Chickpeas and rice

This one-pot, easy, healthy, protein-rich chickpeas rice is an ideal lunch or dinner you can make at home, even on busy days. This vegan and gluten-free recipe needs only staple pantry ingredients and comes out quickly.

Ingredients

• Chickpeas- I cooked chickpeas using an Instant pot. You can use canned chickpeas as well. If using canned ones, drain and rinse them well to remove excess salt.
• Basmati rice- This recipe uses uncooked long-grain basmati rice. So water and cooking times are according to it. Brown rice or short-grain rice will not work here. You can make this recipe using leftover cooked rice as well. Please check the recipe notes.
• Aromatics- I used only onions to flavor the rice. And the key is to brown the onions. You can even use garlic, ginger, or both to flavor the rice.
• Spices- I used Indian spices - ground cumin, garam masala, turmeric powder, and red chili powder. You can also use Mexican spice mix, cajun spice mix, and Italian spice mix.
• Veggies- Veggies are optional, and I used only carrots. I prefer adding veggies to make this meal complete by itself. You can use other veggies like green beans, cauliflower, potatoes, green peas, bell peppers, and beetroot.
• Coconut milk- I used homemade coconut milk, and it is optional. Using coconut milk will make the rice rich and creamy. You can skip it and replace it with an equal quantity of water or vegetable broth.

Prep work

• Wash the basmati rice a couple of times and soak it for up to 30 minutes in a cup of water.
• Chop the veggies, slice the onions and keep them aside.
• If cooking chickpeas at home, cook them and keep them aside. If using canned chickpeas, drain and rinse them well to remove excess salt.

Stovetop Instructions

• Heat a deep-bottomed pan or dutch oven.
• Once it is hot, add oil, cumin, bay leaf, and cardamom. Let the cumin seeds splutter a little bit.
• Now add sliced onions and let them brown. It will take around 7 to 8 minutes. To speed up the process, you can add a pinch of salt to the onions.
• Add chopped veggies and finely chopped tomato and stir it once.
• Then goes all spice powders one by one - turmeric powder, ground cumin, red chili powder, garam masala, and salt. Mix everything well.
• Add cooked chickpeas and stir it once.
• If using coconut milk, add it now. Or add water or vegetable broth and taste-check the salt. For every cup of rice, I use 2 cups of water or coconut milk. 
• Close the pan with a lid and cook the rice over medium heat. It will take around 10 to 15 minutes. If required, use half a cup of water. Water quantity depends on the age of the rice and the heat level of the stove.
• Once the rice absorbs all the water and the rice is cooked to your liking, switch off the flame. Let it sit aside for around 5 to 10 minutes. The residual heat will cook it more, and fluff the rice with a fork.
• Easy, healthy, and delicious rice with chickpeas and veggies is ready to serve!

Instant pot Instructions

• Start the Instant pot in saute mode. Once it is hot, add oil, cumin seeds, bay leaf, and cardamom.

• Add sliced onions to the Instant pot inner pot and let them brown a little bit.

• I fried the onions for about 4 to 5 minutes by stirring them a couple of times.

• Then goes chopped veggies and chopped tomato.

• Add all the spice powders - turmeric powder, red chili powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder, and salt to this veggie mixture. Mix everything well so that spice powders get coated well with the veggies.

• Now add cooked chickpeas and stir it once.

• Add coconut milk (if using) and water to the Instant pot and taste-check the salt. If required, you can add more salt.

• Drain the water completely from the rice and add it to the Instant Pot.

• Close the Instant pot with its lid and seal the vent. Stop the saute mode and start it again in manual or pressure cook mode. Cook it for 5 minutes under high pressure.
• Once the Instant pot finishes cooking, wait for 5 minutes and manually release the pressure. 

• Take the inner pot out of the instant pot and fluff the rice with the fork. Cover the chickpeas rice with the lid and let it stand for about 5 to 10 minutes. Garnish the rice with cilantro or mint leaves, and the delicious and healthy Instant pot rice with chickpeas is ready to serve!

Recipe Notes and variations

• Can we use leftover rice to make this chickpeas rice pilaf? Yes. To make this chickpeas rice with leftover rice, skip adding water or coconut milk. Instead of the raw rice, add cooked rice and mix everything well. And let it cook for 3 to 4 minutes. All the spices should coat the rice well. If required, you can add a tablespoon of water. You can use cooked brown rice or white rice.
• Can we use other beans to make this recipe? Yes, you can make this rice pilaf with kidney beans, black-eyed peas, adzuki beans, and black beans. Make sure to use the cooked beans only.
• I used coconut oil to make this garbanzo beans pilaf. You can use olive oil or regular vegetable oil as well.
• This recipe is Indian-style chana pulao, and I used Indian spices. You can substitute them with Mexican spice, cajun spice, or Italian spices to change the flavor.
• To make this recipe spicier, you can add half a teaspoon of ground black pepper.
• You can garnish the dish with cilantro leaves, mint leaves, and a dash of lemon juice will enhance the dish's taste.

Serving suggestions

This meal is complete with rice, chickpeas, and veggies, and you do not need any side dishes to enjoy. So this makes ideal weekdays lunch or dinner when you are out of time and energy.

Leftovers can be used as burrito fillings.

Storage

If you are using coconut milk to make this chickpeas pilaf, this will not keep well at room temperature. You can store it for 8 hours at room temperature at the max.

You can refrigerate the rice for a couple of days and freeze it for a month.

Always reheat the leftovers and discard them if it smells or tastes unusual.

As you are here, you will love my other one-pot rice dishes.

Sprouts mint pilaf - Indian-style mint-flavored rice pilaf with added mung bean sprouts.

Kidney beans rice - Simple and delicious rice and beans

Lentils and rice - Earthy flavored lentils combined with rice make an excellent pilaf.

Instant pot Khichdi - Indian rice and lentil porridge that has healing properties.

If you are looking for some chickpeas recipes, do try these out!

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