The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

A colorful salad bowl with an assortment of flavors and nutrients. Fresh leaves, walnuts and cheese, crunchy pear cubes, juicy cherry tomatoes give company to adzuki beans in this recipe.

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Zucchini and tomatoes, in their miniature avatars, are really quick cooking (not to mention, really pretty looking!). This recipe of microwaved baby zucchini with cherry tomatoes and feta cheese is just right for days when you are ravenous and want to spend no time at all preparing your meal, or when you have had a heavy lunch and want to go light for dinner.

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One of the nicest ways of using fresh paneer (cottage cheese) is in a toasted sandwich. If you have an electric sandwich toaster, that would come in handy at breakfast time. If no toaster around, no worries – you could grill your paneer sandwich or cook it in a non-stick pan on the stove top.

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Corn on the cob is so good boiled, I mostly have it without taking it through any elaborate "treatment" routine. A little salt, a little chili powder, a dash of lime juice – rub it on and bite directly off the cob – that’s my usual mode of having boiled corn.

Then again, there is something to be said for the occasional exoticization.

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This zucchini recipe is a savior on busy workdays when there’s no time to craft an elaborate meal. Cooking with zucchini takes no effort at all – it’s easy to chop (compare it to its cousin the ridge gourd – all that peeling!) and quick to cook. Served on the side with hot chapatis, easy cheesy zucchini makes for a filling and comforting vegetarian meal.

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Cheese parathas teeter dangerously close to the limit of "healthy" but when you crave cheese, far wiser to club it with wheat flour bolstered with fenugreek leaves and carom seeds than ordinary white bread, right?

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There was a time when I lived next to a dairy that sold really fresh, soft paneer (cottage cheese). Now the only paneer I can lay hands on is the store-bought variety. Fridge life of three weeks says the wrapper, but within three days it starts to feel rubbery and sour.

Homemade paneer has acquired irresistible charm. Pre-packaged paneer will do no more – the taste buds crave the real deal.

Fortunately, this is an easily satiated craving. It is surprisingly easy to make paneer at home.

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