Vegetable Biryani | Easy Pressure Cooker Biryani

Biryani – Maharajah(King) of dishes !

Vegetable Biryani, is a layered dish combining a rich and tender spices along with vegetables, sweet caramelized onions and saffron-scented rice. It is a treat for vegetarian masala lovers. This is an exotic way to include all the veggies in our diet. Generally Biryani is cooked in layers of rice and vegetable along with masalas in  low flame so that the layers gets cooked nicely and all the flavors gets nicely absorbed. But layered Biryani takes more time and also needs some expertise.  I have already shared the recipe of conventional Layered Vegetable Biryani. Cooking Biryani takes more time, effort and expertise. But its worth for its efforts.

How to simplify the cooking of Biryani ?

Biryani is very much suited to sharing at home with family and friends, and although there may seem a lot to do, we can simplify the cooking of Biryani using pressure cooker . Pro Biryani fans may argue that it’s not conventional and authentic way to cook Biryani,  but no matter what, Pressure cooker biryani simplify the effort, time and still gives a good quality, flavorful and tasty Biryani in 30 minutes.

In this method, there are no grinding process or multi-step process involved in cooking. We are just going to toss all the spices along with onions, tomatoes, mixed vegetables,  basmati rice and cook everything in a pressure cooker.  The spices which we use for this quick method is the ready to use coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala. The whole masalas’ like bayleaf, cinnamon, cloves will be tossed as tempering along with ginger-garlic paste.

This method of making Vegetable Biryani is so quick. After sauteing the veggies and tossing the spices and rice, the Biryani will be ready in 15 mins. Some of my friends use store-bought frozen vegetables to make this pressure cooker biryani even more quicker, but I always prefer fresh veggies even though slicing and chopping of vegetables take about 10 mins of preparation time. If we are bored of the conventional Biryani, we can also try Semiya Biryani. Vegetable Biriyani with Onion Raitha makes a perfect lunch. I would love to make on Sundays’ where the whole family gets to eat together for lunch.

Video Version of making Pressure Cooker Vegetable Biriyani

Method to make Vegetable Biriyani in Pressure Cooker

(For the detailed step by step instructions along with pictures and more details, please scroll down further to Steps section below)

1. Wash the rice and soak it in water for about 30 minutes
2. Heat Ghee in a pressure cooker then add  whole garam masalas (Bay leaf, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves) and saute them in a ghee. Mix the cumin seeds and allow it to sputter
3. Add Onion and fry them in the ghee. Also add ginger garlic paste and green chilli.
4. When the onions turns golden brown, toss the tomatoes and mix well.  Next add turmeric powder, salt, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder and garam masalas and cook them for about 1-2 minutes
5. Add all the vegetables.  Also add curd.
6. Drain water from soaked rice and add the rice to the cooker. Squeeze 1/2 lemon. Add 2 cups of water (1:2 ratio). Mix gently. Add coriander leaves and mint leaves
7. Close the Pressure cooker and cook it in high flame for upto first whistle. Then keep the flame to low and cooke for about 10-12 minutes.
8. After 10-12 minutes the biriyani is ready to serve.

Notes:

1. Instead of adding individual spices like coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder and garam masala, we can add 2-3 tablespoon of store-bought Biryani Powder.
2. Vegans can use Coconut oil in place of ghee and coconut milk in place of yogurt
3. We can also add Paneer cubes along with veggies
4. Whether veg or non-veg, a biryani is first and foremost a rice dish that stands or falls on the fluffiness of its rice: every grain should be separate and perfectly cooked. So make sure you don’t overcook. Each pressure cooker is unique, likewise the brand of rice. Sometimes instead of 1 whistle and 10 mins of slow cooking, its enough to slow cook for 10 mins for overall
5. Cooking in Rice cooker is an alternative to pressure cooker. We can also do all the initial procedure in a pan and transfer it to a Rice cooker instead of pressure cooker. Rice cooker rice will always be fluffy and so we don’t need to fear about the fluffiness of rice.
6. If you plan well and cut the vegetable in advance, then the biryani can be made in just 20 minutes.

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