Jul 27, 2015, Updated Aug 03, 2018 Whatever I know is through books and internet but what I can tell you is that this recipe of Afghani Pulao was delicious and I am so happy to be sharing it with you guys! I love Afghan cuisine, it’s one my absolute favorites and one of the most popular recipe on the blog happens to be Afghan too. This is my humble attempt at making the very famous Afghani Kabuli Palaw/Pulao. Since I am a vegetarian, my version does not include the meat.
Ever since we have moved to our new house, we never sit at home on weekends. We have so much stuff to buy but the most important thing that we need right now is a sofa and for the last 1 month, we have been looking for sofas every weekend. I don’t think we have left any furniture shop in and around the Seattle area, from Crate & Barrel to Room & Board, to Kasala to the local furniture stores we have seen it all! Seriously it’s so frustrating, when you are not getting what you want. I think now we have reached a saturation limit and soon going to finalize one. I mean I want to move ahead with this sofa business, there’s so much other stuff to buy too! And when there’s so much running around, I prefer to eat some comfort food like rice. Do you guys like Afghan cuisine? It’s one of my absolute favorites and co-incidentally an Afghan eggplant recipe called Borani Banjan is one of the most popular recipes on my blog! There’s a very nice Afghan restaurant here and I just love love the food there. One of our favorites is Kabuli Palaw or simple Afghani Pulao. This pulao is a traditional Afghan dish and no celebration is complete without it. Usually it has meat in it too but of course since I made it, it had to be vegetarian. In fact it’s almost vegan too, just soak the saffron in some water or non-dairy milk in place of regular milk and then this will be all vegan. The vegetarian kabuli pulao has 2 main ingredients – carrots and raisins.
Kabuli pulao is not your ordinary dish, not something which you would make everyday. It’s for special occasions because it’s rich and not too light on your stomach. While it’s a complete meal in itself if it’s made with meat, but with a vegetarian version like this, you probably need to serve it with a side dish like borani banjan or some other veggies and salads. The most important thing for making kabuli palaw is to choose the right type of rice. I used Sella Basmati Rice and it works so well in making pulao, biryanis etc.
Remember a good pulao is all about using the right rice. Long rice grains, perfectly cooked and each grain separated from one another = perfect pulao! And the most basic thing you can do to make it right is buy the right rice. Anyway enough of my gyaan about pulao let’s get to this delicious recipe of Afghani Pulao.
Method
Soak basmati rice in enough water for 45 minutes. Drain the rice and set aside. In a large pan, bring water to boil, add around 2-3 teaspoons of salt to the water as it boils. [Don’t worry rice won’t be salty as we drain all the water] When water comes to a boil, add the soaked & drained rice to it. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring at regular intervals in between. We don’t want to fully cook the rice and it must not turn mushy. Just like we cook the pasta till al dente (firm to bite), the rice should also be cooked to a point when it’s still firm. If you soak the rice for 45 minutes to 1 hour, it should not take more than 10 minutes for rice to reach that stage. Remove the pan from heat as soon as rice is done and then drain. Set aside.
While the rice was cooking in step 1, heat vegetable oil in a pan. Once oil is hot, add the shredded carrots. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then add 2 tablespoons of sugar and mix. Once the color of the carrot starts changing a bit, add raisins and cook for another minute or two. Remove from heat and drain on a paper towel. Don’t drain the oil that you used for frying the carrots and raisins, we will use it the next steps. Now take a large sheet of aluminium foil and place the fried carrot and raisins in the center. Close all sides to form an aluminium foil packet with the carrot and raisins inside. In the meanwhile, transfer the cooked rice back to the pan again.
Just to show you, I kept a flat skillet and then placed the pan with rice on top of it. We will steam the rice on low heat for 20-30 minutes and this ensures that rice doesn’t burn. Sprinkle cardamom powder on top of the rice and then place the prepared aluminium packet on one side of the rice. Now add the oil that was leftover after frying with carrots and raisins to the rice. Just drop it all over. Cover the pan tightly and let the rice steam with the carrots and raisins on low heat for 20-30 minutes. In the meanwhile, in a small bowl, soak some saffron in a tablespoon of milk. Remove rice from the pan and transfer to serving bowl. Pour the soaked saffron all over the rice. Sprinkle some cumin powder. Open the aluminium foil packet and top the rice with the carrots and raisins. Enjoy Afghani Pulao as such or serve with a side of borani banjan! Mmmmm!!
- Cumin powder is optional, you can even sprinkle some garam masala on top.
- Do not use the ready made cardamom powder that you get in stores. Use green cardamom pods, take out the seeds and crush them using mortar and pestle to get the powder. It makes a huge difference. Afghani Kabuli Pulao
title: “Afghani Pulao " ShowToc: true date: “2024-10-08” author: “Hollie Wright”
Jul 27, 2015, Updated Aug 03, 2018 Whatever I know is through books and internet but what I can tell you is that this recipe of Afghani Pulao was delicious and I am so happy to be sharing it with you guys! I love Afghan cuisine, it’s one my absolute favorites and one of the most popular recipe on the blog happens to be Afghan too. This is my humble attempt at making the very famous Afghani Kabuli Palaw/Pulao. Since I am a vegetarian, my version does not include the meat.
Ever since we have moved to our new house, we never sit at home on weekends. We have so much stuff to buy but the most important thing that we need right now is a sofa and for the last 1 month, we have been looking for sofas every weekend. I don’t think we have left any furniture shop in and around the Seattle area, from Crate & Barrel to Room & Board, to Kasala to the local furniture stores we have seen it all! Seriously it’s so frustrating, when you are not getting what you want. I think now we have reached a saturation limit and soon going to finalize one. I mean I want to move ahead with this sofa business, there’s so much other stuff to buy too! And when there’s so much running around, I prefer to eat some comfort food like rice. Do you guys like Afghan cuisine? It’s one of my absolute favorites and co-incidentally an Afghan eggplant recipe called Borani Banjan is one of the most popular recipes on my blog! There’s a very nice Afghan restaurant here and I just love love the food there. One of our favorites is Kabuli Palaw or simple Afghani Pulao. This pulao is a traditional Afghan dish and no celebration is complete without it. Usually it has meat in it too but of course since I made it, it had to be vegetarian. In fact it’s almost vegan too, just soak the saffron in some water or non-dairy milk in place of regular milk and then this will be all vegan. The vegetarian kabuli pulao has 2 main ingredients – carrots and raisins.
Kabuli pulao is not your ordinary dish, not something which you would make everyday. It’s for special occasions because it’s rich and not too light on your stomach. While it’s a complete meal in itself if it’s made with meat, but with a vegetarian version like this, you probably need to serve it with a side dish like borani banjan or some other veggies and salads. The most important thing for making kabuli palaw is to choose the right type of rice. I used Sella Basmati Rice and it works so well in making pulao, biryanis etc.
Remember a good pulao is all about using the right rice. Long rice grains, perfectly cooked and each grain separated from one another = perfect pulao! And the most basic thing you can do to make it right is buy the right rice. Anyway enough of my gyaan about pulao let’s get to this delicious recipe of Afghani Pulao.
Method
Soak basmati rice in enough water for 45 minutes. Drain the rice and set aside. In a large pan, bring water to boil, add around 2-3 teaspoons of salt to the water as it boils. [Don’t worry rice won’t be salty as we drain all the water] When water comes to a boil, add the soaked & drained rice to it. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring at regular intervals in between. We don’t want to fully cook the rice and it must not turn mushy. Just like we cook the pasta till al dente (firm to bite), the rice should also be cooked to a point when it’s still firm. If you soak the rice for 45 minutes to 1 hour, it should not take more than 10 minutes for rice to reach that stage. Remove the pan from heat as soon as rice is done and then drain. Set aside.
While the rice was cooking in step 1, heat vegetable oil in a pan. Once oil is hot, add the shredded carrots. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then add 2 tablespoons of sugar and mix. Once the color of the carrot starts changing a bit, add raisins and cook for another minute or two. Remove from heat and drain on a paper towel. Don’t drain the oil that you used for frying the carrots and raisins, we will use it the next steps. Now take a large sheet of aluminium foil and place the fried carrot and raisins in the center. Close all sides to form an aluminium foil packet with the carrot and raisins inside. In the meanwhile, transfer the cooked rice back to the pan again.
Just to show you, I kept a flat skillet and then placed the pan with rice on top of it. We will steam the rice on low heat for 20-30 minutes and this ensures that rice doesn’t burn. Sprinkle cardamom powder on top of the rice and then place the prepared aluminium packet on one side of the rice. Now add the oil that was leftover after frying with carrots and raisins to the rice. Just drop it all over. Cover the pan tightly and let the rice steam with the carrots and raisins on low heat for 20-30 minutes. In the meanwhile, in a small bowl, soak some saffron in a tablespoon of milk. Remove rice from the pan and transfer to serving bowl. Pour the soaked saffron all over the rice. Sprinkle some cumin powder. Open the aluminium foil packet and top the rice with the carrots and raisins. Enjoy Afghani Pulao as such or serve with a side of borani banjan! Mmmmm!!
- Cumin powder is optional, you can even sprinkle some garam masala on top.
- Do not use the ready made cardamom powder that you get in stores. Use green cardamom pods, take out the seeds and crush them using mortar and pestle to get the powder. It makes a huge difference. Afghani Kabuli Pulao
