Recipes

Special Vegetarian Biryani in Instant Pot

Sometimes, a recipe with too many steps or ingredients puts us off. I find that in such cases, cooking it in the instant Pot makes it so easy as the food doesn’t require too much attention when cooking. The Instant Pot (IP) is a pressure cooker but can also be used as a slow cooker. rice cooker, sauté/browning, yoghurt maker and steamer.

This biryani is a great favourite of ours and the recipe for making it without the Instant pot (IP) is here. This time I made it in the Instant Pot and it turned out just as tasty.

Ingredients to make biryani for 4 servings

For the stuffing:

2 tablespoons coriander powder
2 tablespoons cumin powder
2 tablespoons chickpea flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons chilly powder (you can use less if you so wish)
2 tablespoons cooking oil (I used sunflower oil)
1 teaspoon of grated garlic

For the biryani:

1 cup of basmati rice
6 small potatoes
3 small aubergines
2 baby onions
2-3 sweet peppers
half a cup of frozen peas.
2-3 tablespoon of cooking oil (I used sunflower oil)
1 teaspoons of a mixture of cumin for the tempering

Method

1. Wash and soak the rice in cold water for 20 minutes or more if possible.

2. Prepare the masala for the stuffing:

Add everything listed above for the stuffing in a microwave dish and cook it for one minute and stir. Cook again for one minute and stir. Allow this to cool.

3. Wash and prepare the vegetables. Slice the potatoes, onions and aubergines just half way across and stuff them with the spice mixture.

4. Turn on the Instant pot on saute mode. Heat the oil in the inner pot and add the cumin seeds. Once the oil heats and the cumin seeds pop turn brown.

5. Add all the stuffed vegetables and frozen peas to the oil. Stir and add 2 cups of water. Now add the rice and stir so that the water covers the rice. If you have any of the stuffing mixture left over, mix it in with the rice.

6. Close the lid and turn off the saute mode. Turn on the manual mode to 6 minutes. Allow the pressure to release before opening the IP lid.

7. The rice and vegetables should be cooked perfectly.

8. Using a fork, fluff up the rice and vegetables and serve them hot with raita.

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Mina Joshi

I am a busy working mum who aims to make quick and healthy authentic vegetarian and vegan dishes for my family. I am also a face to face and online cookery teacher, recipe developer, restaurant and product reviewer. I share all recipes with step by step instructions.