The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Sabudana kheer (sago pudding) – an easy dessert idea for a party menu. It cooks quicker than rice kheer, needs the stove top only (no oven), and is vegetarian-friendly.

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WYSIWYG in this recipe: three ingredients – butter, soy sauce, fresh baby corn – come together to give this delicious snack.

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When you have run out of vegetables, make jhunka.

This piece of wisdom that I received from my Punekar friend was worth its weight in gold during the pandemic lockdown. With just besan and my backlog of onions, the barebones jhunka recipe gave me several filling, comforting meals.

So, what exactly is jhunka? Wikipedia defines it as:

…a vegetarian traditional Indian dish prepared in Maharashtra, Goa and North Karnataka. It is essentially a chickpea flour porridge.

Hmmm. Calling it a “porridge” is rather a stretch! Do they mean pithle? I’ll let the matter rest with a Shakespearean reference and point you to the blog becauseanyonecancook, which describes pithle and jhunka with more nuance.

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All hail this riot of red! With the crunch of peanuts, the creaminess of coconut, the heat of chili and pepper, this beetroot rice recipe makes for an immensely satisfying meal.

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A super flavorful kadhi spiced with mustard (sarson) and fenugreek (methi). This recipe’s highlight is its use of methi in as many as three forms: methi seeds roasted and ground, methi seeds soaked overnight, and fresh methi leaves fried.

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Till not too long ago, pancakes for me meant cheela. The flour/batter of the pancake would vary: if not besan then moong or sooji, but the template of ‘thick batter + a dash of seasoning’ was a constant.

A chance viewing of Maangchi’s vegetable pancake recipe brought about a shift in this template.

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