
How to make flavorful Pudina Rice or Pudina Pulao in 20 minutes (Pressure Cooker) – Karnataka Donne Biryani style
Pudina Rice Recipe or Pudia Pulao Recipe Donne Biryani style is unique twist to a ‘normal’ Pudina Rice because of 2 main things – the rice that we use and the spice masala that gives this a unique flavor. It can easily be a weekend party main course dish for Dinner or Lunch.

So what is Donne Biryani ?
Donne Biryani is a popular Biryani variety originating from Karnataka. It has a very distinct flavor and taste – usually served in a cup or a bowl made up of Arecanut leaves of Banana leaves (this cup is called Donne in Kannada). This Biryani uses Seeraga Samba Rice that is very popular in South India and parts of Sri Lanka. Donne Biryani is usually non-vegetarian – either Chicken or Mutton.
So in this Pudina Rice, we try to re-create the Donne Biryani minus the meat – we use Pudina and Coriander as our hero ingredients.
The recipe is very simple to make and you can easily make this for Lunch or Dinner in about 20 minutes. All the main cooking happens in a Pressure cooker so you don’t have to look for multiple equipments to get this done.
This can easily go into Lunchboxes or Tiffin Boxes. The only caveat is that the Rice may tend to stick when still hot, so you can wait for it to cool down to room temperature and then reheat at a low flame.
This again, depends on the quality of the Samba Rice that you buy. You only need 2 whistles of the Pressure cooker to have this yummy Pudina Pulao ready.
In this particular recipe, we haven’t used any major vegetables except Onions. You can however add other vegetables such as Potatoes of Cauliflower, but we recommend not to, as it would take away the beautiful aromatic flavor of this traditional Indian rice dish.
Side-dishes for Pudina Rice
You can eat Pudina Rice as is but if you want to further enhance the meal we recommend that you pair this up with Raitas and Chutneys:
Raita recipes for you to consider:
- Onion Raita
- Cucumber Raita
Chutney Recipes that’ll work well with Pudina Pulao:
Checkout other Variety Rice Recipes:
- Puliyogare recipe (another traditional rice recipe from Karnataka)
- Peanut Rice Recipe
- Cauliflower Rice Recipe
Or go back to Rice Recipes Main Category

Recipe for Pudina Rice
Equipment
- Pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 2 cups Samba rice soaked in 10 minutes
- 1 cup onion chopped lengthwise
- 2 nos Cardamom seeds
- 4 nos. cloves
- 1 no. Cinnamon stick broken into small pieces
- 2 no. Bay leaves
- 3 tablespoon oil for frying
- salt as per required
For grinding
- 1 ½ cup Pudina Leaves (or Mint leaves), finely chopped
- 1 cup Coriander Leaves finely chopped
- 1 inch ginger peel outer skin
- 3 nos garlic peel outer skin
- 1 teaspoon saunf
How to make:
- Grind all the ingredients given under grinding.
- Heat the pressure cooker, add oil, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and bay leaves and fry for a minute.
- Add onion and fry till golden.
- Add the grinded ingredients and required salt to it and stir for five minutes.
- Add the soaked rice and required water to it.
- Pressure cook for three to four whistles. Add the coriander leaves for garnishing
Nutrition / Calories (Estimate only)
Can any other Rice variety be used instead of Seeraga Samba Rice
The unique flavor of the Pudina Rice is because of the Samba Rice. If you don’t have access to it, you can use Basmati Rice. You’ll need to pressure-cook for 3 whistles instead of 2.
Can this be packed in Lunchboxes?
As we noted above, this can be a very good Lunchbox dish. Just make sure to cool the rice down before packing. Otherwise, it might just solidify or leave out a lot of water because of evaporation.