The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

A quick-cooking curry with kachcha kela (raw bananas or plantain) that’s easy enough to make for beginners – no intricate slicing, no artful pounding/grinding, no watchfulness needed while the dish is on the heat. Everything chopped or grated "roughly", all spice measurements  open to personalization.

The only detail to take care of is to avoid the blackening of plantain when it is peeled and sliced – there’s a simple tip below to prevent that happening, which doubles up as a way to keep the stickiness of the plantain at bay.

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A fantastic potato curry from my mother’s kitchen, that we love to have with pooris and dahi vada on the day of Holi. I hope you like this one as much as I do.

Wish you a happy Holi!

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One-pot meal lovers, this one’s for you. Vegetable pulao (or pilaf, as it is popularly spelled in some parts of the world) is a rice dish cooked with vegetables and spices, typically served with yogurt or raita for a complete meal.

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My first taste of kosambari was at a friend’s wedding in Karnataka. One spoonful and I was sold. That soaked moong dal could be eaten uncooked – and that it could be delicious – was a revelation. Since then I’ve been experimenting with salad made of split pulses and an assortment of vegetables. (more…)

Most Indian curries involve a little extra cooking of the vegetables. We like to keep the crunch for salads – curries are soft to the bite. With capsicum tomato sauté I make a departure from that general rule: here the tomato slices retain their shape, the capsicum remains a bright green.

This is a frequent weekday dinner dish for me, and not just for its ease of chopping and cooking. Nothing perks one up at the end of a stress-filled workday as a vibrantly colored dinner!

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Masoor dal – the salmon-pink, hulled lentil – is a quick-cooking dal that needs no prior soaking or laborious cooking. My masoor dal tadka recipe rides on the pliability of masoor and has the dish ready to serve in a matter of minutes.

In case you’re wondering, tadka is the process of tempering spices in hot oil and pouring them along with the oil into a dish. I use ghee for tadka in this recipe; the aroma of ghee brings out the earthy flavor of masoor dal. (more…)