The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Till a month back, I had had sundried tomatoes only in the bottled, preserved form. Much as I liked it, I was cautious of its salt and preservative content and would use it sparingly.

I never knew how delightfully simple and light sundried tomatoes could be till I got myself a pack of Ladakhi sundried tomatoes – they are chewy, tomatoey (as opposed to pickle-y), and induce no "junk food" guilt pangs.

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Tinda gets its English name from its visual similarity to green apples. A member of the gourd family, tinda has a mild flavor, high water content and lots of vitamins/minerals. The vegetable is ubiquitous in Delhi – at arm’s reach in the local market, cooked every other day in office cafetarias. Not so in Bangalore. Here this gourd graces only the bigger stores, cellophane-wrapped and stocked with imported veggies like yellow peppers and Chinese cabbage.

I didn’t realize I’d crave for tinda till it became scarce. As with parval (pointed gourd), my love for this vegetable has been a recent change of heart. Whoever said that absence makes the heart grow fonder knew what he was talking about. 

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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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Poppy seeds are a relatively new addition to my pantry and I keep a lookout for ways to expand my repertoire with them. I usually turn to Bengali cuisine for inspiration with this spice – aloo posto is a constant favorite. In a net search for poppy seed recipes, Sailu’s recipe for baby eggplant in an Andhra-style poppy seed gravy caught my attention: the sweet notes of jaggery and the tang of tamarind sounded like delightful additions to the base of poppy seed paste.

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I often do a dry stir fry of cabbage, peas and onions with Indian spices, to accompany plain parathas in my office lunch box. This time I looked towards pan-Asian cuisine for inspiration, putting in a honey soy dressing in place of cumin and coriander.

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This post is dedicated to all those who believe their culinary range is limited to cooking instant noodles and heating ready-made food, for whom pasta sauce means a pricey jar of red substance bought from the supermarket.

Please. Don’t let those packaged pasta sauce bottles burn a hole in your pocket and inject a million preservatives into your system. Making homemade tomato sauce for pasta is the easiest thing in the world. At least, if you go by this recipe I’m going to share with you.

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A traditional recipe from Bihar/Bengal that revels in the heady potency of mustard. If you like the sharpness of mustard and mustard oil, you are in for a treat with sarson wale aloo (potatoes in mustard sauce).

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