A rice-based spiced dish invented by the Mughals that now comes in many varieties, without ever losing its popularity over the centuries—this is perhaps the best way to describe the incredible Indian dish called biryani. While the three most popular versions of this delicious, one-pot dish are undoubtedly from Lucknow, Hyderabad and Kolkata—all three invented in the kitchens of Nawabs no less—there are varieties like Muradabadi, Thallassery, Sindhi and Bhatkali which are prepared with unique touches from across the nation. However, when it comes to veg biryani recipe, there is a bit of confusion which rather brings down the royal touch of a biryani.
The problem is, many people often confuse pulao with a biryani, even though the cooking method for both is very different. They may both be rice-based spiced dishes, but a pulao is cooked with the absorption method (where water which is double the amount of the rice is added and absorbed) while a biryani is cooked with the draining method (where the rice is parboiled in excess water, then drained for use). The layering of different flavour components—instead of mixing everything together like in a pulao—is another unique feature of the biryani.
Also, biryani is usually cooked at a low flame for hours in a sealed dish (known as the method of dum or dum pukht), which is why vegetables are ill-suited for the method because they can turn into mush during this extended period of cooking.
Despite all these technical issues that make a veg biryani a thing of impossibility, there are many vegetable biryani recipes that are cooked across India. The primary reason for this is that a biryani is a regal dish that anybody would want to eat or cook for family, friends and special guests. In this article, we’ll go through everything that makes a veg biryani so popular, including a faultless recipe that you can follow on days when you want a taste of the dish yourself.
Nutritional Value Of Veg Biryani
A veg biryani is packed with vegetables and rice—which is why it is nutritionally full of dietary fibre, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. If you cook a vegetable biryani properly, i.e. in the dum pukht method, then the nutritional value of all the ingredients remains sealed and intact. If you add soya chunks, paneer or jackfruit (also known as kathal) to the veg biryani recipes, this also adds a good amount of protein to the dish. This makes veg dum biryani a very healthy dish to include in your diet indeed.
However, a word of caution here. If you add too much ghee or spices to the veg dum biryani, it is quite likely that despite being tasty, the dish won’t be very nutritious. Because it is cooked in a sealed dish, you must also be careful about accidentally burning the dish. This can not only deplete the nutritional value of veg biryani, it also ruins the taste.
People often confuse veg pulao recipes with veg biryani recipes, but the two are very different.
Veg Biryani Ingredients
There are a number of ingredients that are always added to a vegetable biryani recipe. Here are some you should know about.
• Rice: Always use aged, long-grain basmati rice for best results.
• Fats: A biryani is usually coked with ghee or clarified butter. If you are health-conscious, using vegetable oil is okay, but remember that the final dish won’t have the incredible flavour profile that ghee provides.
• Dairy: Many biryani recipes call for the use of curd or dahi, and often even a bit of saffron-soaked milk is added. If you’re making a veg biryani, it is also quite common to add paneer or cottage cheese to the dish.
• Vegetables: Fresh vegetables are a key part of a veg biryani recipe. A biryani is incomplete without deep fried onions, so thinly sliced onions are a must. In addition, vegetables like ginger, garlic, potatoes, cauliflower, French beans, capsicum, carrots, button mushrooms and peas are also added.
• Proteins: While adding any kind of meat to a veg biryani recipe is out of the question, there are many protein-packed vegetarian options you can add to the recipe. This includes jackfruit or kathal, paneer or cottage cheese, and soy chunks. Veg biryani recipes often also call for nuts, like cashews and almonds, which are also packed with protein.
• Spices: Adding the right amount and kind of spices is critical in a biryani. Usually, a mix of whole spices and powdered spices is used in a veg biryani recipe. The whole spices include cardamoms (both black and green), cumin seeds (shahi jeera), cloves, black pepper, cinnamon, dry bay leaf (tej patta), mace, nutmeg and saffron strands. The powdered spices include salt, turmeric and red chilli powder. Often, to make the veg biryani recipe easier, people tend to use a powdered blend called biryani masala. However, fresh spices provide the best flavour, so avoid using this pre-packed biryani masala blend.
• Others: Traditionally, a bit of kewra water or rose water is added to a veg biryani recipe to ensure another layer of scent and flavour. Many people also add fresh mint leaves or coriander leaves to add another flavour dimension to the biryani. Along with cashews and almonds, many also choose to add raisins or kishmish to biryani.
Kathal biryani is a rich version of veg biryani.
How To Make A Vegetable Biryani
Making a veg biryani recipe is a long process which is also time-taking. The following are the key steps involved in the making of a delicious veg biryani.
• Wash and rinse 1.5 cups of long-grain aged basmati rice in clean water at least three times.
• Soak the rice in water for 30 minutes, then drain it and set it aside for further use.
• While the basmati rice is soaking for 30 minutes, take 3 onions and thinly slice them.
• To prepare the other vegetables, wash, rinse and peel them. To ensure that the vegetables don’t turn mushy during the long cooking process, cut them into large pieces. For this recipe, use up to 3 cups of mixed vegetables.
• Finely chop two pieces of 2-inch ginger and 15 cloves of garlic.
• To cook the rice, boil 1 litre of water in a large container. Once the water comes to a boil, add salt to taste and the soaked rice.
• Boil the rice on a low heat until cooked to about 80 per cent. This method is known as parboiling. Drain the rice carefully and empty it into a large plate. Use a fork to fluff up the rice a bit, but ensure that the grains remain unbroken.
How To Make Vegetable Biryani Gravy
The next step in the making of the perfect vegetable biryani is the preparation of the gravy. Here are the steps you need to follow to make the vegetable gravy.
• Take a thick-bottomed, deep pan and place it on the stove.
• Add 3 tablespoons of ghee and let it heat up.
• Once hot, add 2 of the thinly sliced onions and fry them until they turn golden brown and crispy. Remove the onions from the pan once fried, and set aside. These fried onions are known as Birista, and they add a critical flavour dimension to every biryani recipe.
• Now, add the following spices in the remaining ghee: 1 teaspoon shahi jeera, 1 tej patta, 3 green cardamoms, 1 black cardamom, 3 cloves, 5 black peppercorns, 1-inch cinnamon, half a mace and ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg powder. Let the spices crackle.
• Now add the chopped ginger and garlic and saute. Follow with the remaining sliced onion. Saute the onions for 3-4 minutes.
• Add ½ teaspoon each of turmeric powder and red chilli powder and mix well. You may add more red chilli powder if you like your biryani spicy.
• Once the spices are a little cooked, add the other vegetables one by one, in the right order. For example, if you are adding kathal, cauliflower and potatoes to the biryani, add the kathal first, cook it for 10 minutes, then follow with the potatoes and the cauliflower.
• Mix everything well and add salt to taste. Now add ½ cup beaten dahi or curd and mix well again.
• Cover and cook the vegetables, stirring every 4-5 minutes to ensure that the vegetables don’t stick together.
• After 15 minutes of cooking the veggies, add ½ a cup of water and cover the container to cook the vegetables until they are 80 per cent done. Switch off the flame.
Soya Biryani is a tasty and nutritious take on veg biryani.
Layering The Biryani
When cooking a veg biryani, layering the rice, vegetable gravy and other aromatics in the final container to start the dum pukht process is very important. Here’s how you should layer a good vegetable biryani.
• Take your selected biryani container, whether it’s a handi, a large, thick-bottomed pan, or a thick-bottomed cooker.
• Layer 1: Take half the vegetable gravy and place it at the bottom of the container.
• Layer 2: Now add half the parboiled rice and spread evenly.
• Layer 3: Add half the reserved Birista.
• Layer 4: Sprinkle generous amounts of nuts, chopped mint leaves, and chopped coriander leaves.
• Layer 5: Add the remaining vegetable gravy and spread evenly.
• Layer 6: Add the remaining parboiled rice and spread evenly.
• Layer 7: Add the remaining Birista and spread evenly.
• Layer 8: Sprinkle the nuts, chopped min leaves and chopped coriander leaves.
• Layer 9: Sprinkle half a teaspoon of either kewra water or rose water, then sprinkle one tablespoon of ghee.
• Layer 10: Sprinkle a cup of saffron-soaked milk generously around the top.
Ways To Cook Veg Dum Biryani
There are basically three ways in which you can cook the layered vegetable biryani in the dum pukht style.
Method 1: Foil Method
If you’re using a deep pan with a glass lid, cover the top of the biryani layers with a sheet or two of foil and seal the edges properly. Place the glass lid on top and put the pan on the lowest gas heat possible. Cook the biryani for 15 minutes.
Method 2: Dough Seal Method
If you’re using a handi, then this is the perfect method to cook the veg dum biryani. Make a soft dough using whole wheat flour or atta and water. Roll the dough into one long, thick string, and place this around the edge of the handi. Now place the cover of the handi and press the dough to seal the edges completely. Bake the handi in an oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes.
Nowadays, a new trend is to roll out the entire dough into a thick, large roti, which is then placed on top of the handi to cover the entire opening. The edges are then sealed and then, bake the handi in an oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes.
Method 3: Weighted Cover Method
In case you don’t have a good cover for the container in which you are cooking the layered veg biryani, you can use this method. Take a clean, moist kitchen cloth and place it over the top of the container. Make sure that the edges of the cloth aren’t close to the flame to avoid any accidental fires. Now place a large, steel lid on top of the cloth, and put a heavy weight on top to seal the container. The weight can be from a stone, sil-batta or sil-nora (the stone mortar and pestle popular in east India), or a container filled with water. Cook the biryani at a low flame for 15 minutes.
Paneer biryani is a rich and healthy version of veg biryani.
What To Eat With Veg Biryani
There are a number of side dishes that go really well with a veg biryani. In fact, a raita or curd dip is always a must with biryanis. You can go with cucumber raita, vegetable raita, boondi raita or pineapple raita. A nice little salad also goes well with veg dum biryani, so you could roughly chop some cucumber, onions and tomato to make a kachumber salad. If you’re feeling lazy though, just cut the onions, tomatoes and cucumbers into large discs and serve with a sprinkling of lemon juice, salt and pepper.
In many cases, people find a biryani to be dry-ish, which is why it may be paired with a mirchi ka salan or shorba—both of which are flavourful gravies. In North India, sirke wali pyaz or onions soaked in vinegar are also served with biryanis. Many people also prefer to have lemon wedges and papad or Indian crispies on the side. However, it is perfectly fine to avoid all these sides and have the veg dum biryani as it is—after all, this is a one-pot dish that blends royal flavours together, and so it barely needs any accessories to shine through.
Conclusion
A veg biryani, especially when prepared properly in the dum pukht style, is one of the most royal and glorious dishes in the world. While many people only add vegetables to a veg biryani, many are now experimenting with ingredients like kathal or jackfruit and soy chunks. This is adding another dimension to a dish which already has a rich history in the Indian subcontinent. A biryani is always time consuming to whip up, so while you can’t cook it up any time, any day you want, it does make for one of the best dishes to serve on special occasions. In this article, we have explained every trick you need to make an authentic veg biryani at home for just those special days.
FAQs
Is there no such thing as a veg biryani?
Most people would say that there is no such thing as a veg biryani simply because people tend to confuse veg biryani with veg pulao, especially where the cooking methods are concerned. However, if you get the cook on the rice and veggies, layering and dum style of cooking right, then it is indeed possible to make a veg biryani.
Is vegetable biryani healthy?
Because vegetable biryani is made with very little saturated fats and does not include any red meats, it is actually one of the healthiest biryani varieties in the entire subcontinent.
Which is the best rice for biryani?
Aged, long-grain basmati rice is the best variety of rice for biryani.
How long does it take to make veg biryani?
Making a veg biryani is a long, time consuming process. It can take two to three hours to make a veg biryani from scratch.