Red pumpkin does a great job of absorbing spices and mingling with a range of flavors: spicy, sweet, tangy, salty. These traits of the vegetable are put to perfect use in this glorious red pumpkin curry recipe.
Curries
Vegetarian dishes to go with an Indian meal, cooked in a sauce/assortment of spices. Curries may be wet or dry, and are eaten along with rice or bread (chapatis, parathas, etc).
Capsicum Cherry Tomato Curry
Capsicum and cherry tomatoes are tailor-made for worknight meals, with simple chopping needs and small cooking times. Combine with some pre-cooked tomato masala and you have a capsicum cherry tomato curry that looks so regal, it’s hard to believe how easy it was to create.
Kachcha Kela ki Sabzi: Plantain Curry
A quick-cooking curry with kachcha kela (raw bananas or plantain) that’s easy enough to make for beginners – no intricate slicing, no artful pounding/grinding, no watchfulness needed while the dish is on the heat. Everything chopped or grated "roughly", all spice measurements open to personalization.
The only detail to take care of is to avoid the blackening of plantain when it is peeled and sliced – there’s a simple tip below to prevent that happening, which doubles up as a way to keep the stickiness of the plantain at bay.
Palak Toor Dal: Spinach with Lentils
Palak toor dal (spinach with yellow pigeon pea lentils) has everything your nutritionist would give the nod to – and your palate would agree. Proteins, minerals, iron, and great taste!
Mushroom Spring Onion Curry
A curry with easy-to-chop, quick-to-cook veggies – mushrooms, spring onions and tomatoes – and a dash of Italian spices, for a weekday dinner.
Mushroom spring onion curry doesn’t require much watching over while its cooking and is ready in the time you make half a dozen chapatis. Just what you want on a day when you don’t have much time to spare for the kitchen.
Kathal ki Sabzi: Raw Jackfruit Curry
Kathal ki sabzi (raw jackfruit curry) is an Indian vegetarian delicacy cooked especially around the month of Holi, when jackfruit is in season in north India.
Newbie cooks, be warned – you are up for a challenge if want to make kathal ki sabzi. The prickly, tough-skinned jackfruit requires skill to peel and cut, and then takes ages of cooking time. Part of the hurdle is handled these days – supermarkets stock packs of peeled and chopped jackfruit, ready to cook. Go right ahead and pick up one of these packs if you can. If not, I’ll point you to the always-awesome Rak’s Kitchen for illustrated steps to peel a jackfruit.