One-Pot Vegetable Biryani Recipe (2024)

Cardamom's flavor is entirely in its seeds: intact pods won't flavor anything. Smash the pods with your palm-heel and a heavy knife's flat blade. Sauteeing most spices makes your kitchen smell nice, but won't enhance the dish: flavor molecules disperse into the air rather than your food. Exceptions: onions, garlic, ginger (which mellow); umbellifers (cumin, coriander, anise, fennel, caraway, dill) and mustard seed. All these have starches that convert partly to sugars (or caramelize).

Made this and it was good.However, I much reduced the salt. Note, the recipe calls for two tblsps of salt, which comes to about 14,000 (yes, that's fourteen THOUSAND) mg of sodium. (Error maybe?) If there are 4 servings (which is more realistic than 6), that comes to about 3,500 mg of sodium per serving, which is truly excessive. Some of the other ingredients have additional small amounts of sodium, and this assumes that this is the only thing you're eating at this meal, which is unlikely.

Made this tonight, exactly as written other than using regular salted stock I had on hand, therefore eliminating sea salt and omitted the mint (didn't have any). Thankfully, had Thai chiles. I make Indian dishes fairly regularly, and don't always use ghee, but I think it made a difference. Not entirely sure of authenticity here, but in terms of flavor and complementary balance of spices, it is excellent!! Recipe easily serves six. I will be making this again and again..

I’d like to know who can make this in one hour. I’m going to need to borrow the NYT time machine next time I make this because this recipe somehow took me 2 hours to make the first time.

BTW, 2 tbsp of fine sea salt has only 11 g of sodium. 1 tbsp salt weighs 14 g (just weighed it), but contains 5.5 g sodium (sodium weighs 23 g/mole, chlorine 35.5 g/mole). So, if "only" for 4 people, there is 2.75 g sodium per person. But, Richard is correct that this is still above the recommendation of 2.4 g per person per day. More importantly, from purely a "flavor" point of view, this is going to be salty as all get out. Maybe 2 tsp?

The author has a fun YouTube video on the NYT Cooking channel in which she makes this recipe. It was helpful and inspiring to watch.

... or eliminate all that chopping by using a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, as suggested in today's article by Eric Kim "A case for frozen mixed vegetables".

@ Gail.Trying to respond to Gail's question about cardamom pods. Use the whole pod. Your goal isn't to eat the pod or the seeds, but to infuse flavor into the dish by stewing them whole. You just set the pods aside on your plate as you find them in your serving. Whole cardamom is ground into coffee at Arab markets where I live. It's fragrant and delicious. I sometimes use just the finely ground seeds in a chocolate cake recipe. Chocolate and cardamom together are delicious.

I have used chickpeas instead of potato to add protein, with similar flavor.

good, but wow was it salty! Perhaps that should be teaspoons of salt?

Please advise me about the cardamom pods..the whole pod gets sauteed, or do you take out the seeds? I've only roasted and ground the seeds for use in other dishes. This dish sounds delicious! Thanks..

Smash the cardamom pods with pestle and mortar to get the seeds out, then crush the seeds. Cloves are usually taken out after cooking, but you won't be able to find them. No one noticed. I used veggie stock with salt and didn't add any salt. Double the pomegranate seeds and the cashews! Next time I'll half the potato. Mint is a must--gives texture plus flavor. If substituting jalapeno for Thai chilis, 2 small or 1 large jalapeno. Delightful dish. Will make again :)

Being South Indian this is wonderful! I also added shah zeera ( black cumin seeds) and saffron. Will definitely make this again and again!

Not sure if it was the recipe or me, but I didn't find 2.5 cups water to be sufficient for 2 cups of rice. Took a long time for the rice to become adequately saturated and tender, and only after adding another cup or so of water. Also it makes a LOT. I plan to freeze and serve leftovers with chicken or another flavorful protein.

Wonderful. Made it as a side for thanksgiving (made ahead) tastes great. I just got some curry leaves and substituted for the bay leaf.

If I made this again I would halve rice and add veggies later. I reduced the green chiles and this was a mistake on my part

I made this in the instant pot, it was delicious:I sautéed everything (except for the yogurt and lemon juice) in the instant pot, added the liquid, and cooked it for 12 minutes manual pressure, 10 minutes natural release. I added the lemon juice and yogurt after it was done cooking. Easy and wonderful! Next time I will add more veggies.

Well, this came out perfect. Absolutely delicious. After watching Zainab’s video I knew I wouldn’t add the salt due to my husband’s high blood pressure. Loved all the spices and the lemon was perfect! This will become a go to recipe for us!

I reduced the rice to 1 1/2 cups dry. Increased the cauliflower to a whole head cut in small florets. Two largish carrots. One cup green beans. I omitted the peas and salt. Used coconut cream instead of yogurt. If I don't have pomegranates I add a total of 1/2 cup of mixed golden raisins and dried cherries, mixed into the rice at the end of cooking. Substitute raw cashews, or roasted/raw pistachios, or toasted/raw pine nuts.

I also went closer to two tsp of salt, but I actually had trouble with the rice coming out mushy, and will probably Reduce the amount of broth next time or not soak after the rinsing. I had leeks and black radishes and a bell pepper on hand so those went in lieu of other veg and did quite well- nice texture on the radish after the allotted cook time.

Delicious. Very time consuming and makes a huge amount but worth the effort. I read the notes and only added 1 teaspoon of salt. It was perfect. The fragrance and taste have you wanting more!

Don’t add any peppers. It is too spicy for Matt.

Very good, but salty. I used salted stock because it’s all I had. I should’ve reduced the salt to compensate. I did add the pomegranate and cashews. I felt like it was a nice addition.

Yeah, this was way too salty. Recipe needs to be updated.

Used 2 Chili’s which was about right

Crazy salty must be an error. Also took like 2 hours not including rice soaking. Which I think negatively affected the rice. No bite, just mush.

Sorry I didn’t read all the comments first. Way too salty and not nearly enough liquid to cook the ride. Has potential with those two things fixed.

Festive. We had it as the main in a vegan Thanksgiving meal. Delicious. The emphasis on order in the preparation felt foundational to a good biryani of any description. I will be making this again and then branching out with different ingredient combos. I used Better Than Bouillon Veg. for the liquid and salted not much more than that. Another time I might try a light chicken stock. I also used ghee, which I love. It just adds a richness and nourishing quality to the experience.

I would reduce the amount of salt and ghee. Dish was too oily and salty. I also wished I had taken the cardamom pods, and clove pods out if the dish after they were fried in the beginning, as they end up showing up in the dish in whole form, only to be discovered when you bite into one of them, which is not pleasant as the spices are very strong in this form. Alternate would be to out in ground cardamom and ground cloves.

I was disappointed in this dish given the amount of work involved.Dish was too salty and oily for me. I would cut both salt and ghee in half.I also wished I had taken out the ‘whole’ spices (cardamom and cloves) after the first step, as recipe called for leaving them in. Nothing worse than biting into one of these very strong spices. Next time I would do ground cardamom and cloves.