Veggie Biryani

I don’t much enjoy having simple daal-rice everytime… I love varieties of daal n even in rice dishes too! Peas pulao, jeera rice, chinese/mexican fried rice, mushroom biryani, potato biryani, rissotto n many more I try often… But something that always makes me think twice is ‘Vegetable Biryani’!!! I’m not scared of making it, but I find it pretty much time-consuming, complex n heavy to have… End results immediately change my mind though :P

I prefer making it only when I’m in mood of preparing a royal daawat! I obviously feel bored by thinking of simple biryani everytime, my variations make me stay excited forever!!! Here is a simple, easy n less-time-consuming recipe of ‘Vegetarble Biryani’ my way :)

INGREDIENTS:

2 cup basmati rice
1/2 cup green peas
1 Potato
1 Tomato
1 Carrot
1 Onion (medium-sized)
1/2 cup Cauliflower florets
1 tbsp Curd
1 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 tsp Red chilly powder
1/2 tsp Garam masala
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
Chopped mint leaves
Saffron milk (few strands of saffron soaked in lukewarm milk)
Salt as per taste
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
A pinch of hing
3 tbsp Oil

STEPS TO FOLLOW:

1. Cook basmati rice in open vessel with little salt & khada masala (cinnamon, cloves, bayleaf) in water. Drain and rinse with cold water when it is 80-85% done.
2. Parboil potato, cauliflower & carrot together (if microwave – 6 mins)
3. Drain excess water from parboiled veggies. Add tomato, curd with all spices and mix well.
4. Heat oil in kadai and add cumin seeds, hing.
5. When it starts spluttering, add onions (cut in strings – julien) and fry it till dark brown.
6. Take fried-onions out and add veggies mixture in the same kadai. Mix well and cook it for around 5 mins. Here on, up to step 8, it can be done in oven-proof bowl / clay-pot as well–
7. Make alternate layers of veggies mixture & cooked rice in kadai/oven-bowl.
8. On every layer of rice, sprinkle fried onions, a pinch of garam masala, few chopped mint leaves & pour 2 tsp saffron milk.
9. Repeat the process for making alternate layers (minimum 2 layers each).
10. Seal it wit aluminium foil & bake it for around 20-25 mins on 160 degrees.
11. It’s ready to serve with yogurt!

SJ’s NOTE:

• Find more rice dishes @ https://cookingwithsj.com/category/rice-dishes/
• Share your experiments @ https://cookingwithsj.com/post-your-recipe