Biryani is one of the best food to have as it’s perfect blend of spices, flavor, protein and starch or like a close friend would say “biryani is love, Shefu”. While he says this for mutton and chicken biryani and might scold me for mentioning him when I am talking about veg biryani. This veg biryani I made when my brother-in-law came to visit us and let me just say it was a huge hit.

Cooking time: 1 1/2 hr

serves : 4 people

Ingredients:

400 g        – Rice (long grain basmati)
1                – Carrot (Big cube)
2                – Potato (big- big cube)
1/2             – Cauliflower
1                – Bell pepper (green)
150 g         – Paneer (cottage cheese) (medium cube)
3 tbsp        – Green peas
1                 – Onion (big – chop)
2                 – Onion (medium – slice)
2                 – Tomato ( big chop)
1 1/2 tbsp –  Ginger, garlic and green chilly paste (GGG paste)
1/2 cup    – Curd (optional)
1/2 cup    – Coriander chop
1/2 cup    – Mint leaves chop
Oil, Ghee and salt as required

Whole spices:
2                – Cinnamon stick (3 inch)
2                – Bay leaf
4-5             – Green cardamom (elaichi)
6-7             – Cloves
6-7             – Peppercorn
1                – Kashmir red chilly (whole dry)

Powdered spices:
1 tbsp       – Red chilli powder
1 tsp         – Garam masala (whole Indian spices grounded)
1/2 tbsp   – Coriander powder
1/2 tbsp   – Biryani masala
1/2 tsp     – Sugar

Red paste:
3-4             – Kashmir red chilly whole dry (roughly cut, seed removed and boiled)
1                – Tomato (medium)
1/2             – Onion (medium)
1/2             – Potato (medium)
Grind these ingredients together.

Method:

Rice:
Wash the rice properly with water and drain the water out. In a pot pour 1 tbsp of oil let it heat. Put bay leaf and peppercorn. Stir and let it crackle. Put rice and stir again for a min. Pour water double the amount of rice along with salt. Stir occasionally. Cook until rice is almost done . Drain excess water Spread the rice on a tray or big plate. Mix 2-3 tbsp of ghee in rice while its still hot. Pick out the bay leaf and peppercorn from the rice and throw it.
Veg gravy:
Boil water, put carrot and remove when almost cooked. Then put cauliflower, remove when almost cooked. Then put green peas remove when almost done. Then put potato, boil it once. Spread potato on tray or plate to cool it down. Coat it in corn flour and fry until potato is crispy on the outside and cooked on the inside. Similarly, coat paneer cubes and fry until its little crispy and remove it. Put paneer and potato on tissue paper so it will soak up excess oil. Lastly, fry sliced onion until golden brown and crispy.
In a pot put 2 tbsp oil with 2 tbsp of ghee. Let it heat. Then add rest of the whole spices and stir for 2 min. Then put chopped onion and GGG paste. Mix well until onion is light golden brown. Then put chopped tomato. Stir occasionally until tomato is entirely cooked. Cook for 1 more min.
Add red paste along with 1/2 cup of water or curd, mix well. Let it come to a boil. Then add all powdered spices and salt, mix well. Add all the vegetables except fried onion and mix. Adjust salt and water if needed.
Layering:
Heat a tawa on medium flame for 10 min. In large pot, Pour 2 tbsp of ghee. Put More gravy and very little vegetable on the bottom. Use up half of the veg gravy. Put layer of rice on top of it. See that rice covers the gravy properly. Use about half of the rice. Put half of fried onion, half of chopped coriander, half of chopped mint and sprinkle little garam masala. Put rest of the gravy and spread properly over the rice. Put rest of the rice on top of it. Put rest of the fried onion, chopped coriander and mint with little garam masala sprinkled.
With the back of a ladle or big spoon make 3 hole on the layers. See that the hole is till the last layer. Pour 1 tbsp of ghee in each hole. Cover the pot with aluminium foil properly so no air can pass out. After the tawa is heated for 10 min, put the pot on the tawa. 10 min on medium flame and 5 min on slow flame. Remove from the flame and serve with curd.

Note:

If you do not want to put whole spices directly, put them in a muslin cloth. Remove when you are done with cooking.
To give little color on the rice, you can use saffron water. For saffron water, soak few strands of saffron in 1-2 tbsp of water. Sprinkle water on rice while layering it. You can also keep handful of rice on side. After the 2nd layer of gravy is done put that handful rice in pot and mix around with spoon. Excess gravy will give rice its color. Sprinkle that on top layer.
For layering it is better to use aluminium pot.
You can adjust spice according to your need.

Happy munching! 🥕🌶🥘🍚🍽🥥

Like and comment if you have had it before or would like to try it out.