Pulao Recipe | Vegetable Pulao
Updated: September 13, 2023, By Swasthi
Pulao Recipe with stovetop & instant pot instructions. Veg Pulao also known as Vegetable Pulao is a basic Indian style rice pilaf that is aromatic, delicious, healthy & super quick to make for a meal. This detailed step by step recipe post will teach you how to make perfect pulao at home with basic pantry ingredients. You can use either a regular pot or a cooker.
If you are new to Indian cuisine, read on to know more.
About Pulao
Pulao is a one pot rice dish made by cooking fragrant basmati rice with aromatic whole spices, herbs & sometimes stock. There are many kinds of pulao made in India like vegetable pulao, Matar pulao, Tawa pulao, Coconut milk pulav, Zarda pulao, Kashmiri pulao, Yakhni Pulao & Chicken pulao.
This veg pulao is the most basic dish & is made often in many Indian homes. You will also find it always on the party, buffet & celebration menus, served along with a yogurt raita & sometimes a Kurma/korma/shorba.
There are a few different methods of making vegetable pulao recipe. Each region has a different way of making it. I am sharing a simple generic veg pulao recipe that we make at home. It tastes super delicious & is very fragrant.
This not only goes well for a regular or a special meal but is also great to pack in office & school lunch boxes.
Since this is the simplest of the Indian rice dishes made with very little preparation, it is super quick & ridiculously easy to make even for a party when you have a crowd.
A perfectly cooked vegetable pulao should have fluffy, separate rice grains that are not sticky & not mushy yet fully cooked. The dish must have a unique aroma of mint and whole spices like cinnamon, cardamoms & cloves. My recipe will yield you the same results.
I have a brief Ingredients and substitutes section to help you decide on them.
Ingredients & Substitutes
Spices: Always use good quality whole spices as they are the key to make a aromatic veg pulao. You can also crush the spices lightly & use to release the aroma. There is no substitute to bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon, cardamoms & star anise. While you may skip the rest your pulao won’t really have those aromatic flavors.
Ginger garlic paste can be substituted with grated ginger and garlic but not with chopped or with ground dried ginger and garlic. You won’t get the same flavors.
Herbs: Do not skip fresh mint or pudina leaves as it the next key ingredient that infuses aroma to the veg pulao. If you want you may add a mix of coriander leaves (cilantro) and mint. If fresh is not available you may use a teaspoon of mint paste.
Rice: Normally aged basmati rice is used to make vegetable pulao. But if you do not have, just use any other kind of rice that is non-sticky. Sona masuri, Jeerakasala, samba rice, ponni rice, all these go well. You will need to adjust the water as needed depending on the rice.
Mixed Vegetables: I normally use carrots, green beans, potatoes, sweet corn, baby corn & peas depending on the availability. Opt for frozen veggies to save time. Frozen veggies don’t require sautéing so you may pour water immediately after adding them to the pot.
Photo Guide
How to Make Veg Pulao (Stepwise photos)
You will find the instructions here for stovetop cooker, instant pot and regular pot.
Preparation for pulao
You need to prepare the ingredients first. Rinse 1½ cups basmati rice a few times until the water runs clear. Then soak it and set aside for at least 15 to 20 mins. Meanwhile prepare the veggies.
- 1 medium onion thinly sliced & 1 green chilli slit
- 1 medium carrot (chopped)
- half cup green peas
- 4 French beans (chopped)
- Handful of mint leaves
- 1½ teaspoon ginger garlic paste (¾ inch piece ginger and 3 garlic cloves)
If you want you can also make a fine paste of ginger, garlic, green chilies and mint leaves.
Tempering
1. On a medium flame, gently heat 2 tablespoons oil or ghee in a cooker or pot. To make in Instant pot, use saute mode. When the oil is slightly hot, add the following whole spices –
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 inch cinnamon
- 4 cloves
- 4 green cardamom
- ½ to ¾ teaspoon shahi jeera or jeera
- 1 star anise (optional, but recommended)
- 1 pinch nutmeg (optional)
- little dagad phool (stone flower) (optional)
- 1 small strand mace (optional)
2. When the spices begin to sizzle, add one thinly sliced onion. And then 1 to 2 slit green chilies.
3. When the onions turn golden, add 1½ teaspoon ginger garlic paste.
4. Saute well for 30 to 40 seconds, until the raw smell of ginger garlic disappears. Do not burn.
5. Add mixed veggies and chopped mint/ pudina. I use peas, beans and carrots most of the times. You can also use potatoes and a handful of split cashews or softened soya chunks if you like.
6. Next saute everything well until the mint smells good. Usually it takes about 2 to 3 minutes.
7. Pour 2½ cups water if making in stovetop cooker (or 1¾ cups for Instant pot) and then add ½ teaspoon salt as well.
If cooking in a pot, pour 3 cups water.
Make Vegetable Pulao
8. Bring the water to a rolling boil, then add soaked & drained rice. Ensure there is no water in the rice, else the veg pulao will turn mushy.
9. Stir gently and taste test the water. If needed add more salt.
If making in pressure cooker: Cover the lid and cook veg pulao in pressure cooker on a medium high flame for one whistle. For al dente rice, Immediately I release the pressure of the cooker manually with the help of a spatula.
To cook in Instant Pot: Press cancel and press pressure cook button, set the timer to 5 mins. Position the steam release handle/valve to sealing. Instant pot beeps when it is done. Let the pressure release naturally for 5 mins. Release the rest manually by moving the steam release handle from sealing to venting with a spoon. Let cool down a bit before serving.
If cooking in a pot, cover the pot with the lid. Cook on a low flame until the water is absorbed and rice is cooked completely. Perfectly done veg pulao in a pot should have no more moisture at the bottom and the rice should be fully done. Once done, turn off the stove and cover the pot. Let it rest for 10 mins so the rice grains turn fluffy.
10. Gently mix everything with a spatula or fluff up the rice with a fork.
Serve veg pulao hot or warm with shorba or raita.
Serving Suggestions
This vegetable pulao can be served without any side dishes. However a basic Raita compliments the meal. This boondi raita is our favorite.
For special occasions or when we have guests home, we serve vegetable pulao with a Salan or Shorba – Sherva.
Non-vegetarians can serve veg pulao with Egg curry or with Chicken curry or any grilled dishes like Kababs. However if you are short of time, just enjoy it with some plain Curd & papads.
Pro Tips
Pulao masala: For more aromatic veg pulao, you can make a paste of onions, ginger garlic, mint, cinnamon and cardamoms. This paste can be made ahead and refrigerated. If you have this paste & mixed veggies ready in the fridge, then making vegetable pulao just takes less than 15 mins.
How to cook the best pulao
Though the ingredients used are the key to make a fragrant and delicious veg pulao, the cooking procedure also matters the most. Here are the key pointers to cook the best veg pulao.
- Rinsing: Always rinse the rice well for at least 3 times until the water runs clear. This reduces the starch from the rice grains which is the culprit to mushy & sticky veg pulao.
- Soaking: Soak rice for at least 15 to 20 mins. When soaked rice grains absorb water and swell up to the maximum when cooked making them fluffy & perfectly cooked.
- Frying rice: If you are making plain pulao without veggies then you can roast the drained rice in ghee & spices. For vegetable pulao, I do not fry the rice as most times I have experienced the soaked rice grains break when fried with veggies.
- Ratio: Rice to water ratio is the key to get fully cooked grainy pulao. Adjust the amount of water depending on the rice. Add water according to the cooking method opted by you. More details below in the recipe card.
Methods to cook pulao
There are different methods I follow to make vegetable pulao. It can be made in a
- Pressure cooker – I have included the instructions in the recipe card
- Pot or pan – Instructions mentioned in the recipe card
- Electric cooker – Saute the spices, then the onions, ginger garlic, mint & vegetables in a small pan. Then transfer this to a electric cooker along with rice, salt and water. Cook as you would prepare normal rice with the same amount of water you use for regular cooking.
- Instant pot – Instructions below
Variations
There are so many different variations of making veg pulao. The basic one is made with mixed vegetables. I make vegetable pulao with most veggies & even with greens.
If you are a health nut like me you may like to explore these options for fussy folks Carrot rice, Beetroot rice, Palak rice, Methi rice. There are also some vegetable pulao recipes made with precooked rice.
Related Recipes
Recipe Card
Pulao Recipe | Veg Pulao | Vegetable Pulao | Pulav
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
- 1½ cups basmati rice (aged rice)
- 2 tablespoons oil or ghee
- salt as needed
- 2 ½ cups water for pressure cooker ( 2¾ cups for pot, 1¾ cups for Instant pot)
- 1½ teaspoons ginger garlic paste
Vegetables & herbs
- 1 medium onion thinly sliced
- 2 green chilies slit or as needed
- 1 medium carrot (¾ cup chopped)
- 4 medium french beans (½ cup chopped to 1 inch)
- ½ cup green peas
- 1 small potato cubed (optional)
- 3 tablespoons mint (pudina, finely chopped) (or coriander leaves)
Whole spices for veg pulao
- 1 bay leaf (tej patta)
- ¾ teaspoon shahi jeera (caraway seeds) (substitute cumin seeds)
- 4 green cardamoms (elaichi)
- 4 cloves (laung)
- 2 inch cinnamon (dalchini)
- 1 star anise (chakri phool) (optional, but recommended)
- 1 strand mace (javithri, optional)
- 1 pinch nut meg (jaiphal) (optional)
- 2 pinches stone flower (dagad phool – optional)
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds powder (saunf powder – optional)
Instructions
Preparation
- Add basmati rice to a bowl and rinse it a few times until water runs clear.
- Soak it for at least 20 minutes. After 20 mins, drain off the water completely and set aside.
- While the rice soaks, rinse carrots, beans, peas, potatoes, onions, chilies & mint leaves.
- Peel the carrots and potatoes. Nip off both the ends of beans and chop all of them to bite sized pieces.
- Slice onions and slit green chill. Fine chop the mint leaves. (If you want you can also make a fine paste of ginger garlic, green chilies and mint.) Set all of these aside.
How to Make Veg Pulao
- On a medium flame, heat 2 tablespoons ghee or oil in a pot or pressure cooker.
- When the oil is slightly hot, add all the whole spices.
- When the spices begin to sizzle, add the onions & chilies. Saute until onions turn golden.
- Next saute ginger garlic paste, for 30 to 60 seconds, until the raw smell goes off.
- Add all the veggies and mint. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Pour water and add salt too. Taste the water, it has to be slightly salty.
- Bring the water to a rolling boil. Next add drained rice and stir.
- If cooking in pot, cover and cook on a low heat until all the water is absorbed and the rice grains are cooked. When the rice is done, turn off the stove. Cover and let the veg pulao rest in the pot for 10 to 15 mins. This helps the rice grains to become fluffy.
- If making in pressure cooker, cover the cooker with the lid. Then cook on a medium high flame for 1 whistle.
- Switch off the stove. When the pressure releases, remove the lid and fluff up the veg pulao rice with a fork.
- Serve veg pulao hot or warm with a simple raita or gravy.
Instant Pot Pulao
- Press SAUTE button on the instant pot. Pour ghee or oil to the inner pot. Saute the spices in the hot oil for 30 seconds.
- Fry onions & green chilies until transparent for 2 mins. Then fry ginger garlic paste just for 30 seconds.
- Next add in all the chopped veggies and mint. Saute for 2 mins. Add the drained rice (1 ½ cups) and salt. Press CANCEL button.
- Pour 1¾ cups water and mix. Taste the salt level and add more if needed.
- Scrape the bottom gently with the spatula to release any bits of food stuck. This prevents a burn notice. Secure the instant pot with the lid.
- Press PRESSURE COOK button (high pressure) & set the timer for 5 mins. Position the steam release handle to sealing.
- Instant pot beeps when it is done. Let the pressure release naturally for 5 mins.
- Release the rest manually by moving the steam release handle from sealing to venting with a spoon.
- Fluff up the vegetable pulao with a fork & serve with yogurt raita.
Notes
- Always use aged rice which gives fluffy and grainy pulao.
- If using frozen mix veggies, use 1.5 cups.
- You will need to adjust the quantity of water depending on the rice. If using normal rice, use more water.
- Stone flower or dagad phool makes the pulao very flavorful.
- adding too much mace or nutmeg can make your pulao bitter.
Video
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
This Pulao Recipe was first published in September 2015. Updated & Republished in November 2022.
About Swasthi
Iโm Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthiโs Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me
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Comments
Hello Swasthi,
I love your recipes. I am making this for 20 people for Diwali dinner. According to the recipe, I need 10 cup rice but don’t understand the water ratio. Could you please let me know soon? I really need this recipe soon. Thank you so much
Hi,
If you don’t have any other dishes and serving only pulao with raita or curry, like you said 10 cups for 20 people. Else 1 cup can serve 3 people and approximately you will need 7 cups rice.
1. for 7 cups aged basmati rice, start with 12 cups water. Let the rice cook down to 90%, if your rice is still undercooked (hard inside) and if you feel it requires more water, pour 1 to 2 cups more hot water (no cold water here) and give a gentle stir. Total you may need about 12 to 14 cups.
2. for 10 cups rice, start with 16 cups water. Same way at the end if required add more hot water in 2 batches. Total you may need 18 to 20 cups.
But this is for aged basmati rice only like daawat (blue pack) and lalquilla old malai . If you are using any other rice, cut down the intial amount of water further. Avoid too much stirring after adding rice and avoid soaking longer than 10 mins or completely omit. Hope this helps
Thank you so much for your quick response. Most of my cooking is your recipes. I have introduced your recipes to all my friends and families s they are easy and delicious. I really appreciate your quick response. Happy Diwali
So glad to read that! Thank you so much for the wishes. Wishing you all too a very Happy and Prosperous Diwali!
Ati sundar
Want to make pulao for 2 cups
What will be the ratio for water to 2cups rice?
For 2 cups rice use 2ยฝ cups water. Release the pressure immediately if you are cooking more than 1 cup rice.
My name is Arti and noticed that in the recipe
after changing number of cups of rice to 2 cups
it says โจ3 โ cups water for pressure cooker ( 2ยพ cups for pot, 1ยพ cups for Instant pot)
Which is same as for 1 cup
Do I use 1 3/4 cups water for instant pot as it is for 1 cup
Or need to change for 2 cups?
And if yes what will it be?
Hi Arti,
That’s a problem with the plugin I use. The ingredient quantities for other options (like for Instant pot) don’t change. For 1 cup rice, use 1ยผ cup water. To use 2 cups use 2ยฝ cups. Hope this clears.
Thanks for your fast response
I tried to make it today and it turn out really good, fluffy and
Water amount was good
I wanted to serve it later so I had to warm it up. At that time pulav was sticky and dry
Why?
N
Just love love all your receipes!!!
Tried the vegetable pulao recipe. It turned out excellent. Thanks Swasti for sharing the recipe. Also liked the detailed method of preparing it.
So glad you like it Priya. Thank you
This came out great!Family loved it.
Hi Swasthi love all your recipes. Thank you for all the details in your recipe. I’ve made this one multiple times and love it but often my rice is a little mushy and wet. I use the instant pot. Should I use less water? Less time in the instant pot?
Hi Tara,
Thank you so much. Try doing a quick release carefully. Remove the steel insert immediately and leave it open for 3 to 4 mins. If you are not using aged rice, you may cut down the cook time to 4 mins and see. If it is still wet, cut down little water. Hope this helps.
Thank you for this and the other recipes, they work as stated and taste delicious. I have a nice Indian grocery near where I live in Amsterdam and can get beautiful aged basmati. Love it! Just wanted you to know that your efforts are appreciated!
You are welcome Barry. Thank you so much for the kind words.
I have been following your recipes. It comes almost perfect all the time. It’s healthy and tasty too.??
You said sauce ginger garlic paste for 30 to 60 mins, probably a typo for 3 to 6 mins….. My pressure cooked pulao in less quantity becomes over cooked sometimes, any hack for making the rice not too sticky. I observed, cooking pulao in electric cooker makes rice intact but becomes hard if eaten in lunch box.
Thanks Revathi, that’s seconds not mins. I have edited that. Have you read my trick of releasing the pressure immediately? It’s in the post, not in the recipe card instructions. This works well. The other way is to make the tadka and everything in a pan and transfer to a bowl. Keep the bowl in the cooker and pressure cook. This also works well. Hope this helps
Hi! Wonderful and yummy recipe. Easy to follow..
Lovely rice, quick and simple as well as yummy! There was a lot of improvisation of this recipe, but it still came out nice. I appreciate it being stated clearly what spices are optional and substitutions. Thank you for being my go-to for wonderful Indian recipes ?
Glad to know the recipe worked well for you. Thank you so much!
Hi Swasthi!
Thank you for a wonderful recipe! I was wondering if I could add some saffron to this veg pulao recipe. What do you think?
Thanks,
Swati
Hi Swati,
Yes you can. Soak it in 2 tbsp hot water or milk and pour it immediately after the pulao is done cooking. It should be steaming hot. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. The other way is to just add a few strands to the water while cooking. This one won’t make much difference.
Hi Swasthi, thank you for all of your wonderful recipes!
How can you modify this recipe to use brown basmati rice? I try to avoid white rice since several of my family members have diabetes. Would it be best to cook the rice and masala/veggies separately and then mix together since brown rice takes much longer to cook than white rice?
Hi Lavanya,
Yes. You can make vegetable pulao with brown rice like the way I made this capsicum rice. Use some ground spices like garam masala to flavor the pulao else it would be completely bland. You can also use tomatoes or coriander and mint paste to make it more flavorsome. You can add the whole spices to the brown rice directly when you are cooking the rice & just add ground spices while making the masala.
I am new to Indian cooking. 1. Do you heat up the wok first (?) and then heat the oil hot (?) in medium (?)or low flamef(?) before adding spice to fry or you can directly fry in cold pan and oil at what kind of heat (?) . What is means to fry ginger garlic paste until no raw smell, how to determine? Thank you.
Hi Irene,
I have updated the instructions in the post to make it clear for you. Saute ginger garlic paste for 30 to 60 seconds. You will know it is done when it begins to smell aromatic.
Nice…Well explained.Thanks for Sharing.
Thanks Geetanjali
Best recipe for veg pulao. So well explained in details and easy to follow up steps.
Thank you so much Breenda. Glad you like it
Love this pulao recipe. It helped me make the most delicious and fluffy vegetable pulao. Thank you
Glad you like it Rita. Thank you!
This is one of the best pulao recipes ??? I have tried making pulao but they were no good. Your recipe is fine tuned to the T.. including the number of whistles!! ?? I tried this today and everyone in my house is extremely impressed!! Thanks a lot.
Glad you all like the pulao. Thank you so much!
Thank you Swasthi for this wonderful comfy pulao! I added a dash of turmeric for color and left out the chili peppers. Turned out amazing! Your site is my go-to for Indian recipes. Keep up the great work.
Happy to know you like it Raveena. Yes turmeric is a nice addition for color. Thank you so much!