Hello everyone, I’m so glad you came.
I’ve had loads of vegetable biriyanis at loads of restaurants and most have been amazing, it’s been my go-to order when I’m not sure what I want. So you know that it’s one of my favs. I didn’t think I could compete with a chef when making this dish, however when I thought it was about time that I made my own biriyani at home I was pleasantly surprised.
First of all, I thought, there’s no way I’m going to be able to do this dish any justice compared with what I’d eaten out. How wrong was I! Drawing inspiration from family, and different websites, I’ve adapted a recipe that would suit my taste buds.
It’s believed that biriyani originally came from Persia and was brought to India by the Mughals. It's a balanced meal that includes rice, and in this case, vegetables, but the Mughals probably included a few meats too. Traditionally cooked in clay or copper pots with a pastry lid (to create steam that cooks the rice), there are many variations from different parts of India and indeed the Asian continent.
I hope you like the one I've bought you and try making it, if you do, let me know in the comments below.
This is my version, I’ve made it vegan, but see the TIPS below 👇 for substitutes if you’re more vegetarian than vegan:
Serves - 6 people
Prep Time - 1 hour 10 minutes
Cooking Time - 1 hour 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
Sauce:
1 tbsp oil
1 bay leaf
2 tsp ginger, minced
2 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tin tomatoes, blended
1 tbsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp ground cumin seeds
½-1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
200ml vegan yoghurt or crème fraiche (I used Creamy Oat Fraiche)
Other Ingredients:
300g white basmati rice
Cooking oil
1 onion, sliced finely
100g baby potatoes, peeled, leave whole
2 small aubergines, sliced into 1 cm pieces
a few green beans, cut into bite-size pieces
a quarter of a cauliflower broken into small florets
100g frozen peas
A pinch of saffron
A handful of cashews, toasted
2 tsp salt + another tsp for the rice
A handful of chopped coriander
METHOD:
Wash the rice a few times until the water runs less cloudy and leave to one side to soak for at least an hour.
To make the sauce, heat the oil in a pan and add the bay leaf, ginger, garlic and tomato puree.
Keep stirring and cook for a minute, then add the tinned tomatoes, ground coriander, ground cumin, cayenne, sugar, and salt.
Mix everything together and turn down heat to low. Simmer with the lid on for about half an hour. Keep an eye on it and stir every few minutes. While you’re waiting for the sauce to finish cooking, prep the veg.
Take a frying pan and dry roast the saffron, by moving it around constantly, it will only take a minute, leave to one side and dry roast the cashew nuts, again this will only take about a minute. Chop cashews into smaller pieces once a little cooler and set aside.
Heat some oil in the frying pan and sauté the onions over a medium heat until they are caramelised and put to one side.
Leaving the oil from the onions in the pan, start sautéing the potatoes. Add a tablespoon of water to the pan after about a minute and cover with lid. Check potatoes regularly and cook until just about done, this may take about 10 minutes. Once cooked, leave the potatoes to one side.
Add a little more oil to the same pan, if needed, and sauté the aubergine, green beans and cauliflower until they are half cooked and leave to one side. It's fine if the veg has been charred slightly.
Once the sauce has finished cooking, turn off the heat and mix in crème fraiche, potatoes, green beans, aubergine, cauliflower, and peas.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Boil the rice in plenty of salted water, test after 5 mins, as soon as the rice is par-cooked, stain off the water using a colander.
Mix the saffron in 2 tbsp of warm water and leave to one side.
You’re now ready to assemble the biriyani.
Take a deep baking dish and rub the base and sides with oil.
Spoon half the sauce with the veg into the baking dish and then half the rice as the next layer. Top rice with half the cashews and sprinkle on half the saffron water. Then, sprinkle half the onions and some chopped coriander on top.
Repeat step 15.
Cover the baking dish with foil and turn the oven down to 180°C, bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Take out of the oven and serve 😊
Serve with traditional raita – see recipe here and wedges of lemon. Sprinkles some extra chopped coriander on top if you would like too.
TIPS:
Make it vegetarian – Use either homemade or store-bought dairy yoghurt.
If you have any nut intolerances, leave them out, they aren’t essential.
Do you like it fruity? – Use dried fruit, like sultanas, raisins, dried apricots, even figs, over each layer of rice, soak them first and they will be juicier.
Serve with raita a yoghurt accompaniment dish, find recipe here
Add other vegetables that you like, any veg is great for this recipe - sauté in some oil, as per recipe and mix into the sauce.
If you have any leftover, keep it in the fridge, it tastes better the next day 👌
Try this recipe and let me know if you loved it, hated, or changed it 😉 I’d love to hear from you.
Don’t forget to share my website, Instagram and/or Facebook with your friends and family, I would love to be inspired by all of you. Find the links below 👇
Until next time, Happy Cooking 💖
See method in pictures below:
