Rajma pulao recipe (Kidney beans rice)

Rajma pulao – an easy one-pot rice dish made in a pressure cooker.

Rajma pulao is my goto rice dish for a busy weekday lunch. This will be good for the lunch box as well. Pair it with salad and raita and lunch is done 🙂

I make this rajma rice dish very often, weekly once mostly but took so long to post it. Kidney beans are a good protein source for vegetarians. As a vegetarian, I like to include different kinds of legumes and pulses as protein sources.

To make this rajma pulao, I recommend soaking the kidney beans for at least 6 to 8 hours if you are using dried beans. If you are using canned beans then skip the first section of the recipe and directly add the drained beans to the dish.

I usually soak most types of grains overnight. It’s a little difficult and needs proper planning but soaking makes the beans and grains more digestible.

I mentioned about few uses of soaking millets in this post. You can find the pros and cons of soaking beans here as well.

Sometimes, I make salads with beans, mostly when we want to have a light lunch or dinner.

There are other one-pot rice dishes on the blog, do check them out.

coconut milk rice

masoor dal pulao

And other kidney beans recipe on this blog that you might be interested in

kidney beans curry with veggies

kidney beans avocado salad

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Rajma pulao recipe:

How to make rajma pulao (step by step pictures)

how to cook rajma

Wash and soak rajma for 8 hours or overnight in water. Thoroughly wash soaked rajma and pressure cook the beans in 1.5 cups of fresh water. Always throw the water in which beans are soaked. This water will have phytic acid which causes indigestion.

And if you are someone who feels bloated after eating beans, then you should consume only soaked and nicely cooked beans.

Cook Rajma completely and they should be soft when you press them in between your fingers. Cooking time and number of whistles depends on the pressure cooker and quality of rajma.

making rajma pulao

Soak basmati rice for 30 minutes.

Chop the veggies. Adding veggies to this pulao is optional but I always include them. You can use veggies of your choice here. You can add Broccoli and cauliflower stalks as well to this recipe. I never throw the stalks, add them to these kinds of pulao or make a chutney with it.

Heat the pressure cooker and add oil. Add whole spices and chopped ginger to the heated oil.

Once spices turn a little brown, add chopped onions and fry for 3 – 4 minutes.

Now add chopped veggies. Use veggies of your choice and according to the season.

Let the veggies cook for 5 minutes and then add boiled rajma. Save water in which rajma is cooked. Use this water to cook the pulao and add plain water if it is not sufficient.

Add turmeric powder, red chili powder coriander seeds powder and salt. Mix everything well.

Now add soaked and washed basmati rice. Add water and adjust salt. Water should taste a little salty so that the final dish will have adequate salt.

Pressure cook on medium to high flame for 1 to 2 whistles (around 7 to 8 minutes). Once the pressure releases naturally, add finely chopped coriander leaves and rajma pulao is ready to serve.

Recipe notes:

• Adding salt while cooking rajma is optional. But I prefer adding salt while cooking rajma and in this way, rajma will not overcook and they taste good.
• I used prestige clip-on cooker and kidney beans will cook in 3 whistles which took around 9 minutes. If I use a normal pressure cooker, it will take around 15 to 20 minutes. Also cooking time will be fast if you directly cook the beans in the pressure cooker instead of using the inner cooking vessel.
• I usually soak rice and then pressure cook beans, chop veggies side by side. By the time you do all the prep work, rice will soak nicely.
• To make the rajma pulao, I usually use the same cooker in which I cook the beans. Transfer the cooked beans into a separate bowl and use the same pressure cooker for making this pulao.
• Once the pressure releases naturally, after making pulao, leave it aside for 10 more minutes and rice will become fluffy.