Tofu & vegei Green puluv

Tofu - You either love it or hate it but it is good for you. So I am trying to incorprate it in my day to day cooking. I got some of the Extra Firm tofu and I wanted to do something different. I came across this recipe in Honey What's Cooking and I absolutely fell in love with it. With some modifications to suit our taste here is how I did it.
Ingredients:
- 1 pacakage Tofu (see notes)
- 2 cups of mixed vegetable (I used mostly green vegetables like capsicum, peas, beans etc)
- 1 onion chopped finely
- 1 tsp roasted coriander powder (Grind this fresh for the best flavor)
- 1 cup basmathi rice (Wash this and keep it aside for at least 10 min)
- salt to taste

Grind to make a paste
- 1 bunch corriander
- 1 bunch mint leaves(optional but it tastes better with it)
- 2-3 green chilies (adjust to taste)
- small piece of ginger

Seasoning:
- whole garammasala (I used few cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 anise seed)
- 1 tsp Jeera
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- oil as needed

Method:
1. In a pan pour oil and add the chopped tofu. Cook until it becomes golden brown on both sides. Take some for garnish and mash the rest to tiny bits using the back of your spoon. Remove from the heat and toss it with a little bit of the ground chutney, salt and coriander powder.
2. Add more oil to the pan and all the ingredients for seasoning. Once the jeera starts to splutter a bit drop in your onion. Fry till golden brown. Toss in the rest of the vegi and toss it around.
3. Add the soaked rice and mix it well. Mix in the remaining ground mixture and add two cups of water,salt and coriander powder. Bring this to a boil.
4. Now reduce the heat to a medium, cover and cook for 20 minutes. While cooking if you feel it is too dry then add another 1/4 th cup of water.
5. Once the rice is tender remove from the heat and fluff it with a fork. Garnish with the cubed tofu that you had set aside. Serve it hot with cold raita.

Note: Tofu - I have used both extra firm and medium firm tofu. With extra firm you can garnish in the end with big pieces like I have shown in the picture. With medium tofu it becomes more like egg fired rice as they are easy to scramble

Sending this to Bookmarked Recipe's hosted by Priya.

Green Rice

This is an easy green rice that I stumbled upon when I was browsing Aayis blog. I think it is pretty ingenious use of spinach in a rice item. I typically cook this rice with just cilantro leaves and some mint. But the addition of Spinach makes this more healthy and also adds little bit more body to the sauce. Made some modifications to suit our taste.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup rice soaked for 30 minutes
- 1 cup spinach
- 1 cup cilantro
- 1 onion
- 1 cup mixed vegetable (I just used frozen peas and carrots)
- 4-5 green chilies
- small piece of ginger pealed
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut
- 1 tsp garam masala
- salt to taste

Seasoning:
- few cloves
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp jeera
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp oil

Method:
1. Grind spinach, cilantro, ginger, chilies, coconut to a fine paste. Do not add too much water.
2. Now in a huge vessel add oil and all the seasoning ingredients. Once they turn slightly brown add the onions and fry till it becomes soft. Add the ground paste. Fry till you see oil separate from the sides.
3. Add the vegetables and toss them around till the sauce coats all the vegetables. Now add the rice and salt. Give this a good mix.
4. Pour in two cups of water and let it all come to a boil. Reduce the heat and cover it. Cook it until the rice becomes fluffy. This takes around 20 minutes. Check in between to see if it has enough water. If not add some more. Serve it hot with raita or pappad.

An alternate method is to skip coconut and instead add coconut milk. So instead of two cups of water cook it in 1 cup coconut milk and 1 cup water. This makes a richer and creamier rice. Perfect for parties.