Vegan Dum Aloo Biryani

I have said this before but it bears repeating: contrary to what you might have been led to believe, a biryani is one of the easiest Indian dishes you can make. Weeknight easy.

You don't have to slog hours over a slow fire to make a delicious biryani. As I showed you in my vegetable biryani recipe, a quick and tasty biryani is very possible using some clever, but not strenuous, multitasking.

And, of course, as you already know if you love Indian food, a biryani is one of the most rewarding dishes you can make: it infuses you, the cook, with a deep sense of satisfaction, and your eaters with awe at this incredible food you just cooked up that they can't get enough of.

For this healthy vegan Dum Aloo Biryani, I combined two of the tastiest Indian dishes: Kashmiri Dum Aloo, a delicious concoction of baby potatoes in a creamy orange fennel and yogurt gravy, and a vegetable biryani.

As disparate as these two dishes sound, they do have a lot in common. Both traditional biryanis and dum aloo are Mughlai dishes, legacies of Muslim invaders who arrived in India hundreds of years ago and helped create a cuisine that was decadently rich and flavorful: a cuisine fit for kings. They are both cooked in the "dum" style, where the ingredients are placed in a sealed pot and allowed to cook over a slow fire so they steam together, absorbing each other's flavors. And a biryani uses many of the same ingredients that a dum aloo does, including yogurt and spices.

There's one more wonderful thing about my dum aloo biryani: I air-fry or bake the potatoes instead of deep-frying them, as is traditionally done. This results in zero loss of taste but it also makes this dish far healthier: rich tasting without the calories. Now that's a win-win.

Why you'll love this Vegan Dum Aloo Biryani

• It's packed with flavor. You have the tasty, spongy potatoes that soak up the deliciously spiced yogurt gravy. These form the base for those delicious, savory grains of rice flavored with saffron and mint.
• It's easy- and quick. The fact that there usually isn't a great deal of chopping and other prep involved in making a biryani is what, to my mind, makes it an easy dish. On a weeknight I usually just have to get my ingredients together and chop a few herbs. In this recipe you do have one extra step--prepping the potatoes--but that's not a difficult nor a long process, as I'll show you.
• It's a one-dish meal. Serve this dum aloo biryani with a vegan raita and you have a complete meal.
• It's kid-friendly. The yogurt sauce is mildly spiced, and kids will love the combination of rice and potatoes. If you're not cooking for kids and you would like to add more cayenne, you can definitely do so.

Ingredients

• Basmati rice. Always use basmati for a biryani. Its long, fragrant grains that stay separate after cooking are integral to the richness and deliciousness of this dish. No substitutions allowed here.
• Baby potatoes or new potatoes. Preferably use the smallest potatoes you can find. Potatoes are usually left whole in dum aloo, but to do that you need potatoes that are pretty small--no more than an inch across. The baby potatoes I found at the market this time were between an inch and a half to two inches wide so I cut them in half, which works perfectly fine. You can use regular yukon or red potatoes as well but cut them in smaller pieces if large. Do not use starchy potatoes like russets in this recipe.
• Vegetable oil. I use mustard oil in this recipe because that's what you'd use in a Kashmiri dum aloo. Mustard oil is not easily found in U.S. supermarkets but you can easily buy it online and in Indian stores. I usually have some on hand since I became smitten with making my own homemade Indian pickles, and it has lots of other uses in north Indian cuisine. If you can't source mustard oil, any vegetable oil (with the exception of olive oil and coconut oil) would work great.
• Whole spices: brown cardamom, green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves.
• Fennel seeds (saunf). A common add to dum aloo, they add distinctive flavor in this biryani. Powder the seeds before using.
• Ground coriander. For lemony freshness.
• Ginger powder. Sonth, or dry ginger powder, is an ingredient that features in nearly any Kashmiri dish, including Dum Aloo.
• Biryani masala (or garam masala). This helps add a lot of flavor, quickly.
• Asafetida (hing). While asafetida is not a typical ingredient in a biryani, it definitely is one used commonly in Kashmiri dum aloo and, like the fennel, helps balance the flavors out in this dish.
• Shah jeera (caraway seeds or royal cumin seeds). This is a key flavor agent in biryanis but if you cannot find it use regular cumin seeds instead.
• Herbs: mint, dill and cilantro. That may sound like a lot of herbs, but when it comes to a flavorful biryani, the more herbs you use the merrier, and tastier, your biryani will be. If you have to leave one of these out, leave out the dill, or use dry versions of dill (and mint). If using dry herbs always scale down considerably in quantity (I'd sub 1 teaspoon of dry herbs for every tablespoon of fresh).
• Vegan yogurt. You can use a storebought yogurt, any unflavored kind is fine, or you can make your own. I have a probiotic vegan cashew yogurt recipe on the blog as well as a recipe for vegan yogurt made in the Instant Pot. I really like the richness of cashew yogurt in this biryani: it creates the silkiest gravy for the potatoes to soak in.
• Kashmiri red chilli powder (or use paprika). Kashmiri red chili powder is very mildly flavored but is supposed to have fiery color that stains the food an appetizing red. The reason I say "supposed" is because the Kashmiri red chili powder I buy at my local Indian grocery store almost never has that great color, so I typically end up using paprika, which also offers great color with mild spice.
• Turmeric. To help create that orange gravy and, of course, for its immense healthfulness.
• Fried onions. I usually buy the Aldi's version of French's fried onions, which is available for a steal at under a dollar a container. You can also buy fried onions at the Indian store, in a plastic packet. This is perhaps the only addition in this recipe that's not a perfectly healthy one, but it's a small compromise and it adds authentic flavor. You just need about a cup altogether and given that this recipe has around 10 servings that's not a lot per serving.
• Saffron. The brilliantly crimson, fragrant stigma of the purple crocus flower that grows abundantly in Kashmir is a mandatory add to any biryani, and it dovetails nicely with the Kashmiri theme here.
• Nondairy milk. Oat milk or cashew milk or almond milk would all work. You just need a little to soak the saffron strands.

How to make Dum Aloo Biryani

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FAQs

Make-ahead, refrigeration and storage instructions

• You can make the biryani a day ahead. Reheat it in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until warmed through.
• You can also make the rice and gravy a day or two ahead and assemble and cook the biryani the day you plan to serve it.
• The biryani will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
• For longer storage freeze the biryani in an airtight, freezer-safe container. Thaw and reheat before serving.

Related recipes

• Kashmiri Dum Aloo
• Homemade Biryani Masala Spice Mix
• Easy Vegetable Biryani
• Instant Pot Butternut Squash Biryani
• Vegan Keema Biryani
• More Vegan Indian Recipes