Vegetable Biryani

Every domestic goddess menu needs at least one kitchen sink dish to help maintain the scraps. This is that dish. It takes any vegetable medley and has a great flavour. It does ask that you have certain spices, and if you don’t keep them in your cabinet, I HIGHLY recommend making them part of your pantry. Indian spices are very healthy and also allow you to make a ton of very inexpensive food that stretches for miles. Takes a bit of work, but its worth it…

Make 1 cup of rice using vegetable or chicken stock instead of water. Add 2 whole cloves and 2 cardamom pods. I use a rice cooker because I am lazy, but you can do it on the stove.

While that is cooking, in an oven proof casserole dish with a lid (like a Le Crueset, or a Corian), sautee:

1 large blop butter—don’t be stingy

2 heavy shakes of cumin, coriander

1 heavy shake pepper, chili powder, turmeric

3 cloves garlic, chopped small

1 onion, chopped small

Get it all good and grainy and mixed up. When the onion is softening, add in your other chopped vegetables. **this week we should have 1 carrot, 1 potato, 1 broccoli, 2 stalks celery and one of your random choices. If you have any canned garbanzo beans, that would make a nice addition….like I said. Its not a fussy dish.

Stir those veggies up, add a finger pinch or two of salt and just a quick splash of stock. Remove from heat when the vegetables are just beginning to soften, maybe 10 minutes or so. Remove the pods from the rice (clove and cardamom), spoon the rice over the top of the veggies, cover and bake for 25 minutes at 350. Fluff to serve.

And seriously, if you don’t like Indian food, just do the EXACT SAME THING using olive oil instead of butter. Skip all the spices in all the parts and just cook plain rice. Skip the oven. Hit it with some soy sauce and call it a stir fry.