One-Pot Vegetable Biryani with Crisp Fried Onions

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

A vegetable biryani built the easy way: the vegetables get seared hard in a wide pan so they brown instead of steaming into mush, the basmati is parboiled to 70 percent in heavily salted spiced water, and everything gets layered in one Dutch oven with saffron milk and a mountain of deep-golden fried onions. Twenty-five minutes of covered dum in the oven finishes the rice, and each grain comes out separate, perfumed and streaked with three different colors.

Ingredients

• 2 cups aged basmati rice
• 3 quarts water
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 4 green cardamom pods, cracked
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds

• 3 large yellow onions, halved and sliced thin
• 3/4 cup neutral oil, such as canola
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 2 tablespoons ghee
• 1 medium Yukon Gold potato, cut in 3/4-inch cubes
• 2 cups cauliflower florets, cut small
• 2 medium carrots, cut in 1/2-inch coins
• 4 ounces green beans, cut in 1-inch lengths
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste (or 1 tbsp each, grated)
• 2 serrano chiles, slit lengthwise
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 3/4 cup whole-milk yogurt, whisked smooth
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chile powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads
• 1/4 cup warm whole milk
• 3 tablespoons ghee, melted
• 1/2 cup mint leaves, torn
• 1/2 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems, chopped
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1/4 cup roasted cashews
• 1 teaspoon rose water (optional)

Instructions

1. Rinse the basmati in a bowl of cool water, swirling and pouring off the cloudy water 4 or 5 times until it runs nearly clear. Cover with fresh water and soak 30 minutes, then drain in a sieve. While it soaks, crumble the saffron into the warm milk and set aside to bloom.
2. Line a plate with paper towels. Heat the 3/4 cup oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high until it shimmers, add the sliced onions and the 1/2 teaspoon salt, and fry, stirring often, 15 to 20 minutes. They will go limp, then blond, then deep amber; pull them out with a slotted spoon the moment they are the color of maple syrup, as they darken on the plate. Spread them out to crisp. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the onion oil.
3. Bring the 3 quarts water to a hard boil in a wide pot with the 2 tablespoons salt, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf and cumin seeds. Add the drained rice and boil uncovered 4 to 5 minutes, stirring once. Test a grain: it should bend and snap with a firm white core, cooked about 70 percent. Drain immediately in a large sieve and spread on a sheet pan to stop the cooking.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons ghee plus the 3 tablespoons reserved onion oil in a Dutch oven (5 to 6 quarts) over medium-high heat. Add the potato and cauliflower in a single layer and let them sit undisturbed 3 minutes to catch color, then stir and cook 4 minutes more until browned in patches.
5. Add the carrots and green beans and keep the heat high, stirring only every minute or so, for 5 minutes. The pan should sizzle loudly the whole time — if the vegetables start to look wet and dull, raise the heat and spread them out. Browning here is what keeps them from turning to mush during dum.
6. Push the vegetables to the edges, add the ginger-garlic paste and serrano chiles to the center, and fry 45 seconds until the raw smell is gone. Stir in the coriander, cumin, chile powder, turmeric, pepper and 1 teaspoon of the garam masala and toast 30 seconds.
7. Add the tomatoes and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and cook 4 to 5 minutes, mashing lightly, until they collapse and the oil separates at the edges. Lower the heat to medium-low, then stir in the yogurt a few spoonfuls at a time so it does not split. Simmer 3 minutes until you have a thick, clinging masala with almost no loose liquid.
8. Stir in the frozen peas and half of the fried onions, then turn off the heat. Level the masala into an even layer in the bottom of the pot and scrape down the sides.
9. Heat the oven to 350°F. Spoon the parboiled rice over the vegetables in an even blanket — do not stir or press it. Scatter the mint, cilantro, remaining 1/2 teaspoon garam masala and half the remaining fried onions over the top, then drizzle with the lime juice, melted ghee, saffron milk and rose water, dabbing the saffron in streaks rather than pooling it in one spot.
10. Cover the pot with a sheet of foil crimped tightly to the rim, then set the lid on top. Bake 25 minutes, then turn off the oven and let the pot rest inside, undisturbed, 10 minutes more.
11. Uncover and check that the rice is tender and dry at the very top. Run a fork down one side to the bottom to make sure no liquid has pooled; if any has, set the uncovered pot over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
12. Serve by digging a wide spoon down through all the layers and lifting rather than stirring, so you get white, yellow and masala-stained grains in every portion. Top with the last of the fried onions and the cashews, and pass raita and lime wedges.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

More from Sprig Originals

One-Skillet Blackened Cajun Chicken Pasta

One-Pot Chicken Creole

Dark Roux Seafood Gumbo with Quick Shrimp Stock

Are you this recipe's original author or publisher? Report a problem