Pressure Cooker Vegetable Biryani

Pressure Cooker Vegetable Biryani Recipe with Tips – sharing a quick and easy way to make delicious vegetable biryani in a pressure cooker. No pre-cooking of vegetables and rice.
This vegetable biryani recipe is too good for a pressure-cooked version and doesn’t taste like a Pulao. It’s not like you put everything in a cooker and pressure cook for 2 whistles and call it a biryani recipe. This biryani has the flavors of biryani and is delicious.

In this vegetable biryani in a pressure cooker

• The vegetables are not precooked.
• The rice is not precooked.
• There are layers made from the mixture of vegetables and rice.
• And the biryani is made in a pressure cooker and for 20 to 25 minutes, cooked also.
• Fried onions (birista) are added to give this typical biryani flavor.

So basically you just have to saute the onions. You don’t need to sauté or cook the vegetables or rice. Thus, half of the work is reduced.
The end result of this recipe tastes very similar to the biryani which is dum cooked. Not similar or exact, but close. So if you need an easy method, try this pressure cooker method.
For the vegetarian layer, you can use two main basic ingredients – thick coconut milk or fresh curd. I made this recipe with both. In the recipe article, I use coconut milk, but I also shared the vegetable mixture with curd. Like most mix vegetable recipes, even here you can use your choice of vegetables. You can add dried fruits and nuts also.

Ingredients

For the rice marination

▢ 1 cup of rounded basmati rice or 200 grams of basmati rice
▢ 1 teaspoon of oil
▢ ½ teaspoon of salt

Vegetarian Marination for Biryani

▢ 1 cup of curd (yogurt) or 200 grams of curd or 1 cup of thick coconut milk or 250 ml of thick coconut milk
▢ 1 to 2 green peppers, chopped
▢ ½ tablespoon ginger and garlic paste or 4 to 5 garlic and ¾ inch of ginger – crushed into a paste in a mortar-pestle
▢ 90 to 100 grams of carrots or 1 medium to large carrot or ½ cup of chopped carrots
▢ 90 to 100 grams of potatoes or 3 small potatoes or 2 medium potatoes or ¾ to 1 cup chopped potatoes
▢ 1 medium bell pepper or ½ cup chopped bell pepper
▢ ⅓ cup of green peas, fresh or frozen
▢ ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
▢ ½ teaspoon red chili powder
▢ ½ teaspoon garam masala powder (optional)
▢ 1 teaspoon ground coriander
▢ 3 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves
▢ 3 tablespoons of chopped mint leaves
▢ salt as needed

To fry the onions

▢ 3 tablespoons of oil or ghee
▢ 165 to 175 grams of onions or 1 large onion, sliced or 1 cup of sliced onions

Whole spices

▢ 1 inch of cinnamon
▢ 3 cloves
▢ 3 green cardamoms
▢ 1 black cardamom
▢ 2 single strands of mace
▢ ½ teaspoon of shah jeera (caraway seeds)
▢ 5 to 6 black peppers

To layer Biryani

▢ 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves
▢ 2 tablespoons of chopped mint leaves
▢ a generous pinch of saffron
▢ ½ inch ginger, julienned or chopped
▢ 1 to 2 teaspoons of kewra water or rose water
▢ 1 to 1.25 cups of water

Instructions

Soak and marinate the rice

1. Rinse the rice with water several times, until you see the clear starch water. Then for 30 minutes, soak the rice in enough water.
2. After 30 minutes, filter the rice water very well. Add 1 teaspoon of oil and salt to the rice.
3. With a spoon or with your hands, mix the salt and oil well with the rice grains. Set aside.

Prepare the vegetable mixture

1. When the rice is soaked, you can chop and prepare the vegetable mixture.
2. Take 1 cup of thick coconut milk in a saucepan or large mixing bowl.
3. Add the chopped vegetables and green peas. Cut the vegetables into small pieces so that they cook well. Add the ginger-garlic paste, green peppers and chopped cilantro + mint leaves.
4. Add the spice powders – turmeric powder, red pepper powder, garam masala powder, coriander powder. Season with salt too.
5. Mix well and set aside. If you wish, you can marinate for 15 to 30 minutes.
6. With curd – take the curd in a bowl and whisk until smooth.
7. Then add the spices, green peppers and ginger-garlic paste. Add the vegetables, cilantro + mint leaves and salt.
8. Mix well and set aside. You can also marinate for 15 to 30 minutes.

Sauté onions

1. The next step is to heat a pressure cooker and add 3 tablespoons of oil. Add all the whole spices mentioned above to the list. Sauté until they crack and become fragrant.
2. Then add the chopped onions. Stir and start to brown the onions over low to medium heat.
3. Cooking onions takes a while, so add a pinch of salt to speed up the cooking process.
4. Continue to sauté until the onions turn lightly golden. When the onions are golden, turn off the heat.
5. Remove the cooker from the stove burner and place it on top of the table or kitchen slab.
6. Extract half of the fried onions in a plate. Set aside. Some shahjeera will also be removed with the fried onions. But it’s good. Do not take the other whole spices. Keep them in the cooker.

Layering Vegetable Biryani

1. Using a spoon, evenly distribute the fried onions in the cooker. Now with a spoon pour the vegetable mixture evenly.
2. Make an even layer of all the vegetable mixture. Then spread all the rice evenly over the layer of vegetable mixture.
3. Distribute the fried onions that we kept aside evenly over the rice. Add the chopped coriander leaves, mint leaves and chopped ginger or ginger julienne.
4. Sprinkle with saffron threads. Now sprinkle kewra water or rose water evenly all over.
5. Now pour water along the sides of the cooker. Do not add water in the center. 1.25 cups of water will make the rice grains softer.

Pressure Cooking Vegetable Biryani

1. Cover the cooker with its lid and the vent weight attached to the lid.
2. Over low heat, cook the vegetable biryani for about 20 to 25 minutes. If the pressure cooker whistles, it’s okay.
3. Once the pressure has eased, open the lid and serve the vegetable biryani from the pressure cooker with your favorite raita, a side gravy or salad.