Hairy Bikers Vegetable Biryani Recipe

This Hairy Bikers vegetable biryani recipe layers saffron-streaked basmati over carrots, cauliflower and runner beans in a spiced yoghurt sauce, with fried onions. While it looks a project, this Veggie Feasts dish serves 4 to 6 in 1¾ hours, at about 400 calories each by my estimate.

“A biryani is a celebration dish”, as they put it, with lots of elements but nothing difficult. So they boil it down to three rules: don’t overcook the cauliflower, don’t stint on rinsing and soaking the rice, and don’t overcook that either.

Two of their three rules are about the rice, because it boils for just 4 to 5 minutes, until a squeezed grain breaks apart. And it goes in still damp, because they write that it needs some residual moisture before the foil goes on.

Hairy Bikers Vegetable Biryani Recipe

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Baking Cuisine:British Indian Courses:Dinner

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 35 minutesCook time: 55 minutesRest time: 15 minutesTotal time:1 hour 45 minutesServings:6 servingsCalories:400 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

Crisp onions fried with cumin seeds get split three ways, into the vegetables, through the rice and over the top at the end. Then melted butter, cream and saffron water go over the top before the dish steams under a double layer of foil.

Ingredients

For the fried onions

• vegetable oil, for frying
• 2 large onions (about 300g), thinly sliced into crescents
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• sea salt and black pepper

For the rice

• 300g basmati rice
• juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tsp salt, for the cooking water

For the vegetables and sauce

• 250g carrots
• 300g cauliflower
• 300g runner beans, de-stringed
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 5 cardamom pods
• 1 x 5cm piece of cinnamon stick
• 1 star anise
• 3 cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 fat garlic cloves, crushed
• 15g fresh root ginger, grated
• ½ tsp mild chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 3 tbsp coriander stems, finely chopped
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 150ml plain yoghurt
• juice of 1 lime

For the topping

• 1 large pinch of saffron
• 30g butter
• 50ml single cream

To garnish

• sliced green chillies
• sprigs of coriander
• lime wedges
• raita, to serve

Instructions

1. Fry the onions: Fry the onions in a thick layer of oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat, stirring, until crisp and dark brown. Add the cumin seeds for the last few minutes of frying, then season well and drain on kitchen paper.
2. Rinse and soak the rice: Cover the rice with water in a large bowl, swill a couple of times until cloudy and drain, then repeat until fairly clear. After that, leave it to soak for 30 to 45 minutes.
3. Par-boil the vegetables: Meanwhile, slice the carrots and beans on the diagonal and cut the cauliflower into small florets. Then simmer the carrots in salted boiling water for 5 minutes, add the cauliflower and beans and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more.
4. Check the cauliflower: Start checking after 3 minutes, because the carrots should be just tender and the cauliflower still al dente, not cooked through.
5. Make the sauce: Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole and fry the whole spices and bay leaves for a minute. Then add the garlic, ginger and ground spices for a couple of minutes, stir in the remaining sauce ingredients and season. Next add the vegetables and take the dish off the heat.
6. Prepare the saffron: Toast the saffron in a dry frying pan and let it cool. Next grind it to a powder with a pinch of salt, add 2 tablespoons of just-boiled water and leave it to stand.
7. Par-cook the rice: Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6, then boil the drained rice in water with the salt and lemon juice for 4 to 5 minutes. Then it should be almost but not quite cooked, so a squeezed grain breaks into several firm pieces, not mush.
8. Layer: Drain the rice without shaking it dry and taste for salt. Then stir a third of the onions into the vegetables and another third into the rice. Then spoon the rice over the vegetables, pour over the butter melted with the cream, and drizzle with the saffron water.
9. Steam and bake: Cover with 2 layers of foil over a high heat, then as soon as it bubbles and the foil puffs, bake for about 20 minutes.
10. Rest and serve: Leave it to stand for 15 minutes before lifting the foil, when the rice should be dry and fluffy, then scatter over the last onions. And serve with green chillies, coriander, lime wedges and raita.

FAQs

How is their Great Curries vegetable biryani different?

It’s a bigger party dish for 8, with mushrooms, potatoes and green beans in a tomato curry, layered with stock-cooked rice and peas. And it bakes for 45 minutes at 190°C, then gets quartered boiled eggs and coriander on top.

They say most of the work can be done in advance, leaving 15 minutes’ preparation plus the bake, so I’d pick it for crowds.

Can you make it ahead?

The Veggie Feasts version isn’t written for making ahead, but the onions, saffron water and vegetable sauce can all wait while the rice soaks. So I’d do those first, as the book does, and boil the rice last, since it needs some residual moisture when it’s layered.

But if you want most of the work done the day before, the Great Curries version above is the one to choose.

Is it vegan?

Not as written, because the sauce uses plain yoghurt and the topping has butter and single cream. But I’d expect plant-based yoghurt and cream, plus a dairy-free spread, to work, though that’s my swap rather than theirs.

And the Great Curries version isn’t vegan either, with milk, yoghurt and butter in the topping and optional eggs.

Why toast the saffron first?

The book doesn’t say why, but I think toasting dries the threads so they grind finely with the salt and release their colour quickly. So I’d keep the step, because that small amount of liquid has to stretch across the whole top of the rice.

What else should you serve with it?

They serve it with raita, and there’s a raita recipe in Veggie Feasts too, so it’s worth making rather than buying. And a plate of their gram flour onion bhajis makes it a full Indian feast.

If meat-eaters are joining in, their Chicken & Egg chicken biryani or sealed-pot lamb biryani would sit happily on the same table.