Pilau, veggies & kachumbari

Hey guys! Its tuesday! God is faithful and lets get cooking!
This week Im blogging on a typical kenyan meal made easy-PILAU!

Ingredients *serves 5*
1 and half cup rice 
300gr Beef chopped in small cubes
4 cloves Garlic
2 Onions
3 tomatoes
Tomato paste sachet
Tropical heat pilau masala spice
1 chilli beef cube
Assorted vegetables
Avocado
Royco
Olive oil

Boil water in sufuria, add a dash of olive oil ,some salt and add meat to cook for approx 20 minutes. This way the meat softens and broth is made which shall be added to the rice later on. After meat is boiled, put aside and do not dispose the broth.

In another sufuria put onions and garlic to cook with some olive oil. As the cook, grate over two tomatoes and mix well. After a few minutes add pilau spice, beef chilli cube and tomato paste sachet. Allow to brown as you stir. Once it is good and brown add the meat that you had put aside and mix well followed by the rice, and then the broth(3 cups which is double the cups of rice) Mix well and add salt to taste and cover to cook.

 Pilau should be ready in approx 10-15 minutes. I usually shake the sufuria *side to side* to make sure the rice doesn't stick or burn in the bottom. That way the water the broth reaches all surfaces. 

Once it is ready, leave to cook with its own heat for about 5-7 more minutes. 

For the kachumbari, chop onions,add salt and water to cover and put in refrigerator for approx 20-30 minutes. You can prepare this as the meat is boiling in the beginning. This helps in having a perfectly salted kachumbari. Chop tomato and avocados in the meantime and once the 20 minutes are up you can pour out the water then mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and preserve in refrigerator till serving time. If you intend on preparing kachumbari a day before, avoid adding avocados until right before the meal since they brown very quickly.

For the mixed vegetables: 
First and foremost I advise you to freeze all your fresh vegetables if you plan on using them at a later time. I usually do that and the minute I defrost them, they still have their original color and taste. Defrosting is easy because all you have to do is to put them below running water and within seconds they are separated and ready for cooking.
I defrosted a pack of mixed vegetables*french beans, peas and carrots* and cooked with some olive oil. I didn't add much spice,* only half spoon of royco with 3/4 cup water* because I wanted them to release their natural and sweet taste. They were ready in about 7 minutes, slightly crunchy yet cooked.

And just like that you have a  healthy and tasty meal!