Veg Biryani in 30-35 min

Last saturday, one of our friend announced that she is coming for lunch giving us really short notice of 1-1.5hrs. So we were frantically looking in pantry to decide what feast we can prepare on such short notice. Then I thought about preparing vegetable biryani/pulav. I have done it couple of times and it was really tasty. The receipe I followed was from book named "Perfect Receipes" by Pratibha Kothawale.  That time I had prepared dish at my own sweet leisure time. So I was not sure if we can have lunch on time. But still I gave it a try and the result was good. So now I can say with confidence that you can have veg biryani, raita and papad meal in 30-35 min. Only thing you need is planning and executing following receipe sequence in order on time.
Following ingredients can serve 2-3 people.

• Wash 2 cups of Basmati rice and keep aside.
• Cut 2 large onions in thin slices vertically.Fry it in oil till it turns golden brown.
• Fry 10-12 cashews next and keep aside.
• In a pot start boiling some water. Cut 2 medium size tomatoes in quarters. Remove seeds and add to boiling water. Let tomatoes simmer for 5 min.
• In meantime slice 2 small carrots vertically, 10-15 french beans, 5-7 medium size cauliflower florets. One by one boil the vegetables one by one  for 5 min. each.
• While boiling vegetables, start preparing masala. 0.5tsp jeera, 2 cardomom pods, 5-6 cloves, 1" cinnamon, 0.25tsp shahajeere, 1 small bayleaf, 2-3 black peppercorns grind together. Next add 2-3 green chillies, handful of corriander leaves and mint leaves, half of the fried onions, boiled tomatoes (remove skin), 1tsp turmeric powder and grind into smooth paste.
• Start heating 4 cups of water in separate pan.
• In pan heat 2tbsp oil in pan. Add whole garam masala (1" cinnamon, 1 bay leaf, 4 cloves,1/4 tsp shahjeera, 1 star anise) and fry for few seconds.
• Add 1 tsp ginger garlic paste and masala paste and fry till masala is cooked properly.
• Once masala is cooked add cooked vegetables, salt and rice. Mix everthing together.
• Add hot water in rice. Simmer on high flame.
• Once water dries out, spread fried onions, cashews on top. Close the lid, cook rice more for 3-5 min on low flame.
• Open the lid just before eating.
• Now by the time rice is cooking, you can prepare raita and fry some papads. Check the timer in the end to confirm if meal is ready within time :)

Note: I know that I did not layered rice and vegetable gravey to prepare biryani. I took shortcut of creating unlayerd biryani because finally we always mix the layers and it.