Vegetable Biryani / Biriyani

Personally, I am not a fan of vegetable biryani. I mean, who needs it when you have a much tastier counterpart - chicken biryani! But since I am looking at cooking more and more diverse vegetarian dishes, I had to try this as well. In fact, my mom calls biryani a quick fix meal when we have guests but whenever I check for recipes online, the steps have always been long-wound and involve too much ingredients and procedures.

The other day I was going through this old diary of mine that I used to write down recipes and cut out recipes from magazines, and I came across this biryani recipe. Sadly, I don't have the source but I got the feeling it would turn out well.

There are two ways of cooking this biryani with the same set of ingredients. I have outlined the longer method and the quick version is at the bottom of the post. Since I was making it the first time, I was a good girl and followed the steps but next time I am just throwing everything in a pressure cooker and reading till its done :)

What I Used:

Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Chopped mixed vegetables - 1 cup (potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, beans, green peas, etc)
Onion - 1 big, chopped
Curd - 1 Tbsp (optional)
Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Fennel seeds/Saunf - 1/4tsp
Cardamom / elakka - 2
Cloves / grampoo - 2
Bay leaf - 1
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
Oil/Ghee - 3 Tbsp (or a little less, 'cuz mine came out a bit too oily)

For Spice Paste

Coconut - 2 Tbsp (optional)
Green chillies - about 6, adjust according to taste
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - a 1" piece
Ginger - a 1" piece
Garlic - 1 tbsp, ground paste

How I Made It:

1. Wash and soak rice for about 15 mins. Cook in an open pot with 3 cups water until the rice is cooked yet firm. Alternately, you can pressure cook for one whistle with one cup water.

2. Grind the ingredients for spice paste adding very little water. Meanwhile, cook the chopped vegetables in adequate water until cooked yet firm.

3. Heat oil/ghee and roast the fennel seeds, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf for about 30 seconds. Then add the onions and fry till it turns pink and translucent.

4. Add the semi cooked vegetables next and saute for 2-3 mins. Mix in the ground spice paste and fry till the raw smells leaves it. This shouldn't take more than 5 mins.

5. Next add the curd (if using), red chilli powder, turmeric powder, lime juice and salt and mix well.

6. Turn off the heat. Add the cooked rice and mix gently until well blended.

Serve hot with raita, papad and pickles.

Note

A super-quick version of this recipe would be to do all the frying in the pressure cooker pan (spices, onions and ground paste). Add raw cut vegetables and washed, soaked rice to this. Pressure cook for one whistle in 1.5 cups water. This is what I mostly do but doing it the long way gives you more separated grains of rice and a stronger flavour.