Wheat Pulav - Vegetable Dalia

Dalia-cracked whole wheat, many of you must have eaten it in the form of porridge, roasted then boiled with milk or water sprinkled with some sugar or honey. It's a very common breakfast in Northern India. It's one of that thing you like it or don't.

This is not only healthy but truly one-pot dish gets ready in 15-20 minutes. It's kind of regular in my house, I usually serve it with home made dahi(plain yogurt). I always loved dalia(cracked wheat), the sweet version with milk but no one other than me likes it over here. Few years back when I ate this savory version of dalia for the first time, at my MIL's friends house I didn't liked it much( I was so use to of eating sweet version) but I liked the idea. After coming back to my house I decided to try it for my DH, he instantly liked it. Since then it's regular in my house, many a times when nothing else to cook or don't want to spend time in kitchen this is one dish which comes to my mind. And now I enjoy it more than the sweet version. Here's how it goes :

Ingredients :

• 1 cup cracked wheat(dalia) available at Indian grocers
• 1 & 1/2 cup of chopped mixed veggies (like carrots, beans, peas etc.)
• 2 & 1/5 cup of water
• salt ar per taste (I used 1 & 1/2tsp.)
• 1 Tblsp. freshly chopped ginger
• 2-4 green chillies
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper(kali mirch)
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric(haldi)
• 1 tsp. garam masala
• 2-3 cloves(laung)
• pinch of asafoetida (hing)
• handful of chopped cilantro
• lime or lemon juice
• plain yogurt(dahi) to serve with
• 1 Tblsp. of clarified butter( desi ghee) or evoo for vegan version

Method :

1. Heat ghee/evoo in the pressure cooker add hing to it and after few seconds add cloves. Now add ginger & then add dalia to it & roast it for few minutes(may be for 5-6 minutes), you'll know it with the aroma, that it's roasted. OR instead you can also dry roast dalia in a big pan in advance & keep it in a air tight container for later use so you can avoid roasting it at this stage.
2. Once it's roasted add chopped veggies & all the dry spices along with the chillies & water. Close the lid of the pressure cooker.
3. After one whistle turn the gas to slow for another 3-4 minutes and then turn it off.
4. When all the steam escaped open the lid add lime juice & fluff up the dalia using a fork & garnish with fresh cilantro before serving.

It's very healthy dish, and very full filling also. You can change the flavours by using spices of your taste, but for me & my family this works really well. It's very healthy for little ones also, my little one started to enjoy this at the age of 10 months or so.

Note : 1) Cracked wheat is usually available in two types one is very finely cracked which is good if making sweet version or using it for babies. Other type is of little coarse consistency which looks very similar to cous-cous pasta, and that is the one I prefer for this savory version.

2) Proportion of water can some time vary according to the quality of dalia, if it comes out too wet , next time reduce the quantity of water by little bit.