The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

A snack or side dish made of chana dal (Bengal gram) that capitalizes on this dal’s nutty taste. Sookhi chana dal needs very few ingredients and is easy enough to be put together by a kitchen newbie. Those who rely on instant noodles or packaged bhujiya for snack-time with the excuse "I don’t know how to cook" – prepare to shed that line!

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Chana dal has a rich texture and a hint of sweetness in its taste when compared to other yellow dals such as moong or toor. These qualities make chana dal the perfect pairing choice with green leafy vegetables, especially greens that lean towards bitter.  For those who would not touch fenugreek chutney or chaulai saag, a smart alternate to get their dose of greens is by "hiding" the leaves in chana dal.

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The answer to "What have you put in it?" seems almost incredible when the dish in question is gur ka paratha. Surely something as delicious as this MUST have a long list of ingredients mixed in careful proportions? Plausible as that sounds, it really, truly does not. Gur ka paratha is one of those goodies that produce far greater output effect than input effort. Hardly any effort, and only 3 ingredients.

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No, this is not a recipe for silly potatoes. The anari in the title is अनारी not अनाड़ी , which implies ‘flavored with pomegranate’. I’m especially thrilled to share this recipe of anari aloo with you as it was something of a shot in the dark for me – I had no precedent or inspiration, and only followed a hunch that this way of pairing fresh pomegranate with potatoes would work.

Did it work? You bet it did!

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I normally steer clear of over-the-top superlatives, but I have to make an exception for khad ki sabzi – this is truly THE BEST recipe I have discovered in a long time. A few simple vegetables cooked in ghee and lemon juice – and the effect is magic!

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This aloo mooli kadhi (potato radish sticks in gram flour curry) recipe, adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor’s, is a simpler alternative to pakora kadhi, besides being an interesting way of adding radish (mooli) to the diet. The Indian white radish has a taste so powerfully pungent that one can’t have much of it raw. I like mooli paratha, but other ways of cooking mooli don’t excite me. Aloo mooli kadhi, though, had me sold from the word go. The potatoes tone down the sharpness of mooli, and the yogurt and gram flour cloak it all in a rich, delicious sauce.

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Here’s a way to sneak in some cabbage goodness into your meals, without cooking up a full-blown cabbage curry: make patta gobhi paratha / cabbage paratha. With a generous spiking of cabbage (patta gobhi in Hindi) and spices, this wholesome pan-fried flatbread is a satisfying meal on its own. With chutney or pickle on the side, cabbage paratha is just the thing for a weekend brunch or a lunchbox treat.

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