Corn pulao is a spiced and tasty variant of pulao made with tender corn kernels, fragrant rice, piquant onions, and bold herbs and spices. Make this easy recipe of corn rice for quick weekday lunch or dinner and pair it with some salad or raita for a wholesome meal.
There are many ways one can make corn pulao. This recipe is a really flavorful one as a fragrant spiced green paste is made first and then added to the dish. So this recipe of corn pulao is slightly different from the other pulao recipes I have earlier posted.
This green paste makes the pulao slightly spicy and delicious. So you get the spiced flavors along with the hints of sweetness coming from the sweet corn.
You can also use our desi corn or the regular corn which is not sweet. In fact, I prefer the desi corn in this pulao, but all that I see in the market are American sweet corn, which I am not so fond of. The recipe goes well with both sweet corn as well regular desi corn.
Serve this sweet corn pulao hot or warm with a side of raita or a salad or yogurt. It also tastes good when served as it is.
How to Make Corn Pulao
1. Rinse 1 heaped cup of rice very well in water and then soak in enough water for 20 to 30 minutes. After 20 minutes strain the rice well and keep it aside.
I have used Ambe Mohar rice (a local variety of short-grained rice having an aroma of mango blossoms). You can also use basmati rice or regular rice or any non-sticky variety of rice.
2. When the rice is soaking, slice the corn kernels from the corn. Keep them aside. From 1 medium corn cob, I got 1.5 cups of corn kernels. You can also use 1 cup of frozen corn kernels.
3. For the green paste, take the following ingredients in a small grinder or chutney grinder:
- ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
- 1 tablespoon chopped mint leaves
- 1 inch ginger (chopped)
- 1 or 2 green chilies (chopped)
- 3 to 4 small garlic cloves (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon desiccated coconut or fresh coconut
4. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water and grind or blend to a smooth and fine paste. You can skip coconut if you don’t have it. In this case, add 1 to 2 teaspoons of water while grinding or blending.
If not blending, then you can simply add chopped coriander and mint leaves directly to the pulao after the onions become golden at step 8. In this case, also add 1 teaspoon of ginger garlic paste and skip the desiccated coconut.
Making corn pulao
5. Heat 2 tablespoons of any neutral-flavored oil in a pan. Add the following spices and allow them to splutter.
- 1 small to medium tej patta (Indian bay leaf)
- 2 green cardamoms
- 2 to 3 cloves
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 1 small star anise
- 1 or 2 single strands of mace
- 1 tiny piece of stone flower (patthar ke phool)
- 4 to 5 black peppercorns
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
Both star anise and stone flower are optional and skip if you do not have them.
6. Then add ½ cup thinly sliced onions (1 medium to large onion, sliced).
7. Saute the onion stirring often till they start becoming golden.
8. Then add the ground green paste.
9. Stir well and saute for a couple of seconds.
10. Then add the corn kernels.
11. Season with the following spices:
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon coriander powder
12. Stir and mix very well.
13. Add rice.
14. Gently stir and mix the rice with the rest of the ingredients.
Cooking Corn Rice
15. Now add 1.75 to 2 cups water. Depending on the type and quality of rice, you can add less or more water.
For basmati rice, you can add 1.5 to 1.75 cups of water. Organic basmati rice requires more water to cook. So add 2 cups of water for organic basmati rice. Stir and mix well.
16. Season with salt as required. Stir and mix again. Check the taste and the water should have a slightly salty taste.
17. Cover and pressure cook sweet corn pulao on medium heat for 2 whistles or for 9 to 12 minutes. Here I have pressure cooked for 15 minutes since this particular variety of ambe mohur rice takes a longer time to cook than basmati rice.
You can also cook this corn pulao in a pan or pot on the stove-top or in the Instant Pot adding water as required depending on the type of rice you have used.
18. When the pressure settles down on its own in the cooker, then only remove the lid. Gently fluff the corn rice with a fork. Garnish the rice with 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander leaves.
Serve sweet corn pulao hot or warm with a side veggie salad or raita or yogurt. It makes for a comforting and delicious lunch or dinner.
For more corn recipes, you can check this collection of 22 Sweet corn recipes.
Few More Pulao Varieties For You!
Rice Recipes
Paneer Recipes
Rice Recipes
Please be sure to rate the recipe in the recipe card or leave a comment below if you have made it. For more vegetarian inspirations, Sign Up for my emails or follow me on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.
Corn Pulao | Corn Rice
Ingredients
Main ingredients
- 1 cup white rice heaped- 210 grams or use basmati rice or any non-sticky rice
- 1.5 cups sweet corn kernels
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 medium to large onion, thinly sliced or ½ cup sliced onion
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon Coriander Powder
- 2 cups water or add as required
- salt as required
- 2 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves for garnish
For the green paste
- ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves
- 1 tablespoon chopped mint leaves
- 1 inch ginger – chopped or ½ teaspoon chopped ginger
- 1 or 2 green chilies – chopped
- 3 to 4 small garlic – chopped
- 1 tablespoon desiccated coconut or fresh coconut
- 1 to 2 tablespoon water for grinding
Whole spices
- 1 small to medium tej patta (Indian bay leaf)
- 2 green cardamoms
- 2 to 3 cloves
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 1 small star anise (chakriphool) – optional
- 1 or 2 single strands of mace (javitri)
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 4 to 5 black peppers
- 1 tiny piece of stone flower (patthar ke phool) – optional
Instructions
Preparation
- Rinse rice well in water for a few times and then soak in enough water for 20 to 30 minutes.
- After 20 to 30 minutes drain the water from the rice well and keep aside. I used ambe mohur rice (mango blossom rice). You can also use basmati rice or regular rice.
- When the rice is soaking, slice the corn kernels from the corn. Keep them aside. From 1 medium corn cob, I got 1.5 cups corn kernels. You can also use 1 cup frozen corn kernels.
Making green paste
- Take the ingredients mentioned "for green paste" in a small grinder or chutney grinder.
- Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water and grind or blend to a smooth paste. You can skip coconut, if you don't have. In this case, add 1 to 2 teaspoon water while grinding or blending.
- If not blending then simply add chopped coriander and mint leaves after the onions are browned, directly in the pressure cooker. Also add 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste and skip desiccated coconut.
Making corn pulao
- Heat oil in a stovetop pressure cooker. Add all the spices mentioned under the list "whole spices". Allow them to crackle.
- Then add the thinly sliced onions. Saute stirring often onion still they start becoming golden.
- Then add the ground green paste. Stir well and saute for a couple of seconds.
- Then add the corn kernels.
- Season with the following spices – turmeric powder, red chili powder and coriander powder.
- Stir very well and add the rice. Gently stir and mix the rice with the rest of the ingredients.
- Now add 1.75 to 2 cups water. Depending on the type and quality of rice, you can add water. For basmati rice, you can add 1.5 to 1.75 cups of water.
- Organic basmati rice requires more water to cook. So add 2 cups of water for organic basmati rice. Stir.
- Season with salt as required. Check the taste and the water should have a slightly salty taste.
- Cover and pressure cook corn rice on a medium heat for 2 whistles or for 9 to 12 minutes. Here I pressure cooked for 15 minutes, since ambe mohur rice takes a longer time to cook than basmati rice.
- When the pressure settles down on its own, then only remove the lid. Gently fluff the rice.
- Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
- And then serve corn pulao with a side veggie salad or raita or plain yogurt or pickle of your choice.
Notes
- Feel free to use any variety of non-sticky rice. You can also use basmati rice or long-grained rice.
- I prefer to use fresh corn in most of my recipes. Though you can swap frozen corn kernels with fresh corn.
- You can use sweet corn or regular corn or desi corn.
- To make a spicy tasting corn pulao increase the number of green chilies in the green paste.
- This recipe of corn rice is scalable to be made for larger servings.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Corn Pulao post from the archives (November 2015) has been republished and updated on 28 September 2021.
I have not tried this just yet. I’m in the process of making it now, but I wanted to know if I could do the whole spices on my stovetop and then just transfer to the instant pot to pressure cook. I don’t have a stovetop pressure cooker to use at the moment.
I gave this a 5-star because I already know it’s going to be good because this is about the 4th or 5th recipe that I’ve tried and they have all been delicious. Thank you for these tasty recipes. There are plenty more that I am going to try!!!
Yes you could that. You can also sauté the ingredients with the ‘sauté’ option using the ‘less’ or ‘normal mode’ in the instant pot. Thanks so much for the trust. Happy to know that the recipes have been delicious. Most welcome and yes do try more recipes from the blog. Thanks again.
It turned out to be scrumptious… everyone from the family loved it…thanx a lot for this wonderful recipe
Welcome and thanks for sharing the lovely feedback.
Tried this recipe today and it was super tasty.The ground paste gives a nice flavor and aroma to the dish. Everybody loved it.Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe.Deserving of 5 stars.(stars are not showing when clicked )
thank you winnie. yes it does. not sure why the stars are not showing. will check. thanks again.
Tried it for the first time, really nice, I added capsicum too. Importantly my son and husband liked it! Thanks for the delicious recipe
thanks aparna for sharing this positive review on corn pulao recipe. glad to know. welcome and happy cooking.
For this what is side dish like gravy or????
side dish can be any raita like onion-tomato raita or cucumber raita or even plain dahi. you can even serve with a simple dal fry or dal takda.
Dear Dassana,
Wonderful recipe… I always follow your recipes … You are too good… Thank you for sharing..
Welcome Kirana. Glad to know this.
Wow, Its great your corn pulao recipe.Looks very tasty!
thanks kenniceangle
Tried this tonight…. it’s really yummy…. thanks for sharing the recipe…
welcome shona and thank you for sharing your feedback 🙂
Its really good blog and refer to it every time whenever I’m searching for a recipe. The proportions are accurate and the photographs bring make it so easy to follow the steps. Tried diiferent recipes of rice and sweet dishes. Thank you…!!!
thankyou so much kritali 🙂 pleased to know this and you are always welcome.
This is an excellent Dish, when i tried it for the second time i fell short of corn and added some panneer instead and that elevated the taste even more.
Thank you much for such a nice dish.
pleased to know this madhuhasini 🙂 glad you liked the corn pulao recipe. thankyou for tryning our recipes and you are welcome.
Nice one Madam,Tried and it turned to be Soo nice that my daughter,wife and all loved it.Thank you.
thank you suneel for this review. nice to know.
Just ate this for lunch and it was yummy… Thanks for sharing your recipes… 🙂
welcome neha 🙂
Dassana, my angel!
Yeah, you are an angel! Love all your recipes. Tried this corn pulao for lunch. Me and my kids enjoyed it so much 🙂 Thank you so much for this great service that you are doing. God bless you dear! 🙂
thanks a lot karthika for your awesome feedback as well as for kind wishes.
If you ever plan to come to kumarakom, do contact me. I would take you around 🙂
thank you very much karthika. will keep in mind. by the way, we were in kumarakom in september this year for a few days 🙂
Really???Missed meeting you!!! 🙁 🙁
🙁 🙁 destiny. but kumarakom is a lovely place. it haunted me for quite some time after we came back. loved the back water, the greenery, the water canals. it was so magical when we stayed there. priceless precious nature 🙂
Hi dassana, what can i substitute corn in this pulao….
you can use green peas or mixed veggies like carrots, beans, cauliflower, potatoes, peas.
Thank u.. Love all ur recipes
thank you navya.
Thank you dassana.. This recipe is amazing .. Loving it.. Can u update some Mexican recipes plzz… Thanks again..
welcome binal what recipes you looking for in mexican dishes. do let us know and thanks.
Maxican rice , lagasna receipe..
Thanks
have taken your request on our file binal thankyou.
Thank you so much …
welcome binal.
Hi Dassana, can’t wait to try this recipe for my Aunty who lives on her own and finds it difficult to cook for herself (she is in her 80s). She loves all the food I prepare from m your site. For those s recipe, is it ok to just add day-old rice after frying up the onions, spices and green chutney paste (similar to fried rice style)? Finally, I must tell you that your website is the best thing that happened to me this year 🙂 Thanks to your generosity in sharing your love of good healthy and tasty food, I have become confident cooking Indian food for my Father, Aunty and the whole family. God bless you always ….and carry on the good work please !
hey dimpy we are quite pleased to know this. glad we could help your aunty in cooking recipes 🙂 thankyou again for your kind, honest and encouraging words. god bless you and hope you had an amazing diwali and you are always welcome. for the recipe if you use cooked rice and then mix the spices etc the taste will be different. but can be done this way too.
Dear Dassana
I tried out your Punjabi dum aloo recipe and it had my family licking their fingers. My kids came into the kitchen to check what was cooking….many thanks. Keep the recipes coming…..am going to try out the peshawari chole next…. 5 stars for the Punjabi dum aloo recipe. I was not able to.post a comment below that recipe. So posting it here.
we are very pleased to know this vidya 🙂 thankyou so much for your kind and honest words. glad your kids and family loved the recipes keep sharing your feedback. thanks again for the 5 star rating god bless you.
Just tried out this recipe with sliced baby corn and frozen corn.. also added basil instead of mint leaves.. the pulao was amazing to taste.. we had to adjust the salt accordingly though.. thanks so much for this..
thanks tanya. basil leaves will give a nice fragrance to the pulao. thats a flavorful addition. welcome 🙂
I prepared the hyderabadi veg biryani and it was simply awesome. It was the first time for me to try such a complex recipe and the result was amazing. I’m writing my comment here because I’m not able to post a comment on the biryani recipe page. Thank you for this excellent website.
thankyou so much sethu for your kind and honest words :)you are welcome and wish you a happy diwali.
Wonderful recipe.. And explained wonderfully well .. The pics are also apt and perfectly taken. They help to explain what cannot be explained with words.. They gave great confidence while making the dish. Tried it. Its perfect!
thanks a lot neha.
Made this for lunch, came out perfect.
thankyou shubha 🙂
tried corn paulao. Excellent result .
thankyou Prity 🙂
I tried this recipe today after much resistance (and encouragement to replace the corn with peas!). I stood my ground and followed your recipe exactly as written. Wow — it was amazing and the whole family absolutely loved it! This recipe is easy to follow and it’s not time consuming. Thank you for making mealtimes easier for me. When it comes to cooking, my range is limited. I know just where to turn when I can’t figure what to make. You’ve been my saving grace many times already….
we are very pleased to know this vinita 🙂 thankyou so much for your kind and honest words. you are always welcome and god bless you.
I wanna make banana cake on my b day tomorrow but with two bananas ( half of ur recipe) how can I do that. One thing more what makes a banana cake soft. For how long should I bake it
wish you happy birthday in advance harsimrat. you can halve the recipe i think. it should work. to get the softness, do not over fold the batter. just fold lightly. the batter has to be folded using the cut and fold technique which is different than mixing. you can reduce the baking time to 10 to 15 minutes. check this youtube video on how to fold the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXe-kTlTv8I
A very delicious one. It came out perfect . The combination of green chutney was great. Love it
we are glad you liked the corn pulao 🙂 thankyou so much.
Hi Dassana,
I made corn pulao today and it was awesomeeeee. Do u know what are cast iron utensils,are these better than a nonstick .actually i want to buy a tawa for making dosa,cheela etc.Please suggest a good tawa for me.
thanks pooja for the feedback on corn pulao. cast iron utensils are pans or pots that are made from cast iron, which is an alloy (mixture of two to three metals). they are much much better than non stick pans. the pans i use are local iron tawas made in india. one i got from a sadar bazaar (market) in gurgaon, india and the other one from a temple market near the karnataka-maharashtra border. you should be able to get iron pans locally made in india. if you live in india, then the cast iron pans are imported ones and very expensive. the indian made ones will just cost you some hundreds. these pans stay for a long period of time, from generations to generations, if properly taken care of. they also really make good dosas. i can vouch for dosas as i make them on these pans and the taste and texture is better, than when we make on non stick pans.
thnks dear,i live in new delhi ,now i am planning to buy a thick bottom iron tawa from sadar market :)……………love uuuuu
welcome pooja 🙂
Hello mam I’m newly married n following ur website from long time before my marriage I was juz searching recipe of malai kofta n I seen ur blog ur kofta pic was so tempting DAT I can’t wait making it n result was awesum after DAT tried so many recipes even idli step by step recipe help me out to make soft n fluffy idlis my mom loved it she was shocked,even ur all eggless cakes recipes are also mouthwatering I love cakes n want to try it my home now I’m planning to buy oven but really confused in otg n convection oven n even tandoor which 1 is best dis our first time in my home we r buying oven so don’t have any idea plz help me out.I have decided for otg for baking n tandoor for tikkas n all.
Like to thanks a lot once again for such wonderful blog my kitchen full of ur recipes n family is always happy wid hotel taste food.
thanks a lot komal. wish you all the best for your future. OTG is good. it bakes as well as makes tikkas and roasts veggies. in microwave oven with convection mode, the baking is not even. also avoid OTG with a fan in it, as then it becomes a convection oven. convection ovens bake faster than regular ovens. you can also consider buying a tandoor if you want.
i have both a microwave convection oven and an OTG. i bake cakes, breads, muffins, pizzas and even tikkas in the OTG. the baking is more even in an OTG than in the convection mode. for melting cheese on pasta or for baking (dum cooking) biryani, i use the microwave oven in convection mode. reason being i have a small OTG and the large baking bowls or pans i have for biryani and pasta do not fit in the small OTG.
Thanx a lot mam so i can final otg n even tandoor.
Prestige 19ltr otg is OK for baking as we r family of 3.
Microne electric tandoor
congratulations komal 🙂 and you are welcome.
I love your blog and refer to it every time I’m searching for a recipe. The proportions are accurate and the photographs bring make it so easy to follow the steps. Your passion for cooking comes through. Well done.
we are quite pleased to know this sethu 🙂 thankyou for your kind and positive words. god bless you and wish you a happy Diwali in advance.
Tried the recipe and it came out very well. Thanks for the simple yet delicious recipe
welcome panduranga pleased to know you liked the corn pulao recipe. thankyou so much 🙂