The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

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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There are times when we want to exclude onion and garlic from our diet – religious festivals, a lifestyle choice borne out of ayurvedic principles, or more earthly matters such as exorbitant prices.

The good news is that a “no onion no garlic” diet need not be one of frugality. Just because you aren’t eating onion or garlic does not mean you are doomed to subsist on bland watery boiled vegetables instead. Curries without onions and garlic can be so tasty, you will not even notice that a conventional ingredient is absent.

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This Andhra-style hot and sour tomato peanut chutney is great on the side with boiled rice, especially on days when you don’t have another curry to go with your meal.

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A recipe from my grandmother’s kitchen – a tangy aloo chutney laced with mustard. The original version is made with jimikand (yam) instead of potatoes, and as those of us who cook with yam know, that vegetable is tricky to handle raw. And so we switch to the friendlier, more accessible tuber. Potato chutney is just as good and is super easy to make.

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The magic of some recipes lies in exclusion: the dish tastes so good because certain conventional ingredients are knocked off from its making. This recipe of saadi lauki sabzi (simple bottle gourd curry) , passed down from my grandmother’s kitchen, falls in that hallowed category.

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Gorge on this gorgeous green dish that fills you up with protein goodness, and is so simple to put together you can master it even if you’re a kitchen newbie.

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