The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Dal is usually cooked in soupy form, but yellow moong dal – the skinned and split form of moong beans – lends itself to very interesting dry recipes. Sookhi moong dal is one such.

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This aloo mooli kadhi (potato radish sticks in gram flour curry) recipe, adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor’s, is a simpler alternative to pakora kadhi, besides being an interesting way of adding radish (mooli) to the diet. The Indian white radish has a taste so powerfully pungent that one can’t have much of it raw. I like mooli paratha, but other ways of cooking mooli don’t excite me. Aloo mooli kadhi, though, had me sold from the word go. The potatoes tone down the sharpness of mooli, and the yogurt and gram flour cloak it all in a rich, delicious sauce.

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This red capsicum curry (red bell pepper curry) is among the quickest dishes you could make when you’re pressed for time. It doesn’t take long to cook and more importantly, doesn’t demand meticulous slicing: large irregular chunks work just fine.

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A simple fresh fruit preparation that you can serve as a snack or an after-meal dessert.

Traditional rabri can be pretty heavy with its high content of sugar and condensed milk. Its usual pairing with malpua and jalebi (while delicious!) doesn’t help either if you’re watching your weight. Enter my recipe of fresh fruit rabri – a dessert that satiates your sweet tooth even while keeping things light and healthy. No refined sugar, no tinned condensed milk – this rabri is sweetened only with natural nutrient-rich dates and apricots. No canned fruit either – only fresh seasonal produce.

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The musky flavor of cantaloupe (musk melon or honey dew melon), sweet citrus of orange and hint of ginger come together in this beautiful melon orange juice.

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To call fresh juice "refreshing" is a well-worn cliché, but some clichés are worth repeating. Apple cucumber mint juice at the end of a work-packed weekday is an excellent pick-me-up. When you’ve had a luxurious dinner, try apple mint cucumber juice first thing the next morning – it’s a wonderful way to balance out the indulgence of the previous meal.

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