The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Paneer (cottage cheese) in a tomato-based curry with peas and capsicum. Sumptuous enough for a feast – really easy to cook!

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Ridge gourd onion chutney spiced with pepper and tamarind. Add a spark to a simple Indian meal with this chutney on the side.

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Sooji or semolina, as Wikipedia tells us, is

the coarse, purified wheat middlings of durum wheat used in making pasta, breakfast cereals, puddings, and couscous.

That description covers wide ground, taking in its span popular Indian dishes like  halwa and upma – versions of pudding/breakfast cereal made of semolina.

Cooking sooji as a cheela (pancake) is a relatively unusual way of using the flour, but once you try it, you’ll definitely want to do frequent repeats.

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A vitamin-filled start to the day with carrot poha: flattened rice cooked crisp with grated carrot and pepper.

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When you have really fresh long green eggplant on hand, capitalize on the goodness of its insides. Cook it in a way that retains its juices. Ditch chopping and cubing, go for slitting and spicing. This recipe of spice-lined long green eggplant curry shows how.

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Okra / bhindi – one of the most versatile vegetables in Indian cuisine. I cook it with onions or without, season it with Indian spices, or sometimes look westwards for inspiration.

Despite the same core ingredient, each of these okra dishes tastes worlds apart. Dahi bhindi (okra cooked in a yogurt-based gravy) is one such unique preparation. The recipe includes besan (gram flour) which adds body to the gravy, and a freshly prepared ginger-pepper blend which gives it a distinct, sharp kick.

Here’s how to make dahi bhindi. (more…)