Pudina Sadam (Mint Rice) – Recipe Marathon – Day 7

Pudina or Mint is God’s gift to mankind – its green, it smells like a beautiful dream, it tastes like heaven, it adds a flavour to anything and its perennially available. According to the Wikipedia, Mint is a diuretic, its good for your digestion and it whitens teeth. So its like this super efficient smart leaf with a zillion desirable qualities rolled into one.

Kalanda Sadam (literally Mixed Rice) is the Maami brigade’s gift for people like me who scratch their heads each time they need to fix a meal. Make the perfect pot of rice, put together a few simple ingredients, mix and you’re done.

Ingredients

• Rice – 1/2 cup
• Pudina Leaves – 1 cup (washed and tightly packed)
• Onion – 1 (fine chopped)
• Green Chilly – 1 (seeds removed and cut into long strips)
• Peanuts – 1/4 cup (or more if you like)
• Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
• Hing – a pinch
• Salt to taste
• Oil – 2 tsp
• Ghee (Clarified Butter) – 1 tsp

Method

1. Cook the rice in a pressure cooker. Each grain of rice must be separate.
2. In a pot, heat some oil, add the mustard seeds and channa dal.
3. Add green chilly and onions and saute till onions turn translucent.
4. Add the pudina/ mint leaves, turmeric, hing and salt. Saute till the leaves are cooked and water content is reduced. Take off from heat.
5. Add Ghee to the Rice. Toast peanuts in a microwave for 1minute or so.
6. Add Rice and toasted peanuts to the Pudina/Mint saute in the pot. Mix well using a flat ladle (thuduppu in Tamizh). Be careful not to mash or break any rice.

Transfer to a serving dish. Serve hot with Raita or Curd.

Other Recipe Marathoners’ posts:

• Siri – Egg Puffs
• Arundhati – Steamed Wontons
• Dhivya – Beet Hummus
• Srivalli – Puliyodarai
• Raaga – Methi Matar Malai
• Swati – Momos
• Ranji – Papdi Pizza
• Divya – Rava Kesari
• Bhags – Baigan bharta