Palak peas Pulao with onion raita

Known in the nutrition world as a “power” food, spinach is packed to the brim with essential nutrients. Unfortunately, it’s also known in the “real” world as a slimy, smelly vegetable that kids refuse to eat, even when you threaten to ground them for not being open-minded about it. Is it worth the effort to try to get your kids, or yourself for that matter, to eat spinach? Absolutely! Eating spinach will help you meet your daily need for a number of nutrients, including calcium, iron, folate and vitamin A.

More than my sundari kutti, Sundar finds hard to eat the usual spinach- kootu style or masial style recipes. My mom used to make carrot or beetroot pulao. With that in mind, I tried the Palak peas pulao and now I make it every week for his lunch box.

You need
1 1/2 cup roughly chopped spinach
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup peas
1/4 cup corn (optional- to give slight sweet taste)
Bay leaves
Cinnamon
2 tspn ginger garlic paste
2 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1 tsp Saunf
4 - 6 green chillies
salt to taste
oil for tampering 
1/2 tsp mustard
2 cups cooked rice

Grind the spinach with all the spices. Heat oil in a pan, and add mustard seeds. When they begin to jiggle, add the chopped onions and saute till tender and light brown. Add the peas and corn and cook till tender in low flame. Add water if required.

Now add the ground spinach to the pan and let it cook until the spinach is cooked well. This takes about 10 mins.
Add this to the cooked rice and mix well. Taste to check, add salt if required. Garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve hot with onion raita.

Suggestions:
Onion raita tastes better with palak pulao. If you like, you can add 5 mint leaves and grind with spinach it gives nice aroma.


Spinach has lots of great nutrients, however, there is one disadvantage in spinach. Spinach contains a high concentration of oxalic acid, as the oxalates in the acid are responsible for formation of stones in the kidney and the bladder. In order to nullify the negative impact of oxylic acid, it is advisable that spinach is combined with other foods that are rich in vitamin C such as citrus slices and consumed as a combination of the two.