The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Till not too long ago, pancakes for me meant cheela. The flour/batter of the pancake would vary: if not besan then moong or sooji, but the template of ‘thick batter + a dash of seasoning’ was a constant.

A chance viewing of Maangchi’s vegetable pancake recipe brought about a shift in this template.

(more…)

Momos seemed like exotic restaurant-only food to me for a long time, till a friend taught me how easy it is to make them at home. All you need is to figure out a way to steam the momos. The good news is: you don’t need fancy equipment for it; an idli stand and an Indian pressure cooker do the job perfectly.

(more…)

A simple stir fry of potatoes and cauliflower elevated by the tadka of fenugreek seeds in mustard oil. Aloo gobhi bhujiya pairs well with pooris / parathas and stacks well in the lunchbox.

(more…)

Each kitchen stint with the chayote teaches me something new. When I began cooking with this gourd, peeling it was hard – till I learnt the techniques of making triangular notches around its folds and boiling it before peeling. Soon I discovered a different variety of the chayote: the “Ooty chow chow”, which has a smooth exterior that demands no fiddling with folds at all.

So I switched loyalties to the Ooty chow chow, as my observant regulars would have noticed in the post on chayote dal.

While cutting raw veggies and fruits, I sometimes pop a few chopped pieces into my mouth. A reflex action if you will, this usually leads me to grimace and move on – but when I did this with the Ooty chow chow I stopped in my tracks. This vegetable didn’t just look like a pear, it tasted startlingly like one. Do I even need to cook this, I wondered. (more…)

Avengers: Infinity War famously declared "We Will Deep Fry Your Kebab".

This kachche kele ke kebab recipe duly follows that memo.

(more…)

Sweet potato’s starchy sweetness plays off the robust flavors of sookhi sabzi masala in this recipe. The spices make this dish taste so exotic, you can hardly tell that putting this together was so easy.

(more…)