The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

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 goodies that produce far greater output effect than input effort. Hardly any effort, and only 3 ingredients.

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Mango phirni gives a seasonal twist to the conventional rice phirni (creamy Indian rice pudding). This mango delicacy is a summertime favorite inspired by a recipe I saw on the TV show Turban Tadka.

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Kundru (tindora/tendli or ivy gourd) hasn’t always been a vegetable I was fond of. For long years I thought it was an unsophisticated version of parval (pointed gourd)^[1]. It is only recently that a slow appreciation of this gourd grew on me. True, kundru resembles parval on the outside, but its inside is fleshier and tangier, making its taste stand apart on its own. This recipe combines kundru with besan (gram flour) – the addition of besan tames the natural tartness of kundru and gives it a delicious aromatic coating.

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This aloo mooli kadhi (potato radish sticks in gram flour curry) recipe, adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor’s, is a simpler alternative to pakora kadhi, besides being an interesting way of adding radish (mooli) to the diet. The Indian white radish has a taste so powerfully pungent that one can’t have much of it raw. I like mooli paratha, but other ways of cooking mooli don’t excite me. Aloo mooli kadhi, though, had me sold from the word go. The potatoes tone down the sharpness of mooli, and the yogurt and gram flour cloak it all in a rich, delicious sauce.

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Here’s a way to sneak in some cabbage goodness into your meals, without cooking up a full-blown cabbage curry: make patta gobhi paratha / cabbage paratha. With a generous spiking of cabbage (patta gobhi in Hindi) and spices, this wholesome pan-fried flatbread is a satisfying meal on its own. With chutney or pickle on the side, cabbage paratha is just the thing for a weekend brunch or a lunchbox treat.

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Pineapple sweet corn rice doesn’t just taste delicious, it’s also a great way to finish off leftovers – boiled rice from last night’s dinner, sweet corn you did not add to that stir fry, the big chunk of pineapple sitting in your fridge – use them all in this recipe.

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