Image Source: Blogspot

Most people make a face when they hear of Dalia. They call it ‘sick mans food’ or ‘tasteless porridge’. But only if you knew about the amazing, delicious, mom approved recipe of Dalia, you would be drooling at just its mention.

No longer does Dalia need to be boring and bland. With this delicious recipe from a mom’s kitchen, you can enjoy Dalia all the time when you aren’t in the mood to cook an elaborate meal.

Dalia is basically the Hindi word for broken wheat. It is low in cholesterol and fats which makes it a very healthy food option. It also contains carbohydrates, iron and fiber in large quantities making it one of the most nutritious cereal food options available. Since its texture is like porridge, most people assume it to be a breakfast food. However, if you add veggies and some spices, it can make for a yummy, filling and nutritious meal at any time of the day.

So here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Ghee or oil

Cumin seeds

Haldi

Red chili powder

Hing

1 tomato

1 onion

2 small carrots

1 potato

Half a cup of peas

Chopped ginger

2 green chilies

One cup of Dalia

Four cups of water

Salt to taste

Coriander leaves to garnish

Recipe:

1. Start by heating a spoonful of ghee in a pressure cooker, with the lid open. Once the ghee is hot, add a teaspoon of cumin seeds. Wait for the cumin seeds to start sputtering in the ghee which is an indication that the flavor of the cumin is being released.
2. While the cumin and the ghee heats up, start chopping the vegetables. Rinse them well to ensure they are clean. Chop one medium sized tomato into small pieces and chop 1 onion finely. Next, move on to peeling the carrots and chop them into thin pieces, but don’t make them too fine. For the peas, you can shell fresh peas, or buy the frozen, pre-shelled kind as per convenience. Chop one potato also, but you don’t need to boil it.
3. Now that your vegetables are prepared and the ghee is well heated, you start cooking the main dish. First add the finely chopped onions to the pressure cooker and sauté them until they start to appear translucent. Now add a pinch of chopped ginger and two chopped chilies. Make sure you don’t chop the chilies in odd sized pieces that you will not be able to see while eating.
4. Next add a pinch of haldi and hing as per taste. Mix it up well so that it coats the onions. Next add the red chili powder and stir it well. It is important to leave the spices and onion mix on heat for a few minutes before adding the vegetables to ensure that the spices are not undercooked.
5. Now add all the other chopped vegetables to the mixture and stir them well. Sauté the vegetables for about two minutes and stir continuously to ensure that they are well coated with the flavor.
6. Now we add the Dalia. Rinse the Dalia well to clean it. Add one cup of Dalia to the pressure cooker and stir it with the vegetables for a few minutes. Keep stirring continuously to ensure it doesn’t stick to the sides or bottom of the cooker.
7. Next, add four cups of water to the pressure cooker and mix all the ingredients together. Add salt as per preference.
8. Now close the pressure cooker and let it cook till the cookers signals with ten to twelve whistles. This could take about ten minutes. Wait until the consistency of the Dalia is like porridge and then take it off the heat. If you find that the Dalia is not getting cooked properly due to lack of water, add another cupful and let it cook again.
9. Once cooked, serve the delicious Dalia on a plate and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

That’s all it takes to prepare the most amazing  dish you will ever taste.

Note: If you do not have a pressure cooker, you can also cook it in a pan by covering it with a lid. However this may take a little longer time to cook.

Images: http://oneteaspoonlife.blogspot.in/2013/09/dalia-pulao-broken-wheat-with-vegetables.html