This Vegetable Biryani with Paneer is a complete meal with grains, veggies, and protein. It begins with a base of caramelized onions, then builds layers of flavors with aromatic long-grain basmati rice and a combination of vegetables cooked to tender perfection. Each bite is infused with delicately balanced whole spices and a bold finish with garam masala.
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The recipe was originally posted in May 2017 and has been updated with new photos and video
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I have been trying to perfect my veg biryani in the Instant Pot for months now. After the success of my easy InstaPot Chicken Biryani recipe in just a few tries, I was surprised to see how different it was to cook vegetable Biryani in the pressure cooker. The key to making perfect Instant Pot Veggie Biryani is to choose the right kind of vegetables and to cut them right so they all cook within 5 to 6 mins of pressure cooking time without getting mushy.
Inspiration and Technique
This simple Biryani recipe is inspired by my mom's famous vegetable pulao recipe. She cuts her veggies in a certain size and shape, which I thought was to make the dish look gorgeous. But now I understand that it also helps them cook perfectly each time.
The same trick of cutting the veggies and choosing the right ones helped me with this easy vegetable biryani recipe. Then my talented cousin gave me the idea of adding Paneer to this dish which really took the Biryani to a whole new level.
Ingredients
To make the best and most authentic tasting biryani, use homemade ghee, choose the right vegetables or organic frozen mixed vegetables, and long grain basmati rice. The whole spices and the homemade garam masala will do their magic to add beautiful aromas and bring this delectable recipe together.
Tips for perfect Biryani
- Use fresh garam masala
- Deglaze the pot using the liquids from the vegetables to remove any browned bits from the sautéing of the onions. This will help the Instant Pot come to pressure and also prevent the “BURN” signal. If you have an air fryer you can use it or perfect golden fried onions.
- Make sure all of the rice is under the liquids before closing the Instant Pot
- Although, Sauté (more) function on the Instant Pot works great for true one-pot cooking, you can also caramelize the onions using a stovetop in a non-stick pan. This will speed up the process and also will prevent the stainless steel insert from getting scorched which may lead to a “BURN” notice on the newer Instant Pot’s
Update to my original recipe
Certain brands of store-bought paneer can get chewy when cooked under high pressure. So I have modified the cook times for this recipe to 5 minutes on low pressure. Note: If your Instant Pot does not have the HI/LO pressure cook options, you can cook the biryani on high pressure and then gently stir in the paneer at the end.
Step by step instructions
Step 1 - Rinse and soak the rice in 2 cups of water for 20 minutes. Drain water after 20 mins. Set the Instant Pot to Sauté (more) mode and heat 1 tablespoon of ghee. Add thinly sliced onions and cook for 5-7 minutes or until the onions are lightly caramelized. Take half of the onions out and reserve them for garnish (photos 1 - 2).
Step 2 - Add remaining ghee, cumin seeds, cardamom, cloves, black pepper, and bay leaves. Cook for 30 seconds. Add all the veggies (carrots, green beans, mushrooms, red pepper, corn, paneer). Press cancel and deglaze the pot removing any browning. Use 1-2 tablespoons of water if needed. See the third picture below that shows how the bottom of the pot looks after properly deglazing. There should not be any browned bits stuck to the bottom (photos 3 - 4)
Step 3 - Add ginger, garlic, turmeric, red chili powder, garam masala, and half of the salt. mix well. Add mint, rice, and remaining salt. Add water. Mix well, making sure most of the rice is underwater (photos 5 - 8)
Step 4 - Close the Instant Pot with pressure valve to sealing. Select Pressure Cook(LO) and adjust the cooking time to 5 minutes. Follow with a quick release to stop overcooking the rice. Open the Instant Pot. Garnish with caramelized onions and cilantro.
How to serve vegetable biryani
Enjoy hot with yogurt or raita and a squeeze of fresh lemon. This spicy vegetable biryani goes well with refreshing watermelon juice, homemade lemonade, or mango lassi.
Loved the warm flavors of Biryani? Check out these Instant Pot Biryani recipes:
- Chicken Biryani
- Shrimp Biryani
- Chickpea Biryani with vegan options
- Brown Rice Chicken Biryani
- Low Carb Riced Cauliflower Chicken Biryani
- Fish Biryani
- Egg Biryani
Thank you to all who have tried this recipe. It has become so popular that when I published The Essential Indian Instant Pot Cookbook, I was requested that I also include this recipe in the cookbook. I hope you will enjoy 75+ modern recipes with authentic Indian flavors in my best-selling book.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, can be doubled in 6-QT or 8-QT Instant Pots
Store-bought paneer can become chewy after pressure cooking. Here are a few options: 1. Adjust pressure cook time to 5 minutes on low-pressure mode. 2. Sauté the paneer in a non-stick pan and add it to the Biryani in the end 3. Use homemade Paneer.
Press cancel before adding all the veggies. This will stop the pot from further overheating as you remove the browning from the bottom of the pot. Then add the veggies and deglaze the pot using the water contents from the veggies so that all the browning from sautéing the onions is removed. You can also use 1 to 2 tablespoons of water to remove the browning.
Yes. Follow the same recipe. No need to soak the quinoa. Just rinse thoroughly and drain all the water before adding it to the pot.
Yes. Substitute ghee with oil. Skip Paneer or stir in sautéed tofu in the end.
Do you love Indian food? Here are my top Instant Pot Indian Recipes to try:
- Easy Chicken Tikka Masala - Creamy tomato-based curry with chicken marinated in yogurt, red chili powder, turmeric, and garam masala
- Butter Chicken with coconut milk - Flavorful chicken in a creamy sauce with an orangish hue from the red chili powder and turmeric
- Spicy Misal Pav - A popular Indian dish made with spicy sprouted bean curry served with lightly buttered dinner rolls
- Tandoori Salmon - Tender, flaky salmon cooked in warm tandoori spices
- Easy Shrimp Curry - Tender-sweet shrimp lightly spiced with aromatic whole spices and tropical flavors from coconut milk
- Chicken Korma - A mild and flavorful chicken curry cooked in whole spices and then braised in a yogurt-based sauce
- Kheema Pulao - A flavor-packed one-pot meal with fragrant long grain basmati rice cooked in ground chicken and aromatic-warm whole spices
- Madras Lentils/Daal Makhani - A creamy lentil dish cooked with whole black lentils and kidney beans, lightly spiced
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Recipe
Vegetable and Paneer Biryani - Instant Pot
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 2 cups Extra long grain Basmati rice
- 2 cups water for soaking
- 3 tablespoons ghee divided
- 1 large yellow onion thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 4 whole green cardamoms
- 4 cloves
- 10 whole black peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup carrots chopped lengthwise into 1-inch x ¼ inch strips
- 1 cup green beans chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup white mushrooms halved
- ½ cup red pepper chopped into 1-inch x ½ inch strips
- ½ cup corn
- 1 cup paneer cubed into ½ inch cubes
- ½ tablespoon ginger grated
- ½ tablespoon garlic minced
- ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 3 teaspoons kosher salt divided
- 2 cups water for cooking
- 2 tablespoons fresh mint chopped
- ½ cup cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Rinse and soak the rice in water for 20 minutes. Drain water after 20 minutes.
- Set the Instant Pot to Saute(More) mode and heat half of the ghee. Add sliced onions and cook for 5-7 minutes or until the onions are lightly caramelized. Take half of the onions out and reserve for garnish.
- Add remaining ghee, cumin seeds, cardamom, cloves, black peppers, and bay leaves. Cook for 30 seconds. Add all the veggies (carrots, green beans, mushrooms, red pepper, corn, paneer). Press cancel and deglaze the pot removing any browning. Use 1 to 2 tablespoons of water if needed.
- Add ginger, garlic, turmeric, red chili powder, garam masala, and half of the salt. mix well. Add mint, rice, and remaining salt. Add water. Mix well, making sure most of the rice is underwater.
- Close the Instant Pot with pressure valve to sealing. Pressure Cook(low-pressure) for 5 minutes followed by Quick release. Open the Instant Pot. Garnish with caramelized onions and cilantro. Serve hot with Raita or yogurt.
Notes
- Have an air fryer? Use it or perfect golden fried onions instead of caramelizing the onions in the Instant Pot.
- Deglaze the pot using the liquids from the vegetables to remove any browned bits from the sautéing of the onions. This will help the Instant Pot come to pressure and also prevent the “BURN” signal.
- You can make this recipe Vegan by using coconut oil instead of ghee and extra firm tofu instead of paneer
- I have modified the cooking time for this recipe to 5 minutes LO pressure cook as sometimes store-bought paneer can get chewy when cooked under high pressure. If your Instant Pot does not have HI/LO pressure cook options, you can cook for 6 minutes under high pressure and then stir in the paneer in the end.
Nutrition
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Bharati says
What can I say.... absolutely delicious! Your instructions were exact and perfect. I am now going to look on your website to find my next receipe. Thank you so much for taking the time to work out all sizes and settings- really appreciated!
Archana says
Hi Bharati! Thank you for your lovely feedback. So happy to heat tat you enjoyed the Biryani. I am sure you will enjoy other Instant Pot recipes too! I will look forward to your feedback.
mythili says
Hi Archna
I like the idea to teach daughter’s outbound . One doubt? What do you mean by deglaze? After sauté.
Thanks
Mythili
Archana says
Hi Mythili, So when you saute the onions initially the bottom of the Instant Pot will have some browning. So you can use the liquids from the veggies to scrape out the browned bit. The pot should basically not have any browning after the "deglaze". This will ensure that the Instant Pot will come to pressure properly. Hope this helps.
Supriya says
Hi Archana,
Can’t thank you enough for your amazing recipes.
Can you plz suggest the maximum amount of veggies/paneer biryani that can be cooked in a 6qt IP.
Thanks in advance and best wishes,
Supriya
Archana says
Supriya, you can double the recipe in a 6QT. Just make sure you deglaze the pot really well after sauteeing the onions. Or caramelize onions on stovetop which will also be much faster.
Supriya says
Hi Archana,
I need to make this recipe with 7 cups rice, what is the best method.
Thanks in advance
Supriya
Archana says
Assuming you are making it in a 6-QT the best way would be to make it in 2 batches. So double the recipe and ingredients with same pressure cooking time for each batch.
SUSHMA says
How many cups of rice we can use at max in 6 qt Instant pot to make this vegetable biryani?
Archana says
You can use upto 6 cups. But for Biryani I would not recommend more than 4 cups as the rice may get too mushy at the bottom.
Wendy says
Hi, Thanks for the recipe. I made this last night and got a burn reading, even after deglazing the pan and making sure there was water underneath everything before pressure cooking. And it did burn the rice to the bottom. Would you recommend adding more than 2C water in the future?
Archana says
Hi Wendy, Thank you for trying the recipe and posting your feedback. I am sorry that the rice was burnt. Did you use Basmati rice? Usually between the water from the veggies and the water mentioned in the recipe, I have never had the Biryani burn. I am wondering if the sealing ring was all the way in? Sometimes that could cause liquids to evaporate. Also If the sealing ring was put properly may be you can add additional 1/2 cup of water next time.
Ranjana Shardha says
Hi Archna,
Thanks for the wonderful recipe. I am planning to make this recipe for a dinner party tonight.
Can I cook it couple hours before, NPR and leave IP on keep warm for couple of hours, so that I don't need to heat it before serving?
Archana says
Yes you can do that.
Smitha says
Hi Archana,
I have a 6QT instant pot & does not have the manual option. In such a case, for how much time can I pressure cook & should I let the valve release naturally or release it manually??
Archana says
Hi Smitha, Manual button is same as pressure cook. So you can use pressure cook and follow the remaining recipes as is.
Syam says
I am not new to cooking and tried to make biryani several times before in different ways like layered biryani, marinating veggies etc but this recipie was by far the fastest and the best tasting one! Thank you.
Lokesh Kapoor says
Thank you for this wonderful piece of content.
I really appreciate your efforts to write this.
My mamma seriously loved it and I too.
Thanks a ton for this
Archana says
Thank you for your feedback.
Julie says
This turned out amazing 🙂 I added cashews and gojo berries (next time raisins, or my friend says she puts pineapple in hers which could be interesting!), used frozen peas instead of corn, and added some asparagus I had to use up... really, with this perfect template, the possibilities are endless 🙂 Thank you so much for doing the homework to get here!
Archana says
Thank you for your detailed feedback. I am so glad you are enjoying all the variations 🙂
Kamala says
Archana, this was an excellent recipe! I did not have paneer but it was yummy all the same. I used less chili powder for my kids and they ate it, no complaints. Thank you!
Archana says
Thank you! Always a WIN when kids enjoy homecooked meals
Kathy says
Another beautiful recipe from your kitchen!!!! Thank you!
Archana says
You are most welcome! So glad you enjoyed it
N says
Please could you share which brand basmati rice you use, i have tried couple of them but mine gets broken very easily.
Archana says
Kohinoor extra long grain basmati rice!
Divya Pradhan says
I tried this recipe today & it was a hit.Came out perfect & so delicious.I am not a fan of mushroom so I switched it with baby potatoes & added some green peas.
Thank you so much.
Archana says
So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the feedback ❤️
Priya says
How many maximum cups of raw Basmati rice can you make in the 6Qrt? What is 1 cup size = 4 or 8 Oz? Will the cook time be the same for a whole pot of Biryani?
Archana says
Hi PriyA! Same time regardless of the quantity. Although for biryani I do not recommend making more than 3 cups at a time. With more qty the bottom layer of rice can get over cooked.
Priya says
Is your cup size = 8oz? or is it 4 oz(rice cooker cups)?
Archana says
Regular 8 oz cup
Shwetha says
Hi Archana, I have tried your recipe with paneer, but wanted to replace it with tofu instead for a change. Can I follow the same steps?
Archana says
Yes you can replace paneer with tofu. Same steps
Shwetha says
Have tried so many recipes from your blog and every time they have turned out great!! Thank you for taking the time to make cooking easy!
Archana says
Thank you so much Sheth’s
Archana says
Thank you so much Shwetha
Siri says
I tried this and it was good for the most part but a little mushy. I used jiva organic basmati. You think it would work better if I used the rice cooking option? Also it would be nice to have something tart in it. What do you suggest?
Archana says
If its mushy, then you can reduce the amount of water by 1/2 cup. Also after pressure cooking cycle completes remember to take the inner pot out and keep on a hot plate for the water to evaporate. As far as tart as like to serve it with raita and lemon wedges.
Keisha says
One of the best recipes I have made in the instant pot! Made it exactly as recipe instructed except that I pan fried my paneer since it was store bought. The spices were super flavorful and the rice perfectly moist and tender. Thank you so much!
Archana says
You are most welcome! Thank you for the feedback
Rabab says
Hello! Thank you for this great recipe. I plan to make it tonight for an impromptu dinner party and I only have frozen vegetables. Would it be ok if I use those instead of the fresh ones? I'm also planning on using Shan's biryani masala - would that work?
I'm yet learning how to cook, so forgive me if these are silly questions! Thank you!
Archana says
Yes frozen veggies will work great!!! And also Shan biryani masala is yummy!! You may have to add a few tablespoons. And I am
So glad you asked, no question is ever silly. Enjoy your yummy meal!!