Quick and easy Vegetable Pulao made in the Instant Pot that comes out perfectly fluffy every time you make it.
Vegetable Pulao or Vegetable Pilaf is simply white basmati rice that is made fragrant with spices and has a lot of good vegetables in it like carrots, green beans, cauliflower, potato, green peas etc.
The spices, the veggies and any other add-ons may vary from cook to cook and region to region, but more or less, most of the recipes for vegetable pulao are very similar.
How to make the pulao fluffy in the Instant Pot and not have the rice all stick together?
The first tip to making the rice to not stick together when making pulao or biryani is to add ghee and “fry” the rice in it before adding water. This makes each rice grain coated with the fat and keeps it separate and fluffy.
When cooking rice in the Instant Pot, I always add less water than when cooking in a pan on the stove top. The reason being, there is less evaporation and more water trapped inside the pressure cooker or the Instant Pot. This ratio is very important to help keep the rice separate and not stick together.
Third tip would be to fluff the rice a little by little with a fork and moving it to a wider pan from the Instant Pot as soon as it is done. If it sits in the Instant Pot. If it sits in the Instant Pot for a long time, it may start to clump together as it cools down.
What to I serve with vegetable pulao or biryani?
With a fragrant rice dish like pulao or biryani, often, a simple raita is enough as an accompaniment. And, maybe some pickle and papad. This Onion Cucumber raita will go great with this.
If you love pulao, here are some other Indian rice recipes, including pulao and biryani that you may love.
- Instant Pot Vegetable Masala Rice
- Spinach Chickpeas Brown Rice Pulao
- Tomato Rice
- Chole Biryani
- Cauli Rice Peas Pulao
- Chicken Biryani
- Paneer Methi Pulao
- Vegetable Biryani
Looking for more Instant Pot recipes? Here are a few favorites
- Instant Pot Sambar Rice
- Instant Pot Saffron Kheer
- Instant Pot Dal Fry
- Instant Pot Steel Cut Oatmeal
- Instant Pot Indian Lamb Curry
- Instant Pot Aloo Matar
Ingredients
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tsp ghee
- 3 cloves
- 2 green cardamoms
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 1/2 star anise
- 1 tsp black peppercorn
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 red onion chopped
- 2 large carrots sliced into half moons (about 1 cup)
- 20-25 green beans sliced at an angle (about 1 cup)
- 3 Thai green chillies slit lengthwise
- 1 cup frozen green peas
- salt to taste
- 2 cups basmati rice
- 3 1/2 cups water
Instructions
- Press SAUTE button on the Instant Pot. Press ADJUST and adjust the heat to LOW.
- Crush the spices together (cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon stick, star anise and black pepper corn) and keep aside.
- Once the Instant Pot shows HOT in the display, add the ghee and oil to the inner pot of the Instant Pot.
- Add the bay leaf and the crushed spices to the hot oil-ghee combo. Give it a quick stir and add the onions and green chillies to it.
- Saute for 2-3 mins or so till the onions turn translucent. We dont want to brown the onions as we want the pulao to be closer to white in color and dont want any brown in it.
- Add the carrots and green beans to this and give a quick mix.
- Meanwhile, rinse the rice and keep aside.
- Add the rice to the Instant Pot, the water, some salt and the frozen green peas.
- Mix well. Put the lid on the Instant Pot. Press CANCEL / KEEP WARM.
- Turn the knob to SEALING on the lid. Press MANUAL and adjust time to 4 mins.
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