Jamie: Keep Cooking and Carry On
By Jamie Oliver
About the recipe
Biryani is a big favourite, and what a wonderful recipe it is. It has the capacity to embrace leftovers – whether that’s meat or veg – and you can flex it to suit what you’ve got. I’ve suggested a weight of leftover meat, but feel free to bolster it with extra veggies to stretch it further if you’ve don’t have the amount listed here. I’m also using curry paste as an easy shortcut to big flavour, so hopefully that makes it super easy for you. Now, I’ve also given you a quick method for a crispy topping of nuts, herbs and spice – it’s not traditional by any means, but I’m having fun with it. See what’s in your cupboards and make it your own.
Recipe From
400g basmati rice
250g leftover cooked lamb
1 carrot
½ a small cauliflower
2 heaped teaspoons jalfrezi curry paste
optional: 1 cinnamon stick
optional: 2 cardamom pods
250g natural yoghurt
½ x 400g tin of chickpeas
100ml semi-skimmed milk
optional: 1 pinch of saffron
CRISPY TOPPING
olive oil
20g cashew nuts
2 sprigs of fresh mint
1 fresh red chilli
¼ of a leek or onion
optional: ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
QUICK CARROT RAITA
1 large carrot
250g natural yoghurt
½ a lemon
extra virgin olive oil
EASY SWAPS
- When it comes to the leftovers, use what you’ve got. I’m going for lamb here, but you could use cooked chicken or beef, or even go veggie.
- On the veg front, broccoli, courgettes, potato, squash or even beets would be delicious here instead of the cauliflower, basically anything that roasts well.
- Use any curry paste you can get your hands on, or you could swap in 2 teaspoons of curry powder.
- Tinned chickpeas are a great store cupboard staple and work really well in this recipe. If you’ve got the jarred variety they’re even better.
- Saffron is expensive and if you don’t have it, don’t worry – use a pinch of turmeric instead, or even a squirt of tomato paste and a pinch of spice.
- For the topping, I’m using leeks for my missus, but of course use onions if you’ve got them, which is more traditional. You could use peanuts in place of cashews.
- On the raita, feel free to use cucumber, beetroot or radish in place of carrots, or a mixture.
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