In this New year, with all your support and blessings, I have planned to start veg biryani series from this week. I guess most of you make ( Both vegetarian & Non-vegetarian) make biryani in weekend especially on Sunday. Even I too make biryani mostly on Sundays, make myself free and enjoy my time with my family. To me, Biryani is an easy to make yet very rich & delicious one pot meal that make everyone drool over its smell & color. I love to try varieties of biryani recipes by watching TV shows, by referring blogs or cookbooks. I thought of blogging the same here as it might be useful to vegetarians who look for varieties of biriyani recipes. So every Sunday, you can expect some yummy biryani & pulao recipes in my blog.
Actually I wanted to start this series with “How to cook Basmati rice” post. But I still have some work pending to bring that post here. As I am in Salem, I couldn’t do it. So I thought of starting this series with this most popular Dindigul thalappakatti biryani recipe in which I used jeera rice. Generally vegetarians have less options for biryani varieties. So I used to refer non-veg biryani recipe too & try it by replacing chicken or mutton with vegetables like mushroom, Gobi/cauliflower and soya chunks. You can find one such examplehere. Even today I have shared Dindigul thalapakatti style veg biryani which is the most popular mutton biryani of Dindigul district.
For this recipe, I referred so many sites and read readers comments to get some idea about its color, the rice used in it etc. Finally I landed upon here & tried this biryani by making small changes in the actual recipe to achieve its brown color. I used mushroom & soya chunks/meal maker in place of mutton ;). The taste was awesome. It came out super flavourful with minimum masala. Raksha & Sendhil loved it a lot.
Raksha told me to make the same biryani next day too for her lunch box . So I made a minimum quantity for her using rice cooker. Now I can confidently try this biryani for my guests too. I served this biryani with simple onion raita as a side dish. I made fruit custard for dessert & curd rice as well. So last week we had this biryani, raita, fruit custard and curd rice for our lunch. It was simple yet divine ! I have updated this recipe with a full video. Do watch it !
I will try my level best to collect the best biryani recipes, try them in my kitchen and share it here.Wish me Good Luck. Leave your feedback or share the picture if you try any biryani recipes from this series. It will motivate me to try n post more. Check out my other biryani & pulao recipes that are popular in my blog.
Take the ingredients given under “For Spice powder” and grind them nicely to a fine powder. You can also use a mortar & pestle to do this job. But powder it well else you will get spices in mouth while eating.( Suppose if ur mixie doesn’t grind smaller quantities,just double the above ingredients, grind it and use half the powder for this recipe. Use the remaining in kurma or gravies.)
Finely chop onion and tomato. Slit green chillies. Boil 2 cups of water and soak the soya chunks. Wash and clean the mushrooms. Set aside.
Wash the jeera rice and set aside. I used Nawab brand. NO NEED TO SOAK IT. In a pressure cooker base, heat oil + ghee and saute the biryani leaf. Then add onions, green chillies. Saute till onion turns transparent. Then add ginger-garlic paste. Toss well till raw smell emanates completely. Keep the flame medium.
Now add finely chopped tomato and saute till it becomes mushy. Add salt to quicken the process. Now add coriander powder & ground spice powder. Roast it well till u get a nice smell. Keep the flame low as it may burn. Now add soya chunks after squeezing it well & add mushrooms too. Mix well & add water, washed rice with required salt, add curd or lemon juice in water along with finely chopped mint,coriander leaves. Mix well.
Check for salt & spiciness. Close the cooker and pressure cook in very low flame for one whistle. It takes nearly 8-10 minutes. After the steam is released, open the lid and fluff the rice with fork. Serve hot with raita ! Enjoy !
Note
I did not soak the rice. So I used 2 cups of water. If you soak the rice for 30 minutes,use 1.5 cups of water and add few tbsp of more water if necessary.
The spice powder is very important. Do not skip it.
You can make this biryani with either soya chunks or mushroom. U can also use other vegetables but the flavor and taste of this biryani may change as carrots give sweet taste to the rice.
You can also add finely chopped coriander & mint leaves at the end before closing the cooker. But I din’t use it.
Squeeze the soya before adding to the cooker else it will look bloated.
Do check out my other biryani & pulao recipes that are popular in my blog.
Looks delicious.this is sure a treat for vegetarians! Eager to see all of your future biryani posts. Its like a festival for a biryani lover like me! 🙂
Guess cited hyperlink ("here") are not linked to corresponding source!
And also one quick question, there is no need for chili powder for this recipe? slitted green chilies are enough?
Thanks Sharan.I was out of station & i was doing this post from mobile.So there are some mistakes.Thanks for the mention.Now corrected everything. Yes,this recipe doesn't need red chilli powder.The color of this biryani is supposed to be light brown.So no chilli powder is used here.Pls add more chillies if u want more spicy biryani 🙂
Hi , U r right.U shud add soya + mushroom after adding tomatoes & spice powder.As we have soaked soya in hot water,it gets cooked easily and mushroom usually cook very fast.So Its enough if u add both before adding water.Just give a saute in masala & add water. 🙂 Thanks for aking.I have mentioned the same in the post too.
I tried today & the taste was awesome. Different from regular briyani. All my friends who had liked it and of course me too. I did not add soya since I thought it will be heavy for 3 people. Well done Chitra ji.
–Jayagopal
Hi chitra – tried it out and tasted delicious .. It's definitely one more tasty dish to our Sunday meal rotation :)) thanks a lot … Will post a link back to ur recipe once I publish my post … Cheers, Kalyani
Hi… I followed your recipe without any deviation. . Taste and aroma was too good… I have tried many of your recipe.. As a Briyani lover…posted the comment for first time.. Superb..
Hi..
Can you suggest about this recipes keeping quality.. Planning for a trip.. I would like to include this in menu..Thank you for the previous spontaneous reply..
Hi Durga, I think this rice stays good for one day.. May be for 12 hours. As It has onions, I doubt whether it will stay more than that. If you try it, please update your feednack here 🙂
Dindigul Thalappakatti biriyani – vegetarian version 
Def a different style of biryani for sure..Will give it a try.
guess u misspelled biriyani as payasam/kheer
The biriyani looks awesome… yet to try this variety… dear please change the header… there is an error in the recipe post…
Yes friends.I will change it.thanks 😊
Looks delicious.this is sure a treat for vegetarians! Eager to see all of your future biryani posts. Its like a festival for a biryani lover like me! 🙂
Thank u Divs 🙂
delicious.. I have bookmarked it. Chitra I too love one pot meals for lunch..
Hi Chitra,
Guess cited hyperlink ("here") are not linked to corresponding source!
And also one quick question, there is no need for chili powder for this recipe? slitted green chilies are enough?
Regards
Shpr
Thanks Sharan.I was out of station & i was doing this post from mobile.So there are some mistakes.Thanks for the mention.Now corrected everything. Yes,this recipe doesn't need red chilli powder.The color of this biryani is supposed to be light brown.So no chilli powder is used here.Pls add more chillies if u want more spicy biryani 🙂
I love this briyani anytime.. Delicious.
Lovely briyani!! love your commitment and passion dear 🙂
Thank u Rumana, Sundari 🙂
Mouthwatering biryani!!! Looks awesome…
Chitra, When do you add soya+mushroom. From pics I understand its after tomatoes but does it need to cook well before adding rice/water
Hi , U r right.U shud add soya + mushroom after adding tomatoes & spice powder.As we have soaked soya in hot water,it gets cooked easily and mushroom usually cook very fast.So Its enough if u add both before adding water.Just give a saute in masala & add water. 🙂 Thanks for aking.I have mentioned the same in the post too.
I tried today & the taste was awesome. Different from regular briyani. All my friends who had liked it and of course me too. I did not add soya since I thought it will be heavy for 3 people. Well done Chitra ji.
–Jayagopal
Thanks a lot for trying and feedback:)
You are so thorough and meticulous with your recipe Chitra ! Very kind, thankyou
Thank u KR 🙂
I tried this in clay pot it turned out awesome….thanks
Thank u so much for the feedback 🙂 Clay pot would have made it more tasty.I will try it too.
It looks Yummy. Will try definitely.
Hi chitra – tried it out and tasted delicious .. It's definitely one more tasty dish to our Sunday meal rotation :)) thanks a lot … Will post a link back to ur recipe once I publish my post … Cheers, Kalyani
Thanks Kalyani 🙂
Hi today I tried ur thalappakatti style biriyani it was awesome it was very close to thalappakatti
In addition to ur recipe I added crushed shallots and crushed garlic
Thanks for trying.Shallots & garlic is a nice addition 🙂 I will try next time.
Hi… I followed your recipe without any deviation. . Taste and aroma was too good… I have tried many of your recipe.. As a Briyani lover…posted the comment for first time.. Superb..
Oh wow tats great to know.Thank you so much for taking time to write here.😊😊
Hi..
Can you suggest about this recipes keeping quality.. Planning for a trip.. I would like to include this in menu..Thank you for the previous spontaneous reply..
Hi Durga, I think this rice stays good for one day.. May be for 12 hours. As It has onions, I doubt whether it will stay more than that. If you try it, please update your feednack here 🙂
Oh..thank you… 12hrs is more than enough… Happie…😊😊
😊😊
Can we use paneer or baby corn in the place of mushrooms and soyachunks??
Can we use paneer or baby corn in the place of mushrooms and soyachunks??
Yes u can use. Flavor may slightly vary