Try your hands on this flavorful and aromatic Vegan Biryani. Fragrant fluffy rice layered with crunchy vegetables and spices. A blast of vibrant colors, exotic flavors, warm spices, and a delight in each bite.
What is Vegan Biryani?
Vegan biryani is a colorful and aromatic rice dish made with fluffy basmati rice layered with mixed vegetables, herbs, and spices. It is later cooked in steam to create a fluffy vibrant rice dish.
Is Vegetable Biryani Vegan?
Mostly vegetable biryani that is served in Indian restaurants is not vegan as they use yogurt, ghee, milk, and some other animal-based ingredients in their veg biryani. This vegan biryani is created while keeping the vegan concept in mind and substituting all the animal-based Ingredients.
Vegetables in Biryani
You need a combination of mixed vegetables for vegetable biryani, I am using green beans, cauliflower, carrots, and peas.
You can try other veggies like mushrooms, corn, jackfruit, eggplant, potatoes, and edamame beans. Do not use veggies that get so soft after cooking like spinach, zucchini, etc.
Ingredients
Do not get overwhelmed by the long list of ingredients, these are the regular spices and ingredients you find in your local grocery stores, nothing fancy.
Marination Batter
- Soy Yogurt: Soy yogurt is used as a marination base; you can use any plant-based yogurt.
- Tomato Paste
- Ginger Paste and Garlic Paste
- Spices: These spices are chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin seeds, curry powder, garam masala, and paprika. For a quick substitute to these spices, you can add 3 Tbs of Biryani Masla. See recipe notes for more details.
- Vegetables: You need a combination of mixed vegetables, I am using green beans, cauliflower, carrots, and peas.
For Cooking Rice
- Rice: Good quality long grain basmati rice is the first thing to make your biryani a success.
- Herbs and Spices: Bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cardamom, green chili, and salt add flavor and taste to the rice. They are cooked in water with rice.
For Frying Onions
- Oil: I am using canola oil for this recipe; you can use any plant-based oil. We need to put oil in various steps of the recipe. For frying onions, we use ⅓ cup of oil which later strained. We will use the same oil in the recipe It is more flavorful.
- Onions: white or red onions all work fine. Try to use big-size onion to get a long thin slice.
For Garnish
While layering Fried onions, Mint leaves, Lemon Slices, tomato slices, and food color are used for garnishing.
How to Make Vegan Biryani
Do not feel daunted to make vegan biryani at home. It might have multiple steps and is a bit lengthy process but you simply follow my step-by-step guide with photos and tips and you won't regret it.
Preparation
- Wash basmati rice under the running water. Wash until the water turned clear. Soak them in 4 cups of water. Soak rice for 30 minutes at least.
- Wash and cut the vegetables. Cut carrots in small cubes, slice green beans in inch size, and cut cauliflower into one-and-a-half-inch size florets. Slice bell peppers.
- Thinly slice onions. Make sure you are slicing them in the same thickness. You can use a cutter to slice the onions evenly.
Marinate the Vegetables
- In a large bowl mix soy yogurt, tomato paste, ginger paste, garlic paste, salt, and all biryani spices.
- These spices are chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin seeds, curry powder, garam masala, and paprika. For a quick substitute to these spices, you can add 3 Tbs of Biryani Masla. See recipe notes for more details.
Cook Rice
- In a large stockpot boil 6 to 7 cups of water.
- Add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cardamom, green chili, and salt to the boiling water.
- Next, drain the soaked rice and add it to the boiling water.
- Cook rice for about 5-to-6-minutes or until rice is just cooked and is still a bit firm in the middle. Rice should be around 75% cooked.
- Strain the whole spices from the water and drain the rice in a colander immediately. Slightly fluff the rice with a fork and set aside.
Fry the Onions
- Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium to high heat.
- Add sliced onion and fry. Stir repeatedly to get a consistent golden-brown color to onions.
- Remove from heat when they are turning golden brown and strain oil in a strainer. We will use this oil to cook our gravy.
- Spread onions over a paper towel. They will get crispy.
- Reserve 3 to 4 Tbs of fried onions for garnishing and layering the biryani. Others will be used in the next step.
Cook Vegetable Gravy
- Heat a Tablespoon of oil in a pan. Use the same oil that we drained from onions after frying.
- Add fried onions and marinated vegetables to it. Fry on medium heat and stir occasionally.
- Add half a cup of water to it and cover. Keep the heat medium and let the vegetables cook on steam. You can stir them occasionally.
- Cooks the vegetables 75% and leaves a bite to them, just like rice. Turn off the heat and add sliced bell peppers.
Layer the Vegan Biryani
- Take a deep heavy bottom pan and slightly grease it with oil. First, add the rice layer at the bottom, the base should be completely covered with rice. Layer approximately one-third of the rice.
- Next layer the vegetable gravy. Add half of the vegetable gravy to this layer.
- Add another layer of one-third rice on top of it followed by the remaining vegetable gravy.
- Spread the last layer of rice and sprinkle fried onions on top of it that we reserved.
- Spread some mint and coriander leaves, thinly sliced lemons, and tomatoes.
- Pour food color on three to four spots. Drizzle some oil on top.
- Cover the pot with foil and then put the lid on. Fold the foil over the pot lid so there will be no chance of steam getting out of the pot.
Dum (Cooking in Steam)
- Return the pot to the stove over medium heat. Let the steam be built in the pot for three to five minutes.
- Once the side of the pot is hot, reduce the heat to the lowest. Let them cook on steam for about 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let them rest with the lid on for 10 more minutes.
How to Serve Biryani
While serving keep in mind that a nice-looking biryani always has patches of yellow rice, curried vegetables, orange food color rice, and white rice. To get this result use a thin large spoon and do not mix or fluff biryani into the pot. Carefully dig deep into the pot and try to scoop out and get all texture and color patches from all layers into the plate, hope this makes sense. (see the video for better understanding).
Serve it warm with green yogurt sauce. Simply mix one tablespoon of coriander sauce with three tablespoons of soy yogurt and mix.
You can serve vegan biryani with cucumber raita made with plant-based yogurt and some cucumber. Serve it with any fresh salad and it will be a hit.
How to Store Vegan Biryani
This vegan biryani will last for three to five days in the fridge without changing the flavor. Simply store in an airtight container.
You can also freeze biryani in an airtight container or zip lock bag for up to a month. I would not suggest more than that.
Tips and Tricks
- You can avoid the lengthy process of frying onions and simply buy pre-fried onions for your local markets and they will do the job. Use ½ cup of fried onions as a substitute in curry and 3 Tbs for garnish.
- If you are overwhelmed by the long list of biryani spices simply substitute it with any biryani masala available in Indian and some local grocery stores.
- Do not overcook the vegetables they will get mushy and will not taste good.
- Stir continuously while frying onion to get a consistent color.
- If you want to avoid food color, use some saffron strings in water.
Other Vegan Dinner Recipes
If you like this vegan dinner recipe you may also like
VEGAN BIRYANI
Ingredients
Marination Batter
- 2 Tbs Soy Yogurt
- 2 Tbs Tomato Paste
- 1 Tsp Ginger Paste
- 1 Tsp Garlic Paste
- 1½ Tsp Salt
- ½ Tsp Chili Powder
- ¼ Tsp Turmeric Powder
- ¼ Tsp Coriander Powder
- 1 Tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 Tsp Curry Powder
- ½ Tsp Garam Masala
- ½ Tsp Paprika
- ¼ Tsp Cinnamon Powder
Vegetables to Marinate
- 1 Cup Green Beans
- 1 Cup Carrots
- 1½ Cup Cauliflower
- 1 Cup Peas
For Cooking Rice
- 6-7 Cups Water
- 2 Cups Basmati Rice
- 1 Tbs Oil
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 Green Chili
- 1 Cinnamon stick
- 2 Cardamom
- 1 Star Anise
For Frying Onions
- ⅓ Cup Oil
- 3 Medium Onions
For Vegetable Gravy
- 1 Tbs Oil
- ½ Cup Water
- 1 Cup Mixed Bell peppers
For Garnish
- 3 Tbs Fried onions
- 3-4 slices Lemon Slices
- 3-4 slices Tomato Slices
- 1 Tsp Food Color
- 2 Tbs Cashew Nuts
Instructions
Preparation
- Wash basmati rice under the running water. Wash until the water turned clear. Soak them in 4 cups of water. Soak rice for 30 minutes at least.
- Wash and cut the vegetables, slice onions. Crush garlic and ginger.
Marinate the Vegetables
- In a large bowl mix soy yogurt, tomato paste, ginger paste, garlic paste, salt, and all biryani spices.
- These spices are chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin seeds, curry powder, garam masala, and paprika. For a quick substitute to these spices, you can add 3 Tbs of Biryani Masla. See recipe notes for more details.
Cook Rice
- In a large stockpot boil 6 to 7 cups of water. Add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cardamom, green chili, and salt to the boiling water.
- Next, drain the soaked rice and add it to the boiling water. Cook rice for about 5-to-6-minutes or until rice is just cooked and is still a bit firm in the middle. Rice should be around 75% cooked.
- Strain the whole spices from the water and drain the rice in a colander immediately. Slightly fluff the rice with a fork and set aside.
Fry the Onions
- Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium to high heat. Add sliced onion and fry.
- Remove from heat when they are turning golden brown and strain oil in a strainer. Use this oil to cook vegetable gravy.
- Spread onions over a paper towel. Reserve 3 to 4 Tbs of fried onions for garnishing and layering the biryani. Others will be used in the next step.
Cook Vegetable Grevy
- Heat a Tablespoon of oil in a pan. Add fried onions and marinated vegetables to it. Fry on medium heat and stir occasionally.
- Add half a cup of water to it and cover. Keep the heat medium and let the vegetables cook on steam. You can stir them occasionally. Cooks the vegetables 75% and leaves a bite to them, just like rice.
- Turn off the heat and add sliced bell peppers.
Layer the Vegan Biryani
- Take a deep heavy bottom pan and slightly grease it with oil. First, add the rice layer at the bottom, the base should be completely covered with rice. Layer approximately one-third of the rice.
- Next layer the vegetable gravy. Add half of the vegetable gravy to this layer. Add another layer of one-third rice on top of it followed by the remaining vegetable gravy.
- Spread the last layer of rice and sprinkle fried onions on top of it that we reserved.
- Sprinkle some mint and coriander leaves, thinly sliced lemons, and tomatoes.
- Pour Orange food color on three to four spots. Drizzle some oil on top.
- Cover the pot with foil and then put the lid on. Fold the foil over the pot lid so there will be no chance of steam getting out of the pot.
Dum (steam the Biryani)
- Return the pot to the stove over medium heat. Let the steam be built in the pot for three to five minutes.
- Once the side of the pot is hot, reduce the heat to the lowest. Let them cook on steam for about 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let them rest with the lid on for 10 more minutes.
Serve
- While serving keep in mind that a nice-looking biryani always has patches of yellow rice, curried vegetables, orange food color rice, and white rice. To get this result use a thin large spoon and do not mix or fluff biryani into the pot. Carefully dig deep into the pot and try to scoop out and get all texture and color patches from all layers into the plate, hope this makes sense. (see the video for better understanding)
Video
Notes
- You can avoid the lengthy process of frying onions and simply buy pre-fried onions for your local markets and they will do the job. Use ½ cup of fried onions as a substitute in curry and 3 Tbs for garnish.
- If you are overwhelmed by the long list of biryani spices simply substitute it with any biryani masala available in Indian and some local grocery stores.
- Do not overcook the vegetables they will get mushy and will not taste good.
- Stir continuously while frying onion to get a consistent color.
- If you want to avoid food color, use some saffron strings in water.
Nutrition
If you try this recipe, leave a comment, and show some love by rating it in stars. Do not forget to take a picture and tag us @getsetvegan on Instagram. We would love to see this.
Fatima says
The biryani was delicious. Even the meat eating folk liked the Veg biryani better than my traditional chicken biryani. Easy to follow. Thank you.