Indian food is one of those cuisines that I have never really cooked much, but love to eat.

This recipe was Chickpea Biryani from Thug Kitchen 101 cookbook. This is a vegan spin on classic chicken biryani.

If you want to make some tasty and very aromatic food, definitely make this. Through all the stages of cooking, there were so many fragrant ingredients like garlic and ginger, as well as garam masala which is a mix of delicious spices.

The recipe says it’s a one pot meal which technically is true because you only use one pot but it is cooked in stages and you need several bowls to put the cooked items. So it starts by sautéing some onions and setting those aside. Then comes the vegetables (cauliflower, green beans, carrot) which get cooked down and then mixed with chickpeas and seasonings. After those are cooked and removed from the pot, that’s when the rice is prepared. It was cooked in broth that was flavoured with the same spices that were used before, so it was a double dose of seasonings.

After the rice is fully cooked and fluffy, the vegetables and some of the sauteed onions are mixed in and then it’s almost ready to eat. The garnishes on top were some extra onions, cilantro and chopped almonds. Those gave a really nice crunch. There were also supposed to be raisins but I omitted those for personal preference.

This was such a good meal. Everything was so well seasoned, though I did need to add a touch of salt at the end (there is none in the recipe, aside from the broth). But I loved all the flavour of the spices. This was definitely a veggie packed dish and there was some good plant protein with the chickpeas. My favourite part might be the sauteed onions – they are just so sweet and delicious.

This was a very good way to start my week!