The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Pumpkin (kaddu) and red kidney beans (rajma) make a hearty, richly flavored kaddu rajma curry. Dry red chilies give it heat, tamarind lends it tang, jaggery balances it all.

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Aloo chana is an easy-to-cook recipe from Bihar that uses kala chana (black chickpea) – the smaller, thicker-skinned sibling of the chickpea used in channa masala or hummus. Black chickpea has an earthy, dense flavor and high roughage content. This dish is filling, a good source of carbs, protein and iron – besides being really tasty.

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Of late I have been on the lookout for recipes that would put my stock of fennel seeds to good use. I also intend not to restock tomatoes till their price subsides to non-crazy level. My quest came to a satisfying end with this recipe for dahi wali lauki. Easy on the pocket , great to taste, fennel flavored, and no tomatoes.

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With garlic, curry leaves and ghee for company, dal with raw mango is like heaven in a bowl. What’s more, it doesn’t take much to give your workaday yellow dal this exotic tangy twist. Let me show you how.

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A nutritious one-pot meal in which fenugreek leaves, peanuts and ghee add their charm to rice. Methi moongphali chawal is just the answer for you if you *want* to consume fenugreek for its health-giving properties but find its – shall we say, potent – taste unpalatable.

This recipe is really quick to put together if you have the boiled ingredients and the spice base – methi chutney – ready beforehand. Do as I do – make a big batch of methi chutney, use it as side dish on Day 1 and in fenugreek peanut rice on Day 2. Ek panth do kaaj.

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With each bite, dhani nimbu wali zucchini gives a delightful lemony jolt to the senses. Green and light and tangy, this veggie side dish of zucchini with coriander lemon dressing is summer exemplified.

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Fresh raw mango mint chutney that’s especially good during summer. Mint helps to tackle tummy troubles that the heat brings in its wake (it’s even part of this popular OTC Ayurvedic antacid), and raw mango is a famed antidote for heatstroke, so much so that the goverment’s National Health Portal recommends it.

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