The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

For the longest time, the only way I knew how to eat papad was as a plain accompaniment to an Indian meal (usually khichdi), much like chutney or pickle. I liked papad overall, but the “dish” didn’t seem all that consequential.

When I moved to Bombay, my friends there would order masala papad as a starter in restaurants. This was something new, something interesting – papad dressed up as a standalone dish. I started experimenting with papad in curries, and warming up to this novelty – papad curry was very convenient on days when there are no vegetables on hand.

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Kathal ki sabzi (raw jackfruit curry) is an Indian vegetarian delicacy cooked especially around the month of Holi, when jackfruit is in season in north India.

Newbie cooks, be warned – you are up for a challenge if want to make kathal ki sabzi. The prickly, tough-skinned jackfruit requires skill to peel and cut, and then takes ages of cooking time. Part of the hurdle is handled these days – supermarkets stock packs of peeled and chopped jackfruit, ready to cook. Go right ahead and pick up one of these packs if you can. If not, I’ll point you to the always-awesome Rak’s Kitchen for illustrated steps to peel a jackfruit.

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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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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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Baingan bhaja is so easy to make that this post barely qualifies as a "recipe" – and yet it is one of those dishes of which the taste belies the simplicity.

A staple side dish with meals in a typical Bihari home, a quickly made add-on to liven up a dal-chawal-chokha meal. That’s baingan bhaja for you.

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