The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

A spin-off on the snack Chura Bhuja with Mattar, this dish uses the healthier red poha (flattened rice) instead of white.

The method of making crispy red poha is exactly the same as for white poha – the only difference with red poha is that it is a little less easy to figure out when the grains are cooked enough. With white poha, the color change to golden is a sure indicator. With red poha, the color is already dark when you start so you need to be more watchful. Red poha turns crisp and ready to eat in about 5-6 minutes. Take a little nibble to make sure.

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Leftover boiled rice gives us plenty of opportunity for reshaping into new avatars, doesn’t it? I had a tempting pack of button mushrooms with me and used it for this mushroom fried rice tonight.

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Aloo posto is a popular Bengali dish – potatoes cooked in poppy seed paste, served with pooris or plain boiled rice. This delicately flavored curry gets its spice kick from two other trademark Bengali ingredients: mustard oil and panch phoron.

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Carrot onion raita (yogurt dip) – this cool, tangy accompaniment with its hint of sweetness, give the perfect balance to spicy Indian gravies.

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What can one do with wheat flour, onion and tomatoes? Make stuffed parathas of course. This filling came to be simply because I was out of other vegetables and it was raining too heavily for me to venture out and restock. Sometimes, necessity and laziness can produce wondrous results. Onion tomato parathas are proof!

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It is no hyperbole to say that dahi aloo is the quickest vegetable curry ever. Ideal for days when you have no time to cook a full meal. Ditch those ready-to-eat boxes- just keep boiled potatoes and yogurt handy and in minutes you can make dahi aloo. This curry goes well with chapatis, or even toast if you’re in a time-saving mode.

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An instant stir fry, using a vegan, gluten-free red chili paste from the Thai Kitchen. Easy to make, great-tasting and ultra-flexible, this recipe of thai stir fry vegetables is a godsend for days when you have little bits of many vegetables and don’t know what to do with them.

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