Peanut & Vegetable Rice

Blogging Marathon# 45: Week 3/ Day 1
Theme: Kid's Delight -- Nuts & Legumes for Kid's Lunchbox
Dish: Kashmiri Tikka Masala

We are starting our 3rd week of Blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is 'Nuts & Legumes for Kid's Lunchboxes' for Kid's Delight event being hosted this month by Valli. Valli wants all of us to rake our brians and come up with dishes made with nuts and legumes that are kid friendly and can be packed in their lunchboxes.
I think I speak for most of the moms out there that it is a real challenge to pack lunches for the kids, but the biggest challenge is to have the kids eat them. It gets even tougher when you have picky kids. My son is picky and he has a lot of self imposed restrictions on his own diet (like I don't carrots, I don't like cabbage and on and on and.....) So I find it really hard to find dishes that he would eat in school when packed for lunch.

Both the kids love peanuts and I add them to most of the rice dishes I make. They like snacking on roasted peanuts, so I keep unsalted roasted peanuts stocked in the pantry all the time. This is one of the dishes I make for them often -- it has both ground peanuts in the spice powder and whole peanuts in the rice.

Traditional peanut rice does not usually include vegetables, but I wanted to make the dish a little more colorful and wholesome, so I added veggies to the rice (if you really want to know, I pick out the carrots for my son -- baah!!) Only thing about this rice is I cannot pack this in my kid's lunchbox, since they have strict rule against bringing peanut based foods to school because of kids with severe peanut allergies. So I feed them at home, but if you don't have the allergy concern for your kid or other kids in school, then this is a great dish to pack for lunch.

Ingredients: Serves 2~3
Rice - 2cups, cooked and cooled
Peanuts - 1tbsp
Mixed Vegetables - 1cup (a combination of carrot, green beans, green peas etc)
Onion - 1 small, finely chopped
Green chilies - 2, slit (optional)
Chana dal - 1tsp
Urad dal - 1tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Turmeric - ¼tsp
Curry leaves - 8~10
Salt - to taste

For the Peanut-Sesame powder:
Peanuts - 3tbsp
Sesame seeds - 1tbsp
Dry red chili - 2 (add more for spicier masala)
Garlic cloves - 2~3

Method:

• Make the Peanut-Sesame spice powder: Dry roast peanuts, sesame seeds, dry red chilies and garlic cloves until golden. Cool slightly and grind to a coarse powder.
• Heat 1tbsp oil in a pan, add chana dal, urad dal, peanuts, mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves; once the seeds start to splutter and dals turn golden, add the onions and fry till they turn translucent.
• Next add green chilies and the mixed vegetables. Mix well, cover and cook till the veggies are tender. You can precook the veggies before adding here which will expedite the cooking process. I used frozen mixed vegetables, so it took no time for them to cook.
• Once the veggies are tender, add turmeric and the peanut spice powder, mix well. Add cooked rice and mix until well combined. Serve hot!!!

Lets check what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 45.