This One Pot Vegetable Biryani is the restaurant quality meal that you’ve been looking to add to your meal plan! You’ll love all the flavors!
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Dishes suck, am I right? So, if you’re looking for a huge flavor impactful dish without the mess of a bunch of dishes, then this one pot vegetable biryani is for you!
This is one of those recipes that also is perfect for meal prepping – whether you actually meal plan or not. If you’re looking for something where you can have leftovers and it taste even better the next day, then this is the dish for you! You’ll love how simple it is!
Also, if you’re like me, you just love dishes where the meal itself lends to being able to use up some things in the fridge as a clean out and this dish can definitely do that! Plus, who doesn’t love vegan rice dishes!
Whether you want an anti-inflammatory recipe, an all-in-one pot dish that’s easy, or just a delicious recipe, this one has you covered! And we know you are going to love the flavors at the end of this dish!
What is Biryani?
Biryani is a mixed rice dish that includes vegetables and spices. Often times it is accompanied by meat; however in this vegetable biryani dish it is not. The meal is dum cooked or dum pukht, which means it is cooked slowly in a sealed pot over a fire for a long period of time.
While the exact origin is unknown, Muslims in Southern Asian claim this dish.
We do not claim that this is an authentic dish to any one culture and our variation may differ than other biryani dishes you may have grown up with or had in restaurants. We hope you enjoy our take on this dish.
Jump to:
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Flavorful – By using the ingredients in their natural form, we’re able to give a huge boost of flavorful to this one pot meal
- Feeling After Eating– when you eat this meal, your body feels amazing. Not full or bloated, but satisfied and thankful
- Versatile – You can easily switch up the herbs or spices, even the vegetables that are being used to create a huge amount of versatility in one recipe
Ingredients and Substitutions:
Gather your ingredients! See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
- Brown Basmati Rice – we use a brown basmati rice for not only anti-inflammatory reasons, but also that we love how basmati rice hold up in one pot dishes without being mushy
- Substitute: you can use other rices based on your preferences or even do another grain like quinoa for this recipe. It’s important to keep in mind that you may need to adjust the liquid to grain ratio depending on what type of rice or other grain you are using
- Vegetables – we are using a combination of potatoes, peppers, carrots and onions for this version
- Variation: feel free to switch up vegetables based on what you have. Still being mindful of cooking times for denser vegetables like potatoes and a shorter cook time for something like asparagus. Other vegetable ideas are green beans, corn, tomatoes, etc.
- Coconut Cream – we are adding in some coconut cream for a creaminess to the dish without flours, starches, or dairy based products
- Chickpeas- we are using chickpeas since there is no meat in this vegetable version. Chickpeas not only add texture, but also protein
- Substitute: feel free to swap with things like seitan, meatless crumbles, soy curls, mushrooms, beans, and more
- Spices – We are using fresh aromatics (garlic and ginger) and dried herbs to create amazing flavorful dish that will heighten your senses
- Add-ins – sometimes biryani includes eggs – feel free to add in some warm tofu scramble or Just Egg scramble at the end of the dish if you prefer that route.
See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
Tips for the Best Vegetable Biryani
Here’s our tips that make this dish work!
- Soak your rice first! This may seem like a silly step, but this not only helps the rice cook faster, but helps remove some of the starch so it doesn’t get mushy/gummy tasting, as well as lengthening the rice granules.
- Same size vegetables – You’ll want you vegetables like onions and carrots to be cut in similar sizes, as well as potatoes and anything else heftier that you may decide to add (like cauliflower for example). This helps to ensure even cooking.
- Don’t take the lid off! I know, I know, it’s so tempting! But, please, when finished cooking, remove from heat and allow the lid to stay on for 10 minutes. This helps to ensure ensure cooking and it allows the process to finish giving you perfect rice every time!
Other Vegan Rice Recipes to Consider:
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The Best Vegetable Biryani
Ingredients
- 2 cups uncooked brown basmati rice, soaked* (360g)
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 1 star anise
- 2 bay leaves
- 3-5 whole cloves
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon cardamom,
- ¼ teaspoon salt, more or less to taste
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper, more or less to taste
- 5 garlic cloves, rough chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated or use ginger paste
- 1 cup carrots, diced or match sticks (35g)
- 1 small potato , cubed
- 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup cashews, sub with peanuts (30g)
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoon salt more or less to taste
- 1 15oz can chickpeas drained, rinsed (439g)
- 4 cups vegetable stock (960g)
- 3 tablespoon coconut cream thick part of canned coconut milk
- ½ cup golden raisins, optional (80g)
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- fresh cilantro or parsley, for garnish, optional
Instructions
- If soaking rice, do that first. In a dutch oven over medium heat, add 2 tablespoon olive oil. Once heated, add 1 sliced onion and sauté until softened (about 5 minutes).
- Add 1 star anise, 2 bay leaves, 3-5 whole cloves, 1 teaspoon each cumin and cinnamon, ½ teaspoon cardamom, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Toast seasonings by nonstop stirring for 1 minute. Add 1 teaspoon grated ginger and 5 cloves chopped garlic and cook till fragrant (about 30 seconds). Add 1 cup carrots and 1 cubed potato. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add 1 sliced bell peppers, ¼ cup cashews, 1 teaspoon each garam masala, chili powder, and ground coriander, and ½ teaspoon each turmeric and additional salt. Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Add drained, uncooked 2 cups rice and 15oz chickpeas. Stir together.
- Add in 4 cups vegetable stock and 3 tablespoon coconut cream. Stir well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for 20-25 minutes or until liquid has absorbed.
- Turn off heat and let sit covered for 10 minutes Take off lid, remove star anise and fluff with a fork carefully. Add in ½ cup raisins and 2 tablespoon lemon juice and stir.
- Garnish with cilantro. Serve.
Notes
Video
Nutrition
Recipe FAQs:
There is coconut cream and cashews in this recipe. You can omit the cashews or replace them with a safe nut for you. The coconut cream can be replaced with either a safe dairy free yogurt that you like (mindful of the flavor) or a safe non-dairy milk mixed with a ½ tablespoon cornstarch.
Yes, this recipe is made as a meal prep recipe. Once everything has cooled, you can store it in air tighter containers in the fridge for up to 5 days.
This dish does make a lot of food; however, yes. You will want to ensure that your pot is large enough or you need to use two pots.
We do not recommend freezing this recipe.
One of the biggest tips to fixing mushy rice is to make sure you soak it first. It pulls out the excess tarch to help the grains absorb water better when cooking.
If you still end up with mushy rice, then you can:
1. add a piece of bread to the top of the rice and cover. the bread will soak up excess moisture.
2. place on a baking sheet in an even layer and place in the fridge for 30 minutes
3. Baked at 350F on a baking sheet in an even layer for 5 minutes.
If none of these ways work, we recommend making a new batch.
This post was originally published in September 2023.
Made this dish. Double everything due to having a huge head of cauliflower. We used the abbot’s brand ground beef which worked out perfect. I was glad that you provide a way to make the meal without a cast iron skillet as we do not have one at the moment. The meal turned out delicious and is even the same if not better the next day.
Thank you so much! We’re so happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe and love hearing how you made it your own!
Can I use white basmati rice instead of the brown? Would I also soak this rice to reduce starch in the same way? Looking forward to trying this recipe! Thanks!
Yes, it’s still a good idea to rinse and soak white basmati before cooking to reduce surface starch, help the grains stay separate, and get those long, fluffy strands we love in biryani. The only thing to be aware of is that white basmati cooks faster and more tenderly than brown basmati (brown takes longer because it still has the bran). So if you swap in white, you’ll likely need less cooking time and possibly slightly less liquid compared to the brown rice. Hope this helps
Tasted great. Every recipe we’ve tried has not disappointed. Thank you.
Thanks! Would love to hear what you’d do different to give it 5 stars?