The One-pot Vegetable Biryani is very easy to make. You can make this dish with any vegetables that you might have at home such as potatoes, green beans, green peas, and carrots. You can make this biryani within an hour.
Biryani is a very famous dish in India, especially chicken biryani. Biryani is a very fragrant rice dish made with basmati rice and many whole spices. There are many ways you cam make biryani; and this recipe is a very basic and the easiest way to make biryani. This is a perfect recipe for beginners to try.
The one-pot vegetable biryani is something that I learnt to make during my college days when I lived in a dorm. I used to make this one-pot vegetable biryani using an electric rice cooker, plain white rice, canned tomatoes, and frozen vegetables. I used make a lot of this dish and store in the refrigerator in separate boxes to be eaten later during week. Today, in these unprecedented times, I had to use frozen vegetables to make this dish.
How to make one-pot vegetable biryani?
Any kind of biryani, be it vegetable or chicken or mutton biryani, is always made with basmati rice. The basmati rice itself imparts a lovely , unique fragrance and flavor to the dish. I wash the basmati rice and let it soak in water for at least 20 minutes.
You don’t have basmati rice? Use the plain white rice that you might have at home. Wash and dry the plain white rice. In a large pan, heat some oil and add the rice to it. Sauté the rice continuously in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes. This process will help the plain white rice not stick together in a biryani and cook faster. When using plain white rice in biryani, reduce the amount of water. I usually use 4 cups of water for i cup of rice, in this case use 2 and 1/2 cups.
Biryani is a very fragrant dish and requires a lot of whole spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, star anise, mace, green cardamom, and stone flower. These whole spices are first tempered in oil. This helps the spices to release their beautiful aromas.
Once the whole spice begin to splutter in oil, add the onions immediately. I sauté the onions until they become golden brown. Next step is to add chili powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. In this recipe, I use either diced tomatoes or tomato puree. Today I used tomato puree. Once the onion-tomato mixture thickens up, I add the vegetables and little salt. Let the vegetable cook in the masala mixture for 5 minutes (if you are using fresh vegetables, 15 minutes or until vegetable are done).
Now I add the soaked basmati rice to the vegetables and also add water. In this recipe, I used 3 cups of basmati rice and 4 cups of water. Now is the time to add more salt and taste. You can add more chili powder or garam masala at this stage but, not after this.
Turn up the heat and let the water come to a rolling boil and reduce the heat to a medium high; and the let the rice cook. It took nearly 15 minutes foe my rice to cook.
Serving suggestions
The one-pot vegetable biryani is best served with onion raita. You can find the recipe here. You can also have this biryani with any kind of chips or onion fritters/ onion pakoda.
Try this recipe in your kitchen and let me know how it turned out.
Happy cooking!!
One-pot Vegetable Biryani
Ingredients
- 3 cups Basmati Rice washed & soaked for 20 minutes
- 2 large onions finely chopped
- 2 large tomatoes diced or pureed
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 inch cinnamon
- 1 star anise
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 stone flower/kalpasi
- 7 Green cardamom
- 7 cloves
- 2 mace
- 1 tbsp chili powder or as needed
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 1½ tsp garam masala
- 3 tbsp oil
- 8-10 fresh mint leaves
- salt as needed
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- Vegetable of your choice (potatoes, green peas, carrots, green beans, corn) cut into bite sized pieces
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot
- Once the oil is hot, add all the whole spices: cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, star anise, mace, and stone flower
- Let them splutter
- Now add the onions and sauté until golden brown
- Add ginger-garlic paste to the onions and sauté until the raw smell dissipates
- Now add turmeric powder, chili powder and garam masala. Mix everything thoroughly
- Add tomato puree and keep stirring occasionally until the onion-tomato mixture thickens up
- Add the mint leaves
- Add the vegetables and salt and give everything a good stir.Let the vegetable cook in the masala mixture for 5 minutes (if you are using fresh vegetables, 15 minutes or until vegetable are done).
- Now add the soaked basmati rice and 4 cups of water. Turn up the heat to high
- Give everything a good stir and taste. Add more salt or chili powder at this point
- Reduce the heat (medium-high) once the water in the pot come to a rolling boil
- Let the rice cook. It took about 15 minutes for my basmati rice to cook
- Turn off the heat and serve with onion raita
Video
Directions with Pictures
1.Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot
2. Once the oil is hot, add all the whole spices: cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, star anise, mace, and stone flower.
3. Let them splutter
4. Now add the onions and sauté until golden brown
5. Add ginger-garlic paste to the onions and sauté until the raw smell dissipates
6. Now add turmeric powder, chili powder and garam masala. Mix everything thoroughly
7. Add tomato puree and keep stirring occasionally until the onion-tomato mixture thickens up
8. Add the mint leaves
9. Add the vegetables and salt and give everything a good stir. Let the vegetable cook in the masala mixture for 5 minutes (if you are using fresh vegetables, 15 minutes or until vegetable are done).
10. Now add the soaked basmati rice and 4 cups of water. Turn up the heat to high
11. Give everything a good stir and taste. Add more salt or chili powder at this point
12. Reduce the heat (medium-high) once the water in the pot come to a rolling boil
13. Let the rice cook. It took about 15 minutes for my basmati rice to cook
14. Turn off the heat and serve with onion raita
Looks delicious. I love indie as food but haven’t tried cooking the authentic kind.