The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Moong dal and spinach complement each other perfectly. One comes packed with protein, the other boasts of high vitamin-mineral content; one is known for its digestive ease, the other for its roughage. And the colors – the pale yellow of moong playing off the rich green of spinach – are an added invitation to dig into this delicately flavored sautéed spinach moong dal.

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While grocery shopping this weekend, I found an inviting pack of methi dal (coarsely ground fenugreek seeds, also called ‘methi kuria’) in the store and, having never used fenugreek in this form before, was intrigued. Fresh fenugreek leaves and kasoori methi are ingredients I love, but am not so enthused about the whole fenugreek seeds that are used for tempering (tadka) in Indian dishes. I like their flavor when diffused; I do not like the experience of biting into these bitter seeds. This is how I do my tadka with whole methi seeds: add a few seeds to the hot oil and when they turn color, pick them out.

I guessed methi kuria would resolve this problem – since the seeds are ground, the bitterness would get spread out just the way I want it. I bought the spice pack and used it first thing in this recipe with baby potatoes. The guess proved right.

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I don’t exactly have a sweet tooth. The effort needed to prepare most desserts doesn’t match up to the high I get in eating them. So I doff my hat to Sailu’s recipe for til laddoos – the simplicity and attractiveness of these sweets shook my no-dessert spell. Here is my version – sesame almond laddoos. As an almond fan (or shall we say, "nut nut"), I hiked the amount of almonds to make up for the omission of oatmeal. The result was not bad at all.

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From my mom’s kitchen, a wholesome upma fortified with beans, carrots, sprouted moong and amla. My only contribution has been in clicking pictures and wolfing it down for breakfast.

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A party favorite also considerate to the weight-watchers – what more could one ask for? This recipe for gobi masala (cauliflower cooked in an onion-based gravy) with minimal oil is a sure hit with the dieter as well as the epicure.

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Surplus coaxes us towards invention as much as scarcity. I hate to throw food items away and equally hate to have them beyond their "best before" dates. So I’m using up my pack of poppy seeds, that’s dangerously close to expiry, in varied ways Ditto for my bunch of fresh mint leaves. I used some in pudina chutney last night when the mint was freshly plucked – the rest went into this kala chana recipe.

How awesome it is when untried combinations of flavors turn out well.

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We normally make cheela – a savory pancake popular as breakfast food in India – with besan (gram flour), but my taste buds prefer the more delicate flavors of moong dal cheela. Moong dal has the added edge of being less taxing to the tummy than gram flour.

On to the cheela recipe, with step-by-step pictures…

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