This vegan biryani recipe is a hearty dish made with rice, vegetables and a mix of spices. It's perfect for your next potluck or dinner party! Made in only one pan it is also perfect for a mid-week family meal. It is tasty, full of flavour and packed with healthy vegetables.
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My husband is a huge fan of Indian cuisine. Whenever I ask him what he would like for dinner, his answer will always be Indian food! This is exactly how this vegan biryani recipe was born - he requested his usual curry for dinner and I wanted to mix it up a little and I love a biryani when I'm eating out so I thought why not try to make a mixed rice dish at home so that the whole family could enjoy it.
As recipes go, this is relatively straight forward, although you will need to do some chopping prep. Otherwise it is a cook all in one pan sort of meal, which I personally love because it saves me the washing up and is a complete meal in one! It also keeps really well in the fridge for leftovers the next day, which is very welcome in our busy house - I always try to make a little extra to save me cooking another day in the week.
This vegan biryani is full of flavour from the spices, but isn't hot so it is suitable for the whole family, and is an excellent way of getting some extra vegetables into children at dinner time!
Ingredients
You can mix up the vegetables in this biryani recipe as you see fit, just try to keep the volumes the same and bear in mind that some vegetables might need more or less water to cook so keep an eye on the liquid volume as it cooks. Other vegetables you might want to try in this recipe are peas, cauliflower, celery, sweet potato, or beans and pulses such as chickpeas. Traditional biryani is quite a forgiving recipe that you can make with whatever you have hanging around in the fridge.
This vegan biryani is full of fresh vegetables and is really quite good for you and gives you at least 2 of your five a day. If you were worried about salt content I would use a low salt vegetable stock.
The spices give this recipe a great flavour. We use spices quite a lot in cooking and our spice cupboard was driving me insane so I decided to organise it. I bought these plastic storage pouches and labels on Amazon and they have revolutionised my spice storage! I decanted all my spices into these pouches and put them into a box that I can easily grab out of the cupboard whenever I need it. It saves me scrabbling around, dropping small glass jars everywhere and also means that all my spices can be seen easily. The best way of making sure that your spices are fresh is to use whole spices such as cumin seeds and cardamom pods and grind them with a pestle and mortar just before use.
For this recipe you will need...
- olive oil
- onion (diced)
- garlic (minced)
- ginger (minced)
- vine tomato
- green beans (chopped into 1 cm pieces)
- potatoes
- green bell pepper (diced)
- water
- cayenne pepper
- black pepper
- garam masala
- ground coriander
- ground turmeric powder
- ground cumin
- ground cinnamon (or add a cinnamon stick and remove after cooking)
- vegan vegetable stock
- long grain basmati rice (rinsed)
It looks like a long list of ingredients for a vegetarian biryani recipe but most of it is just spices so if you have a well stocked spice cabinet you will probably have most of these already. For exact quantities see the recipe card below.
Instructions
Add a tablespoon of oil (olive) to a large saucepan on a medium heat
Add the sliced onions and cook for 4 minutes, stirring until translucent
Mix in the chopped tomato, garlic, ginger and 250ml water.
Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes or so on a medium-high heat, until the water has evaporated
Add the rest of the vegetables and potato and stir to mix.
Next add in the spices and pepper and stir well making sure to stir right to the bottom of the pot.
Pour in the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
Rinse and drain the basmati rice, add to the large pan and cook with the lid on, on a low heat for 20 minutes or so, until the rice almost cooked through.
Turn off the heat and let sit for a further 5 minutes with the lid on so the steam can finish cooking the rice and so that the rice soaks up all the fragrant spices.
Serve.
📖 Recipe
Easy Vegan Biryani Recipe | Vegetable Biryani
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This vegan biryani recipe is a hearty dish made with rice, vegetables and a mix of spices. It's perfect for your next potluck or dinner party! Made in only one pan it is also perfect for a mid-week family meal. It is tasty, full of flavour and packed with healthy vegetables.
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion (diced)
- 4 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 Tbsp ginger (minced)
- 1 large vine tomato
- 100 g green beans (chopped into 1 cm pieces)
- 2 medium potatoes
- 1 green pepper (diced)
- 250 ml water
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp cumin
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 litre vegan vegetable stock
- 200 g basmati rice (rinsed)
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a large saucepan on a medium heat
- Add the onion and cook for 4 minutes, stirring until translucent
- Mix in the chopped tomato, garlic, ginger and 250ml water
- Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes or so, until the water has evaporated
- Add the rest of the vegetables and potato and stir to mix
- Next add in the spices and pepper and stir well.
- Pour in the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
- Rinse and drain the basmati rice, add to the saucepan and cook with the lid on, on a low heat for 20 minutes or so, until the rice almost cooked through.
- Turn off the heat and let sit for a further 5 minutes with the lid on so the steam can finish cooking the rice.
- Serve.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Hob
- Cuisine: Indian
Vegan Biryani Variations
Of course you can mix up the vegetables in this recipe according to what you have to hand and preferences. You could add diced sweet potatoes or mushrooms. Try to keep the base ingredients and Indian biryani spices the same though. You could also look to add some extra protein by adding, green peas, beans, crunchy cashews, golden raisins or chickpeas, or even some vegan 'chicken' would work well in this recipe.
If you wanted to change the rice, it would also work well with white long grain rice, or even brown basmati rice, although you would need to increase the cooking time and maybe add some extra liquid.
FAQs
How long does this vegan biryani keep for?
This will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
Can I freeze this vegan biryani?
Yes - it freezes well. Put it in a freezer safe container or freezer bag, label and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge and reheat until piping hot.
What to serve with this easy vegan biryani?
This biryani is great on it's own but I do like to serve it with a freshly made chapati and some vegan raita. You could also add a dash of freshly squeezed lemon juice on the top. Top with fresh herbs, fresh mint leaves or fried onions. You can of course also use it as a side dish or as part of a larger meal for special occasions.
Can I make this recipe in a pressure cooker?
I haven't tried it but I can't see why not. I would suggest frying the onion first then adding the rest of the ingredients and cooking on high pressure for 5 minutes followed by a quick release. Let me know if you try it.
Can I make vegan biryani in a slow cooker?
Absolutely, follow the instructions above for the instant pot but cook on low for 4 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick and that there is enough liquid.
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