food : instant pot vegetable biryani
I have never loved biryani any time I've gotten it at a restaurant. However, I had been trying to come up with a new dish to make for my family and stumbled upon this biryani recipe. I made convenience changes to it and cooked it up. It was really tasty!
It did not pair well with the other dishes I had made, but was really great on its own. It has a winter/holiday taste to me, likely as a result of using cloves.
I list peas, beans, carrots, and potato for this recipe... but you can really just throw in whatever vegetables you have lying around. This is a great dish to put leftover veg into.
Ingredients
| Amount | Measure | Ingredient |
|---|---|---|
| 1.5 | Tbsp | Oil (any neutral oil is fine) |
| 1 | Bay leaf | |
| 1/4 | tsp | Cardamom, ground (or four green pods) |
| 4 | Cloves, whole | |
| 6 | Black peppercorns, or ground pepper to taste | |
| 1 | tsp | Cumin seeds |
| 1 | Red onion, medium, sliced | |
| 1 | Serano pepper, sliced | |
| 12 | Cashews, raw, broken up a bit | |
| 2 | tsp | Ginger/garlic paste |
| 1/3 | Cup | Green peas, frozen ok |
| 1/3 | Cup | Green beans, frozen ok |
| 2 | Carrots, medium, peeled, thinly sliced | |
| 1 | Potato, medium, peeled, cubed (~1") | |
| 1/3 | Cup | Cilantro, chopped |
| 1/2 | tsp | Garam masala |
| 3/4 | tsp | Salt, or to taste |
| 1 | Cup | Rice, basmati prefered |
| 1.25 | Cup | Water |
Instructions
- Wash/rinse rice until water turns clear. Then soak in ~2 cups of water for ~20 minutes. During this time also thaw any frozen vegetables in a bowl of water (5-10 min)
- Drain the rice and vegetables and set aside
- Press saute on the instapot. Once hot add oil. Once oil is heated add bay leaf, cardamom, cloves, peppercorn, and cumin. Saute for ~30 seconds as spices become fragrant
- Add sliced onion, serano, and cashews. Cook 3-4 minutes or until onion browns
- Add ginger garlic paste and saute for 1 minute
- Add 1 T water to deglaze (scrape bottom of pot)
- Add all vegetables: peas, beans, carrot, potato; as well as the cilantro, garam masala, smoked paprika, and salt
- Add rice to pot, gently stir everything together
- Add water, no more stirring from this point
- Close instapot lid, cancel saute, and set manual/pressure cook mode for 5 minutes, move pressure valve to 'sealing'
- Once finished let pressure release naturally for at least 5 minute before manually releasing the remainder
- Open pot, fluff rice with a fork
- Serve and eat
Notes
- Any pepper you like can be substituted for the serano. They are common where I live and provide a nice heat so I use them. Experiment with different options if you have good chili pepper options in your area. Feel free to deseed the chilis if you want a slightly milder flavor.
- Ginger/garlic paste can be made by combining ginger and garlic in a 1:2 ratio (by weight) and putting in a food processor until smooth-ish. There are ways to make it last in the fridge, that can be researched online but this quick way will work for this recipe.