Vermicelli Pilau

Vermicelli is so versatile you can make sweet or savoury dishes with it. I grew up eating both kinds. But my favourite was Vermicelli Pilau, it’s a variation of rice Pilau, made with using almost same ingredients. You can have it in breakfast or lunch or dinner.

Vermicelli is a quick substitute for pilau, it cooks in minutes and doesn’t taken much chopping up, you can also use frozen veg to save time or don’t use any veg at all you don’t want to. Having roasted peanuts and cashews on top, I must say you shouldn’t skip as it adds a additional level to the dish.

This is also known as Upma(South Indian dish, usually made with Semolina) with same set of ingredients, like curry leaves, mustard seeds and asafoetida for tempering.

Ingredients:

• 100g roasted Vermicelli
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp asafoetida
• 4-5 curry leaves
• 2-3 green chillies or 2 red whole chillies
• 1 carrot finely chopped
• 2-3 runner beans, chopped
• 1/4 cup of peas
• salt to taste

Method:

• In a pan, heat up little oil, add peanuts and cashew and roast for 4-5 mins, stirring constantly until they are aromatic and crisp, take them out in a plate
• In same pan add some oil, when the oil is hot, add red chillis, then mustard seeds, when starts to splatter, add curry leaves, cumin, asafoetida let it cook for until leaves get brown
• Sauté the veg in the mix for few minutes
• Add vermicelli mix well
• Add water until it just covers the everything, tip is to use same container you used to measure vermicelli and add same amount of water as vermicelli
• Add salt to taste
• Let it boil, cover, turn the heat down to low and cook for another 8-10 mins. Stirring occasionally
• Once all the water nearly gone, turn off the heat and let it steam for 3-4 mins
• And enjoy warm x