The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

This Andhra-style hot and sour tomato peanut chutney is great on the side with boiled rice, especially on days when you don’t have another curry to go with your meal.

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A crunchy, nutty, leafy side dish for an Indian meal – cabbage and peanuts stir fry. This is just right for the day after gorging on pooja delicacies, when your tummy says "no more" to pooris and dum aloo. I had today cabbage and peanuts stir fry with a simple meal of tomato toor dal, mint raita and boiled rice.

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Inspired by the chapter on curry leaves in Ratna Rajaiah’s fascinating book How the Banana Goes to Heaven, I recently resolved to eat curry leaves as much and as raw as I possibly can. The prospect wasn’t enticing, let me say that up front! Though I like curry leaves, I find their taste overpowering and use them sparingly even in tadka. I would have to steel myself to eat curry leaves raw – or so I thought.

How wrong I was.

A hesitant stab at making curry leaves and peanut chutney turned out to be hugely successful. Roasted peanuts balance the slight bitterness of curry leaves, making this chutney delicious.

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Onions are indispensable to cooking in many Indian households, so much so that the humble bulb has caused governments to topple. To those for whom curries without onions seem inconceivable, I heartily recommend this recipe for stuffed baby eggplant in peanut sesame sauce. The sauce, with tamarind juice to give it body, is rich, thick, and entirely sans onions. I like to make this gravy when I have guests over, especially my no-onion-no-garlic folks.

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I was planning to make Sailu’s bhindi sambhariya for dinner when to my dismay, I found that my okra wasn’t the right fit for it – too large, not tender enough. So instead I cut the okra into vertical strips and cooked it with a sort of Indo-western spice mix. The result was an unexpected delight – nutty and fresh, delicate and sharp.

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A chunky, nutty tomato ginger chutney with a sprinkling of roasted peanuts. Like the sound of it?

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