The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

A nutritious one-pot meal in which fenugreek leaves, peanuts and ghee add their charm to rice. Methi moongphali chawal is just the answer for you if you *want* to consume fenugreek for its health-giving properties but find its – shall we say, potent – taste unpalatable.

This recipe is really quick to put together if you have the boiled ingredients and the spice base – methi chutney – ready beforehand. Do as I do – make a big batch of methi chutney, use it as side dish on Day 1 and in fenugreek peanut rice on Day 2. Ek panth do kaaj.

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I know some who will not touch beetroot come what may. And so if you must feed them this fantastic food, you have to innovate. Hide it in ways that tame its taste. I present to you the gloriously colorful beetroot paratha, which has many a hater turn into a beetroot buff.

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A snack or side dish made of chana dal (Bengal gram) that capitalizes on this dal’s nutty taste. Sookhi chana dal needs very few ingredients and is easy enough to be put together by a kitchen newbie. Those who rely on instant noodles or packaged bhujiya for snack-time with the excuse "I don’t know how to cook" – prepare to shed that line!

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Chana dal has a rich texture and a hint of sweetness in its taste when compared to other yellow dals such as moong or toor. These qualities make chana dal the perfect pairing choice with green leafy vegetables, especially greens that lean towards bitter.  For those who would not touch fenugreek chutney or chaulai saag, a smart alternate to get their dose of greens is by "hiding" the leaves in chana dal.

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The answer to "What have you put in it?" seems almost incredible when the dish in question is gur ka paratha. Surely something as delicious as this MUST have a long list of ingredients mixed in careful proportions? Plausible as that sounds, it really, truly does not. Gur ka paratha is one of those gems that produce far greater output effect than input effort. Very easy to make, and only 3 ingredients.

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No, this is not a recipe for silly potatoes. The anari in the title is अनारी not अनाड़ी , which implies ‘flavored with pomegranate’. I’m especially thrilled to share this recipe of anari aloo with you as it was something of a shot in the dark for me – I had no precedent or inspiration, and only followed a hunch that this way of pairing fresh pomegranate with potatoes would work.

Did it work? You bet it did!

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