Instant Pot Pulao and Supplementation

It has been a hectic work week around here. I could have used a lazy Saturday but it was not to be. We had to be out of the door bright and early for a 5K race that V and I both signed up for, with our son doing the one mile fun run. It was chilly but sunny, nice running weather, but the race course was exhaustingly hilly. The day did end with a very special treat- friends treated us to a double fondue night at their home, thanks to fondue pots acquired at estate sales! We started with a cheese fondue with homemade bread for dipping, plus roasted veg and potatoes, and ended with a chocolate fondue with strawberries and freshly baked madeleines. This friend is an incredible baker and I'd love to learn how to make that bread and the delectable little madeleines.  

Here's one of our weeknight dinners that was quite satisfying:

• A stir-fry (subzi) made with a few odd potatoes that needed to be used up, and frozen Italian green beans which I always stock in the freezer as the back-up green veg
• A pulao/ pilaf with soy curls, made in the Instant Pot

This kind of a pulao is made in minutes, makes for a cozy meal, and is crowd-pleasing. I made it recently for our family friend in her 80s who was recovering from an illness, and she called to say how much she enjoyed it. It is a flexible recipe. With rice as a base, you can bulk it up with any combination of vegetables, beans, lentils. Amp up the flavor if serving as a main dish, or leave it quite plain if there's a spicy side dish available. Here, I made it as a "mock chicken pulao" with soy curls. This made about 4 servings. 

The things to remember are the ratio (1 cup rice to 1.25 cups water) and the cooking time (pressure on high for 4 min, leave it alone for 10 min, and then release pressure). The rest- the other ingredients, and the flavoring- is quite flexible.

Pulao (pilaf)

• Soak 2 cups soy curls in warm water for 10 minutes. Squeeze out excess water gently.
• So many things could be subbed for the soy curls- kidney beans, chickpeas, tofu, paneer, edamame, nutrela type soy chunks, and so on.
• Soak 1 cup rice in water for 10 min, then drain in a sieve. 
• I used white Basmati rice but jasmine rice or any other variety should do. If using brown rice, know that cooking times will increase.
• Heat a bit of oil in the Instant pot
• Add some cumin seeds, chopped onion, ginger, garlic
• Season with turmeric, salt, red chili powder, a spice mix of your choice, some kasoori methi.
• Kitchen King is a spice mix I frequently use here. I ran out, so I used some tandoori masala. Garam masala will work too. 
• Add some chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned) and the soy curls and mix well. 
• Add soaked, drained rice and 1 and 1/4 cup water, deglaze the bottom of the pot.
• Pressure cook on HIGH for 4 minutes, followed by 10 minutes natural pressure release, followed by quick pressure release. 
• Add a handful of minced cilantro and a squeeze of lemon juice for a fresh note.
• Fluff with a fork and serve.

* * *

I read an incredible book this week, Radium Girls (2017) by Kate Moore, for the PS Reading Challenge 2025 Prompt #32: A book about an overlooked woman in history. It had been on my to-read list for a long time and I'm so glad I finally got to it. The genre is narrative nonfiction, a genre I love and have written about before. Moore highlights a group of overlooked women in history, and tells their story in such an engrossing way that I whipped through a thick book in 3-4 days. 

We think of trends and influencers as a new thing, but of course these have existed for ages. Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the element Radium in 1898. Madame Curie toured the US in 1921 to raise funds for research and set off a worldwide craze. People were entranced by the mysterious glow of this new metal. Radium laced products were sold as a cure for everything and as a miraculous, healthful supplement. 

Factories sprung up to make watches with radium-painted dials that could glow in the dark. Young women were hired to do the intricate work of painting small watch dials, and to get a fine point on the paint brushes, they used their lips, thereby ingesting the radium-laced paint. In fact, far from being a miracle supplement, radium is poisonous. This book tells the story of these young girls from poor families who quit school and started working in factories as teens to earn money for their families, and the health consequences they endured, and their legal fight to get justice from the companies who employed them. I highly recommend this book. It covers a lot of issues in an interesting and compassionate way- workers' rights, corporate greed, the dark side of science, how women's health issues are minimized. 

* * *

In today's moment of fitness: dietary supplements. These are products- pills, capsules, liquids, gummies, powders, and so on- that are intended to supplement or enhance the diet by providing something extra. Some of the most common ones are multivitamins, minerals like calcium and magnesium, protein powders or shakes, probiotics for gut health, melatonin as a sleep aid, and the list is nearly endless. There are entire stores devoted to supplements, and multiple aisles in supermarkets and drugstores. 

People turn to supplements sometimes as a quick fix, sometimes out of desperation, wanting relief, and sometimes because the claims are too tempting. There are trends in supplements just like with anything else and no shortage of influencers peddling supplements for magical, easy results. It is a gigantic industry, and not a particularly well-regulated one. 

Critics of supplements rightly say that the quality and effectiveness of supplements is not always well-tested (an extreme example being the radium supplements I mentioned above which are horrific poisons), and that if you eat an overall nutritious diet, you should be getting all the nutrients you need. Experts will quip that if you're a well-fed person, multivitamins only give you expensive urine.  

Under certain circumstances which vary from person to person, certain supplements can help. I take a few supplements and I'm mentioning them here by way of sharing my personal experience. This is in no way an endorsement of what others should or should not do. I am simply not qualified to give that kind of advice. 

My primary exercise goal right now is to build muscle. Body composition (the percentage of fat, muscle, and bone in the body) is a more accurate representation of fitness than body weight. I am under-muscled, with a much lower amount of muscle than is optimal. This is very common, especially among women and especially among petite women. Adding to that, as we age, we tend to lose muscle mass. So my goal is to build muscle, which primarily needs three things, (a) strength training with relatively heavy weights and with progressive overload, (b) increasing protein intake to repair and build muscle tissue, along with extra calories in general to provide all the energy needed for this, (c) adequate sleep which is essential for muscle recovery and growth. 

Even as I try to eat enough protein- beans, lentils, tofu, soy curls, some eggs and dairy and fake meat- as part of meals, I find that an extra serving of protein powder per day really helps to boost my protein intake, especially as a vegetarian. I prefer a vegan protein powder. Here's an article about protein supplementation (NYT gift link)- be sure to read the comments for a range of views. 

The other supplement that helps with muscle-building is a small molecule called creatine. It is already present is our muscles and used to produce energy in the form of ATP. By supplementing it (again, more important for vegetarians as dietary intake of creatine is low in the absence of animal flesh consumption), you have enough creatine in muscles to be take to do those extra reps or lift just a bit more weight, which in time is what leads to muscle gain. Creatine monohydrate is the best tested supplement out there. Here's a good article that gives an overview of creatine.

My routine is, with breakfast (almost always steel-cut oatmeal), I drink a shake- putting ice and water in a blender bottle (one of those bottles with a small metal ball), adding 2 scoops protein powder (about 20g protein), 5 g creatine, and shaking it up and chugging it down. 

Anecdotes are decidedly not evidence, but for what it's worth, these things that I have been doing quite consistently for the last 9 months or so (regular strength training with a well-designed plan, prioritizing sleep, taking my protein-creatine regularly, eating more calories) are working for me in the sense that I am gaining visible muscle and getting noticeably stronger. None of this is magic or quick; it is slow progress that takes months and years. It is not magic, but it is biochemistry, which is even more magical than magic and 100% real. 

My other two supplements: After dinner, I take a one-a-day multivitamin. B12 is recommended for people like me who have the beta thalassemia trait, and I just take it as part of a multivitamin to cover other gaps like iron. And I take some psyllium husk in water for added fiber. 

Where do you stand on supplements? Are there any that you have found to be personally useful?

Next weekend is busy and I'll be back with a blog post in two weeks!