Happy Meatless Monday!  As you may or may not know, Planet Forward supports the Meatless Monday campaign – a non-profit initiative in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  It’s part of an eco-friendly worldwide movement to reduce consumption of animal products in favour of more plant-based meals to fight global warming and improve our personal health.  This week we bring you an Indian classic dish made vegetarian.  This dish goes well with curries and chutneys. 

This dish is a healthy combination of rice, vegetables, beans and peas and is full of flavour.   

Vegetarian Biryani

Ingredients:
1 cup Long Grain Rice
10 Fresh Green Beans, sliced
1 Cauliflower, cut into florets
1 Carrot, sliced
1/2 cup Fresh Peas
5 Mushrooms, chopped
2 Onions, chopped
1 pc Cinnamon
3 tsp Cardamom Seeds
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Red Chili Powder
5 tbsp Ghee (clarified butter)
3 Cloves
Chopped Coriander Leaves
Salt to taste
Water

Instructions:
Grind the cloves and cinnamon coarsely.  Heat the ghee in a pan and fry the ground cinnamon, cloves and cardamom seeds.  Add the cumin seeds and onions and fry until golden.  Add the chili powder and then add all the vegetables and cook for 5 minutes.  Lower the heat and add the rice and fry until all the ghee has been absorbed.  Then add salt and 2 cups of water.  Cover the pan tightly and bring this to a boil by raising the heat.  Then reduce the heat and cook for about 30 minutes or until rice & vegetables are done.  Garnish with chopped coriander.  Serve hot.

This is a fast, healthy and satisfying meal with great Indian flavour.  Don’t forget – to join the movement, sign up online by going to your local Meatless Monday site or you can go here meatlessmonday.com to learn more.   If this Monday passed you by, next week is another chance to go meatless – it’s only one day for an eco-friendly cause.  Join us.  Enjoy!

Thanks to grouprecipes.com for this great recipe.

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