Vegetable pilau (East African spiced rice)
Kenyan-style pilau, rice cooked with deeply browned onions, warm spices and tender potatoes, served with a fresh tomato and onion salad.
- 60 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 6
- About $1.90 a serving
- 390 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 3 tomatoes, 1 chopped, 2 diced for the salad
- 2 Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into ¾-inch cubes
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 2 cups basmati rice, rinsed
- 3¼ cups vegetable broth
- ½ cup frozen peas
- ½ red onion, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
- 1 lime, juiced
From your pantry
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1½ tsp salt, divided
Each serving has about 390 calories, 8 g protein, 73 g carbs and 8 g fat, and costs about $1.90 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions work.
- No tomatoes? Roma tomatoes work.
- No Yukon Gold potatoes? Russet potatoes or red potatoes work.
- No basmati rice? Jasmine rice or long-grain white rice works.
- No frozen peas? Frozen mixed vegetables work.
- No red onions? White onions work.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
- No limes? Lemons work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the onions, the garlic, the ginger, 1 tomato and the potatoes.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Grate. Grating means rubbing food across the holes of a grater to make fine shreds or flakes. It spreads cheese, garlic or ginger evenly through a dish so it melts right in.
How you’ll know: Even shreds fall off the back of the grater, and you stop while the piece is still big enough to hold.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Cube. Cubing means cutting food into chunky, even squares, usually three quarters of an inch to an inch. Same-size cubes cook at the same speed and brown on every side.
How you’ll know: Your pieces look like a handful of sugar cubes, a little bigger than diced, all close to the same size.
Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring often, 12 to 15 minutes, until deep .
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium heatTimer: 13 min
Dolly’s tip: The dark onions give pilau its brown color and sweetness. Keep stirring so they brown evenly and don’t burn.Add the garlic, ginger, cumin, garam masala, cinnamon and pepper and stir 1 minute, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heat
Add the tomato and cook 3 minutes, until it .
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Softened. For vegetables it means cooked until they bend and lose their crunch; for butter, left out until it dents easily. Soft onions taste sweet, and soft butter mixes in smoothly.
How you’ll know: Onions squash easily against the pan with your spoon, and butter dents under a finger without looking greasy.
Medium heatTimer: 3 min
Add the potatoes and rice and stir 2 minutes, until coated in the spices.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min
Pour in the broth, add 1 teaspoon salt and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Stir once, cover, turn the heat to low and cook 18 minutes, until the rice and potatoes are tender.
Low heatTimer: 18 min
Scatter the peas over, take the pot off the heat and leave it covered 5 minutes.
Timer: 5 min
Meanwhile, the 2 diced tomatoes with the red onion, cilantro, lime juice and the rest of the salt to make kachumbari.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Fluff the pilau with a fork and serve with the kachumbari on the side.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
Instant Pot jollof rice
55 min
Nigerian fried rice
55 min
Easy vegetable soup
55 min
Ethiopian cabbage and potatoes (atakilt wat)
50 min
Vegetarian dinners ›Make-ahead and freezer-friendly ›What to make with rice and tomatoes ›What to make with rice and frozen peas ›What to make with frozen peas and potatoes ›