Vegetable Dum Biryani | Soya Chunk Vegetable Dum Biryani Step By Step Recipe

Vegetable Dum Biryani was next on my list for our December Drizzle at my office. It was such a wonderful experience working with about 5 -6 colleagues, all helping out with chopping and stirring a 15 kilo vessel. We were cooking for almost 100 and it was a huge vessel that must have had measuring about 12 kilos of different ingredients. 

Knowing that Dum Biryani has a tendency of getting delayed, we started early. The team that was called in to help, was one enthusiatic group. They did a fantastic job of chopping and prepping vegetables. This Vegetable Dum Biryani is a signature dish of our office cook. Everytime she makes it, we could see a satisfied lot! 

Since I was busy cooking, I requested my colleagues to get me step by step pictures. One took up the task of taking notes. Imagine everybody round the hug vessel, looking eagerly into the pan to see how it gets cooked.
We ushered in the new year with a wonderful tone.

Step by Step pictures.

 1 Kg of Soya Chunks, 2 kgs of Onions, Tomatoes, 1 kg of Beans, Potatoes, and Carrots were used.

Heat 2 Kgs of oil

Add whole spices such as Bay leaf, Cloves, cinnamon, Cardamon, and few more spices that normally come along.

Then goes the chopped onions..once the onions brown, add ginger garlic paste, green chili paste.

Add about 6 bunches of Mint leaves, 3 bunch of Coriander leaves.

Then goes the chopped tomatoes

Now add boiled and marinated soya chunks. Soya chunks were marinated with salt and ginger garlic paste.

Now add carrots, beans, potatoes in stages.

Saute well and cook for 5 - 7 mins.

Now add the soaked rice and mix well.

 Then goes the chilli powder.

 And salt!

Cover with heavy lid and dum for 15 mins.

The rice was cooked by then. Simmer further and fluff

This is after 5 mins.

Different food colours were added to give that final touch.

All done and ready.

Onion, green chili, coriander with Curds - Raitha.

 Notes taken by one enthu colleague for future reference!

Enjoy!

Wish you all a wonderful Year ahead!

Saffron Vegetable Biryani | Zafrani Sabzi Biryani | Step by Step Recipe | Simple Bihari Thali

For the second week of Blogging Marathon, I chose Mix n Match as I wanted to try out all the themes I had listed. Best was trying out the Bihari recipes. I know when you mention Bihari dishes, the most frequently listed out will be Thekua, Litti, Chokha, Pau etc. Though I wanted to try these too, I was looking more in the other types of dishes and browsed through lot of Bihari sites. I finally settled to make these dishes from this site and I must say we loved our meal.

For the Rice dish I made Saffron Vegetable Biryani - Zafrani Sabzi Biryani. I adapated few ingredients like adding Shah Jeera instead of Cumin Seeds. I liked the way it ended up finally, though you might think it your regular vegetable biryani, it surely gave a different touch to the dish. Plus I like that fact that it gets done quickly for you to make this for your lunch box too.

With the kids at home enjoying their holidays, it becomes a big task to get things to make them be occupied. Most times they make sure they occupy by themselves, only they end up having a tiff every other second. And they have made sure I dish out chocolate cakes for them on daily basis. Now I am in the process of selecting only chocolate base cake. So look out for more chocolate cakes to make it's appearance!

I made this for a Saturday lunch and we thoroughly enjoyed the entire thali. I have planning to  make an entire thali from each state, if not the entire 12 course meal, a simple 3 -4 course meal would surely be great. In that effort I made these three dishes and it was so filling!

Step by Step Picture Recipes

In a non stick pan, heat the butter, add all the whole spices, saute well.

Drain the rice and add to the pan. Saute well for couple of minutes.

Add water, salt and turmeric powder.

Mix everything well and cook with lid covered till done. When it's done, switch off and keep it aside.

Heat a non stick pan with butter, add shah jeera, then onions. Saute the onions till it turns colour, add ginger garlic paste. Cook till the raw smell leaves.

Add the cubed vegetables, salt and cover with lid. Keep sauteing till the vegetables are done.

If required sprinkle little water. When the vegetables are done, add the chili powder, turmeric powder and mint leaves. Cook for 5 mins in sim.

Finally add the curds. Simmer for 5 mins.

The curds will start letting out moisture, so keep cooking till it almost becomes dry but not very dry.

You should have some liquid left.

Remove half of the rice.

On the base rice, add the cooked vegetable curry. spread it well.

Then on top add rest of the rice. Sprinkle the saffron milk. coriander leaves. Cover with lid and cook in simmer for 10 mins. 

Saffron Vegetable Biryani - Zafrani Sabzi Biryani

Adapted from here

Ingredients Needed:

For the Rice

Basmati Rice - 1 & 1/2 cups
Butter - 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Shah Jeera / Caraway Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Bay Leaf  - 2
Cloves - 2
Cinnamon - 2"
Cardamon - 1
Water - 2 & 1/2 cups

For the Vegetable Curry

Butter - 1 tbsp
Onion sliced 1 cup
Ginger Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Potatoes, 1 medium
Carrots, 1 long
French beans, chopped - 1/2 cup
Peas - 1/2 cup
Mint leaves - 1 tbsp
Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Shah Jeera - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder a pinch

For assembling
Hot milk 1/4 cup
Saffron few strands
Coriander leaves handful

How to make Saffron Vegetable Biryani

Soak saffron in hot milk.

Making the Rice

Wash and soak the basmati rice for 15 mins.

In a non stick pan, heat the butter, add all the whole spices, saute well. Drain the rice and add to the pan. Saute well for couple of minutes.

Add water, salt and turmeric powder. Mix everything well and cook with lid covered till done. When it's done, switch off and keep it aside.

Making the Vegetable gravy

Heat a non stick pan with butter, add shah jeera, then onions. Saute the onions till it turns colour, add ginger garlic paste. Cook till the raw smell leaves.

Add the cubed vegetables, salt and cover with lid. Keep sauteing till the vegetables are done. If required sprinkle little water. When the vegetables are done, add the chili powder, turmeric powder and mint leaves. Cook for 5 mins in sim.

Finally add the curds. Simmer for 5 mins. The curds will start letting out moisture, so keep cooking till it almost becomes dry but not very dry. You should have some liquid left.

How to assemble the rice.

Remove half of the rice. On the base rice, add the cooked vegetable curry. spread it well. Then on top add rest of the rice. Sprinkle the saffron milk. coriander leaves. Cover with lid and cook in simmer for 10 mins.

Normally this can be done in two three layers of rice, if you take a smaller pan. Since I used the same big non stick pan, I got only two layers.

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Soya Vegetable Biryani | Soya Chunks Biryani Rice ~ Step by Step Recipe | Lunch Box Recipes

I remember Meal Maker from childhood, those soya chunks made frequent appearance in many of the dishes that Amma made. Those were the days when I was eating meat and remember the meal maker soya chunks being included in all vegetable biryanis and gravies. Since it tasted and looked very much like meat, it made a great impact on many of us. I am not sure why Amma stopped using this in her cooking.

It's been almost 20 years or more since I have last seen it being used in our home. Of course this time it was me who was cooking. I remembered this again after seeing my office cook using it in her famous Vegetable Biryani. She makes one awesome biryani and adding these soya chunks makes everybody assume it to be a non veg biryani and enjoy it even more.

Talking to hubby dear about protein and how important it is to include in our diet, when he was recently on a veg diet, he wanted me to get these soya chunks for him. After buying a packet of these soya chunks, I naturally wanted to see the different ways I can include. The first one would obviously be the vegetable rice. And that's what I made. Looking back, maybe I added more in my enthusiasm. Also I assumed my boys will not find out the difference but I was wrong. They knew it right away that it wasn't meat and wouldn't eat it. So in the end hubby dear ended up eating the major part of the soya.

Soya Vegetable Biryani 

Ingredients needed:

For the Soya Chunks

Soya - 1 cup
Water - 4 cups
Salt a pinch

For the Rice:

Short grain Rice / Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Onions, chopped as julinne - 1/2 cup
Tomatoes - 1 medium
Ginger Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder - 3/4 tsp
Green Chilles - 4 nos
Mixed Vegetables, chopped - 1 cup (Carrot, Beans Potatoes)
Water - 1 & 3/4 cups
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tsp
Ghee - 2 tsp
Mint Leaves - handful
Coriander leaves - handful
Coriander Leaves - for garnishing
Garam Masala - 1 pinch

Whole Spices

Bay Leaf - 1
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 2
Cardomon - 1
Javatri -
Anise Star - 1

How to make Soya Chunk Biryani.

Take the soya in enough water and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Drain the water and keep the soya chunks aside. You may have to check if it's cooked or not. Else cook again.

For the Rice.

Clean and soak rice for 15 mins in water. Wash and prep the vegetables and keep it aside.

Heat the oil in a non-stick pan. Add all the whole spices. Saute well, then add the onions, Green Chillies. Sauté till the onions become brown in colour.

Then add ginger garlic paste. Fry for 1 min, then add the mint leaves, coriander leaves. After that add chopped tomatoes, salt, chilli powder, saute well till mushy.

Next goes the Vegetables, salt and chilli powder. Fry for 5 mins with lid covered.

Now add the drained soya chunks, saute well and simmer for 5 mins. Let the soya get mixed well with the masalas.

Once the soya looks done, add the water, bring to boil. When the water starts rolling, add drained rice and cover. Simmer till the cook is cooked well.

It takes about 10 - 15 mins for the rice and the vegetables to get cooked well. When it's almost done, add the ghee and cover again.

Keep it in the vessel for 5 to 10 mins, so that it gets settled down.

Serve with Onion raita.

Sending this to Dish it Out - Soy and Tomatoes hosted by Vardhini
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