The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Ridge gourd served up in special style: shallow-fried cylinders of the gourd stuffed with a peanut-sesame-coriander spice.

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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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Epic’s Tyohaar ki Thali was playing on my TV as I went about Sunday chores, only half an eye on the proceedings on screen…when this radish walnut chutney recipe made me stop in my tracks.

What an intriguing flavor profile, and what simplicity!

I had a fresh bunch of moolis in my fridge and a pot of homemade dahi. I decided to try out this recipe immediately.

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Not all experiments pass muster the first time. A few go through rounds of trials before they reach publicly sharable shape. A few are embarrassments best shelved forever (I’m thinking of you, curdled strawberry yogurt). Lachha gobhi paratha, I’m delighted to report, was a stupendous success from the word go.

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Each kitchen stint with the chayote teaches me something new. When I began cooking with this gourd, peeling it was hard – till I learnt the techniques of making triangular notches around its folds and boiling it before peeling. Soon I discovered a different variety of the chayote: the “Ooty chow chow”, which has a smooth exterior that demands no fiddling with folds at all.

So I switched loyalties to the Ooty chow chow, as my observant regulars would have noticed in the post on chayote dal.

While cutting raw veggies and fruits, I sometimes pop a few chopped pieces into my mouth. A reflex action if you will, this usually leads me to grimace and move on – but when I did this with the Ooty chow chow I stopped in my tracks. This vegetable didn’t just look like a pear, it tasted startlingly like one. Do I even need to cook this, I wondered. (more…)

Pudina rice – fragrant basmati with the freshness of mint leaves, the zing of ginger and lime, and nutty cashew goodness to round it all off.

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Tender broad beans / fava beans (sem in Hindi) are cooked with an unusually colored, delicious black sesame sauce in this recipe. The dark, nutty flavor of the sauce brings out the earthiness of the broad beans.

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