Pumpkin Quinoa Dhal Pulao | Indian Quinoa Recipes

As I had mentioned in my Pumpkin cranberry scones recipe, I did make another dish with the leftover pumpkin. It was last Sunday when I made this Pumpkin and quinoa dhal like a pulao. Quinoa is an easy and healthier replacement for rice. Almost all Indian rice dishes can be replaced with quinoa and you wouldn't miss the rice at all. I am trying to use quinoa atleast twice in a week in the form of soups or pulao. This is an easy to make, healthy and filling one pot meal. Just a bowl of this hot pulao with papad made a simple and satisfying lunch.

Ingredients:
Quinoa - 1 cup
Toor dhal - 1/2 cup
Onion - chopped - 2 cups
Tomato - chopped - 2 cups
Pumpkin - cubed - 2 cups
Oil - 2 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Bisi bele bhath masala - 4 tsp (can substitute with sambar powder - but reduce the quantity as it tends to be more spicier)
Salt - to taste

Method:
Wash and soak the toor dhal for 45 mins. Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add the chopped onion and saute until light brown color. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry until the raw smell disappears. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until it turns mushy. Add the bisi bele bhath masala powder with salt followed by pumpkin cubes. Add the soaked dhal, quinoa along with 4 1/2 cups of water. Check for seasoning and pressure cook until done. Makes a great one-pot meal when served with just raita and papad.

Sending this to Healing Foods - Vegetarian Thanksgiving event by Siri.

Announcing Serve It Series - Serve It - Baked Sweet

Last month's Serve It - Savory Baked received 58 lovely entries ranging from frittatas to oven baked vadais. As we had promised last month, this month's theme is Serve It - Baked Sweet. December reminds the end of the year when we are all set to celebrate Christmas and welcome a new year. And speaking of Christmas, the first thing comes in mind to a foodie is the Christmas Cake and lots of baked goodies! So preheat your oven and start baking cakes/cupcakes/cookies or anything sweet.

Here are the guidelines for the event:

1. You may send in any entry that is only baked in the conventional oven and is savory. Only sweet entries are allowed like cakes/cookies/madelines/cupcakes to name a few. 
2. Only Vegetarian entries are allowed. Eggs are allowed.
3. Please link back to this announcement page and also to Denny's page.
4. New entries are appreciated, however if you are sending archived entries, please re-post as latest (with a date in December 2011) and update with both the links to the announcement page and logo.
5. Usage of links and logo is mandatory.
6. Last date for submission of your entries is December 31 2011, however you can link until Jan 1st.
7. To send in your entries, just link your entries using the below linky tool. 
8. Non-bloggers also can send their entries with a picture to the below email-id.
9. If you have a problem in linking email us your problem to serveit[dot]series[at]gmail[dot]com. We will try to resolve it. 
Please note that if the entries are inappropriate to the theme we would have to remove the entries from the linky sans notification. If there are other issues like link or logo missing we would definitely notify through email.