The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Chana dal paratha with dahi and achar – nothing else comes close for a filling, comforting Sunday brunch. Try it this weekend!

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Pudina rice – fragrant basmati with the freshness of mint leaves, the zing of ginger and lime, and nutty cashew goodness to round it all off.

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Tomato rice – this vividly colored one-pot meal is just right for boxing up and carrying to school or office. Plan ahead for rushed mornings: boil some extra rice at dinnertime, stash it away in the fridge overnight and, when it’s time to pack your lunch the next morning, put together tomato rice.

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Stir-fried boiled millets with assorted vegetables, peanuts and seasoning – a healthy one-pot meal that sits just right in the lunchbox. Millet peanut vegetable stir-fry is vegetarian-friendly, gluten-free, and uses no onion or garlic.

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New to cooking millets? Here’s a primer to get you started with an easy one: foxtail millet (kangni in Hindi).

Before the how-to-cook instructions, an introduction to foxtail millet.

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No fuss no spill – coconut rice is great in the lunchbox. Keep boiled and cooled rice handy to put this together easily on time-pressed mornings. Add a side of crispy spiced plantain or quick potato dry sabzi for some kick.

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When a friend returned from Austin to Chennai, she brought back for her mother an ornate crockpot. Her mother unsurprisingly did not find much use for the contraption in her home cooking. For a while the crockpot was relegated to the far corner of her storage shelves. Till inspiration struck – and she converted the crockpot into a tulsi planter.

My story is not as drastic as that, but seeing my mother use her paddu maker for cooking littis raised a smile much like my friend’s story did. Paddus are not a staple food for us, so her paddu maker would mostly lie forlorn. One day my mother decided to give the equipment a "litti maker" makeover. The rounded fissures of the paddu griddle work perfectly as receptacles for litti balls. Slow cooking on the fire, with a turn or two in between, gives us littis close to the traditional fire-roasted ones.

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