Ghee Pulao Recipe: Veg Pulao in Grams, Cooker or Pot

Updated 12 min read serves 4 • 2 tbsp ghee • cooker or pot

For this ghee pulao recipe for four, fry whole spices, an onion, and 210 g of carrot, beans, and peas in 2 tablespoons of ghee, turn 1½ cups of soaked basmati in it, then add 2 cups of salted water and cook to one whistle in a pressure cooker. In a pot, use 2¼ cups and 12 to 15 minutes on the lowest flame. Each plate carries 1½ teaspoons of ghee and about 350 kcal.

How do you make ghee pulao at home?

Bloom whole spices in ghee, fry the onion and the firm vegetables, coat soaked rice in that ghee, and cook it all in measured water that the rice drinks up. Everything goes in one pot, which is what makes it pulao. A pressure cooker takes about 25 minutes at the stove after a 20 minute soak; a heavy pot takes 10 minutes more, with a rest.

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 1½ cups (280 g) aged basmati
  • 2 tbsp ghee (26 g)
  • 1 medium onion (about 100 g), sliced thin
  • 1 carrot (80 g) and 10 French beans (60 g), in 1 cm pieces
  • ½ cup green peas (72 g), fresh or frozen
  • 1 tsp cumin, 1 bay leaf, 4 cloves, 4 green cardamom, 2 cm cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste, 2 green chillies slit
  • 2 cups water (cooker) or 2¼ cups (pot), and 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp chopped coriander and mint

Equipment: a 3 litre pressure cooker, or a heavy 2 to 3 litre pot with a tight lid, and a fork for fluffing.

Steps

  1. 1. Wash the rice 3 to 4 times, until the water runs almost clear. Soak 20 minutes. Drain in a sieve for 5 minutes.
  2. 2. Heat the ghee on medium. When a cumin seed sizzles at once, add all the whole spices for 30 seconds.
  3. 3. Onion in, 4 to 5 minutes to light golden. Ginger-garlic paste and chillies, 1 minute.
  4. 4. Carrot, beans, and peas, 2 minutes. Then the rice: turn it gently for 1 minute until every grain shines.
  5. 5. Water and salt in. Scrape the base once, stir once, and taste: a little too salty is right.
  6. 6. Cooker: lid on, one whistle on medium-high, then off. Let the pressure drop on its own. Pot: boil, lid on, lowest flame 12 to 15 minutes, then rest 10 minutes shut.
  7. 7. Fluff with a fork, not a spoon. Coriander and mint on top.

One plate, a quarter of the pot: about 350 kcal, 6.7 g protein, 7 g fat (4.1 g saturated), 64 g carbohydrate, and 3.3 g fibre, worked out from USDA FoodData Central for raw long-grain rice, ghee, onion, carrot, green beans, and peas. Spices and salt add very little and are not counted.

Measure the ghee melted. The ghee we make cools grainy in the jar, and firm in winter, so a heaped spoon from a cold jar holds far more than a level tablespoon. Stand the jar in a bowl of hot water for a minute first. Why the grain forms is on why ghee is grainy. If you want the plain version with fried onion and cashews and no vegetables, that is our ghee rice recipe.

How much water for veg pulao in a cooker or a pot?

For soaked aged basmati, 2 cups of water for 1½ cups of rice in a pressure cooker, and 2¼ cups in a pot. Carrots, beans, and peas need no extra water. Tomatoes, mushrooms, and frozen vegetables give off water in the pot, so take ¼ cup off for them. Some recipes use 1 : 2, which with soaked rice gives a soft pulao that clings.

1½ cups rice

Water

How

Pressure cooker, this recipe

2 cups

One whistle on medium-high, then off. Let the pressure drop on its own, about 10 minutes.

Heavy pot with a tight lid

2¼ cups

Boil, then lid on, lowest flame, 12 to 15 minutes. Rest 10 minutes shut.

With 2 tomatoes, mushrooms, or frozen vegetables

¼ cup less

They give off water in the pot. Cook tomatoes soft first; fry mushrooms until their water dries.

Rice not soaked

¼ cup more

And 2 to 3 minutes longer in a pot, or the same one whistle.

New-crop rice or sona masoori

See the ghee rice table

New rice takes less water, everyday rice more.

One whistle is enough for soaked basmati. The rice keeps cooking while the pressure falls, and a second whistle is the most common reason a cooker pulao turns soft. If your cooker takes very long to whistle, turn it off at 8 minutes from the lid going on. Kerala kaima rice, sona masoori, and new-crop rice each want a different amount; that table is on our ghee rice water ratio.

Which vegetables go in pulao, and when?

Firm vegetables go in before the rice and get 2 minutes in the ghee; soft ones go in with the rice; paneer is fried apart and folded in at the end. The pulao cooks for the same short time whatever is in it, so the cut and the timing are what make every piece come out done. Keep the vegetables to about 1½ cups (200 to 250 g) for 1½ cups of rice; more, and the grains steam instead of cooking separate.

Vegetable

Cut

When it goes in

Why

Potato

Cut: 1.5 cm cubes

First, with the last minute of the onion. Fry 2 to 3 minutes.

Slowest to cook. Cut bigger and it stays hard in the middle.

Carrot, French beans

Cut: 1 cm pieces

After the onion. Fry 2 minutes, then the rice.

The base of a mixed veg pulao. Small, even pieces cook with the rice.

Cauliflower

Cut: Small florets, 3 cm

After the onion, 2 to 3 minutes, until the edges colour.

Big florets break when you fluff. Soak in warm salted water 10 minutes first if you like.

Green peas, fresh

Cut: Whole

With the carrots.

A pinch of sugar in the water helps if the peas are starchy.

Green peas or mixed veg, frozen

Cut: As they are

With the rice, straight from the freezer.

Do not fry them long. Hot ghee spits at ice; add them off the flame, then stir.

Capsicum, sweet corn

Cut: 1.5 cm pieces

With the rice.

Fried earlier, capsicum turns limp and grey.

Tomato

Cut: Chopped

After the onion. Cook 4 to 5 minutes until soft.

Take ¼ cup water off. Raw tomato chunks turn the rice soggy in patches.

Mushroom

Cut: Quartered

After the onion. Fry 4 to 5 minutes until the water dries.

Wet mushrooms stew instead of browning and water down the pulao.

Paneer

Cut: 2 cm cubes

Fried apart in 1 tsp ghee, folded in after the rest.

Cooked with the rice under pressure, it turns rubbery.

Palak or methi leaves

Cut: Chopped

After the onion, until wilted, 1 to 2 minutes.

Use 1 packed cup at most, or the pulao turns green and soft.

Take care with wet or frozen vegetables. Ghee is only ready once every drop of water in the makkhan has boiled away, so hot ghee sits well above the heat of boiling dal, and ice or wet peas make it spit hard. Pull the pot off the flame for a moment, tip them in, stir, and put it back. Ghee takes the heat of a pulao tadka easily; the numbers are on ghee smoke point.

How much ghee for pulao, and how many calories a plate?

About 1⅓ tablespoons of ghee for each cup of rice: 2 tablespoons (26 g) for 1½ cups, a pot of four, or 1½ teaspoons a plate. That blooms the spices, fries the onion and vegetables, and coats every grain. Pulao needs less than plain ghee rice, because the vegetables and onion carry flavour the ghee would otherwise have to.

ICMR-NIN's 2024 dietary guidelines suggest limiting ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, within about 27 to 30 g of all visible fat, oil and ghee together, on a 2,000 kcal diet. A plate of this pulao sits inside that, as long as the dal and rotis that day go without their own spoon of ghee.

Pot of 4

Ghee in the pot

Ghee a plate

kcal

Sat. fat

How it turns out

Light

In the pot: 1 tbsp (13 g)

A plate: ¾ tsp

321 kcal

Saturated fat 2.1 g

Enough to bloom the spices and fry the onion. Tastes of vegetables more than ghee.

This recipe

In the pot: 2 tbsp (26 g)

A plate: 1½ tsp

349 kcal

Saturated fat 4.1 g

Every grain coated and separate, and the ghee smell comes up when the lid opens.

Rich, festive

In the pot: 3 tbsp (38 g)

A plate: 2¼ tsp

377 kcal

Saturated fat 6.1 g

For a pulao with cashews and saffron. More ghee does not make it fluffier.

Per plate, a quarter of the pot. USDA FoodData Central: rice 169756, ghee 173412 (1 tbsp = 12.8 g), onion 170000, carrot 170393, green beans 169961, peas 170419. Daily line: ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024. Checked 28 September 2026.

The rice brings most of those calories, not the ghee. If you watch your weight or blood sugar, serve a smaller heap of pulao with more dal, raita, and salad; that changes the plate far more than cutting the ghee. What the studies say about ghee on rice is on can diabetics eat ghee, and the whole day's budget is on how much ghee per day. If a doctor has set you a fat limit, their number comes first.

At our live prices a tablespoon of our cow ghee costs about ₹36 and of our buffalo ghee about ₹30, so the ghee in this pot comes to ₹60 to ₹72, or ₹15 to ₹18 a plate. At home in Gir Somnath each of us eats 1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee on an ordinary day, on roti, dal, and khichdi.

Cow or buffalo ghee for pulao?

Cow ghee for an everyday veg or jeera pulao: its lighter, toasted-milk smell comes through the spices, and it tints the rice a little gold. In the monsoon, when green fodder makes our cow ghee more yellow, that tint is stronger. Buffalo ghee is richer and whiter and suits the festive pulao with cashews and saffron. Both are almost pure milk fat with the same calories a spoon; the side-by-side is on cow vs buffalo ghee.

Jeera, matar, paneer, or tomato pulao: what changes?

The method stays the same; only what goes into the ghee, and sometimes the water, changes. Start from the recipe above and make the one change in the row.

Jeera pulao

No vegetables. 1½ tsp cumin in 2 tbsp ghee; onion optional. Same water.

With: Dal tadka, rajma, or jeera aloo

Matar pulao

Only peas: 1 cup (145 g). Add ½ tsp sugar to the water if they are not sweet.

With: Kadhi, dal, or curd

Mixed veg pulao

This recipe: carrot, beans, and peas, about 210 g in all.

With: Raita, dal, or a paneer gravy

Paneer pulao

150 g paneer fried apart in 1 tsp ghee, folded in after the rest. Keep the peas.

With: Mint raita

Tomato pulao

2 tomatoes cooked soft after the onion, ½ tsp chilli powder, ¼ cup less water.

With: Onion raita, papad

Festive (Kashmiri-style)

3 tbsp ghee, 10 cashews and 1 tbsp raisins fried first, 15 saffron strands in 2 tbsp warm milk poured over before the lid goes on.

With: A rich gravy, on a festival day

Jeera pulao is the one we would make on a busy night: ghee, cumin, rice, water, and nothing to chop. It goes with our ghee dal tadka, rajma masala, or jeera aloo. If the pulao is going next to a dal with its own ghee tadka, make the light pot from the ghee table. For a vrat day, samak rice replaces the basmati; that version is in ghee for Navratri fasting. A layered pot with chicken and a masala is a different dish, our ghee biryani.

Why is my pulao mushy, sticky, or bland?

Mushy pulao has too much water or too long under pressure; hard vegetables were cut too big or went in too late; bland pulao had its spices fried in ghee that was not hot enough. More ghee fixes none of these. Find what you see below.

Mushy or sticky

Too much water, wet vegetables not counted, or stirred after the water went in. In a cooker, more than one whistle.

Fix: Use the water table and take ¼ cup off for tomatoes or frozen vegetables. Stir once, then leave it. Off after one whistle.

Rice done, vegetables hard

Pieces too big, or potato and carrot added with the rice.

Fix: Cut to 1 cm, and 1.5 cm for potato. Fry the firm ones 2 minutes before the rice goes in.

Vegetables mushy and grey

Capsicum, peas, or leaves fried too long, or the cooker left on after the whistle.

Fix: Soft vegetables go in with the rice. Turn the cooker off at the first whistle.

Bland

Spices went into cool ghee, the onion only turned soft, or too little salt.

Fix: Heat the ghee until cumin sizzles at once. Fry the onion to light golden. Taste the water before the lid goes on: a little too salty is right.

Burnt at the bottom of the cooker

Not enough water, flame too high, or rice stuck to the base.

Fix: Scrape the base once as the water goes in. Keep the flame medium-high, not full. Serve from the top and leave the scorched layer.

Hard rice, a white centre

Too little water, steam escaped, or the rice was not soaked.

Fix: Sprinkle 3 to 4 tbsp hot water, close the lid tight, and give it 5 minutes on the lowest flame. Soak for 20 minutes next time.

Can you pack pulao in a tiffin, and how long does it keep?

Yes, if it stays hot until lunch or cold until it is reheated. The NHS advises cooling cooked rice within 1 hour, keeping it in the fridge, eating it within 24 hours, and reheating it only once, because spores of some food poisoning bacteria survive cooking and multiply in rice left standing at room temperature.

For a school or office tiffin, pack the pulao steaming hot into an insulated box, or make it the night before, cool it spread on a plate, box it, and keep it in the fridge; then send it with an ice pack if there is a microwave at the other end. To reheat, sprinkle 1 to 2 tablespoons of water over it, cover, and heat until it is steaming all through; the NHS gives 70°C at the centre for 2 minutes. A pot of pulao left on the stove from lunch to dinner is the one habit to drop.

Ghee pulao recipe card to keep by the stove

Screenshot it for the next time you cook.

  • 1. For 4: 1½ cups (280 g) aged basmati, 2 tbsp ghee, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 10 French beans, ½ cup peas, whole spices, 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste, 1 tsp salt.
  • 2. Wash the rice until the water runs almost clear. Soak 20 minutes. Drain 5 minutes.
  • 3. Heat 2 tbsp ghee on medium. Cumin, bay leaf, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon: 30 seconds.
  • 4. Onion 4 to 5 minutes to light golden. Ginger-garlic paste and chillies 1 minute.
  • 5. Carrot, beans, and peas 2 minutes. Rice in, turn gently 1 minute.
  • 6. Cooker: 2 cups water and salt, one whistle on medium-high, let it drop on its own. Pot: 2¼ cups, boil, lowest flame 12 to 15 minutes, rest 10.
  • 7. Fluff with a fork. Coriander and mint on top.
  • 8. About 350 kcal and 1½ tsp ghee a plate. Leftovers: fridge within 1 hour, eat within 24 hours.

Which ghee for pulao?

Only 2 tablespoons go in, but they go in first, so a stale or flat ghee shows the moment the cumin hits it. Pick a plain ghee with nothing added that smells of toasted milk when it melts. The home checks are on how to identify pure ghee, and our ranking of the cow ghee on sale is best cow ghee in India.

We make and sell ghee, so weigh this with that in mind. For pulao we would use our A2 Gir cow ghee on weekdays and our Jafarabadi buffalo ghee for the festive pot. Both come from grass-fed village animals near the Gir forest; the milk is set to curd overnight, churned, and the makkhan cooked in a matki on a wood chulha. The jar is made after you order, a video of it being cooked and packed comes on WhatsApp, and Varsha tastes every batch before it goes in a jar. We test every month against the FSSAI limits; the steps are on how we make ghee.

Everyday veg and jeera pulao

Festive pulao with cashews

Each order is cooked after you place it, and the packing video is of that batch. Past order videos are on the shop.

FAQ

Pulao kaise banate hai?

1½ cup basmati ko dhokar 20 minute bhigo do. Cooker mein 2 chammach ghee garam karo, jeera aur khade masale 30 second, phir pyaaz halka sunehra hone tak. Adrak-lahsun, gajar, beans aur matar 2 minute bhuno, chawal daalkar 1 minute palto. 2 cup paani aur namak daalo, medium-high aanch par ek seeti, phir pressure apne aap utarne do. Kaante se chawal alag karo.

What is the difference between pulao and biryani?

Pulao cooks the rice, vegetables, and spices together in one pot, in measured water that the rice fully absorbs, in about 30 minutes. Biryani cooks a spiced masala and part-boiled rice separately, then layers them and steams the pot sealed on dum. Biryani is spicier and richer and takes longer. A pulao can have meat too, but it is still cooked in one go.

Can I make pulao without onion and garlic?

Yes, for Jain or satvik days. Skip the onion and ginger-garlic paste, fry 1 tsp cumin and a pinch of hing with the whole spices, and add grated ginger if your family eats it. For Jain pulao, also leave out potato and carrot and use peas, beans, capsicum, and corn. The ghee and whole spices carry more of the flavour, so do not cut the ghee below 1½ tbsp.

Can I use oil or butter instead of ghee in pulao?

Oil works and the pulao will be fine, only flatter in smell: the toasted-milk note of ghee is what people notice when the lid opens. Butter is harder, because its milk solids brown and burn while the spices bloom and the onion fries. If you like the taste of butter, fry in oil or ghee and stir 1 tsp of butter through the rice after it rests.

Can I make pulao with coconut milk?

Yes, it is the South Indian way. Swap half the water for thin coconut milk: for this recipe, 1 cup coconut milk and 1 cup water in the cooker. Add a few curry leaves and 2 green chillies with the whole spices. Coconut milk catches on the base more easily, so scrape the bottom once as it goes in and keep the flame at medium, not high.

How do I make pulao for 10 or 12 people?

Use 4 cups of rice (about 740 g), 5 to 6 tbsp ghee, and about 560 g of vegetables, and cook it in a wide pot, not a cooker. Use a little less than 1½ cups water per cup of rice, about 5½ cups in all, because less boils off in a big pot. Keep the rice no deeper than a hand, or split it into two pots.

Sources

  1. Rice, white, long-grain, regular, raw, unenriched (FDC ID 169756), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  2. Butter oil, anhydrous (FDC ID 173412), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  3. Onions, raw (FDC ID 170000), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  4. Carrots, raw (FDC ID 170393), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  5. Beans, snap, green, raw (FDC ID 169961), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  6. Peas, green, raw (FDC ID 170419), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  7. Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 (Guideline 7: ghee and visible fat), ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition. Checked 28 Sep 2026.
  8. Starchy foods and carbohydrates (storing and reheating rice), NHS. Checked 28 Sep 2026.

Read next