Vegetable Biriyani

A very simple vegetarian rice dish, quick to make, and can be cooked in one pot.
This biriyani is different from the traditional biriyani in that there is no garam masal in whole or powered form. Unlike the traditional biriyani of the north Indian cuisine, amma de-spiced her biriyani to the simplest form.

I bought some paneer (Indian cottage cheese) last week and biriyani came to my mind. Here is the recipe for vegetable biriyani.




Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
Onion - 1 medium sized, cut into 1 inch pieces
Potato - 1 medium sized, cut into 1 inch pieces
Carrots - 3, cut into 1 inch long pieces
Capsicum (green peppers) - 2 cut in length/square
Peas - 3 Tbsp
Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) - 10 1/2 inch pieces, soaked in water
Oil - 2 tbsp
Ghee (Clarified butter) - 2 tbsp
Jeera - 2 tsp
Green chillies - 3
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Ginger - 1/2 inch, finely chopped
Coconut - 3 tbsp, grated
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp, finely chopped
Salt - to taste

 Method:

* Dry roast rice for about 2 mins in a pan. Rice should be fried just enough to loose its moisture. Rice should not turn pink or brown.
* Half cook this rice. Keep aside.
* In the same utensil, add oil and ghee. Add jeera. After it sizzles, add green chillies.
* Saute onion until it turns translucent and pick.
* Add cut vegetables, and turmeric. Add enough salt for vegetables. Let the vegetables cook.
* When vegetables are half cooked, add rice, ginger, and curry leaves. At this stage, add salt required for rice.
* When rice is completely cooked, garnish with cut paneer, and coriander leaves.

This rice dish is relished with vadam, raita, or subzi.



Note:

* Store bought paneer is frozen, so has to be soaked in water till it turns soft, then cut into desired shapes/pieces.
* You can make this rice with onion too.
* If you would like to add masala -  Fry cloves, bayleaf, poppy seeds, anise, garlic and corriander seeds. Grind, and add this when the vegetables are cooking. OR just add a tsp of garam masala to the vegetables (you don't have to fry or grind, simple).
* Fried onion can be used for garnishing.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I love all types off biryani, Tilda basmati has lots of recipes on theit site, think you'll like it http://www.tilda.com/recipes
May 20, 2013 at 5:52 AM
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