Vegetable Fried Rice – Indian Style

A very easy preparation. You can try frozen vegetables in place of fresh ones. Serve with some sort of raita or just plain yogurt.

Ingredients

• 2 cups Rice
• ¼ beans finely chopped
• ½ cup diced Bell Peppers
• ¼ cup spring onions finely chopped
• ¼ cup Green Peas
• few Mushrooms
• 1 small carrot finely chopped
• 2-3 Green Chilies finely chopped
• 1 tbsp Ginger finely chopped
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp Black Pepper powder
• ¼ tsp asafetida
• 1 tbsp Lemon juice
• 1 tbsp chopped cilantro leaves
• 4-5 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

• Wash and soak the rice in enough water for 10-15 minutes and drain.
• Boil 12-15 cups of water in a big pan. When water is boiled add rice along with a little salt.
  Cook uncovered on low heat till rice is just less then tender.
• Take care not to overcook the rice. Each grain of rice should be separate.
• When rice is done, drain and add some cold water and drain again using a large sieve and set aside.
• Heat oil in a wok or large pan, add asafetida and chopped vegetables.
• Stir fry for 3-4 minutes. Take care that vegetables are not overdone, they should be crisp.
  Mix salt and pepper to taste.
• Add the cooked rice and mix well. Cook rice for 2-3 minutes.
• Stir in lemon juice, garnish with fresh cilantro leaves.
• Serve hot with Raita and chutney.

Do You Know?

White rice is produced by milling the seeds of the rice plant using rice huller. Chaff ( the outer husks of the grain) and bran ( rest of the husk and germ) are removed by this method which makes white rice less nutritive then brown rice.

White rice may be also buffed with glucose or talc powder (often called polished rice)

Despite the hypothetical health risks of talc (such as stomach cancer), talc-coated rice remains the norm in some countries due to its attractive shiny appearance, but it has been banned in some and is no longer widely used in others such as the United States.

In some places instead of talc , other substances such as glucose, starch, or other coatings may be used to improve the appearance of the grains.

For this reason, it is recommend washing all types of rice before cooking in order to create better-tasting rice with a better consistency.