The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

A simple stir fry of potatoes and cauliflower elevated by the tadka of fenugreek seeds in mustard oil. Aloo gobhi bhujiya pairs well with pooris / parathas and stacks well in the lunchbox.

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Each kitchen stint with the chayote teaches me something new. When I began cooking with this gourd, peeling it was hard – till I learnt the techniques of making triangular notches around its folds and boiling it before peeling. Soon I discovered a different variety of the chayote: the “Ooty chow chow”, which has a smooth exterior that demands no fiddling with folds at all.

So I switched loyalties to the Ooty chow chow, as my observant regulars would have noticed in the post on chayote dal.

While cutting raw veggies and fruits, I sometimes pop a few chopped pieces into my mouth. A reflex action if you will, this usually leads me to grimace and move on – but when I did this with the Ooty chow chow I stopped in my tracks. This vegetable didn’t just look like a pear, it tasted startlingly like one. Do I even need to cook this, I wondered. (more…)

Avengers: Infinity War famously declared "We Will Deep Fry Your Kebab". This kachche kele ke kebab recipe duly follows that memo.

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Sweet potato’s starchy sweetness plays off the robust flavors of sookhi sabzi masala in this recipe. The spices make this dish taste so exotic, you can hardly tell that putting this together was so easy.

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Take the basic semolina pancake recipe up a level: fortify it with carrot and cucumber, flavor its base with a dash of dahi, spice it up with ginger and chilies. Carrot cucumber rava cheela works really well for brunch or in the lunchbox with tomato pickle on the side.

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In this karela masala fry recipe, spice-coated bitter gourd slices are pan-fried on low heat leisurely till they crisp up and lose all but a hint of their native bitterness. Serve karela masala fry to folks who shun bitter gourd – watch them be pleasantly surprised at how mellow this dreaded vegetable can be!

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Quick, easy, lightweight chickpea sundal. Just right for those times when our default chickpea preparation – channa masala – feels too elaborate and time-consuming, or when we need a break from the onion-garlic-ginger-tomato masala ensemble. The ingredient list in this recipe is “vrat-friendly” – that is, suited for festive occasions when onion and garlic are avoided.

Chickpea sundal tastes great warm or cold. It can be had as a standalone salad or as a side dish with a bigger meal.

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