Vegetable Dum Biryani | Vegetable Biryani

Veg Dum Biryani, a delicious one pot biryani made from basmati rice & vegetables and flavored with whole indian spices. Dum cooking means trapping the steam inside the vessel and cook it on low flame. Compared to another version of biryani, dum biryani is so flavorful and delicious. 

Traditionally in dum cooking, cooking pot is closed with lid, put on some weight on top to reduce the steam to escape and also put on some hot coal on the lid for even cooking. In home cooking, it's not always possible to add some hot coal on top of the lid, so usually i do skip that part, still the biryani turns out so good & flavorful every single time. 

The recipe that i'm sharing today is not Hyderabadi style dum biryani where the rice & vegetables are cooked separately and layered for dum cooking. Here we dump all the ingredients in single pot and do the dum cooking for aromatic & delicious biryani.

Though i like to cook my veg biryani in pressure cooker for easy process, some day if want exquisite delicious rice recipe then my go to method is dum cooking. I like the texture of the rice in dum cooking than any other way of cooking rice.

It's soft and at that same each grain is so separate("uthiri uthiriyaga" as we say in tamil ), it's very hard to achieve in pressure cooking at least for me. If you haven't tried dum cooking, do give this method a try.

No need for any special kitchen tools to achieve dum cooking, do check out the step by step instructions on how to put dum for biryani and also check notes sections for more options.Now let's check out how to make this delicious veg dum biryani.

Adding bread pieces to the biryani

In some Tamil Nadu marriage feast, a small amount of vegetable biryani is served before the traditional meal. In that biryani, a small piece of fried bread is added into it, it truly enhances the taste of the biryani. If you have a chance to eat that biryani, you know what I'm talking about. 

Some day, if i had left over bread slices, i do like to add it in my vegetable biryani. White bread tastes great compared to brown bread. Cut the bread into small pieces and then pan fry  with a tsp of ghee until golden brown and add into the biryani just before serving, mix well and serve. 
The bread pieces are deep fried in the marriage feast, but I prefer to pan fry them. 

Vegetable Dum Biryani

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 to 3  
Recipe Category: Biryani | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Veg Dum Biryani, Vegetable Biryani,Biryani in cast iron pan, Dum Biryani,One Pot rice Veg Dum Biryani, a delicious one pot biryani made from basmati rice & vegetables and flavored with whole indian spices.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Mixed vegetable(Carrot,Potato,Beans,cauliflower,Beetroot) - 2 cup
Onion(medium) - 1
Tomato - 1/2( medium size)
Ginger garlic paste  - 1 tbsp
Lemon - 1 tsp
Mint & Coriander leaves - handful
Turmeric powder - pinch
Red chili powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Cloves - 2 nos
Cinnamon - small piece
Cardamom - 1 no
Bay leaf -1 
Star anise - 1 
Ghee  - 1 tbsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Water - 2 cup
Curd - 2 tbsp
Salt- to taste

Procedure

Soak the rice for 30 mins. In the mean time, cut the vegetables(carrot, beetroot ,potato & tomato) into cubes, slice the onions into thin slices & remove the stem from cauliflower florets. Keep all the other ingredients ready. Heat a thick bottom pan( here i'm using my cast iron pan) with 1/2 tbsp of oil and add half of the onions.

Saute till the onions are brown in medium flame and remove it on the plate, in the same pan, add the remaining oil and the whole gram masala spices(cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, bayleaf & star anise).

Add the remaining onions & saute, once the onions become translucent, add all the other veggies & ginger garlic paste and saute until raw smell of ginger garlic paste goes off.

Add curd, chopped mint, coriander leaves, tomatoes and spice powder(turmeric, red chili & garam masala powder) give a good mix.

Let cover the kadai and let the veggies cook a bit. Once the veggies are half cooked and the veggie masala is bit thick,add the water.

Add salt and bring the water into boil, drain the water from the soaked rice and add into the boiling water.

Give a gentle mix without breaking the rice. Add the lemon juice & cover the kadai with lid and put on some weight to avoid the escape of steam. Keep the flame in low for 10 mins.

Then switch off the flame and let it covered for another 15 mins. Then open the lid and add the fried onions, coriander leaves and ghee on the top. Give a gentle mix and it's ready to serve. If you like to add bread pieces, add it now and let it sit for a couple of minutes before serving. 

Tasty and flavorful Dum Vegetable Biryani is ready. For other rice recipes, check out here

Related : Different type of raita recipes

Notes:

• Make sure to use pot/pan has heavy bottom otherwise it's easily get burned at the bottom.
• Adding ghee at last gives great flavor to the biryani.
• To avoid the escape of steam, you can use any weight on top of the lid. If your lid is flat, even pot filled with water works fine for making dum effect.
• Don't open the pot at once when the stove is switched off, keep it covered at least for 10 - 15 mins before opening the pot.
• Here i have used 2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice. Make sure that there is no water in the veggie masala, if you left with some water from cooking the veggies, adjust the water you add.