And now, let me add yet another no-onion-no-garlic chickpea recipe to your repertoire.

This curry gets its flavors from tomato sauce, olive oil and Italian seasoning. Pair it with buttered garlic toast or some warm Indian flatbread (I recommend this seed-studded elliptical beauty) for a satisfying meal.

You Need:

To pressure-cook together:

• Dried white chickpeas – 1 cup [buy here]
• Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
• Water – 3 cups

To grind together:

• Tomatoes – 3 medium
• Ginger – 1-inch stick
• Green chili – 1-2 (optional)

For the sauce:

• Paprika powder – 1/2 teaspoon [buy here]
• Oregano – 1/2 teaspoon [buy here]
• Salt – to taste
• Extra-virgin olive oil – 1.5 tablespoons [buy here]
• Sliced olives – a teaspoon, for garnishing [buy here]

Equipment:

• pressure cooker, grinder, lidded pan

The links above are amazon.com affiliate links. The Steaming Pot will earn a small commission if you buy via the links, at no additional cost to you.

In the picture above (clockwise from left): chickpeas; evoo; sliced olives; paprika powder, oregano; tomatoes, green chilies, ginger.

How To Make Chickpea Curry in Olive Oil:

1. Soak and boil

Wash and place the chickpeas in a large bowl. Pour water for soaking the chickpeas till the level of water is over twice the height of the chickpeas.

Set the bowl aside for 8 hours or overnight.

The chickpeas will absorb the water, soften and swell. Drain the excess water (tip: don’t throw this water away! give it to your plants) and rinse the chickpeas. They are now ready to pressure cook.

Transfer the soaked chickpeas to a pressure cooker. Top with 3 cups of water, 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Lock the lid and cook till the chickpeas are soft to bite. If using an Indian style pressure cooker, cook on high heat till you hear the first whistle, then set heat to low and cook for another 15 mins. Let the pressure release naturally.

2. Grind

De-eye the tomatoes, core them if hard in the center. Skin the ginger. Cut the top off the chilies; deseed the chilies if you like the sauce mildly hot, else let the seeds remain for more heat.

Place the tomatoes, ginger and chilies in the grinder.

Puree.

3. Make the sauce

Heat a thick-bottomed pan. Add to the pan a tablespoon of olive oil along with the tomato puree.

Simmer with lid on for 15 minutes, shaking the pan every 5 minutes. Add a tablespoon or two of chickpea water if the sauce starts drying up.

Add salt to taste and paprika powder to the sauce.

Mix in and tip in the chickpeas along with the water they were boiled in.

Continue to cook covered for another 10 minutes or till the sauce reaches the thickness you like.

Stir in the remaining olive oil and oregano.

Chickpea curry in olive oil is ready. Serve hot garnished with sliced olives.

Notes:

Try more dishes cooked in olive oil:

Also check out these dry legume recipes:

The post Chickpea Curry in Olive Oil appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

In Hindi, kachumber is colloquially used to mean something that’s minced. One can find Hindi film characters issuing threats of making kachumber of their enemies! This post limits itself to the word’s literal interpretation of delicious salad ;-)

Ingredients:

[For 4-5 servings]

Fresh vegetables:

• Cucumber – 2 small (~1.5 cups when diced)
• Tomato – 2 medium (~1.5 cups when diced)
• Onion – 1 medium (~3/4th cup when diced)
• Green chili – 1 (more if you want it hotter)
• Lime wedge
• Fresh coriander leaves – a few sprigs

Dressing:

• Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
• Powdered jaggery – 1/3 teaspoon
• Roasted cumin powder – 1/4 teaspoon
• Kashmiri red chili or paprika powder – 1/4 teaspoon
• Kala namak (black salt) – 1/4 teaspoon

How To Make Kachumber Salad:

Take the skin off the onion. Lightly peel the cucumber if you like (I let the peel remain on).

Dice the onion, tomato and cucumber. Finely slice the green chili. Chop the coriander leaves.

Get the seasoning ready: salt, kala namak, red chili powder, jaggery, roasted cumin powder.

Toss the salad ingredients with the seasoning and a squeeze of fresh lime.

Kachumber salad is ready. Serve immediately.

Variations:

What to Serve with Kachumber:

Kachumber can be had as a standalone snack, or as a “salsa” of sorts with crisp savories such as papad or nimki to scoop it up with.

Traditionally served with an Indian meal on the side as a salad. Here’s an example: Indian meal thali: kachumber salad, chapatis, vegetable red lentil dal, gobhi methi, potato fry.

FAQ:

Q1. Can I make kachumber ahead of time?

A. The vegetables can be chopped and kept ready for assembling ahead of time, but DO NOT mix the dressing until you are just about to serve the kachumber.

Q2. What happens if I mix salt and lime juice into kachumber in advance?

A. The salt and lime juice draw out the water from the vegetables and cause the kachumber to lose its crunch and color. The flavor of lime juice also tends to degrade and turn somewhat bitter if left to sit.

Q3. Is kachumber vegan?

A. Yes. Traditionally kachumber only contains raw vegetables, lime juice and plant-based seasonings.

Q4. I do not have jaggery. What can I use instead?

A. Sugar, or maple syrup / agave nectar. Use 1/4 teaspoon of sugar or syrup for 1/3 teaspoon of jaggery.

Related Recipes:

If you liked this kachumber salad recipe, do try making other colorful salads from The Steaming Pot archives –

The post Kachumber Salad: Classic Indian Cucumber Onion Tomato Salad appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

This recipe is supremely easy to put together – no anxious sun-drying of washed okra, no meticulous wiping with kitchen towel…you can immediately cook the okra post-washing.

Note: Pick very fresh, bright green, tender baby okra for this recipe.

You Need:

[Servies 3-4]

• Fresh okra – 250 grams
• Baby potatoes – 250 grams
• Tomatoes – 4
• Green chilies – 2
• Garlic – 6 small cloves (~2 teaspoons when chopped)
• Salt – to taste
• Red chili powder – 1/2 teaspoon (more if you like it hotter)
• Pepper powder – 1/4 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Vegetable or peanut oil – 2 teaspoons

How To Make Okra and Baby Potato Stew:

1. Prep the vegetables

Wash the baby potatoes: In lukewarm water, soak the baby potatoes for 10 minutes. Scrub the skin clean. Wash in a couple of changes of water.

With a fork or toothpick, prick holes all over each baby potato’s surface. [This will help the potatoes cook faster and absorb the flavors of the curry.]

Wash the okra. Snip the top off each okra. Cut into 2-inch pieces if the okra is long; anything under 3-inches means you can leave the okra whole.

Peel and finely chop garlic cloves. Slit the green chilies vertically.

Quarter the tomatoes and place them in a food processor or mixie.

Puree the tomatoes.

2. Cook

Heat oil in a thick-bottomed pan. When the oil is hot, add to it cumin seeds and chopped garlic.

After the cumin seeds have spluttered and the garlic turned golden, add to the pan turmeric powder and give it a quick stir.

Add tomato puree to the pan. Bring to a boil. Set heat to its lowest setting. Mix salt, pepper and red chili powder into the bubbling puree. Cook covered, undisturbed, for five minutes.

Stir the tomato curry, add baby potatoes and green chilies to the pan.

Cook for 12-13 minutes with the pan covered. Stir the contents of the pan once or twice in between, for even cooking.

Tip in the okra into the pan.

Mix. Stew the vegetables covered for another 20 minutes or till the potatoes and okra are tender and have absorbed the flavors of the tomato curry. Stir around once, gently, in between.

Baby potato and okra stew is ready.

Serve hot with rice.

Notes:

Like the idea of stews? Check out lauki aloo stew. chow chow stew, express mooli sambar – radish lentil stew.

Interested in more okra recipes? Try dahi bhindi. bhindi do pyaza, okra stuffed with peanut spice.

The post Okra and Baby Potato Stew appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

You Need:

• Chow chow (chayote) – 250 grams (~2 medium, or 1 large)
• Onion – 1
• Tomatoes – 250 grams (~4 small)
• Ginger – 1-inch piece
• Garlic – 4 fat cloves
• Green chilies – 3 (or to taste)
• Toor / moong dal (or a mix of the two) – 1/2 cup
• Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt – to taste

For the tadka:

• Dry red chili – 1
• Cumin seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Oil or ghee – 1/2 tablespooon

How To Make Chow Chow Dal:

1. Prepare the ingredients

Wash the dal well and soak the dal in two cups of water for an hour.

Drain and rise.

Peel and chop the chayote into 2-cm pieces.

Peel and chop onions. Chop tomatoes.

Slit the green chilies.

Crush ginger and garlic.

2. Cook

Place the washed dal in an Indian-style pressure cooker along with chopped chayote, onion, tomatoes, green chilies, ginger and garlic. Sprinkle turmeric powder.

Top with two cups of water. Lock the lid of the cooker. Boil on high heat till the cooker lets out a whistle.

Now set the heat to low and continue to cook for another two whistles.

Switch off the heat and let the pressure built up inside the cooker ease naturally.

Add salt to taste to the boiled dal. Using a ladle, swirl the dal around to mix in the salt and blend some of the vegetable pieces into the dal.

3. Do the tadka

In a small pan or tadka ladle, heat some oil. Set the heat to low. Add to the oil, half a teaspoon of cumin seeds, mustard seeds and a dry red chili (broken into 2-3 pieces, if you like).

Take the tadka pan off the heat as soon as the seeds start spluttering, and pour the sizzling oil into the dal.

Chow chow dal is ready. Serve hot on the side with plain rice or chapatis.

Meal below:

Chow chow dal, rice, pomegranate raita.

Notes:

Try other legume and squash/gourd/pumpkin combinations:

The post Chow Chow Dal: Chayote Squash Dal appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

If tinda is unfamiliar to you, here’s an intro:

Tinda is called apple gourd in English, a name it gets from its resemblance to small green apples. The vegetable is commonly found in North India and gets a bad rap for being “boring”. I might have agreed with that adjective a few years ago, but time has led me to become quite fond of this squash. I wish good-quality tinda was as easily accessible elsewhere as it is in North India. If you do find it, get hold of small spotless ones to make this aloo tinda curry.

You Need:

• Potatoes (aloo) – 250 grams
• Apple gourd (tinda) – 400 grams
• Tomatoes – 2 large (~2 cups when chopped)
• Onions – 2 small (~1 cup when chopped)
• Garam masala – 1/4 teaspoon
• Pepper powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Red chili powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Coriander powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon
• Salt – to taste
• Asafoetida powder – a pinch
• Fenugreek seeds – 1/4 teaspoon
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Oil for cooking (mustard or peanut) – 2 tablespoons

How To Make Aloo Tinda ki Sabzi:

1. Before you cook: prep the vegetables

Peel the tinda, potatoes and onions.

Chop the tinda into halves, or quarters if they are large. Chop the potatoes into similar sized cubes. Slice tomatoes and onions into small pieces.

2. Cook

Heat two tablespoons of oil in a kadhai or pan.

When the oil is hot, add to it fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and asafoetida powder.

As soon as the seeds splutter, add chopped onions to the hot oil and let them cook till translucent (about 2 minutes).

Then add the potato and tinda pieces.

[Note: If the potatoes are of the tough variety, add them first and cook them for a few minutes. Then add the tinda a few minutes later.]

Stir the vegetables to coat them with the oil, and cook for two minutes.

Add the dry spice powders: coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, red chili powder, pepper powder, garam masala.

Sprinkle salt to taste, and tip in the chopped tomatoes.

Cook for two minutes, then add half a cup of hot water.

Let the curry come to a boil, then set heat to low. Cover and simmer till the vegetables are cooked. (~10minutes)

Aloo tinda ki sabzi (potato apple gourd curry) is ready.

Serve hot.

Meal below: tinda aloo ki sabzi with chapatis and homemade dahi.

Notes:

Also try a tinda-only curry: tinda masala.

Check out other potato-squash/gourd combinations: lauki aloo, potato pumpkin masala, ridge gourd potato in poppy seed paste.

The post Aloo Tinda ki Sabzi: Potato Apple Gourd Curry appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

This takes a while longer to cook than, say, coconut rice, but the good part is it does not need attentive watching.  You can let the tomatoes stew slowly while you go about getting ready.

You Need:

[for 1-2 servings]

• Boiled rice* – 2 cups   
• Tomatoes – 2
• Red chili powder – 1/4 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder – a pinch
• Curry leaves – a few (optional)
• Green chili – 1
• Onion – 1 small
• Garlic – 4 small cloves
• Ginger – 1/2 inch piece
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
• Oil/ghee – 1 tablespoon
• Coriander leaves – for garnishing

*I have used basmati rice here; any other variety of rice will also do.

How To Make Tomato Rice:

1. Chop the veggies

Peel and chop ginger, garlic and onions finely.

Slit green chilies. Chop tomatoes.

2. Cook

Heat a tablespoon of oil or ghee in a pan.

When the oil is hot, set the heat to low add to it half a teaspoon of mustard seeds and let them splutter.

Follow with finely chopped ginger and garlic.

When the garlic turns slightly golden, add chopped onions.

Fry the onions on medium heat till they turn translucent.

At this stage, add the dry spice powders: turmeric powder, red chili powder.

Stir immediately to blend. Cook for a minute.

Transfer the chopped tomatoes, sliced green chili and curry leaves (if using) to the pan.

Add salt to taste. Mix well.

Set the heat to low. Cover the pan with a lid. Let the tomatoes stew in their own juices and soften.

This will take about ten minutes. Uncover the lid and stir once or twice in between, pressing the tomatoes gently. Make sure there is no charring – scrape the bottom of the pan if you see tomatoes sticking there and browning.

When the tomato base is well cooked, transfer the boiled rice to the pan.

Tip: Use cool rice for making tomato rice – this helps to keep the rice grains separate. Hot rice can easily turn to mush!

Stir gently, letting the cooked tomato base coat each grain of rice.

Cover and cook for another minute. Switch off the heat and let the rice rest covered for five minutes.

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Tomato rice is ready.

Serve tomato rice its own, or along with accompaniments like raita and bhujiya.

Meal below: tomato rice, stuffed baby eggplant in peanut sesame sauce, cabbage coconut stir fry, plain homemade yogurt.

Notes:

Want more recipes with tomatoes as a prime ingredient? Try pasta in homemade tomato sauce, tomato carrot soup, stuffed tomato curry.

The post Tomato Rice: Lunchbox Recipe appeared first on The Steaming Pot.

Lauki kofta is best made when you can partner with someone to share the load: one works on the gravy while the other does the kofta balls, or both take turns to grate the lauki [be warned: hand-grating this volume of lauki is not for the feeble-armed]).

You Need:

[serves 6-7]

For the kofta balls:

• Lauki (bottle gourd) – 500 grams
• Besan – 1/3 cup
• Red chili powder – a pinch or to taste
• Green chili – 1
• Salt – to taste
• Oil – for deep-frying

For the gravy:

• Garam masala – 1/4 teaspoon
• Coriander powder – 1 tablespoon
• Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon
• Red chili powder – 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
• Pepper powder – 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
• Tomatoes – 5
• Onions – 3
• Ginger – 1-inch piece
• Garlic – 6 small cloves
• Dry red chilies – 4
• Oil – 2 tablespoons
• Coriander leaves for garnishing

How To Make Lauki Kofta:

1. Prep the bottle gourd

Peel and grate the bottle gourd.

Mix half a teaspoon of salt into the bottle gourd, and set aside for 20 minutes.

In this time, the grated bottle gourd would have oozed out its juices. Ball up the grated bottle gourd in your palms and press firmly to squeeze all the juices out. Repeat the squeezing after 5 minutes.

Do not thow away the juice extracted from the bottle gourd. Keep it aside to thin out the curry later or to knead chapati dough.

Mix into now-dry grated bottle gourd, a pinch of red chili powder, 1/3 cup of besan, and a finely chopped green chili.

Mash the add-ons with the grated bottle gourd till they form a homogenous dough. The dough should be pliant enough to get shaped into globes easily, without being runny or slushy.

2. Roll and fry the kofta balls

Pluck some dough and roll it into a ball roughly 1-inch in diameter. Repeat till all the dough is used up.

How many koftas would this amount of dough produce? I’d suggest turning the question around to: how many koftas should I make out of this amount of dough? Let the count of people you want to feed serve as guide. Reduce the diameter of each ball to take the count up! I get around 14-16 koftas from 500 grams of bottle gourd.

In a pan or kadhai, heat enough oil for deep-frying. When the oil is hot, slide in the koftas one at a time.

How to check that the oil is hot enough: Place a tiny ball of dough as tester into the hot oil. If the oil sizzles and the ball turns golden in a few seconds, it is hot enough. If the oil shows little signs of excitement when the ball comes in contact, it needs to get hotter. And if the ball chars, the oil is too hot – switch off the heat for a while before frying the koftas.

How to avoid hot oil splashes: Don’t dunk the dough balls into the center of the pan, slide them in gently from the side.

Let the koftas sit in the pan as the hot oil bubbles around them.

When the kofta bottoms become brown (this takes 1-2 minutes), turn the balls around to let the other side cook.

Fry till the koftas are brown all over. Take them out of the oil and place them on absorbent paper.

Repeat till all the koftas are fried.

Time the placing-turning-extracting procedure for each kofta in FIFO order. This way you can manage 4-5 koftas frying together at the same time.

3. Make the gravy

Finely slice two onions.

Heat two tablespoons of oil in a pan. Fry the finely sliced onions on medium-heat till they turn light golden (~10 minutes).

While the sliced onions cook, grind together one onion, an inch-long stick of ginger, 6 small garlic cloves and 4 dry red chilies.

Add the ground paste to the frying onions.

Cook it all together for another ~10 minutes, or till the color deepens to a glistening golden.

Add the dry spice powders: a tablespoon of coriander powder, a teaspoon of cumin powder, a quarter-teaspoon of turmeric powder, red chili powder and pepper powder to taste.

Mix well and continue to cook.

Cook on medium-low heat for another ~5 minutes – the contents of the pan would now be a rich deep brown.

While the onions and spices cook, quarter the tomatoes and place them in the grinder next.

Puree the tomatoes.

Add the tomato puree to the pan.

Mix well and cook on high heat for 5 minutes.

Add three cups of water and bring to a boil.

Stir in salt to taste and garam masala. Set heat to low and simmer the gravy for another ~10 minutes.

4. Put it all together

Place the fried koftas in the gravy. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Cover the pan and let stand for a while so that the koftas soak up the spices.

Lauki kofta curry is ready. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve hot.

Meal below: jeera rice, dry moong dal, lauki kofta, kairi khatti-meethi chutney.

Notes:

Wondering what else you could do with grated bottle gourd? Try making lauki parathas or lauki raita.

The post Lauki Kofta: Bottle Gourd Balls in Gravy appeared first on The Steaming Pot.