Pilaf with chickpeas from Stalik Khankishieva recipe. Pilaf with chickpeas - step-by-step recipes with photos Cooking Turkish pilaf with chickpeas

Pilaf is a favorite dish in Uzbekistan; there are many recipes and variations of its preparation; it is in Uzbekistan that people like to cook pilaf with chickpeas.
In this recipe we will tell you how to cook pilaf with chickpeas and pork. Initially, it is customary to cook pilaf with lamb, since in the homeland of this dish it is not customary to eat pork. But we love pork for its delicate taste, so we allow ourselves to make some adjustments to this wonderful oriental dish.
Chickpeas in pilaf play the role of a kind of additive, which, with its structure and density, pleasantly contrasts with tender rice and meat. Sometimes raisins or barberries are added to pilaf, as they add pleasant sweet notes, which are very useful in this dish. It is customary to add a head of garlic to pilaf; we will also follow this eastern tradition, but with only one difference. We will add several small heads of young garlic, which during the preparation of the pilaf will turn into a very spicy delicacy.

Taste Info Second: cereals

Ingredients for preparing pilaf

lean boneless pork - 400 g;
pre-boiled chickpeas - 1 cup;
basmati rice - 400 g;
water;
raisins - 1/4 cup;
carrots - 2-3 pcs.;
young garlic - 4-5 small heads;
olive oil;
Bay leaf;
salt;
seasonings for pilaf (cumin, turmeric, dried onions) or a ready-made mixture of seasonings.

How to cook pilaf with chickpeas and pork

First, we'll tell you how to cook chickpeas. Before cooking, you need to soak the chickpeas in cool water for 6-8 hours, then drain the water, add a pinch of soda to the water in which they will be cooked and cook the chickpeas for 60-90 minutes. You need to salt the chickpeas half an hour before they are ready.
We start preparing pilaf with meat. This recipe uses lean pork, but if desired, it can be replaced with beef or lamb. The meat should be washed thoroughly and then lightly dried. Cut the pork into large cubes (about 4 cm).

Let's heat up the dishes for cooking pilaf. This could be a spacious roasting pan, a casserole dish, or a wok frying pan. You can also use a large, thick-bottomed saucepan. Preheat the roasting pan and add about 40-50 ml of olive oil. Place the meat in a roasting pan and fry it over high heat until light golden brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the carrots. It should be peeled, washed and cut into very thin strips.

Add the carrots to the meat and continue frying for a few more minutes.

Then add water to the frying pan. We calculate the volume of water required based on the amount of rice. For two glasses of rice you will need six glasses of water.
Add seasonings, bay leaves and salt to the Dutch oven and bring the liquid to a boil. Taste the broth and add more salt if necessary.

Then add the raisins and chickpeas to the roasting pan.

Pour in the rice, add the whole heads of garlic and cover the frying pan tightly with a lid.

Do not mix rice with other ingredients until the dish is completely cooked.

Cook pilaf with chickpeas for 30 minutes over low heat. Then remove the roasting pan from the heat, stir the pilaf and serve it to the table.

Do you want to cook an unusual, but very interesting pilaf? Try pilaf with chickpeas. It can be meaty and lean, but whatever this dish is, it will surprise guests with purely oriental notes. In addition, such pilaf is healthier - chickpeas, or chickpeas, as they are called in the Middle East, help reduce cholesterol in the body.

The legume chickpea differs in preparation from grain rice. Rice takes about 30 minutes or a little more to cook, while chickpeas need at least an hour and a half to be fully cooked. Therefore, the cooking of peas is accelerated by pre-soaking. This is done a day or, in extreme cases, 12 hours before the start of the process.

Chickpeas consist largely of vegetable protein, which, when combined with water, quickly sours the liquid. The water needs to be changed periodically, adding fresh peas. Soak chickpeas at the rate of four glasses of water per glass of peas.

Tip: If you put soaked chickpeas in the refrigerator, the infusion will not sour. This concentrated infusion is useful for washing your face; it has a good effect on the skin, cleansing, rejuvenating and refreshing it.

Uzbek pilaf with chickpeas

This pilaf is traditionally prepared in Tashkent, Samarkand and Fergana. If you want to make real Uzbek pilaf with chickpeas, buy high-quality and light peas.

Every region of Central Asia has its own version of pilaf. It depends on the rice grown in the area, because from ancient times the Uzbeks used to prepare the dish the products that they had on hand. Therefore, most often they used devzira (a local variety of rice), Uzbek yellow carrots (there is nothing special about them, except for the lower price and the tradition of mixing two varieties of carrots in pilaf). Plus onions, lamb or beef (the country is predominantly Muslim), as well as some spices. If you see a recipe for real Uzbek pilaf with cumin, dill, and finally, bay leaves and other seasonings, don’t believe it! Uzbeks prepare real pilaf only with a limited number of spices.

For this reason, you should not purchase ready-made pilaf kits, but rather buy them separately:

cumin;
barberry;
red capsicum;
garlic.

Many people add raisins for sweetness. That's it, nothing else is added.

Now let’s talk about how much food you need to prepare for pilaf with chickpeas. This is about half a kilo of meat, the same amount of carrots and rice, a couple of medium-sized onions, a head of garlic, 150 grams of fat tail, 200 g of dry peas, half a glass of vegetable oil, a pinch of cumin and a handful of barberries.

Preparation.

Soak the chickpeas in advance.
Chop the meat and fat tail into small pieces.
Chop the onion into half rings, cut the carrots into medium strips.
Heat the oil in a cauldron until it smokes bluishly, put the fat in it and heat until it turns into cracklings. Remove the cracklings.
Fry the onion until it turns a little brownish.
Add the meat to the onion and quickly fry, achieving an even, beautiful crust.

Don't be afraid that the onions will overcook or burn. The temperature of the oil will drop sharply when immersing the meat, the onions will simply boil in the meat juice and cook properly.

Add salt.
Add carrots and chickpeas soaked the day before to the meat component. Lightly fry, sprinkle with barberry and cumin, pour boiling water so that the water completely covers the zirvak. Cover with a lid and leave to simmer for about 40 minutes. Rule: the longer the zirvak is cooked, the richer and more aromatic the finished dish is.
Wash and soak rice in salted water. This is an important point - the less starch left in the rice, the more likely it is that the pilaf will be crumbly, light, and will not stick together when cooked.
Put garlic into the prepared zirvak, clearing the head of outer scales, whole hot pepper, raisins, and add rice. Pour boiling water until the cereal is completely covered.

Tip: It is usually recommended to pour water two fingers above the rice. This is not entirely true, because the surface area of the cauldron is not taken into account (there is a difference between the plane of the roasting pan and the frying pan), the degree of soaking of the rice, and finally, the width of the fingers. So it’s better to underfill and add liquid later than to overfill and end up with a sticky mess.

Place the cauldron on the highest heat, bring to a boil and reduce the heat. After the water has boiled away and the rice is almost ready, rake it to the center, cover the cauldron with a dry towel, place a lid on top, turn off the heat and let the dish rest.

Recipe from Stalik Khankishiev

Any dish from Stalik Khankishiev is a culinary work of art. He also cooks very tasty with chickpeas. Like everything that this connoisseur of national cuisine makes, this pilaf has its own characteristics.

First, proportions. Stalik's law - pilaf does not have to have a lot of meat; Uzbeks do not put meat at the forefront. But you need a lot of carrots. But still, usually you take a kilogram of meat, the same amount of rice and carrots, but very little onion - a couple of onions, just to create the aroma and color. The color of pilaf, contrary to popular belief, comes from onions, and not carrots, as many people think. Carrots add a special aroma and sweetness to pilaf. That’s why Stalik advises her to take the hardest, densest one so that it doesn’t become limp during cooking, and not the young one. But yellow or regular - your choice, whichever you find.

Take chickpeas randomly. If you love it, take more; if you’re not sure, half a glass is enough. Stalik calls this pilaf Samarkand, which means that, in addition to chickpeas, it contains large pieces of meat.

Then everything is done like this.

Soak the washed rice.
Heat 350 g of fat tail fat in a cauldron, remove the cracklings. If you don't have it, take vegetable oil. Or you can pour oil and use lard for flavor.
Place one onion in hot fat and fry until almost black. This tradition comes from the times of cottonseed oil, the specific taste and smell of which was captured with onions. Nowadays they do this rather to intentionally flavor the oil.
Discard the onion. Place coarsely chopped pieces of meat into the oil and at the same time two onions chopped into half rings. Fry, stirring, until golden brown. Add salt.
Place half of the shredded carrots, chickpeas, then barberries, peppers, and carrots again. Sprinkle with cumin.
Pour in one and a half glasses of water and simmer covered for 20 minutes. Try the zirvak for salt - it should be quite salty so that it is enough for rice.
Place the rice removed from the water in the zirvak, add water so that it does not even cover the rice. Cover with a lid and cook over low heat. Stalik's secret is that water is absorbed into the grain, it swells, and in order for this to happen evenly, the rice is shoveled without touching the grain periodically, holes are made in it for steam to escape.
When the water has evaporated, the rice easily flies off the slotted spoon, you can cover it and turn off the heat.
When serving, the rice is not mixed, first the cereal is placed, then the carrots and chickpeas, and finally the meat, placed on the edge of the plate in a piece, with a cutting knife served to it.

In a slow cooker

In a slow cooker you get crumbly pilaf, and this is how it is prepared.

In a multicooker bowl, heat 50 g of oil on frying mode.
Fry one large onion and then half a kilo of medium-sized chopped meat - beef, lamb, pork.
Add spices: a couple of teaspoons of barberry, a spoonful of saffron, a little pepper and salt.
Add chopped carrots and simmer for 15 minutes.
Place the washed rice, pour in 800 g of water, and cook in pilaf mode for 40 minutes.

Dish with chickpeas and chicken

You can also cook pilaf with chicken. For 600 g of chicken fillet you need a glass of rice and chickpeas, a couple of carrots and onions, garlic, pepper and spices.

Vegetables and meat are fried in a slow cooker, soaked peas are added to them, then rice, everything is filled with water, salted, spices are added and everything is cooked in pilaf mode. The pilaf turns out fast, juicy and tasty.

With prunes and duck breast

Pilaf with duck and prunes has a spicy taste. For it you will need a meaty duck, duck fat. In a small amount of vegetable oil, the fat and fat from the skin are rendered. Having taken out the roast, put onion half rings there and fry until transparent. Add the chopped breast, fry, pouring a mixture of honey (2 spoons) and 1 orange. Place prunes cut into strips on the meat. Next comes the soaked chickpeas, which we cover with a layer of boiling water and let cook for half an hour, then add orange slices and soaked rice. Add water and cook until tender over low heat.

Products:

1 kg duck;
a little butter and duck fat;
250 g prunes;
a glass of chickpeas;
2 onions;
a couple of oranges;
salt, spices;
1.5 cups rice.

Vegetarian pilaf with chickpeas

Even meat lovers enjoy vegetarian pilaf with chickpeas. It is hearty, light, unusual. Lenten pilaf is easy to prepare. The chickpeas are soaked in advance before cooking the rice. Then the carrots are fried in oil into strips. Then onions are added to it. Put spices and chickpeas into the fried onions, then add rice, salt (about one and a half spoons), pour boiling water to cover the rice, and set to cook on low heat. We determine the readiness of pilaf by tapping: if the rice responds with a dull sound when tapped with a slotted spoon, it is ready.

Rice is boiled in the milk mixture and discarded.

The greens are chopped and mixed with rice.

Garlic and ginger are ground in a blender.

Garlic and ginger dressing is fried in hot oil and chili pepper is added. Diced onions are also placed there and sautéed.

Carrots are added, then chickpeas, everything warms up well. Next it is placed in a heat-resistant form, greased and sprinkled with flour.

Layers of rice, vegetables with chickpeas, more rice are placed in the mold, everything is filled with sweetened milk, and sprinkled with turmeric. You need to bake the pilaf for a quarter of an hour. When serving, the slightly cooled pilaf is turned over onto another dish and served with lime slices as a garnish.

We all love pilaf. As a rule, the recipes are very similar to each other. Only some people use chicken rather than pork, others use lamb. Some housewives may add dried apricots and other dried fruits, but for the most part the recipes have already become very traditional. We suggest you take a new approach to preparing this dish and try pilaf with chickpeas.

Some useful information about chickpeas

Perhaps someone does not understand what we are talking about. Not everyone knows this product, which is very rarely used in our country for housewife cooking, which cannot be said about the countries of the East. And there, as you understand, they know a lot about food.

Chickpeas are peas that can be called Turkish or lamb peas. It belongs to legumes, which have long been valued for their nutritional value and great benefits for our health. You can often hear that beans can replace meat for a person and make him strong and healthy. So chickpeas were known for many centuries before our era. And then it was already used for food and for treatment.

Turkish peas contain a lot of useful minerals, vitamins and other substances. It contains fiber, proteins and fats that are valuable for our digestion, many amino acids, B vitamins, as well as A, C, E, P. Chickpeas have a beneficial effect on all organs, normalize digestion, improve heart function, cleanse the body of cholesterol, help liver and kidneys. Moreover, chickpeas are an excellent prevention of cancer and aging. It will also help with mental activity.

Chickpeas contain a minimal amount of calories - only 120 kcal. It is recommended by nutritionists; moreover, by cleansing the body of harmful substances, you can not only lose weight, but also become more attractive in appearance, since your skin and hair will have a natural healthy shine.

It would take a long time to list the benefits of the bean itself, as well as pilaf with chickpeas, but you already understand the main thing. Now it’s time to move on to recipes and secrets of preparing dishes from this healthy product.

Secrets of perfect pilaf with chickpeas

In order for the peas to be tasty, have time to cook, and at the same time the rice is not overcooked, you need to soak it in water in advance. This is usually done a day before the intended preparation of pilaf. If the chickpeas are of high quality and fresh, then they can be ready within 12 hours. The peas should be soaked in a large volume of cold water, which they will then partially absorb.

Important! To prevent the water along with the chickpeas from turning sour, it is better to change it several times a day or put the container in a cold room.

When your chickpeas have reached the desired stage, they are washed under running water and set aside, but it is better not to throw out the water that has turned yellow. It is very beneficial for the skin, can be used for washing, or better yet, pour it into an ice tray and wipe your face with these cubes every day.
It is better to take brown rice for pilaf; if you can find it, it is better to use alanga rice. The cereal should be round and whole. In some regions, chickpeas are combined with rice in a cauldron in different ways. The first thing is to place the peas in a heap in the center, and then cook the pilaf. The second way is to cook the chickpeas in advance and then add them to the cauldron with the vegetables. The third is to simply add the peas after soaking. If you don’t have a good cauldron, then take a pan with a thick bottom.

Carrots for pilaf are always cut into strips. It is not grated, as many housewives are used to doing. The longer the carrot sticks, the better. It is better to add spices in the main quantity not immediately and not at the end of cooking, but in the middle of cooking. So, it's time to get down to business.

Recipes for pilaf with chickpeas

Uzbek pilaf with chickpeas

As you already understood, the first thing you need to do is soak the peas for a day. Next you will need:

lamb meat (you can take the thigh part) – 1 kg;
carrots and rice - the same amount as meat of both;
onions – 3-4 medium-sized pieces;
garlic - take two pieces in medium-sized heads;
chili pepper – 1 piece;
spices – cumin and cilantro, one tablespoon each, peppercorns and red pepper powder, one teaspoon each;
vegetable oil – 350 grams;
salt – coarsely ground to taste;
chickpeas - a glass.

We start cooking by peeling the vegetables, cutting the carrots into strips, peeling the garlic and onions, and cutting the first one into half rings. The meat is washed and cut into pieces. The cauldron is placed on the stove so that it warms up well over high heat. Then pour oil. When it starts to boil, add carrot sticks, after the vegetable has browned, take it out and put the lamb in the cauldron. When it has acquired a crust from frying, add onions.

The spices are put in a mortar and rubbed, after which they are poured into the oil, but not the entire volume, then the carrots are added. All this should simmer together for some time, then add soaked peas. You need to boil water in a kettle in advance and pour boiling water over the entire contents of the cauldron one centimeter above the surface. Add grated spices here. When the water starts to boil, reduce the heat. Peppercorns are added here. At this stage, zirvak is prepared, that is, this is the name given to the base of pilaf without rice.

Advice! Not everyone likes pepper in their food, but it adds a unique taste. Therefore, you can use an infuser for spices during cooking. Remove the pepper the moment the rice is added.

When the vegetables and meat have simmered for about half an hour, make a hole inside and add garlic and chili pepper, add salt to taste. Leave to simmer for another half hour, during which time the rice is cooked - washed several times, after which it is soaked for 15 minutes. When 30 minutes have passed since the pepper and garlic were added, remove the first peppercorn and lay out the rice. After which boiled water is poured here.

The recipe may be slightly different. For frying, you can use not sunflower oil, but cottonseed oil and fat tail fat. You can also put 2 teaspoons of raisins and barberries here and sugar on the tip. Chickpea pilaf and its recipes may vary slightly. For example, some people don’t like chili peppers, others don’t like fat. So you don't have to use them.

Advice! It is better to use a slotted spoon when adding water. Pour through until the rice is completely filled.

Now you need to increase the heat and wait until all the water has evaporated from the cauldron. Then make three holes in the rice and pour a little water into them, cover tightly with a lid and after half an hour of simmering over low heat, your pilaf is ready.

Vegetarian pilaf with chickpeas

If you eat meat, then this is not a reason to refuse delicious pilaf with chickpeas. Use this recipe:

½ cup of peas is soaked in water for a day, changing it 3-4 times;
three carrots are peeled and cut into strips;
two onions cut into half rings;
pour 250 grams of sunflower oil or any other into a saucepan, but it’s better to pour into a cauldron;
heat the oil and add onions and carrots;
prepare spices in quantities - a tablespoon of barberry, a teaspoon of red pepper, cumin;
spices and chickpeas are placed in the cauldron;
Rice (it is better to take brown) is washed, soaked for 10 minutes, after which it is placed in a cauldron. You can also put soy meat here if you want;
The rice is distributed and a head of peeled garlic is placed inside;
boiled water is poured so that there is two centimeters above the surface;
add salt to taste;
cook the pilaf for 40-50 minutes until the water boils away. Then remove the cauldron from the stove, mix everything, remove the garlic.

If you don’t have a good saucepan or cauldron, then perhaps the following recipe will suit you.

Pilaf with chickpeas in a slow cooker

Chickpeas are soaked for 24 hours. After which it is cooked in a slow cooker. Next, pour a couple of tablespoons of oil here and add three onions previously cut into half rings and carrot strips (0.5-1 kg). Cut chicken fillet or other meat in the quantity needed. Add the meat to the slow cooker, pour in two tablespoons of tomato paste.

150-200 grams of rice are washed and soaked for 10 minutes. Then put the cereal in a bowl and place a head of garlic in the center. Add spices and salt to taste. It is better to take cumin, black and red pepper. You can also add raisins. Fill the entire contents with boiled water so that it is a couple of centimeters above the surface. All is ready. Now set the program for cooking pilaf or cook it yourself until all the liquid has boiled away. Afterwards, mix the contents.

Heat a casserole with vegetable oil over high heat and throw in the onion, cut into half rings, stirring occasionally. If the meat is not fatty, the amount of vegetable oil should be increased to 200 ml.

While the onion is frying, cut the meat into small pieces. Usually, in traditional pilaf over a fire and in a large cauldron, the meat is fried in large pieces, with the bones still present, and before serving it is pulled out, cut into small pieces and assembled in a mound in the center of the pilaf. Since the size of the cauldron at home is not large, it will not be convenient to fry them, so I usually immediately remove the bones and cut them into pieces.

Meanwhile, the onions should literally burn! Yes Yes. This is not a typo) If the onion is not fried enough, the pilaf will be pale and less tasty. Don’t be afraid to keep the onion on the fire until just like this. Place the onion on a plate and add the chopped meat to the remaining oil, stirring occasionally. It is necessary to lay out the onions so that they do not completely burn while frying the meat.

While the meat is fried, chop the carrots as is customary for pilaf. First, divide the carrots into slices, then, holding the slices with one hand, cut them diagonally! at an angle of 45 degrees - not 90.

The meat is fried until golden brown, and it’s time to add fried onions and chopped carrots to our gravy (Zirvak - means “fried”). Mix.

You need to fry until the carrots lose their hardness.

Pour 800 ml of boiled water into the gravy, add chickpeas pre-soaked in water (I leave it soaked overnight) and bay leaf. Mix carefully and add salt. Leave on medium heat (6 out of 9, for example) for 45-50 minutes with the lid loosely closed so that the water does not evaporate too much.

Next you need to prepare the rice. I usually use National brand rice for pilaf. Rice should be washed in a large bowl in cold water at least 3-4 times until the water becomes clear. Next, you need to soak it in hot (not boiled, but hot) water for 30 minutes, so that the water covers the rice 3-4 cm above. Also put 1 tablespoon of salt in the rice and stir so that the rice does not turn out lean.

This is what the finished gravy should look like. Try a piece of meat and one chickpea; if they are not completely cooked, then the timing is correct. Raise the heat under the cauldron to maximum, carefully and completely drain the water from the rice and place it on top of the gravy. The gravy should be slightly salted as we will add more water.

Pour another 350 ml of boiled water on top of the rice so that the rice is completely covered with water. Do not mix the contents under any circumstances! Next begins one of the most crucial moments in preparing pilaf. If there is too little water, the rice will be dry and hard, and if there is too much water, the pilaf will turn into porridge.

When in some part of the surface of the pilaf you can see water and swollen rice, you should carefully swap the swollen rice with the one that has not yet found itself at the “epicenter” of boiling and has not absorbed oil and water. This should be done as carefully as possible and only on the surface of the rice, so as not to touch the gravy ingredients and not lift them up; it is also important not to damage the rice so that the rice grains do not break.

When the rice is equally swollen and half-cooked in all parts of the surface, make holes in the pilaf with the back of a spoon so that the excess liquid evaporates faster and does not turn the rice into porridge. We wait until only oil bubbles remain in the holes made.

Carefully lifting the rice along the edges, we form a slide. The liquid on the sides of the rice is the oil that the rice will absorb as it simmers.

Uzbek pilaf with chickpeas has a pronounced taste and aroma of carrots and fried meat.

Therefore, the classic ratio of meat, carrots, rice and onions is: 1 kg - 1 kg - 800 g - 3 pcs. (one onion, whichever is smaller, will be discarded after frying). Plus another 150 grams of fat tail fat, 200 g of vegetable oil, cumin, barberry, 2-3 heads of garlic, whole pepper, salt.

The real recipe for cooking a dish in a cauldron looks like this.

Wash thoroughly so that no flour remains and as much starch is removed from the rice as possible. This is the key to making your rice fluffy!

Heat the oil in a large cauldron and fry the onion over high heat until dark.

The tradition of frying an onion refers mainly to cooking with cottonseed oil, which has a slight bitterness and a peculiar aroma.

Heating removes the bitterness, and the onion removes the specific smell.

We add onions only to add the desired aroma to the oil, and use clarified sunflower or olive oil for frying.

Remove the onion and discard, melt the fat tail cut into small pieces. Remove the cracklings, but do not throw them away - then we will return them to the pilaf.
In oil heated to maximum, put onion cut into half rings and immediately - large pieces of meat (cut the meat at the rate of one piece per serving).
Fry quickly so that the meat acquires a confident, bright color. Here you definitely need to salt it!
While we fry the meat, cut the carrots into large cubes. The meat is browned - put half a carrot, on top of it - chickpeas discarded from the water, hot pepper, and if you have it, then a handful of barberries. Yes, don't forget to put the cracklings back!
Place the rest of the carrots on top of the chickpeas, sprinkle with a pinch of cumin, and add the whole garlic. There is a trick here - only the part of the carrot that is below will be covered with water. Everything else, including chickpeas, is steamed. Therefore, the secret is to pour hot water very carefully, just enough to cover the lower part of the carrots.
Cover with a lid and reduce heat to medium. That's it, for about twenty minutes everything is prepared without your participation.
Zirvak. and this is it, it’s ready, it’s time to put in the rice.
We spread the rice evenly with a slotted spoon and fill it with the best water, heated to a boiling point. Salt the water well. You need to pour a little - so that half of the rice is in water and half is steamed.
It is cooked over low heat, so that the rice is soaked with oil from below, and then, obeying the movement of your hands with a slotted spoon, it is turned over to steam completely and evenly. Turn it over two or three times, shovel it, each time making small outlet holes for steam.
Now toss the rice a little on the spoon - does it fly apart? So everything is correct. It's time to cover with a lid and leave to finish.
The pilaf is served like this: first add rice, then add chickpeas and carrots, and place a piece of meat on the side of the plate. The meal starts with rice to appreciate the chef's skill in preparing rice.

Vegetarian pilaf with chickpeas

The chickpeas in vegetarian pilaf will definitely not have time to cook and will be raw if they are not first soaked for a day. The water is changed three to four times.

For vegetarian pilaf, take half a kilo of rice (can be Krasnodar or regular long-grain), half a glass of chickpeas, two onions, 3 carrots, 250 g of vegetable oil, spices (barberry, cumin, garlic). Here is a step-by-step cooking recipe.

Fry carrots and onions in heated oil.
Add chickpeas and spices to the cauldron.
Add rice soaked in salted water.
Stick a head of garlic into the rice.
Pour boiling water a couple of centimeters above the rice.
Cook for 40 minutes until the rice is cooked and the water has boiled.
Keep in a closed cauldron over low heat for a little longer and serve, stirring.

Pilaf with chickpeas in a slow cooker

When there is no cauldron or even a thick-walled duck pot of suitable size, a multicooker is used. Of course, you can’t expect pilaf identical to the real Uzbek one, but the result is a rather tasty and balanced dish.

Pilaf with chickpeas and various additives - raisins, you can add dried apricots, but more often they just add pepper and garlic.

To prepare pilaf, you will need half a kilo of meat (chicken, beef, lamb or pork), carrots, rice, three small onions and spices - cumin, hot pepper and a little ground black, as well as barberry, if available.

Cooking time - 30 minutes for frying, about another hour for cooking rice.

Secrets of perfect pilaf with chickpeas

If you want exactly the Samarkand taste, then you do not need to add any spices except pepper, barberry and cumin. It will turn out very tasty! And no ready-made combinations for pilaf, no bay leaves and our South Russian seasonings like dry dill!

Chickpeas differ in cooking time. It should either be allowed to swell in water or boiled in advance.

If you are preparing vegetarian pilaf, it does not take long to cook, so it is better to boil the chickpeas before putting them in the cauldron. The same goes for quick-cooking chicken. If you cook it with lamb or beef, it is better to soak it and put it raw in a zirvak.

For chickpea pilaf, take the best rice - whole, clean, it is better to buy it at the Uzbek market, where chickpeas are also sold.
After cooking, let the pilaf “rest” a little, only then serve.

Some useful information about chickpeas

How to soak chickpeas? After all, it depends on how the peas are soaked whether they will be soft and at the same time dense in the pilaf or whether they will turn out tough and undercooked. Then you certainly won’t be able to help the pilaf.

For soaking, use water at room temperature. Usually, when preparing pilaf with peas, it is soaked overnight. In principle, fresh chickpeas will soak in 4 hours, but how can you find out how long they have been sitting, and therefore drying out? Therefore, put it on overnight - and it will be right.

Chickpeas are a legume plant prone to rapid fermentation. Therefore, do not be lazy to change the water more often when soaking, rinsing the cereal with fresh water.

There is another delicate point here: like all legumes, chickpeas can contribute to bloating. This trouble will not occur if you soak it well. You can add a little soda and then rinse.

And lastly: chickpeas are considered the best product among other legumes in terms of digestibility and healthfulness. And the most interesting in taste. It’s good that from eastern countries, chickpeas (that’s what chickpeas are also called) are gradually coming to the table of Europeans.