Gulabi pulav

I guess the name comes from its color – ‘gulabi‘, (rose color in few of the Indian languages). This recipe was sent to me by Pelicano. Before that I used to make beetroot pulavs sometime, but they never turned out so good. But with this recipe, it came out very well.

Pelicano said, “I wanted to tell you that I tried a recipe from Premila Lal’s book yesterday, a recipe that I have seen many times while turning the pages, but never attempted until now. It is called ‘Gulabi Pulao‘(rose-coloured pilaf?). It is very tasty indeed and such a splendid color achieved from the use of red beets and a little turmeric. It also has curry leaves and coconut, so it hails from the south of India, but no mention of specific place”.

Ingredients:
3 cups of cooked rice
2-3 tea spn ghee
1 handful of cashews
1-2 tbl spn of lemon juice
1 tea spn mustard seeds
1/2 tea spn black pepper
? tea spn cumin seeds
1 tea spn chana dal
1 tea spn urad dal
6 green minced chilies
3 small eggplants, diced to 1/4
2 medium onions, diced to 1/4
4-5 curry leaves
1 large or 2-3 small beet(s), boiled for 30 min, then skin removed and diced
1/4 tea spn turmeric
2 cups of a coconut, grated finely
Salt

Method:
Cook rice and keep aside.
Fry cashews in ghee until golden, remove the cashews season with lemon juice and keep aside.
Heat remaining ghee and add mustard seeds, black pepper, cumin and daals. When the mustard seeds splutter, add the chilies and fry until the daals are golden.
Add the eggplant, onions, and curry leaves and cook until vegetables are soft.
Add the diced beet, salt, turmeric and coconut and fry 1 minute.
Add rice to the pan and stir gently until well-combined and all of the rice is well-colored.
Turn out onto a serving plate and decorate with the cashews.
Serve with plain yogurt.

Serves : 5-6
Preparation time : 20mins

21 thoughts on “Gulabi pulav”

  1. Shilpa …This is new rice to me. I have all the ingrediants and i am going to make this for dinner today. Will post my comment again after i make it. Thanks to you and Pelicano for a nice recipe.

  2. Hi.. Gulabi pulao is very attractive. whenever i make beetroot curry i used to grind it and mix it with rice for my daughter. I have never tried pulao using beetroot and ur recipe looks very colourful. Thanks

  3. Hi Shilpa,

    That recipe Pelicano sent you looks great! I have a cookbook by Premila Lal called Indian Cooking for Pleasure. I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet — seeing this, I will have to try one soon. Thanks for sharing 🙂

  4. Hey this is the first time Im seeing gulabi pulao looks beautiful….im sure it tastes good too…will try i sometime.

  5. Shilpa …..Its just lovely…I’m singing here thandi gulabi~~~~ a marathi song talking of the rosy winters here in India on seeing this picture. Soon to try. Thanks to Pelicano and you.

  6. Hi Shilpa,

    tried this recipe today(but without brinjals & coconut)… Tastes good… & looks very beautiful… Thanks a lot for the recipe…:)

  7. Wow Shilpa! I turned to your site and was in a pink shock! First the pink of the dish….and then my face blushed a bit too! I had totally forgotten about this dish and sending you the recipe until now 🙂 I’m flattered very much to see my name mentioned with this post. 🙂 It looks VERY beautiful Shilpa….and I am quite fond of this dish…I used to make tomatoes with beets and have it with rice so I could watch it turn a similar colour. I’m glad you like it and thanks!

  8. Very nice recipe for pulav without using onions and garlic. Good entry for the religious days or pooja.
    When I read the title “Gulabi Pulav” i thought its made with real roses!! Good technique to use beetroot’s instead of gulabi.

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