Rajma pulao recipe (Kidney beans rice)

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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.

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

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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 in 1.5 cups of fresh water.

Rajma should be cooked completely and they should be soft when you press them. 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.

Heat the pressure cooker and add oil. Once the oil is heated up, add whole spices and chopped ginger.

Once spices get heated up, 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 pressure is released, 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 all this prep work is done, rice will be soaked nicely.
• To make the rajma pulao, I usually use the same cooker in which I cook the beans. Once beans are cooked, I take them into a bowl and use the same cooker for making the pulao.
• Once the pressure releases naturally, after making pulao, leave it aside for 10 more minutes and rice will become fluffy.