Vegetable pilaf is especially popular among those who follow a vegetarian diet, and also fasts during religious holidays.
It should be noted that there is nothing complicated in preparing such a dish. Moreover, having made it in accordance with all the rules, you will not even notice that it completely lacks a meat product. To verify this, we suggest preparing this dish yourself.
How to cook vegetable pilaf quickly and tasty?
Such a dinner is made several times faster than the one prepared using the meat ingredient. But in order to get a really delicious vegetable pilaf, you have to try. First you need to prepare the following components:
- large bitter onion - 2 heads;
- long-grain rice groats - 2.5 glasses;
- juicy and large carrots - 2 pcs.;
- any refined oil - about ½ cup;
- small salt, allspice, black pepper and other aromatic spices intended for the preparation of pilaf - use at discretion;
- tomato paste - about 2 large spoons;
- fresh greens - a few twigs;
- large garlic - 1 head.
Component Preparation
Vegetable pilaf, the calorie content of which is much less than meat, should start cooking with rice processing. Long-grain groats need to be sorted out, and then washed well in a sieve until the water is clear. After this, you need to start preparing vegetables. They should be peeled and chopped. It is advisable to chop the bitter onions in half rings, and cut the carrots into strips. As for the head of garlic, it only needs to be washed well, but not peeled.
Roasting ingredients
So that the taste of the vegetable pilaf does not differ from meat, it is necessary to add aromatic roasting to it. To cook it, you need to very strongly heat the refined oil in a pan, and then pour the carrots and half rings of onions into the dishes. Having seasoned the ingredients with seasonings and salt, they must be fried until they turn golden. At the same time, vegetables can remain a little harsh. In the future, we will still cook them together with rice.
Cooking heat treatment
After the frying is cooked, you should start cooking the whole vegetable dish. To do this, the sautéed products must be laid out in a deep thick-walled pan with oil, and then pour previously washed rice groats into them. Add to the ingredients tomato paste, herbs, a head of garlic in the husk, as well as salt and aromatic spices. Now everything should be mixed thoroughly. Next, the homogeneous mass must be leveled with a large spoon and pour boiled drinking water to them. This liquid should cover the dish 1.6-2 centimeters. In this composition, the vegetable pilaf should be brought to a boil, and then cook under a tight-fitting lid for 25 minutes. During this time, rice groats will become soft and absorb all the aromas of spices and roasting.
What should be served at the dining table?
After the pilaf is ready, it must be mixed to a friable state, and then closed again and maintained, wrapped in a blanket, for about ¼ hour. After this time, the dish needs to be laid out on plates and served for dinner along with a salad of raw vegetables and herbs.
Another way to cook
Vegetable pilaf in a slow cooker turns out to be as satisfying and tasty as the dish that was cooked using a stove.
If you want to make this dinner not only using cereals and vegetables, but also using a protein product in the form of chickpeas, then cooking vegetarian pilaf should be somewhat different. For him we need:
- large bitter bulbs - 2 heads;
- cereal long-grain rice - 2.5 cups;
- juicy and large carrots - 2 pcs.;
- any refined oil - about ½ cup;
- small salt, black allspice, zira and basil– apply at discretion;
- chickpeas - ½ cup;
- ripe large tomato - 1 pc.;
- fresh greens - a few twigs;
- large garlic - 1 head.
Ingredient Processing
Before you make vegetable pilaf in a slow cooker, you should carefully process all the main products. First you need to rinse the long-grain cereals and chickpeas. So that you would need much less time to cook the second component, it is recommended to soak it in ordinary water and keep it in it for 24 hours.
Also, for pilaf, you should separately peel and chop carrots with onions. As for the tomato, it must be peeled and then crushed in a blender.
Heat treatment
To make a delicious pilaf, pour refined oil into the multicooker bowl, and then lightly fry the carrots and onions in it. It is advisable to carry out this procedure in baking mode. After the vegetables are browned, you need to add chickpeas, rice groats, as well as tomato gruel, salt, a pinch of zira, pepper and basil.
After mixing the components, they should be leveled with a spoon, and then deepen into the thickness of the dish the unpeeled head of garlic and sprinkle all the products with herbs. Next, the ingredients must be poured with hot water (2 centimeters higher than the components), tightly closed and cooked in a quenching mode for about 45 minutes. This time should be enough to make both chickpeas and rice grits soft.
Some nuances
Few people know, but the presented dish can be prepared even for the future. Vegetable pilaf for the winter is well saved when you do not have time to cook a hot lunch for a long time, and the guests are already on the doorstep. By the way, such a canned product is often sold in stores.