Cracked wheat vegetable puloa

After tasting some success with Bisibelabath using cracked wheat, I wanted to try few other rice based recipes using cracked wheat . And also wanted to make it simple one pot recipe to minimize the cooking and washing process. One such try is vegetable puloa. It is more like a cracked wheat upma, but the spices make all the difference, also I used a coarser variety of cracked wheat which gives nice texture and nutty taste to the dish.

Cracked wheat vegetable puloa has become our favorite dish nowadays. In last couple of weeks alone I did this spicy vegetable healthy meal more than 4 times. Cracked wheat is healthy and rich in fibre content, helps to maintain healthy digestion and may help lower cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar.

Ingredients : 2 cups -- Cut vegetables 1 no -- Big size onion, diced into small pieces 1 cup -- Cracked wheat 1/2 cup -- Coconut milk 3-4 nos -- Green chillies 2 cloves -- Garlic 5-6 tbsp -- cooking oil Salt to taste Spices : 1 tsp -- Fennel seeds 1 inch -- Cinnamon 2 nos -- Cloves 1 no -- Cardomom 1 tsp -- poppy seeds Method : --- Cut vegetables, I used fresh carrot, beans, green bell peppers, cabbage and peas. I am leaving to your choice, you can use fresh or frozen vegetables. Everything will taste good. --- Heat a pressure pan in medium heat and add oil, once it is hot add all the spices except the poppy seeds. --- Nice aroma will comes after few minutes, now add onions, vegetables and cracked wheat and saute them for few seconds. --- Grind the poppy seeds, garlic and green chillies into a carse paste and add to the cracked wheat vegetable mixture. --- Now add salt,coconut milk and water to cook the mixture --- Pressure cook the mixture for one whistle. --- The last 2 step is little crucial, the amount of water and cooking time depends on how coarse the wheat is. If you add more water or cook for more time the texture of the puloa will change a lot. I added less than 1 and 1/2 cup of water to the cocnut milk and pressure cooked for one whistle.

Vegetable puloa is ready, serve with plain curd and enjoy :)