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26 OCTOBER 2008

The Great Indian Vegetable Biryani

There are some recipes that escape ev en a vorac ious cook - and for me Biryani has been one of them. In

most friends' house parties this is one dish that unfailingly features as the main cou rse - a pot of vegetable

 biry ani fo r the non m eat e ate rs and a mu tto n bir yani fo r the ot hers. Bes ide s it is co mmo nly order ed in our

favourite Punjabi restaurant Urban Tadka (UT) which you must have heard from me pretty often on this

 blo g. I n UT, th e bir yani is made in indiv idual c lay pot s se aled with d oug h and b aked in the tand oo r - and in

all my biry ani encounters, I c an easily rate theirs as the best. One evening when DH suggested ve getable

 biry ani with raita fo r din ner - it st ruc k me t hat t his is one dish that has e luded me all thes e y ear s and why 

not try my hand at it.

Of all the recipes I found on food blogs and general food websites, I found this video by Vah Chef Sanjay 

Thumma very educativ e. Only pro blem with his video that he doesn't mention how much of each

ingredient to use. So here's my ve rsion of his recipe.

Since there quite a lot of ingredients, I will include them along with the directions.

Special apparatus A large po t alo ng with a wide p an or po t in wh ich the first one will s it c omfort ably in case y ou p lan to finish

off the final stage on stove stop, or else y ou can bake it off in the oven.

Preparation

1. Wash 2 cups long grained basmati rice gently and soak for an hour in a large bowl.

2. Slice 4 medium onions very finely, separate. You can either deep fry these or bake them in the

 

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8/20/2019 The Great Indian Vegetable Biryani

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ove n till brown or shallow fry them on a non stick pan coated with oil on a very low flame (around 15

minutes or so)

3.  Veget ables for t he biry ani  - 1 small cauliflower broken into large florets

2 medium carrots, scraped and cut into large pieces

3 medium potatoes, peeled and cu t into large wedges

1/2 - 1 cup fresh or frozen green peas

2 large capsicums, deseeded c ut into large squares

4. Fry 3 tbsp cashews and then 2 tbsp of raisins in hot ghee o n a low flame, drain and keep aside.

5. Chop roughly 1/2 cup m int leaves and 1/2 cup c oriander leaves. Keep aside.

6. Soak a large pinch o f saffron strands in 1/2 cu p of warm m ilk . Keep aside.

Directions

1. Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a large non stick pot.

2. Add to the hot ghee, 3 bay leaves, 3 sticks of cinnam on 1" each, 2 black cardamoms, 2

green cardamom s, 4 cloves, 2 tsp cum in seeds and toss on a low flame.

3. Next, add 2 tbsp of ginger garlic paste  and saute for a minute till cooked.

4. Throw in all the chopped vegetables, 2 tsp of salt, 2 tsp of red chilli powder, 1 tsp turmeric

powder, 2 tbsp of coriander powder, 1 tbsp cum in powder, 2 tsp garam masala powder,

3 slit green chillies, handful of mint leave s and saute well to coat all the v egetable chunks

evenly . On a low flame let the vegetables co ok till they are 60-7 0% done, sprinkling some water at

intervals if necessary . To this finally add 200 grams paneer cut into large cubes and toss well.

5. Once the vegetables are in the nearly done stage, add 3 cups of thick hom emade / Greek 

 y ogh ur t and stir on a low flame till the veggies are well coated with the spicy y oghurt sauce. Check 

for salt and adjust as per taste. Keep this aside.

6. Meanwhile bring to a boil around 3-4 Litres of water in a large pot - add around a tsp of salt, 2

 bay leav es an d 1 tbsp ghee / oil and add the drained soaked rice grains. Let this boil for around 5-7 minutes and check if nearly done. At the 7 5% done stage drain the rice out in a colander. Turn this

onto a large plate, spread it out gently with forks and let it cool.

 Assem bly  (for the stove top method)

1. In the large pot (that fits inside of another pan), first layer the half the rice. Add half of the vege table-

paneer-yogur t mix. Top with half of the browned onions, fried nuts-raisins and chopped herbs.

2. Add a cup of beaten yogurt  on top of this.

3. Top with rest of the rice and repeat the remaining onion-nuts-herbs layer ove r the rice.

4. Cover the pot with 2-3 layers of thick aluminium foil. Cover with a fitting lid.

5. Place 2-3 cups of water in the larger pan. Keep over high heat. Place the cove red pot with biryani in

this pan and let the water simmer for 15 minutes.

6. Remove the pot from the pan and keep aside for 30 minutes or so for the flavours to d evelop fully 

 befo re s erv ing.

7 . Serve with any v egetable / fruit raita that is chilled.

For those of yo u who would like to bake off in the final stage, layer as abov e in a ove n proof deep pan and

seal well with foil. Bake for 1 5-20 minutes. Serv e as abov e.

 Al tho ugh t his was no t as goo d as m y fav our ite r est aur ant's biry ani, t his is migh ty goo d for a firs t att emp t

and I would give all credit to Chef Sanjay's video, which you might chec k out for a quick recap. I hope the

quantified ingredients here make it a tad simpler for those of y ou wanting to try out the Great Indian

 Ve get able Biry ani.

This recipe serves around 6-8 people for a main course along with raita made from 1 Litre yogur t.

I understand that the list of ingredients runs pretty long, but really y ou'll find most of the stuff in your

pantry. The paneer is optional here, but it adds a nice variation to the texture o f vegetables. Y ou could also

try bo iled chickpeas as a protein addition instead of paneer.

(all ingredients for this recipe are marked in bold in the v arious stages of description)

 You m igh t also like:

Biryani

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• Reply •

hotels - I find them too spicy. Urban Tadka is an exception - I too love their food, and the

ambience!

 0

• Reply •

white on r ice couple   •  4 years ago

This is comfort in a bowl for me....I would love to try it one day!

How marvelously vegetarian, full of Indian flavors!

 0

• Reply •

Cynthia  •  4 years ago

Dear Nandita, sorry you have not heard from me in a while. I lost all my feed last month

and I am still in the proc ess of gathering them again.

So sorry about what has been happening in Mumbai for the past few days. I pray that you and your

family were kept safe.

 0

• Reply •

Mystic  •  4 years ago

Hope you and your family are safe in Mumbai!

 0

• Reply •

Gaurav  •  4 years ago

that looks good.Biryani is def one of my fav things to eat.

 0

• Reply •

 Anu pa m a   •  4 years ago

 You are very right about certain recipes eluding even the most keen cooks. I have of ten

eaten Biryani in restaurants and at friend's but made it myself barely once. Yours looks gorgeous

and what I wouldn't give for a plate ful with that tomato raita.

 0

• Reply •

be e   •  4 years ago

thanks for the detailed instructions, nandita. jai loves biryani, so i'd love to try this.

 0

• Reply •

Gabriel  •  4 years ago

 Very nice. I have also a site for recipes for co oking. See. I love y our recipes. I am from

the Slovak Republic. Be translated through Google translate http://www.irecepty.com

 0

• Reply •

Sheela   •  4 years ago

Gosh! How are you, girl?! I haven't visited any of my favorite blogs in a while and I am

 just catching up - and, I'd love to have this biriyani when we meet ;)

Emailed you :)

Cheers!

 0

• Reply •

Simran   •  4 years ago

Have you heard of Northern Tadka? It's in Malad. They also make biryani in clay pots

and the one I absolutely adore is chhole aloo biryani.

 0

• Reply •

Kamini   •  4 years ago

 Who doesn't love biry ani?! It's a lot of work, but totally worth it. Your rec ipe looks really 

terrific, I can't wait to try it out!

 0

• Reply •

Dibs   •  4 years ago

 You have a nice co llection of tambram recipes. I thought my mom's recipes are tambram,

until I realized they are tam-kan-bram ;-), that comes from living so many years at Blore!

I tried many dishes from vah chef ..most of them turn out very well. I just made this a few weeks

 back too , and it was 'soooper' as they say!

 0

• Reply •

santoshi   •  4 years ago

I love biryani

 0

Raaga   •  4 years ago

 when I've made this, I haven't ev er taken pics :) am eating pongal now and don't mind if 

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• Reply •

 you send this over for dinner tonight.

 Also nankhatai in oven now 

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• Reply •

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)  •  4 years ago

Biryani is a dish I tend to make for entertaining, but not for everyday. I don't know why --

 whenever I do make it, I think I should make it more often!

 0

• Reply •

Divya Vikram   •  4 years ago

i made veg biryani for lunch today..Pretty much the same method..Nice one!

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