One Pot Chole Pulao is an absolute delight to enjoy on busy days. It is comfort food in a bowl. It is easy to make, one pot, and gets ready in 30 mins start to finish. What more do you need?
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What is One Pot Recipe?
It simply means that the whole recipe is cooked only using one pot. The pot can be a pressure cooker, slow cooker, crockpot, instant pot, or just a regular pot. These recipes are perfect to cook for families that are busy, for students, and for people who don't like to spend time cooking.
You can make different curries, pasta, noodles, rice-based dishes like this chole pulao, etc. These one-pot recipes are amazingly delicious, and to save time you can also use some store-bought curry pastes and canned beans and lentils to make your life easy, and this is one such recipe.
Why should you always have canned beans at home?
I always have canned beans in my pantry. We all have busy days, stressful days or just long days at work. On these days I want to go home to a delicious comforting meal. Having canned beans at home, just means that I can include the additional protein in my meal. Chickpeas, black beans, pinto beans and cannellini beans to name a few are my staple. And chickpeas are my absolute favorite.
I love making this pulao, chole masala, and saag chole very often! I also add chickpeas in Thai curries, or any coconut milk-based curries loaded with veggies.
Having access to these beans will definitely make you include them in your diet. Sometimes we are lazy to soak these beans and boil them in the morning.
Canned beans just help you put a meal together and isn't it just the best?
What is Chole Pulao?
Chole Pulao is a versatile rice-based dish that is loaded with veggies and chickpeas with spices. This is a one-pot recipe made in the instant pot, but you can also make it in a pressure cooker/ or a heavy bottom pot. I use canned chickpeas in this recipe, but you can totally meal prep the chickpeas in advance and use it in the recipe. Adding dry mango powder and chole masala is absolutely a game-changer in this recipe, so try not to skip it. You can find both these spices at the Indian store very easily.
Expert Tips To Make This Recipe
- Use canned chickpeas to save time. Drain and rinse the canned chickpeas before adding them to the rice.
- You can infuse the oil with all the whole spices and remove them before adding the onions, to avoid biting on cardamoms and black peppercorns.
- Use any veggies you like. You can use 1 cup of mixed frozen vegetables if you don't want to chop the vegetables.
- Roast the rice with spices to infuse the flavors in the rice. This gives the rice a beautiful flavor.
- I like to use ghee to make this recipe, but you can totally use your preferred cooking oil.
- Use long-grain basmati rice to make this recipe. The fluffed rice is perfect for making a beautiful pulao.
More Rice-Based Recipes from the Blog
One Pot Chole Pulao
These nutrional values are automatically generated. Use them for estimation only.
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Basmati Rice Long Grained
- 2 Tbsp Ghee/ Oil
- 1 Tsp Cumin Seeds
- 2 Green Cardamoms
- 4-5 Black Peppercorns
- 4-5 Cloves
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 Small Cinnamon Sticks
- 1 Dried Red Chili
- 1 Large Onion You can use 2 small onions (sliced)
- 1 Roma Tomato Finely Chopped
- ⅓ Cup Fresh/ Frozen Peas
- 1 Medium Potato
- 1 Carrot
- 1 Small Green/ Red Bell Pepper
- 2 Tbsp Ginger Garlic and Green Chili Paste
- ¼ Tsp Turmeric
- 1 Tsp Red Chili Powder
- 1 Tsp Cumin Powder
- ½ Tsp Garam Masala
- 1 Tbsp Kasuri Methi
- 2 Tsp Punjabi Chole Masala
- ½ Tsp Amchur Powder
- 13.5 Oz Canned Chickpeas You can substitute with 1.5 cups of boiled kabuli chana (chickpeas)
- 3.5 Cups Water
Instructions
- Wash your basmati rice and soak it for 10 mins.
- Start with prepping your ingredients. Drain and wash the canned chickpeas, put them aside. Cut all the veggies and keep them aside. And freshly pound ginger garlic and green chili paste, or use store bought.
- Start the instant pot on Sauté Mode. Now add ghee.
- Once the ghee is hot, add cumin seeds, green cardamoms, black peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon stick, dried red chili and bay leaf.
- Once the cumin seeds start to splutter, add sliced onions. Add a pinch of salt to cook the onions faster.
- Once the onions turn golden brown add chopped tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes are mushy.
- Next add in diced potatoes, carrots and bell pepper.
- Now add turmeric, salt, red chili powder, cumin powder, garam masala, punjabi chole masala, amchur and kasuri methi. Mix well.
- Now drain the water from the soaked rice, and add the rice to the Instant Pot along with the chickpeas. Mix well. Roast it for 30 seconds.
- Now add water.
- Close the lid and Press Cancel.
- Press Pressure Cook Button on the Instant Pot and Press on Manual Pressure Cook on High Pressure. Adjust the timer to 6 minutes.
- Once the pulao is cooked, let the pressure release naturally for 5 mins, and then do a quick pressure release.
- Fluff the rice, Serve hot with Bondi Raita
Notes
- Take the whole spices out before adding the onions, so you don't bite on them.
- To cook in a heavy bottom pot, follow the same steps, add 4 cups of water, and let it cook on high flame, without closing the lid.
- To pressure cook this pulao, follow the same steps, add 4 cups of water, and pressure cook for 4 whistles.
- You can soak and pressure cook the chickpeas in advance to make this recipe during the week.
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