Zafarani Harvest Grain "Pulao"

Nupur's fantastic series the A-Z of Indian Vegetables Series is coming to an end :( This has been an amazing culinary journey for me where I saw bloggers come up with the most amazing variety of entries, where the recipes were mostly Indian but the ingredients were necessarily not!

In order to honor the culmination of this series where the letter "Z" is being celebrated, I decided to prepare a dish with the king of spices, Zafaran or Saffron. Saffron is one of the most expensive spices in the world and also one of the most ancient. It not only elevates the flavor, color and fragrance of the food it is added to, but takes it to a whole new level really. As if that one was enough, saffron has some pretty cool medicinal properties as well!

Now moving on to the Pulao bit, I am not a huge fan of white rice which is why I decided to make this pulao with this amazing harvest grain blend from Trader Joe's. The savory blend consists of orzo pasta, baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa. The instructions on the package said one can make an entrée by adding shrimp, so though why not use this to make a flavorful zafarani pulao instead!

I am happy I decided to do so, as this was as tasty as it was healthy. The best part is I got to use the dried apricots sent to me by jen last week. This is my entry to the “Z” series of Nupur’s A-Z of Indian Vegetables

Zafarani Harvest Grain Pulao
Ingredients
1. 1 cup harvest grain blend (mixture of orzo pasta, baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa). I used the one I got from my local Trader Joe’s
2. 2 tsp dried apricots of Zardaloo, fine chopped
3. ¼ cup lima beans
4. 1 tsp paprika powder
5. 1/2 tsp biryani masala (available in any Indian grocery store)
6. 2 tsp saffron strands
7. 11/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
8. 3 cups vegetable stock or water
9. 1 tsp olive oil
10. Salt to taste

Method
1. Soak the saffron strands in ½ cup of water and keep aside
2. In a heated pan, add the olive oil
3. When the oil is hot, add the apricots and ginger-garlic paste. Sautee for a 1-2 minutes
4. To this add the paprika and biryani masala and roast for half a minute
5. Add in the lima beans and mix well. Sautee for 1-2 minutes
6. Add the harvest grain blend and sauté for a minute
7. To this add the vegetable stock/water and salt
8. Let cook for 10 minutes or till the beans are done. The harvest blend does not take more than 10 minutes to cook
9. Garnish with some zafaran and zardaloo
Enjoy :)

I paired this with some roasted pappadums.yumm…