Quinoa Pilaf (Upma) (Pressure Cooker)

Submitted by tamarinda

"Upma is a pilaf preparation from South India. (P.S. Upma is typically mildly spiced and served with coconut chutney or ginger chutney, e.g., recipes #110219, #116586. For more spice, select a chutney which suits your tastes.) This recipe is different from most Upma recipes in using a pressure cooker and quinoa instead of semolina. You can substitute 1-1/4 cup semolina (more traditional) for the quinoa and your choice of chopped seasonal vegetables for the peas. From the Sakthi Foundation ayurvedic recipes: http://www.sakthifoundation.org/kitchen_dinner-2.htm"

 

• Ready In: 20mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 1 1⁄2 cups quinoa
• 1 cup peas
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ginger, chopped
• 10 cashew nuts
• 1 green chili pepper, sliced in half lengthwise, deseeded (optional)
• 10 curry leaves
• 1 medium onion
• 2 1⁄2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 -2 tablespoon lemon
• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt

directions

1. Put all the ingredients into a pressure cooker. Stir once.
2. Cook on medium to medium-high heat.
3. After three whistles, remove from heat.
4. After the pressure reduces (5 to 10 minutes), open.
5. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
6. Serve hot with chutney.

Reviews

[Mia in Germany]

Basically, this is a good dish which I will make again because it's so easily made. But I found the taste very bland and had to add more salt, more ginger, more curry and some cumin. Maybe it would be better with the chili added, which I omitted, but then it would be only a little hot and not spicy. The addition of some lemon makes this special, so I'll keep this recipe, just a little spiced up :) Thanks for posting! Made for Healthy Choices ABC.

 

[Maito]

I increased a lot of the ingredients, so am rating on that, but thought the way we made it, the dish turned out excellent. We just used the amounts we thought would be the right ratio for us, which was about 3 cups of peas, 3 tablespoons of ginger, a cup of cashews, and did use the optional chili, which gave it a good flavor, but if you wanted spicy, you could leave the seeds in. For the seasoning salt I used "homemade", just sprinkling on salt, garlic and onion powders and smoked paprika (so the amount might have been more). Lastly, I made this the more traditional way (simmering the quinoa, sautéing the others), since I was not up for challenging my pressure cooker directions of not using something this small that might clog it. It was like a delicious Indian fried "rice". The curry leaves really give it something extra .