The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Sometimes the universe sends you many little signals nudging you towards a certain action.

Last month I was swapping recipes with a colleague for quick lunchbox ideas when she asked: "Don’t you make anything at all without tomatoes?" I had been describing to her my red capsicum curry. Her remark made me pause and reflect. Yes, I am partial to tomatoes.

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You read that right: chia seeds and sabja seeds are not the same. Ignore the wisdom that tells you otherwise. Set aside the surface similarities, the fact that both chia and sabja are recommended for weight loss and as a source of nutrients/dietary fiber. Here’s a rundown of the differences between these two wonder foods.

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Discover a fascinating A to Z list of unique kitchenware, cookware, and serveware from around the globe, one for each letter of the alphabet.

From the abura kiri to the zaru, how many do you know?

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An assorted collection of food words, one for each letter of the English alphabet. Every word in the list has something special to recommend it – the quirkiness of the dish it represents, the sound of the word as it rolls off the tongue, or a bit of both.

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There are times when we want to exclude onion and garlic from our diet – religious festivals, a lifestyle choice borne out of ayurvedic principles, or more earthly matters such as exorbitant prices.

The good news is that a “no onion no garlic” diet need not be one of frugality. Just because you aren’t eating onion or garlic does not mean you are doomed to subsist on bland watery boiled vegetables instead. Curries without onions and garlic can be so tasty, you will not even notice that a conventional ingredient is absent.

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We moved to Delhi from Patna when I was twelve. Before the move I thought that apart from the differences in personal pronoun usage and transitive verb syntax, the two places spoke the same language Hindi.

It took me by surprise when I discovered that in discussions about food, my new non-Bihari friends and I were often talking the equivalent of Greek and Latin. I told them I disliked kaddu, they assumed I disliked red pumpkin. When I said "Red pumpkin is not kaddu, it’s kohra! I meant bottle gourd", they said – "Bottle gourd is not kaddu, it’s lauki!"

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