Vegetable Dum Biryani

Biryani is one of my favorite one pot meals. I usually make non-veg biryani and when it comes to vegetable biryani, it is always Vegetable Pulao or Vegetable Bagara. For some reason, I am obsessed with kaccha (raw) biryani, where the meats & rice are cooked together in layers. I wanted to replicate the same procedure for vegetables. Recently, I tried cooking kaccha vegetable biryani and it turned out pretty good. I cooked the biryani by arranging raw vegetables and partly cooked rice in layers.

Don't be intimidated by the long list of ingredients and the lengthy preparation. It is not as difficult as it appears to be. A well cooked biryani is when the meat or the vegetables are tender and the rice is completely cooked. The key here is boiling of the rice. Rice should not be over cooked or under cooked. This is one step when extra attention is required during the preparation and how long the rice is boiled determines the texture of the biryani.

Veg dum biryani in a square serving dish

Total Time: 1 hr 15 minutes
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 - 35 minutes
Serves: 2

Note: Measuring cup used here is the one that comes with the rice cooker, which is 160ml

Ingredients:

½ cup Oil
1 Small Onion Sliced
¼ teaspoon Saffron (few strands)
½ cup Milk
Marinade
- 1 large Potato diced into 16 pieces
- 15 strings of Green Beans cut into 1 ½” pieces
- 1 large Carrot pealed and cut into 1 ½” strips
- ¼ cup Green Peas
- 6-8 Green Chilies slit vertically
- 1 small Tomato Pureed or ¼ – ⅓ cup Tomato Puree
- ½ cup Cilantro chopped
- ¼ cup chopped Mint
- 2 teaspoon Ginger Garlic Paste
- 1 teaspoon Coriander Powder
- Pinch of Turmeric
- Salt to taste
- 3 tablespoon or ¼ cup Yogurt
- Garam Masala OR ½ teaspoon store bought garam masala
  - 4 Cardamoms
  - 4 Cloves
  - 4 Black Pepper Corns
  - ¼ teaspoon Caraway Seeds or Saha Jeera
  - ¼” Cinnamon
Cooking Rice
- 2 cups Rice
- 4 Cloves
- 4 Cardamoms
- ½ teaspoon Saha Jeera
- 2-3 Bay Leaves
- 1 Biryani Flower
- ½ teaspoon Ginger Garlic Paste
- 1-2 tablespoon salt

Preparation:

Wash Rice and soak it for ½ hour.
Meantime, cut the vegetables. Prepare garam masala powder by grinding together all the ingredients listed under Garam Masala. Grind tomato to a paste. It doesn't have to be fine paste. Mix all the ingredients together listed under marinade.
In a 2 quart pot, bring water to a boil.
Meantime, continue with the preparation. Heat oil in a pan and fry the onions until golden brown.
Once water boils, add all the ingredients listed under cooking rice, except rice. Give it a good stir. Drain the rice from water and add it to boiling water. Give it a good stir.
Let it boil until rice starts rolling over. One good boil is enough. This should take about 3 minutes.
Drain the rice and keep aside ½ a cup of boiled water aside of later use.
Arrange vegetables and rice in layers. In a 2 qt pot, add some oil and arrange the marinated vegetables at the bottom of the pot. Use the same oil that was used to fry the onions.

Assembling Biryani - Marinated Vegetables

Layer half of the cooked rice on top of the vegetables and sprinkle ½ of the remaining oil and ½ of the saffron milk.

Assembling Biryani - First layer of Rice

Layer the remaining rice and sprinkle remaining oil, milk and ½ cup of boiled water.

Assembling Biryani - Second Layer of Rice

Cover the pot with 2 sheets of aluminum foil and cover it with the lid. Carefully fold the foil and seal it around the lid so that steam doesn't escape when cooking the rice. Also, put a heavy pan or a motor pesto or a heavy object on top of the lid to stop the steam from escaping.
Cook for 8-10 minutes on high until steam escapes from the foil seal. Reduce the heat to low and cook for another 25 minutes.
Open the pot after 10 minutes and mix it well so that the vegetables and rice are properly mixed.
Serve hot with raita or any gravy of your choice.

Note:

The cooking times are based on my gas cooking range. When preparing the recipe for the first time, don't go just by the cooking times I mentioned and use your discretion.
If you feel vegetables or the rice is under cooked, cover and cook it on low flame for few more minutes and if required, sprinkle some water before cooking it.

If you like this recipe, you may also like these:
Hyderabad Chicken Biryani
Hyderabad Mutton Biryani
Shrimp Biryani
Egg Dum Biryani