One-Pot Vegetable Biryani

Cardamom's flavor is entirely in its seeds: intact pods won't flavor anything. Smash the pods with your palm-heel and a heavy knife's flat blade. Sauteeing most spices makes your kitchen smell nice, but won't enhance the dish: flavor molecules disperse into the air rather than your food. Exceptions: onions, garlic, ginger (which mellow); umbellifers (cumin, coriander, anise, fennel, caraway, dill) and mustard seed. All these have starches that convert partly to sugars (or caramelize).

Made this and it was good. However, I much reduced the salt. Note, the recipe calls for two tblsps of salt, which comes to about 14,000 (yes, that's fourteen THOUSAND) mg of sodium. (Error maybe?) If there are 4 servings (which is more realistic than 6), that comes to about 3,500 mg of sodium per serving, which is truly excessive. Some of the other ingredients have additional small amounts of sodium, and this assumes that this is the only thing you're eating at this meal, which is unlikely.

Made this tonight, exactly as written other than using regular salted stock I had on hand, therefore eliminating sea salt and omitted the mint (didn't have any). Thankfully, had Thai chiles. I make Indian dishes fairly regularly, and don't always use ghee, but I think it made a difference. Not entirely sure of authenticity here, but in terms of flavor and complementary balance of spices, it is excellent!! Recipe easily serves six. I will be making this again and again..

I’d like to know who can make this in one hour. I’m going to need to borrow the NYT time machine next time I make this because this recipe somehow took me 2 hours to make the first time.

BTW, 2 tbsp of fine sea salt has only 11 g of sodium. 1 tbsp salt weighs 14 g (just weighed it), but contains 5.5 g sodium (sodium weighs 23 g/mole, chlorine 35.5 g/mole). So, if "only" for 4 people, there is 2.75 g sodium per person. But, Richard is correct that this is still above the recommendation of 2.4 g per person per day. More importantly, from purely a "flavor" point of view, this is going to be salty as all get out. Maybe 2 tsp?

The author has a fun YouTube video on the NYT Cooking channel in which she makes this recipe. It was helpful and inspiring to watch.

... or eliminate all that chopping by using a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, as suggested in today's article by Eric Kim "A case for frozen mixed vegetables".

I have used chickpeas instead of potato to add protein, with similar flavor.

@ Gail. Trying to respond to Gail's question about cardamom pods. Use the whole pod. Your goal isn't to eat the pod or the seeds, but to infuse flavor into the dish by stewing them whole. You just set the pods aside on your plate as you find them in your serving. Whole cardamom is ground into coffee at Arab markets where I live. It's fragrant and delicious. I sometimes use just the finely ground seeds in a chocolate cake recipe. Chocolate and cardamom together are delicious.

good, but wow was it salty! Perhaps that should be teaspoons of salt?

Please advise me about the cardamom pods..the whole pod gets sauteed, or do you take out the seeds? I've only roasted and ground the seeds for use in other dishes. This dish sounds delicious! Thanks..

Smash the cardamom pods with pestle and mortar to get the seeds out, then crush the seeds. Cloves are usually taken out after cooking, but you won't be able to find them. No one noticed. I used veggie stock with salt and didn't add any salt. Double the pomegranate seeds and the cashews! Next time I'll half the potato. Mint is a must--gives texture plus flavor. If substituting jalapeno for Thai chilis, 2 small or 1 large jalapeno. Delightful dish. Will make again :)

Being South Indian this is wonderful! I also added shah zeera ( black cumin seeds) and saffron. Will definitely make this again and again!

Not sure if it was the recipe or me, but I didn't find 2.5 cups water to be sufficient for 2 cups of rice. Took a long time for the rice to become adequately saturated and tender, and only after adding another cup or so of water. Also it makes a LOT. I plan to freeze and serve leftovers with chicken or another flavorful protein.

Wonderful. Made it as a side for thanksgiving (made ahead) tastes great. I just got some curry leaves and substituted for the bay leaf.