ITC Master Chef Vegetable Biryani Cooking Paste Review – Mishry

Biryanis, literally, have layers of flavors. Fragrant basmati, meat, vegetables and masalas all come together to make a brilliant sensory experience. Nailing these proportions and balancing the masalas is no easy task and this is when cooking pastes come to rescue.

ITC Master Chef has a wide range of ready-pastes (like butter paneer, butter chicken) which cut down on your meal-prep time and the hassle of collecting a wide range of spices. For the ITC Master Chef vegetable biryani cooking paste review we tried this in our test kitchen. The results were loved by our Team. More details to follow.

All the information you need to know about ITC Master Chef’s Vegetable Biryani Cooking Paste.

What are we looking for? The fragrance of spices combined with convenience that a ready-to-cook paste offers. We were looking for a hassle free way to make a flavorful biryani. 

The review parameters for ITC Master Chef Vegetable Biryani Cooking Paste are – 

1. Cooking experience 

The whole point of buying a cooking paste is for the convenience it offers. It should be able to cut down on your prep work significantly or make tedious tasks a little low-effort. When we say cooking experience, we took the following under consideration –

• Are the instructions clear?
• How easy is this to use? Too many complicated steps?
• What are the extra ingredients needed -easily available or too much needed from the users end?
• Are the mentioned proportions appropriate or do they require adjustments?

2. Taste

Biryani has layers – flavor wise and appearance wise. Balancing spices is an art that not many can master. Which is why this is something that should be able to cut down on that task flawlessly. 

The flavor of spices and their balance were gauged in our review. Apart from that, how tasty does the entire dish come out to be?

3. Aroma

All our senses are involved while eating, and our noses play a rather important role. A biryani is supposed to be an aromatic dish that is a collection of various spices. Does this smell pleasantly fragrant? Industrial or homely?

4. Other Factors

Packaging

Resealable or not? Is the packaging secure? 

Main ingredients

What are the main ingredients used? Any preservatives or undesirable ingredients? 

Appearance

We eat with our eyes first – so does this biryani look appetizing? Does the masala make the biryani dark colored or is it yellow and orangey?

Price

An 80 gram pack is priced at Rs 75/-.

Shelf life

This has a shelf life of 2 years.

Veeba Chef Gravies – We tried 4 and only liked one better than the others!

Product inspection – The pack contains a paste which is neither dry, nor watery. It is neither smooth-paste like and nor is it dardara. It has a dark brown color and a distinct aroma of spices and fried onion paste. It doesn’t taste/smell industrial and has a very home-style fragrance.

How did we make this? We followed the instructions given on the pack. 

• Boil 250 g rice with 900 ml water, 1 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp edible oil/ghee and a pinch of turmeric. Drain excess water and keep aside. The rice we cooked was neither over or under done. They have a slight bite, thus leaving room for further cooking during the last stage. 
• Fry thin onion in 2 Tbsp of oil and mix with cooked rice. We deep fried the onions until crisp and added them to the cooked rice.
• Empty the paste into a pan and mix well with 300 ml water, 25 gm fresh curd and 300 grams mixed veggies (we used Safal Frozen Veggies). Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
• Spread rice and gravy into even layers.
• Add 1 Tbsp ghee and garnish with saffron, cashew n raisins and serve.
• Close the lid and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
• Biryani is ready.

Our observations and experience (Cooking) – Rice, water, ghee and a few vegetables are all you need from your kitchen. No need for any spices, ginger/garlic paste, or khada masalas. Moreover, you don’t need to marinate or soak anything. This is pretty convenient when you want to make homemade biryani.

We were apprehensive while adding the water while cooking the paste and curd, as it felt too much. But surprisingly it worked perfectly. There aren’t any alterations that should be made to the recipe provided on the pack. Seasoning, water, rice, and veggies are all mentioned in the perfect proportions. If you follow the recipe provided – you cannot go wrong with this!

The brand asks to garnish with saffron and dry fruits, but we gave it a miss to check the authentic aroma and flavor of the pre-made biryani masala. We used mint leaves and fried onions to garnish. 

Texture – This doesn’t feel greasy or heavy. Neither does it change the texture of the rice. The masala coated the rice and vegetables perfectly. The vegetables maintained their crunch which further indicated that the recipe works well.

Flavor – This strikes the right balance of flavors! 

Very often pre-made packaged pastes taste very industrial and only have red chillies to impart unidimensional heat. This doesn’t do that! The heat doesn’t come from red chillies, but has a warming garam masala heat that highlights the spices even more.

Make sure you add the salt moderately while boiling the rice as the cooking paste also contains salt.

Nothing tastes bitter, overwhelmingly pungent or spicy. All spices are balanced and bring out the flavor beautifully.

Here are some interesting FAQs on ITC Master Chef vegetable biryani cooking paste.

To sum up, ITC Master Chef Vegetarian Biryani Cooking Paste is easy to use, eliminates the hassle of collecting and measuring dozens of spices and provides fresh flavors to a homemade biryani. This is perfect for those who are new to cooking and are not familiar with the intricacies of cooking a rather complicated biryani.

Have you tried any ready-to-use cooking pastes recently?

Our reviews are unbiased and all samples used during the reviews were paid for by us. Read our entire ethics statement here.