2022-04-10 13:35
What do you do with an assortment of vegetables when the clock says snack-time? Make mixed vegetable pakoras, if you ask me. This pakora recipe does not demand exactness; take the broad t… Read More
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2022-04-05 08:40
Wondering what Easter gift to pick for your friend who enjoys cooking? I have a few kitchen tool ideas for you. These tools are light-weight, economical, and come in handy for a variety o… Read More
2021-11-10 15:24
Chickpeas lend themselves generously to experimentation. The classic channa masala with its onion-garlic base is by no means the only way to cook this legume curry-style. Chickpeas CAN be… Read More
2021-10-03 09:56
Sliced aloo “chokha style” is a spin on Bihar’s aloo chokha, with the potatoes sliced instead of mashed. The trick to making this recipe is in boiling the potatoes just… Read More
2021-07-18 11:16
While cucumber is great raw, a light sautéing brings out in the gourd a delicious flavor dimension. The key is to cook the cucumber just enough to let it soften, not so much that i… Read More
2021-05-26 05:57
This light and nourishing ginger lime moong dal has a healing touch. Excellent for days when you want to soothe a sore throat.
You Need:
[For 4 servings]
Yellow moong dal – 1 cup… Read More
2021-05-02 18:01
While surfing Afghani food channels, I paused when I saw this layered, brilliantly colored thumbnail: “kaddu borani“, said its label. I hit play and by the end of it, had my m… Read More
2021-01-03 16:03
Mixed legumes cooked with whole spices and fresh fenugreek, topped with a rich ghee-garlic tadka. Panchmel dal is one of those rare dishes that are complex and, at the same time, comforti… Read More
2020-12-26 17:34
Ridge gourd served up in special style: shallow-fried cylinders of the gourd stuffed with a peanut-sesame-coriander spice.
This recipe uses as filling base the very delicious spice mix… Read More
2020-12-17 15:28
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.
You might… Read More
2020-12-12 19:04
Chayote slow-cooked in a tomato base – simple flavors that get their kick from a tempering of mustard and asafoetida. This is one of those curries that only ask for time, not except… Read More
2020-11-20 16:02
When writing about butter soy baby corn, I am reminded of the acronym WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). There isn’t really more to the recipe than what the headline presents:… Read More
2020-10-27 02:43
Masoor dal pakodi – with red lentil as starring ingredient, this crunchy snack-time goodie also doubles up as a curry dumpling (badi). Learn how to make these delicious fritters… Read More
2020-10-19 07:31
When you have run out of vegetables, make jhunka.
This piece of wisdom that I received from my Punekar friend was worth its weight in gold during the pandemic lockdown. With just besan an… Read More
2020-09-27 11:45
An easy arbi (colocasia) side dish that doesn’t require much skill or vigilance to put together. And what’s more, it remains heroically spill-resistant even if you carry it ar… Read More
2020-08-29 18:38
Epic’s Tyohaar ki Thali was playing on my TV as I went about Sunday chores, only half an eye on the proceedings on screen…when this radish walnut chutney recipe made me stop… Read More
2020-08-22 07:12
Sookhe bharwan baingan is a delicious side dish of spice-stuffed baby eggplants. It uses few ingredients – no onion, garlic or tomatoes – and can be put together easily if you… Read More
2020-08-08 15:23
Kachumber – a classic Indian salad made with easily accessible raw vegetables. Light, fresh and oil-free, kachumber salad gives a pleasant counterpoint to leisurely-cooked, gravy-sw… Read More
2020-08-06 14:02
A Turkish-inspired masoor dal recipe that weaves the goodness of root vegetables in a wholesome, comforting soup.
Masoor dal (red lentil) is among the most malleable of legumes – o… Read More
2020-07-12 15:23
Do you believe that okra should never be cooked moist? This okra and baby potato stew will make you re-evaluate that belief! When simmered in a flavorful tomato curry, okra and potatoes g… Read More
2020-07-04 13:31
Butter garlic green beans – a quick and easy side dish to go with your meals. Here’s a step by step recipe with pictures.
This recipe uses the French bean or haricot vert. Y… Read More
2020-06-22 03:13
All hail this riot of red! With the crunch of peanuts, the creaminess of coconut, the heat of chili and pepper, this beetroot rice recipe makes for an immensely satisfying meal.
You Nee… Read More
2020-06-06 11:46
A super flavorful kadhi spiced with mustard (sarson) and fenugreek (methi). This recipe’s highlight is its use of methi in as many as three forms: methi seeds roasted and ground, me… Read More
2020-05-19 18:00
Till not too long ago, pancakes for me meant cheela. The flour/batter of the pancake would vary: if not besan then moong or sooji, but the template of ‘thick batter + a dash of seas… Read More
2020-05-03 17:32
Not all experiments pass muster the first time. A few go through rounds of trials before they reach publicly sharable shape. A few are embarrassments best shelved forever (I’m think… Read More
2020-04-28 08:45
Thick colorful bell pepper strips and wedge-cut potatoes, shallow-fried with fragrant spices. Uses no onion, tomato, ginger or garlic. This aloo capsicum dry sabzi is just right for days… Read More
2020-04-19 15:24
I was looking for a chickpea recipe that did not call for onion, tomato, ginger or garlic, and I stumbled upon a Himachali dish called madra which is served during the dham food festival… Read More
2020-04-11 10:09
Vegetable momos seemed like exotic restaurant-only food to me for a long time, till a friend taught me how easy it is to make them at home. All you need is to figure out a way to steam th… Read More
2020-04-04 14:00
Once upon a time, when I couldn’t tell the most basic cooking ingredients apart, I decided to cook myself some khichdi. The end result was a slimy mess. It dawned on me after downin… Read More
2020-03-25 20:26
I write this sitting in India, living through a momentous 21-day lockdown to combat COVID-19. In these tough times, when kitchen essentials are in short supply, I am turning to recipes th… Read More
2020-03-14 14:29
Chana dal paratha with dahi and achar – nothing else comes close for a filling, comforting Sunday brunch. Try it this weekend!
All you need is some pre-planning: put chana dal to s… Read More
2020-02-02 15:15
Making beetroot raita is like taking a complementary course in color therapy. Boil the beets – witness the transparent water turn a purple-red. Peel, trim, grate – get your fi… Read More
2020-01-11 18:45
A simple stir fry of potatoes and cauliflower elevated by the tadka of fenugreek seeds in mustard oil. Aloo gobhi bhujiya pairs well with pooris / parathas and stacks well in the lunchbox… Read More
2019-12-01 17:36
Each kitchen stint with the chayote teaches me something new. When I began cooking with this gourd, peeling it was hard – till I learnt the techniques of making triangular notches a… Read More
2019-10-30 18:28
Avengers: Infinity War famously declared "We Will Deep Fry Your Kebab". This kachche kele ke kebab recipe duly acts upon that memo.
Kachche kele ka kebab is as delicious as its allite… Read More
2019-10-19 09:37
Sweet potato’s starchy sweetness plays off the robust flavors of sookhi sabzi masala in this recipe. The spices make this dish taste so exotic, you can hardly tell that putting this… Read More
2019-10-12 11:15
Dal and chow chow (chayote), when cooked together, give you a dish with wonderful texture and taste. The juicy pear-like chow chow softens and melds into dal, adding an interesting counte… Read More
2019-09-15 16:57
Take the basic semolina pancake recipe up a level: fortify it with carrot and cucumber, flavor its base with a dash of dahi, spice it up with ginger and chilies. Carrot cucumber rava chee… Read More
2019-09-05 08:50
The world of technology looks firmly food-wards when it wants to add color, texture and flavor to its vocabulary.
Presenting for you a sampling of food words that describe products or co… Read More
2019-09-01 19:01
Home-style aloo tinda ki sabzi, cooked with tomatoes and spices.
If tinda is unfamiliar to you, here’s an intro:
Tinda is called apple gourd in English, a name it gets from its r… Read More
2019-07-29 03:01
In this karela masala fry recipe, spice-coated bitter gourd slices are pan-fried on low heat leisurely till they crisp up and lose all but a hint of their native bitterness. Serve karela mas… Read More
2019-05-10 17:51
Quick, easy, lightweight chickpea sundal. Just right for those times when our default chickpea preparation – channa masala – feels too elaborate and time-consuming, or when we… Read More
2019-04-20 04:41
I often shop online for cookware. The result can be a hit or miss. The size, thickness and “feel” of pots and pans is not evident till one sees them and handles them non-virtu… Read More
2019-04-14 18:11
Methi toor dal dry was a revelation when I first tasted it. I was keen to learn what ingredients and techniques went into preparing this flavorful dish. My friend’s mom who had cook… Read More
2019-04-04 00:20
“Eat only as much as your cupped hands can hold”, goes a popular dietary maxim.
“Eat the rainbow”, advises another.
The Buddha Bowl beautifully embodies those two… Read More
2019-03-26 10:45
Pudina rice – fragrant basmati with the freshness of mint leaves, some kick from chilies, ginger and lime, and nutty cashew goodness to top it all off.
This recipe is similar to ca… Read More
2019-03-22 11:22
You will find a delicious mix of flavors, textures and colors in this patta gobhi aloo matar ki sabzi (cabbage potato peas curry). There’s crunch from cabbage, tender starchiness fr… Read More
2019-03-02 18:12
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, sta… Read More
2019-02-14 18:31
Tender broad beans / fava beans (sem in Hindi) are cooked with an unusually colored, delicious black sesame sauce in this recipe. The dark, nutty flavor of the sauce brings out the earthi… Read More
2019-02-10 13:06
A bright side dish to perk up your mealtimes. Cucumber and pomegranate are loaded with antioxidants, and when they come together, they make a salad that’s the very definition of hea… Read More
2019-02-03 07:55
Stir-frying boiled millets with assorted vegetables, peanuts and seasoning gives us this healthy one-pot meal that sits just right in the lunchbox. Millet peanut vegetable stir-fry is veg… Read More
2019-01-28 11:13
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… Read More
2019-01-18 17:36
Dhansak – in which legumes, vegetables and aromatic spices come together in a celebration of Persian and Gujarati flavors. The name tells us as much: “dhansak” comes fro… Read More
2019-01-05 15:46
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 plantai… Read More
2018-12-26 01:41
Four ingredients – each in equal measure – roasted and ground: and lo, there you have a delicious sookhi sabzi masala. Sprinkle the masala over dry sautéed veggies with… Read More
2018-12-12 06:45
I love cooking greens with toor dal – my go-to combination is spinach toor dal, mostly because spinach is easier to procure than other greens. When I do get my hands on poi saag (ba… Read More
2018-12-02 13:32
When the sharp juiciness of shimla mirch (green bell pepper/capsicum) is coupled with the delicate nuttiness of til (sesame seeds), something magical happens! Try tilwale shimla mirch (se… Read More
2018-11-20 12:00
When a friend returned from Austin, she brought an ornate crockpot for her mother back in India. Her mother unsurprisingly did not find much use for the contraption in her home cooking. F… Read More
2018-11-12 03:08
The onset of winter brings with it fresh white radish (mooli) topped with lush green leaves. Here’s a curry that puts those radish greens to excellent use.
Radish leaves have a sh… Read More
2018-11-02 02:31
Grape and walnut fried rice – a treat to the senses! Revel in the flavors of tart-sweet grapes, toasted walnuts, caramelized onions studding fried rice.
This dish is really easy… Read More
2018-10-17 02:00
It’s pumpkin season! Time to bring out all the pumpkin recipes for your meals. Today’s main course – pumpkin za’atar with butter garlic sauce – came about by… Read More
2018-10-13 04:47
Kaddu poi (pumpkin basale leaves curry) is a Bengali/Oriya signature style of cooking these two nutrient-packed, vividly colored vegetables together: pumpkin (kaddu) and basale leaves (po… Read More
2018-10-06 05:32
Green beans and shredded coconut pair together wonderfully in this side dish inspired by Karnataka’s palya. This recipe is simpler than the standard palya and calls for fewer ingred… Read More
2018-09-23 16:13
“If you don’t know what to do with it, boil it” is a mantra that serves me well with unfamiliar vegetables. Chayote (or chow chow as they call it where I live) has long… Read More
2018-09-19 02:56
Jhatpat aloo dry with lime and spices is a side dish that you can put together in just a few minutes if you have boiled potatoes on hand. The dish gets its distinctive flavor from a homem… Read More
2018-09-15 08:07
A round up of easy vegetarian rice dishes that you can whip up with little time and effort. The addition of vegetables, dals and condiments ensures that you get a range of flavors and nut… Read More
2018-09-08 05:32
While wolfing down gobi manchurian, I wondered what to do next with my pack of wolfberries. That’s when sudden inspiration struck me. Allow me to present goji berry dal tadka, a hap… Read More
2018-09-01 14:11
A Bihari meal typically carries small servings of side dishes next to rice/roti and curry: chutney, bhujiya (fried stuff), chokha (mashed stuff). Parval chokha is one such popular side, i… Read More
2018-08-16 04:10
Potatoes and raw banana complement each others’ tastes beautifully in aloo kela ki sabzi (potato raw banana curry).
The sabzi is straightforward enough to make – the veget… Read More
2018-07-29 10:37
A selection of not-often-used words that convey something about food in a manner so remarkable, they had me pause and admire the first time I heard them. Some of these words are witty, so… Read More
2018-07-21 15:42
A no-cook style of eating raw mangoes that’s lip-smacking delicious and what’s more – so easy a "no cook" can make it. Just get yourself a good quality knife/peeler and… Read More
2018-07-16 01:15
Funny thing about moringa leaves : where available, they grow like weeds – falling off their trees onto the pavements, attractively stacked in enormous bundles on vegetable vendors… Read More
2018-07-10 09:15
Chayote was an untried, untasted vegetable for me until an article in The Awl piqued me enough to cook with it.
Since then, it is as if Destiny has been conspiring to make me eat the cha… Read More
2018-07-06 05:25
A tangy garlicky dip to go with parathas and fried savories. Raw mango garlic chutney (kachcha aam lahsun chutney) is a must-try when raw mangoes are in season.
I have used here the tot… Read More
2018-06-02 14:08
Baingan masala – a delicious curry to make with in-season baby eggplant. Unlike the more intricate recipes that involve stuffing the eggplant or dry-roasting the spices, this bainga… Read More
2018-05-26 12:56
From my recent trip to Singapore, I got back a couple of food items not easily available or cooked with in India: dried goji berries (also called wolfberries) and Chinese dates (also call… Read More
2018-05-19 06:53
This recipe pays homage to parval, a gourd popular in the eastern states of India. Whenever we make a trip to Bihar, we come back loaded with parval [1] by the bagful – we could buy… Read More
2018-05-02 13:39
A starring recipe for a party menu: lauki kofta, or spiced balls of grated bottle gourd deep-fried and simmered in a rich tomato gravy. The preparation of lauki kofta takes a bit of plann… Read More
2018-04-21 17:35
This recipe of kairi khatti-meethi chutney (sweet and sour raw mango chutney) is so elementary, even Watson wouldn’t need a Holmes to explain it to him. Or so I thought till a frien… Read More
2018-04-06 18:21
Not too long ago, the mention of sundal outside of south India would be met with quizzical stares. Times are changing – this simple boiled legume dish is gaining traction far and wi… Read More
2018-03-15 16:26
Start-of-season green grapes tend to be tart and work best when combined with other ingredients – a few grapes in fruit rabri, for example, or in fresh juice. A recent addition to m… Read More
2018-03-03 11:51
Don’t throw away bottle gourd peel – use it in lauki chutney. Fibre-rich and fortified with dals and greens, this nutrient-rich chutney pairs with hot rice and ghee for a whol… Read More
2018-02-25 03:00
Chana dal kosambari with lots of carrot, coconut and coriander – the mix of colors and flavors in this salad is so inviting, you can’t but reach out for seconds.
Taste aside… Read More
2018-02-22 02:15
Tender and crisp green beans lightly stewed in a tomato garlic sauce. This beans recipe makes a great side dish with chapatis or rice.
You Need:
Beans – 250 grams
Tomatoes –… Read More
2018-02-17 14:47
Have boiled rice in your fridge ? Congratulations – you can have your dinner ready in seven minutes flat, with this lemon rice recipe. Tangy, tasty, superquick – it’s a… Read More
2018-02-11 04:58
Bottle gourd decks up in style in lauki paratha, balancing its natural simplicity with a host of heftier flavors. When grated and kneaded into dough, this unassuming gourd lends its feel… Read More
2018-02-04 06:48
For someone new to Karnataka’s cuisine, VV Puram Food Street – a narrow alley lined with small eateries – offers a fine introduction to the state’s delicacies. Esp… Read More
2018-01-15 17:18
Staple, durable veggies – potatoes and onions – join forces to give us this easy dry sabzi: aloo pyaz ki bhujiya. It’s vegan and very light on spices, just right for the… Read More
2018-01-06 02:30
Potato pumpkin masala is a testament to the power of "slow and steady". Potato and pumpkin cubes simmer gently with tomatoes and aromatic spices to produce this winner of a dish.
You N… Read More
2018-01-02 02:00
A quick method of making mooli sambar: everything in the pot, pressure-cooked, topped with a tadka. Ideal for days when you don’t have too much time for the kitchen.
The traditiona… Read More
2017-12-14 19:26
Roadside vendors around me are selling mounds of lush green bathua leaves…yes, winter has truly arrived. Bathua is in season for only a short while each year, and when it is, it is… Read More
2017-12-04 03:00
The orange and pink of pumpkin and red lentil, steeped in the gold of turmeric: happy-hued pumpkin masoor dal is just what you need for warmth and cheer this season.
Masoor dal and pumpk… Read More
2017-11-20 13:45
A green papaya side dish that’s light, tangy and full of nutrition. Papeeta ka chokha asks of you only five ingredients and is a breeze to make (discounting the will it takes to pee… Read More
2017-11-18 07:42
Had enough of aloo parathas and aloo tamatar, wondering what new to cook for dinner with that big bag of potatoes? Here’s a collection of none-too-common potato recipes to go with a… Read More
2017-11-13 12:30
One of the joys of winter is getting to cook with in-season fresh fenugreek leaves. Lush green and fragrant, fenugreek leaves lend their distinct character to any dish they are part of (c… Read More
2017-11-04 07:40
Chayote is commonly used in south Indian cuisine (here’s a nice kootu recipe), not so much in the north. It is not a vegetable I grew up eating and, even as I saw it everywhere in v… Read More
2017-11-01 02:30
Gifting times are round the corner. As one foodie to another, let me unabashedly say – nothing compares to the delight of receiving a gorgeously packaged food gift basket during hol… Read More
2017-10-27 17:08
Step aside, kale. Cauliflower is the new veg-lebrity. How pleasing it is to discover that one’s tastes are in keeping with the times. I am a huge fan of gobhi sarson, this Indian-st… Read More
2017-10-23 12:54
This easy apple chutney recipe involves no peeling, no oil and only a handful of accessible ingredients. Cook on the stovetop and have delicious apple chutney ready almost effortlessly… Read More
2017-10-12 16:25
This garlic chili chutney uses just a few ingredients to make a flavorful lunch and snack accompaniment. It’s easy to make and very versatile in its pairings.
You Need:
Garlic cl… Read More
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