds and adopts new ways of easy cooking, but without compromising on the taste and flavour of the dish. Pudina rice is yet another easy and flavourful recipe from her. I don't mean to say that no one else has ever made pudina rice before..But I just loved her version of the recipe. Even if you don't have left over pudina chutney, you can try this recipe from scratch which I did. :-) Its worth it.

Ingredients to serve two adults

Cooked basmati rice that can serve 2 people(ordinary rice can also be used)
Pudina leaves: 2 cups(cleaned)
Onion: 2 medium size chopped
Dried Red chilli: 3
Channa dal: 1 tsp
Urad dal: 2 tsp
Coconut: 1 tbsp(grated)
Salt to taste
Refined oil: 2 tbsp

Procedure

1. Cool the cooked rice by sreading it in a wide bowl.
1. In a pan/kadai, add 1/2 tbsp oil. When it is hot, add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add channa dal, urad dal, coconut and red chily. Saute till the channa dal turn slightly brown and tranfer it a bowl.
2. In the same pan, add 1/2 tbsp oil and saute the pudina leaves. It will shrink and come to less than a handful.(around 2 to 3 minutes). Transfer to another bowl.
3. In the same pan add 1 tbsp oil and saute the onion until it is soft.(3 to 4 minutes)
4. Grind the dal mixture and pudina leaves by adding some water if needed..The consistency should be semi solid. It is OK if the ground mixture is a bit coarse.
5. Saute the ground mixture and onion in a pan for 2 minutes, add salt and mix well.
6. Once the rice is cooled down, add the pudina mixture and mix well but gently so that the rice does not break much.
7. Serve with onion raita. I generally add a tbsp of eggless mayonnaise to the raita. It make the raita tastier and creamier.

Note: My sister toldme to add 5 red chilys. Since we do not like it very spicy, or rather can't tolerate spicy food, I reduced the quantity to 3.