The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

We normally make cheela – a savory pancake popular as breakfast food in India – with besan (gram flour), but my taste buds prefer the more delicate flavors of moong dal cheela. Moong dal has the added edge of being less taxing to the tummy than gram flour.

On to the cheela recipe, with step-by-step pictures…

(more…)

Green moong dal, when boiled, retains its shape unlike dals like masoor (red lentil) and toor (yellow lentil). One can put boiled moong dal to good use in a moong bean salad.

(more…)

Khichdi isn’t exactly the height of culinary sophistication – but sometimes we don’t want culinary sophistication. Hands up all men and women living away from family who, after a series of spice-laden oily meals outdoors and countless packets of instant noodles, crave simple home-cooked khichdi?

(more…)

In the western world, Indian cuisine is mostly equated with rich, spicy gravies – kofta curry and chhole masala and shahi paneer and their ilk. In reality, Indian cuisine is far broader than that. Indian food can be simple and minimalistic, as this dish I’m going to write about today – roasted moong dal with a green vegetable combination. I picked up the recipe of ridge gourd moong dal from a friend from Andhra, it’s been a regular in my kitchen since.

Ridge gourd and moong dal are both very gentle on the stomach, as are asafoetida (hing in Hindi) and lemon, the prime flavorings in this dish. Hing is a strong spice and, I suspect, an acquired taste. If this is the first time you’re cooking with hing, I’d suggest using very little of it. If you like it, use more another time. I do recommend it warmly, especially for its wide array of health benefits.

(more…)

A nifty tip I picked up via Mahanandi – roasting yellow moong dal before cooking it. When you roast moong dal, the dal acquires a more aromatic, nuttier taste which really adds to the dishes being cooked with it.

(more…)

Come Indian summer and yogurt begins to feel like manna from heaven. This moong and onion raita uses spiced yogurt to great effect.

For the uninitiated, ‘raita’ is a yogurt-based accompaniment for Indian meals. Served cold, its digestive, cooling properties are a great counterpoint to the otherwise spicy Indian meal.

There are endless variations to the raita – every region has its specialties, every family has its own spin on it. Here is one raita recipe that I specially like – using moong sprouts and onions.

(more…)

A simple lentil dish to go with Indian meals – toor dal (arhar dal/pigeon pea split) with a fistful of saboot moong (green gram or whole moong, with the green skin on) in it. The yellow and green of toor sabut moong dal makes for a bright-looking colorful dish.

(more…)