Pilaf

Pilaf

Kabuli palaw, the national dish of Afghanistan
Alternative names	Polao, pulao, plao, pela, pilav, pilov, pallao, pilau, pelau, pulao, palau, pulaav, palaw, palavu, plov, plovas, palov, polov, polo, polu, kurysh, fulao, fulaaw, fulav, fulab, osh, aş, paloo, piles, kürüch
Course	Main
Region or state	West Asia, Central Asia, India, South Caucasus, East Africa, Eastern Europe
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredients	Rice, stock or broth, spices, meat, vegetables, dried fruits
Cookbook: Pilaf   Media: Pilaf

Pilaf (US: /ˈpiːlɑːf/), pilav or pilau (UK: /ˈpiːlaʊ, piːˈlaʊ/) is a rice dish, usually sautéed, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat,^{[1][note 1][2][note 2]} and employing some technique for achieving cooked grains that do not adhere to each other.^{[3][note 3][4][note 4]}

At the time of the Abbasid Caliphate, such methods of cooking rice at first spread through a vast territory from India to Greece, and eventually to a wider world. The Valencian (Spanish) paella,^{[5][note 5]} and the Indian pilau or pulao,^{[6][note 6]} and biryani,^{[7][note 7]} evolved from such dishes.

Pilaf and similar dishes are common to Middle Eastern, West Asian, Balkan, Caribbean, South Caucasian, Central Asian, East African, Eastern European, Latin American, Maritime Southeast Asia, and South Asian cuisines; in these areas, they are regarded as staple dishes.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

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