The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Sabudana kheer (sago pudding) – an easy dessert idea for a party menu. It cooks quicker than rice kheer, needs the stove top only (no oven), and is vegetarian-friendly.

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This colorful bell pepper rice is really quick to put together, especially if you have plain boiled rice made ahead.

I have broadly followed Divine Taste’s stir fried brown rice recipe for it – I used no onion or garlic and loved the touch of almonds.

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Nutty, sweet flavors complement beans very well – I had taken to this idea when I first made string beans with peanuts and jaggery. This time I had green beans (French beans) on hand, which meant a milder flavor and more crunch. This felt like a good opportunity to up the experimental quotient on "nutty, sweet flavors".

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A summertime favorite inspired by a recipe I saw on the TV show Turban Tadka. Mango phirni gives a seasonal twist to the conventional rice phirni. Serve it in silver bowls for a classic feel, or layer it in glasses western-style with nuts and mango pulp.

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Every time I watch a rerun of Sooryavansham on TV (laugh if you will, I enjoy that film) I am struck by the scene in which Radha covers up for the lack of supplies in her kitchen by preparing meethe chawal. Celluloid can inspire us in unexpected ways, as this post is proof. My story may not be as dramatic as that of families reuniting tearfully after watching Sansar (a real effect of the film in the year of its release, I’m told), but it’s still worth telling for those in a culinary quandary similar to mine.

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I got up this Sunday morning with a halwa craving, fondly remembering the sooji ka halwa my mom used to make on weekends. There was no sooji (semolina) in the pantry to recreate her recipe, so I turned internet-wards for recourse.

The recipe for gur aur atte ka halwa (jaggery and whole wheat flour halwa) on Divine Taste struck an instant chord: the pictures were mouth-watering, and the key ingredients – whole wheat and jaggery – were healthy substitutes (well, more importantly, available with me!) for semolina and sugar.

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An exotic rice kheer (pudding) that gets its sweetness entirely from jaggery and dried figs. A hint of saffron that elevates it to greater heights.

A dessert fit for royalty with the best kind of calories you can hope to get from such indulgence. Jaggery may come from the same source as white sugar – sugarcane juice – but it’s miles ahead in terms of nutrition. The process of refining strips white sugar of sugarcane’s mineral contents, while the simpler method of jaggery-making retains them.

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