Planning and cooking every day meals is not a walk in the park for most people I know. However over the years I have realised how important it is to cook healthy meals made from fresh ingredients. I have personally seen a shift in my health when I started planning, prep-ping and cooking my own meals. My gut health took a bad turn thanks to all the horrible food I ate in hostel during my undergraduate years and then during my post graduate years I never had time to fix healthy meals, the only healthy meals I had was when an undergrad friend or my flatmates used to cook for me. To cut the long story short now I have immense gratitude for all the meals my mother cooked for me.

My concern today is when I see people leading busy lives neglecting their food habits and ordering and not fixing fresh meals. Health is wealth, however cheesy it may sound. This recipe is adapted from my Amma’s recipe, she is an amazing cook and anything she makes tastes delicious. Many people will agree to this, she has fed countless people over the years. She is still my go to person when I have doubts about ingredients, she can look at an ingredient and tell you what to do with it even if she herself has never seen it before. That’s my Amma, Annie George for you! Whenever we had a special occasion she would make what she called ‘Mexican Rice’ for us and my sisters and I devoured it. My One pot meal is inspired by her recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 cup basmati rice
  • 3 large onion chopped fine
  • 1 or 2 large diced green capsicum/green peppers/shimla mirch
  • 1 cup cabbage shredded
  • 1 large tomato chopped
  • 3 garlic pods
  • 1 tsp soy sauce, gluten free or tamari sauce *
  • 1 tsp chilly powder
  • 4 tbsp neutral vegetable oil
  • salt to taste

Method

  1. Wash rice and soak for 10 to 15 minutes. Heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil in a skillet and sauté one onion with garlic for 2 minutes. Then fry the drained rice for about 2 minutes and cook with enough water and salt.
  2. Heat remaining oil in a heavy pan and fry the sliced onion till crisp. Toss the fried onions it onto a paper kitchen towel so the oil is absorbed and keep aside.
  3. Use the same oil and pan sauté the shredded cabbage for about 2 minutes, till cooked and then keep aside. Then put in the diced peppers and sauté for 2 minutes followed by the tomatoes. Keep stirring till it gets cooked. Finally add the soy sauce, chilly powder and salt. Mix it well.
  4. Add the sautéed vegetables and half the sliced onions to the rice. Garnish the rice with fried onions and serve hot.

You can eat this on its own or alongwith a nice gravy. Perfect for lunch boxes or when you want your children to eat vegetables. This can be made with quinoa and millets as well and the oil can be reduced or increased as per your taste.

*For gluten intolerant folks, use a good gluten free soy sauce or tamari sauce. That’s Asia has a good gluten free soy sauce and is available on www.foodbury.com. For people living outside of India, Kikkoman’s gluten free and so many brands are available. Please check in your local Walmart, Tesco,Sainsbury’s or Coles. For those of you who can’t source it or have a soy intolerance, it tastes fine without it as well.

Please feel free to make this, if you are putting the recipe or photo of this on Social Media. I would request you to please tag me on FB – www.facebook.com/GFIndia , Twitter – @JAGGlutenfree Instagram – @jeeva_anna_george . This recipe is a labour of love of my mom’s and it is important she gets the credit for it.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *