Vegetable Biryani

This is one of my FAVORITE Indian Dishes. It's similar to a simple vegetable bake or what I like to call Indian Fried Rice, but with much more flavor; sweet, slightly salty and bold. It yields a good portion and is quick to make.

I've adapted the recipe from Manjula's Kitchen [it can be found by clicking here].

I intially served this dish with a lactose intolerant and nut allergic audience, hence why no yogurt is used and the nuts are left to the side.





Ingredients:

For Rice:

• 1 cup premium basmati rice, brand does not matter
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 pinch saffron
• 2 tablespoons milk

For Vegetable gravy:

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/4 teaspoon asafetida (hing)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed (jeera)
• 4 medium chopped tomatoes
• 2 serrano peppers, chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon fine shredded ginger
• 1 cup yogurt *optional
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 cup sliced cauliflower, stalks and leaves included
• 1/2 cup sliced carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped green beans
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 2 tablespoon cashew nuts broken into pieces
• 1 teaspoon salt adjust to taste
• 2 tablespoon chopped  dried mint leaves

For Garnish:

• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 4 tablespoons of ghee or  melted butter
• 2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Directions

Rice:

1. Wash and rinse the rice several times until the water is basically clear.
2. Let is sit for at least 15 minutes, for fluffier rice 30 minutes.
3. Drain the rice and place into a saucepan along with water, oil and salt.
4. Mix and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and let cook until the rice is tender.
6. While the rice is cooking mix the saffron in warm wilk for about 3-5 minutes.
7. Once rice is cooked, mix in the saffron until every grain is a pale yellow.

     8. Then set aside.


Vegetable And Gravy:

1. Blend tomatoes to make a puree.
2. In a bowl add mix all of your vegetables, ginger, salt, turmeric, chili powder, *if you are including the yogurt and cashews add here 

3. *If you using the yogurt let it marinade for 10-15 minutes.
4. Heat the oil in a saucepan. 
5. Once oil is hot, add asafetida and cumin seeds.
6. After the cumin seeds crack, add the tomato puree, and cook on medium-high heat (adjust according to your stove's settings).

7. Let cook until the oil begins to leave the tomato puree.
8. Add the marinated vegetables to tomato puree.
9. Let it cook covered until the vegetables are tender, but not mushy (10-15 minutes).

Prepare The Biryani:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
2. Take baking glass dish 9″ x 9″ or similar in size.
3. Put half of the cooked vegetables into the baking dish.
4. Spread half of the cook rice over vegetables.
5. Then garnish the first layer of the biryani with mint and garam masala (if you like you can add extra cashews or almonds here as well).





6. Pour the remaining vegetables evenly over the rice.
7. Spread remaining rice evenly over vegetables.
8. Sprinkle your almonds over the top and pour your ghee evenly over the surface. 





9. Place in the oven and let it bake for approximately 30 minutes.

This dish is full of spice both flavor and heat and it goes very well with Mint Raita or just plain Indian yogurt.

Enjoy!

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Mint Raita

Raita is simply seasoned yogurt. It is usually served as a condiment to a main dish of rice and vegetables or whatever you want. You can add a variety of different things to it. I've had raita that had carrots and peas in it. The consistency can be different as well. I've had creamy, thick raita and watery raita.

The following recipe is my own of Mint Raita:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of Plain Yogurt
• 1-2 tablespoons of Dried Mint Flakes (fresh mint leaves are preferred)
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 tablespoons of pepper
• Several clicks of fresh Black Peppercorn
• 1 medium slice of a large Yellow Onion

Directions:

1. Pour 2 cups of Plain yogurt into a bowl
2. Chop/Dice a slice of yellow onion and place into yogurt
3. Add 2 tbsps of mint flakes to yogurt.
4. Add 1 tbsp of pepper to bowl.
5. Add 2 tsps of salt to bowl.
6. With the Black Peppercorn grinder, twist around the top of the bowl until the entire surface is covered.
7. Mix well and serve (to allow spices to marinade and absorb allow to sit overnight before serving.)

*Seasonings can be adjusted to your taste. I prefer to have tons of flavor and I love onions hence why it may seem like an overload.

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Homemade-Manjusha Made Recipes

So I know it's been an extremely long time since I have put up in recipes or any posts on the Spiritual Cookbook. I would like to blame it on my move and adjusting to grad school (which I do a little), but then I think no I shouldn't because I have been cooking. Just things that aren't necessarily amazing.

I've always wondered how to make the Veggie basics from scratch. Things like vegan sausages and ribs, tempeh, seitan, paneer, potato salad, hot dogs, patties and so on.

Then I thought, what if I wanted to publish a printed Spiritual Cookbook, would the Spiritual Cookbook really be my own if all the recipes came from other sites and weren't necessarily my own creations?!?!?! NO, it wouldn't be.

So now I'm setting out with a new agenda for this blog. I will still include my takes and results from other websites. I mean come on I'm not going to become an amazing Vegan/Lacto-Vegetarian Cook overnight, but I will set out to make at least one Manjusha-made spiritual dish once a month.

Let's see how this goes, wish me luck :-)

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Why Am I A Vegetarian?

Instead of posting a recipe, I thought it would be good for my followers to here firsthand as to why I chose a vegetarian lifestyle and to hear why it is necessary for the spiritual path.

I do know that I am only a peon, so if you would like to hear an explanation from an Enlightened Master, my Guru, Acharya Shree Yogeesh...Just Watch the videos below.

For More Videos on going Vegetarian please visit my YouTube Channel: youtube.com/LightofManjusha and my Guru's Channel: youtube.com/yogeeshashram.

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Common Ingredients List

This is just a compilation of the ingredients that can be found in a majority of the dishes that I cook. If the picture or name has an asterisk by it, this means this is staple for me and is always in my kitchen.

Beans/Lentils:

Gotta have them

Brown Lentils

Moong Dahl

Toor Dahl

Herbs/Spices:

Amchoor or Mango Powder

Black Mustard Seeds

Black Salt

Indian Chili Powder (I believe both are the same though)

Cinnamon Sticks

Left- Cumin Powder, Right- Cumin Seeds

Garam Masala (it's like the awesome combination of the best Indian spices.)

(Mainly for Adobo-A Phillipino dish)

Nutritional Yeast- Only used for my Tofu Scramble

Turmeric is used in like EVERY single Indian Dish. I even put it in my Tofu Scramble.



Condiments

Ghee or Indian Clarified Butter

Soy Sauce - Again only used for the Adobo

Vinegar- Used only for Adobo

Rice:

Basmati Rice is like the BEST rice ever. I don't necessarily stick to this brand, but this is what is currently in my pantry. It's a 10lb bag and I haven't made a dent in it yet.



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Mixed Dahl and Subji

This dish that  I made is a little bit impromptu. I have a lot of cut and frozen vegetables in my freezer and a ton of lentils in my pantry. I hate wasting food, so I decided to just create something from what I had.
 

Dahl has become a new found favorite protein of mines. It's simple to cook and so delicious. I eventually got tired of eating the usual beans, pinto, kidney and black. I was happy to find this other branch of the family. The recipe I found came in handy considering that I had 3 types of lentils in my pantry that needed to be used. Most dahl dishes included a chaunk. This is typically a dry or wet past of spices and vegetables. They are served as a compliment to the dahl itself. The ingredients can be found below.

Subji is known as  cooked vegetables in India. It is quite popular, simple and flexible to make. You simply pair vegetables that you like and taste well together and add spices.

So these are the vegetables that I decided to use for this Subji:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 eggplant
• 1/2 Indian Zucchini or Squash
• 1/4 Red Bell Pepper
• 1/4 Green Bell Pepper
• 1/4 Yellow Onion
• 1/2 medium Tomato, chopped
• 2 cloves of Garlic
• Turmeric
• Cumin seeds or powder
• Salt and Pepper
• Ghee (Indian Clarified Butter)**

For the Dahl:

• 1/2 cup of Brown Lentils
• 1/4 cup of Moong Dahl
• 1/4 cup of Toor Dahl

For the Chaunk:

• 4 tbsps of Ghee**
• 2 Habanero Peppers
• 1/4 tsp of Asafetida (hing)
• 1/3 tsp of Chili Powder

*Make sure to cook the dahl first as this is the longest part of the recipe.

Directions:

Mixed Dahl

1. 1.Combine all dahls, wash and soak in approx. 4 cups of water for 15 minutes.
2. Drain the mixture.
3. In a medium to large size saucepan combine 3 cups of water, salt, turmeric, dahl and ginger.
4. Stir and bring mixture to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and let cook for 40 minutes or until dahl is soft and slightly mushy. (I check and stir every 10 minutes. I only let it cook for 40 because I do not like a soupy texture, I prefer for it to be thick.)

(This is the dahl after 10 minutes.)

(This is the dahl after 20 minutes.)

      6. Mix dal, if needed, add more water to adjust thickness to your liking

          and cook for  additional 3-4 minutes on low heat. The consistency

          will thicken over time

      7. Add garam masala and amchoor powder.

(After 40 minutes of cooking and added spices.)

*The original recipe calls for the use of a pressure cooker. This method cooks way faster, but I do not want to invest in one of those quite yet.

For the Chaunk:

1. Heat ghee** in a small saucepan. Test the heat by adding one cumin seed to the oil; if it cracks immediately, the oil is ready.

     2. Add cumin seeds and as they crack add asafetida, red chilies and red

         chili powder. Stir for a few seconds. To prevent the spices from

        burning, you may add 1 teaspoon of water.

( Make sure to cap and core the pepper, and then cut the pepper vertically into slices.)

Red bowl- Cumin Seeds, White bowl-red chili powder and hing.

End Result.

     3. Pour spiced Chaunk over dal.

For the Subji:

1. Heat Ghee** in a medium saucepan. 
2. Once hot add cumin seeds, garlic and onions.  
3. Let saute for about 3 minutes. 
4. Add  turmeric, salt, pepper and cumin powder (if needed) 
5. Add peppers and let cook for a minute or two.  
6. Add the eggplant and indian zucchini. 
7. Let cook for 3 minutes.                                
8. Add tomatoes
9. Add 1/4 cup of water.  
10. Mix and bring to a boil.
11. Reduce heat to medium high and let cook for about 15-20 minutes.
12. Serve.

Final Result of the Subji.

And here is everything plated:

**Ghee can be substituted in any dish for vegetable oil to make it vegan-friendly.

The original recipe for the Dahl and Chaunk can be found on Manjula's Kitchen. I modified the ingredients such as habanero peppers because that's all I could find at my local grocery stores at the time. For pictures of some of the ingredients used in this dish and my staples that I keep click here.

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