Carrot Rice

I have always been a planning person!!! In fact, I love doodling on paper… the plans i.e. routes, meals, places, activities etc. But you see, even after planning a lot, I get myself into wanderer mode at times and I absolutely enjoy being like that!!!

A few months back, I had started creating weekly meal-plans (quite like how my foodie-buddie Srujan does) used to do! I failed so badly in the 1st week itself. Oops… had I just said I’m a planning person? ;) Haha… never in case of food! I love experimenting… as soon as I see something interesting, I plan to try out a variation of it and that’s where my meal plans fail. But apart from that, it fails ‘coz I go ahead with screaming noises in my pantry :P I prefer utilizing every ingredient I have (or even the leftovers) in pantry and re-create something out of it before going to supermarket for buying new stuff!

And yes, I did the same thing with leftover 1 large sized carrot in the fridge… Couldn’t wait to use it for some rice dish… In any case, it wasn’t enough for a small batch of pickle or subzi so I ticked off one from my ‘soon-to-cook’ list!!! Isn’t it looking very tempting?
Yay… My trick worked well over the failed meal-plans, don’t you think so??? ;)

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups 90% cooked Basmati Rice (or any rice of your choice)
1 Carrot, grated
4-5 Curry Leaves
2 tsp Ginger-Green Chilly Paste
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
2 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Kashmiri Red Chilly Powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/2 tsp Garam Masala
Salt, to taste
1-2 tbsp Lemon Juice
2 tbsp Oil

STEPS TO FOLLOW:

1. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add mustard seeds into it.
2. Once it splutters, add curry leaves and ginger-green chilly paste.
3. Cook it for a min or 2 and then add grated carrots to it along with all the spices.
4. Mix everything well and cook it uncovered for 2-3 mins.
5. Add cooked basmati rice to it and toss it quickly.
6. Drizzle lemon juice over it and mix it well.
7. Serve it hot with garlic/mint yogurt :)