Assamese Sweet Vegetable Pulao

You may wonder to read the name of my today's post, yes Sweet Vegetable Pulao, this dish is from Assam cuisine. Actually, even i was surprised when i crossed this dish at Sunita's space, and this dish is really very easy to give a try. Though sugar is used in this one pot meal, they dont dominate much and we enjoyed thoroughly this incredible pulao with paneer masala. Every month,we are cooking from Regional cuisines of India for Shhh Cooking Secretly, a monthly event started by me, which is now hosted by Mayuri Patel. After Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh, this month we are landing to Assam. Assam is a state of Northeast India, which is situated to south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahamaputra and Barak river valleys. Assam is known very much for its tea and for their silk. Coming to their cuisine, an Assamese meal consists of rice, dal, fish curry along with meat curry or with a curry prepared with herbs and vegetables.

Rice is the staple food of peoples of Assam as much as like South Indians. Coming to this month's Shhh cooking secretly event, i was paired with Sujitha Ruban of Sujitha's Easy Cooking and she gave me carrot and ginger as my two secret ingredients. Immediately i went on googling for a traditional Assamese dish, i crossed this pulao and tried immediately at home for our lunch. Though the original recipe doesnt calls for ginger, i couldnt resist to add them to bring a subtle aroma to this easy breezy pulao.

2cups Basmati Rice (washed,soaked and pat-dried, i used long grain rice)
2tbsp Ghee
2tsp Sugar
1/2tsp Ginger (grated)
1inch Cinnamon stick
3 Green Cardamoms
1 Bay leaf
1no Carrot (chopped as small pieces)
1/4cup Green beans (sliced thinly)
Few Raisins (i didnt used it)
Few Cashewnuts (fried in ghee)


Heat the ghee in a heavy bottomed pan, add the bay leaf, cinnamon,cardamoms and grated ginger.

Once the spices turns brown, add the rice and sugar.

Stir constantly, until the rice turns crispy and slightly brown in colour.

Add one and half cup of water and bring boil. Put the flame to simmer, cover and cook till the rice is done.

If the rice is not cooked, sprinkle some water and cook again, dont add more water else the pulao will turn mushy.

Put the flame to high and stir well until the moisture gets evaporated.

Remove the pulao from heat, and mix in the carrots, beans, raisins (if used) and cashews into the rice.

Cover and let it side aside for few minutes. Dont disturb and the steam from the pulao turns the vegetables soft but they will remains crunchy.

Serve this mild pulao with a spicy masala.