When I am short on time and need a delicious weeknight meal everyone will love, I stir up a pot of tehri, a healthy, fragrant one-pot dish of rice and veggies from north India. Think of tehri (also spelled tahari or tahri) as a cross between a pulao and a biryani. It’s not as rich as a biryani, but it is a bit more indulgent than a pulao. It’s also a really easy recipe to pull together because it requires little prep other than chopping a few veggies and blending a couple of tomatoes. You don’t need to mix up any special masalas for tehri, although you will need a few whole spices, including cloves, cinnamon, green cardamom, bay leaf, peppercorns, cumin seeds and fennel seeds. You can use almost any veggie of your choice in a tehri, although the ones most used traditionally are cauliflower, potatoes, green peas, green beans and carrots. But bell peppers would be nice here, as would sweet potatoes or even a winter or summer squash.

Helpful tips

Use a fragrant, long-grain rice, like basmati – one that’s aromatic and will hold its shape after cooking. Soak the rice for at least 30 minutes and then rinse under running water until the water runs clear. This will ensure your rice doesn’t clump together and the grains remain separate. You can use any veggies of your choice, but make sure that you don’t just throw them all in the pot at the same time. Veggies that take longer to cook, like potatoes and carrots, should go in first. Those that will not need as long, like cauliflower, green beans, bell peppers or summer squashes, can go in later. Cut the veggies into chunky bits. You don’t want them to fall apart at the end. They should be tender by the end of cooking, but should also hold their shape. A rule of thumb when you cook any rice dish is to make sure that the water or vegetable stock, before you add the rice to it, is well-salted – or salted to your preference. The water needs to taste a little saltier than how salty you’d like your dish to be, since the rice will absorb the salt. It’s best to adjust the seasoning before the rice cooks because adding salt to a cooked rice dish is not preferable. You are not going to be able to mix it in as well, and you could mush up the grains of rice. Some tehri recipes use tomatoes, others don’t. I use tomatoes in mine, but I puree them to help the rice absorb their flavors. If you want to skip a step, you can add your tomatoes, finely chopped, to the pot after you’ve sauteed the onions and the garlic.

Ingredients

Basmati rice Vegetable oil Cumin seeds Green cardamom Cloves Cinnamon sticks Bay leaf Fennel seeds (saunf) Ginger-garlic paste Green chili peppers, like japeno or serrano Potatoes Carrots Cauliflower Green peas Vegetable stock (optional)

Serving suggestions

A good raita, like this vegan cucumber raita, and lime pickle are perfect accompaniments to the tehri. Check to get new recipe updates by email.

I’d also recommend a spicy, full-flavored curry, like My Dad’s Not Mutton Mushroom Curry.

Recipe card

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