Brilliant vegetable biryani
A labour of love AND a showstopping dish for party season
Hello, my name is Apoorva Sripathi and I’m a writer, editor, and artist. This week’s paid subscriber newsletter is a recipe for a beautiful veggie biryani, which involves some effort – but nothing good comes easy! I hope you’ll give it a go.
I have been writing recipes here for a year and a half now and your support makes it possible! If you have enjoyed reading the introductions and wondered what the recipes are like, now is the best time to become a paid subscriber and peruse the archives. The ones I share here are always ones I cook at home – I don’t defer to trends, only seasons – employing leftovers, recipes that have heart and not flash, as well as those utilitarian and joyous. So please support my work by becoming a paid subscriber. You can also follow 💌shelfoffering on Instagram. Have a wonderful rest of the year, and I’ll be back in January 2026.
This is my fourth year celebrating Christmas, but more importantly, my fourth year of contributing nothing to the family lunch. Not for lack of ideas, enthusiasm or talent – everyone in my life knows I’m an excellent cook – but simply because the family I’ve married into make a lovely and big Christmas lunch spread (and have been for years) that my services are not required. Which is fine! I was cut up about this at first but then realised I’m free to do what the day demands – eat, drink, read my books, and be merry.
But for those of you wanting to make something big and extravagant on that day, can I suggest my vegetable biryani1? I also know that there are many vegetable biryani recipes out there, and really mine is nothing special. It is however something I have made many times, with different vegetables, for different people, on many occasions and it is one of the best rice dishes I’ve had the pleasure of making and eating. This, coming from me, is something, as my ‘a recipe for’ archive is filled mostly with rice recipes.
Making a showstopping biryani means accepting that it requires a lot of labour. It takes time and effort and the process might leave you a little tired and frustrated on a really hot day (as I discovered). But it might also make you gratified – to eat it, to serve it to friends and people you love, and delight in the leftovers sitting in your fridge. This is a good dish to rope your friends into helping you with and also a dish that demands nothing else be present on the table. Just make this and a raita, open up a bag of salted crisps and eat.
A disclaimer: I know that a part of my job is writing recipes and exhorting people to make them. But if you’re not enthusiastic about putting in too much effort – it takes a minimum of two hours to make this dish – don’t make this. I think it’s completely fair to keep your wits about you and choose sanity on most days, especially days that require some celebration. If it’s a rice dish you want, I have other equally comforting and fragrant dishes that ask for the bare minimum.
