Craked Wheat Upma / Bulgar Pilaf / Dalia Pulao made in the instant pot. Bulgur wheat cooked with vegetables, garlic and spices. This is one of our favorites, and a great substitute for rice pulao, that can be cooked in under 30 minutes.
Dalia or Bulgur is popular all over the wheat-consuming regions of North India. It is a kind of dried cracked wheat, which can be consumed as a sweet or savory dish. Here is my recipe for Lapsi, a sweet dish made with dalia.
Dalia has more fiber and protein, a lower glycemic index, and higher levels of most vitamins and minerals. This dish a great alternative to rice pulao, and much more nutritious.
This quick and easy recipe is made in an instant pot, but can be made in a traditional pressure cooker as well.
Check out our Rice pulao and Quinoa pulao recipe.
Instant Pot Bulgur Pilaf Recipe (Dalia Pulao)
Ingredients
- 1 cup Bulgur (Broken Wheat/Dalia)
- 1 Onion, small chopped
- 2 Tomato, small chopped
- 1 Green Chili Pepper, chopped
- 4 cloves Garlic, minced
- 2 cups Mixed vegetables, (bell peppers, green peas, carrots, beans)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 2 3/4 cup Water
- 1 tablespoon Ghee or Oil
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- Cilantro, to garnish
Spices
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon Red Chili powder (Mirchi powder)
- 1 teaspoon Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 10 Black pepper, whole
Instructions
- Heat the instant pot in Sauté mode and add oil. Add cumin seeds, whole black pepper and green chillies.
- After they start to splutter, add onions and garlic. Sauté for 2-3 minutes until onions are lightly browned.
- Add tomato, salt and spices. Stir and saute for 2 minutes.
- Add the mixed vegetables and stir well. Add dalia, water and mix well. Scrape of anything stuck to the bottom and deglaze the pot. Close lid with vent in sealing position.
- Change instant pot setting to manual or pressure cook mode at high pressure for 5 minutes.
- When the instant pot beeps, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. The release the pressure manually (10 minutes NPR). Mix the juice of one lemon and garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with yogurt or raita.
Notes
- This recipe was created in a 6qt Instant Pot DUO60 Multi-use Pressure Cooker.
Awesome recipe. Thanks for posting
Hi Yamuna – Glad to hear you liked it!
Thanks ! Tried this recipe in pressure cooker and came out really well. Skipped onions, kept it simple. Will try it in my Instant pot next time 🙂
Hi Kay – Glad to hear you enjoyed the pulao!
hi Meeta, i saw message how to cook dalia or broken wheat, do i have to soak the wheat before cooking? look forward to your reply.
Hi Kala – I do not soak the Dalia before cooking in this recipe. Hope you enjoy the pulao!
Hi!
I’d like to try your dalia recipe but I don’t have a pressure cooker. How can I make it using a conventional pot? Thank you 🙏🏾
Hey Meeta,
I have made this recipe thrice till now and must say this recipe is a keeper👍😊. Only thing is that I made this in normal pressure cooker and not an IP. However, it just turns out great and it’s a family favorite 🤩
Hi Deepa – So good to hear that. Thank you for sharing your experience 🙂
Have you ever doubled this recipe? If so, did you double the liquid as well?
Hello – I have not tried doubling this recipe. However for a similar recipe of rice pilaf, I do double the liquid when doubling the quantity of rice. So I would think double the water will work well in this case too.
It sounded great, but after trying your recipe twice now, following your instructions… I can definitely say *it doesn’t work*! 1st the Bulgur is not completely cooked after the 5min at high pressure and 10 min natural release…. Neither are the carrots (yes I veeery finely chopped them). It’s unfortunate, as I can tell the overall taste is great….
Hello Sara – Sorry to hear that the bulgur did not cook well. Usually baby carrots cook under pressure in 2-3 minutes. Hence as you mentioned that finely chopped carrots did not cook even in 5 minutes under pressure, I wonder if the pot came to pressure? It is totally fine to try cooking for longer, even up to 10 minutes high pressure if that works well for the bulgur you have. I would just ask to confirm if the pin came up and the pot was pressurized. Thank you for sharing back your experience.
I followed exactly the same recipe but turned out to be a disaster..very disappointed ? it showed up burn message and I opened twice and deglazed the bottom but still same problem
Hey Janvi – Sorry to hear you got burn message. I am just trying to understand what could have gone wrong – Did you use fresh tomatoes? Dod you scrape the bottom and deglaze before starting to pressure cook? Do you have a burn issue with other recipes too or only this one stands out? It is also possible that the bulgur variety is different which soaks more liquid.
First – love your recipes. My go to for any cooking recipes now 🙂
Great job and please keep helping people like me.
On this one recipe though – I had the same issue as Janvi. Tried it thrice now – same results each time. The dreaded BURN message. I even used a second instant pot liner when I got a burn message ( to avoid scraping , washing etc) but still the same results.
How much time it takes in total for cooking..?
Hey Nupur – The total time will be around 30 minutes for this recipes. I am counting 5 minutes for prep, 10 minutes coming to pressure, 5 minutes pressure cooking and 10 minutes for pressure release. Hope that helps!
Hi Meeta, saw your blog on instant pot page and came looking for this recipe. Defi going to try. Need all the one stop reciepes with a little one in tow. Great work! please keep posting 🙂
Hey Sayli – Great to connect with you here. Instant Pot is definitely a savior with needed less babysitting, when you have little ones. Do share how it turns out 🙂
How much water we need to add to 1 cup of broken wheat
Hi Sujata – I added 2 cups of water. Hope that helps!