Cooking Vegetarian: 2,600+ Recipes
Gajar matar sabzi — simple Indian carrots and peas — is the fifteen-minute side that rescues any meal: carrots and peas bloomed with cumin, coriander, and turmeric. It's the dish I make when the fridge is nearly empty. There's a special kind of comfort found in a...
South Indian beet poriyal — beet stir-fry — combines boiled diced beets with a mustard-seed, lentil, and curry-leaf tempering, finished with grated coconut and cilantro. It's earthy, faintly sweet, and impossibly pretty on the plate. Tired of the same old boring...
Quick baghara baingan — eggplant in a peanut and sesame sauce — is the Hyderabadi classic slimmed down for a weeknight: peanut butter and tahini stand in for the long grinder work, with tamarind and dark brown sugar for sweet-sour depth. I've always been captivated by...
Kathirikai poriyal — a South Indian eggplant stir-fry — pairs tender eggplant with chana dal, coriander seeds, and dried chilies ground into a coarse, nutty masala. It's the kind of side dish that quietly becomes the reason for the rice. Ready to explore the...
Smoky roasted eggplant bharta — baingan bharta — chars three whole eggplants, then fries the flesh with cumin, fennel, nigella, ginger, and tomatoes. The roasting takes the time; everything else is quick alchemy. In Hindi, 'bharta' means to mash, and that's the...
Smoky eggplant chokah — Bihari baingan chokha — roasts slim eggplants and plum tomatoes over a flame until the skins blister, then mashes them with raw mustard oil, shallots, mint, and cilantro. The smoke is the entire point. Transport your taste buds to the rustic...
Spiced cucumber spears with a sizzling tarka take twelve minutes total: cool cucumber with lemon and roasted cumin, then a last-second pour of hot mustard-seed oil. It's the most refreshing thing on a hot-day table. Craving a snack that's light, refreshing, and...
Pan-fried zucchini with Indian spices and tomato sauce is the 15-minute side I rely on all summer: golden zucchini rounds dusted with roasted cumin and chili, napped in a simple South Indian tomato sauce. While a summer barbecue is perfect for grilling zucchini,...
Indian spiced boiled peanuts — ubli moomphali — simmer raw peanuts in their shells with a fragrant bundle of whole spices: dried chilies, peppercorns, fennel, cumin, and fenugreek. Warm, salty, and messy in the best possible way. A Seasonal Treat You Can't MissForget...
Smoky eggplant gojju bruschetta puts charred, mashed eggplant with tamarind and brown sugar on diagonally cut baguette slices. The sweet-sour-smoky topping makes it the most requested thing I bring to parties. Ever tried a dip that's simultaneously hot, sweet, and...
Broiled portobello mushrooms in the Kodaga style — chutta kumme — need just a handful of ingredients and eight minutes: thick portobello caps under the broiler, then dressed with pounded green chilies, lime, and salt. The mushrooms' own juices become the sauce. A...
Kurkuri bhindi — crispy okra fries dusted with chickpea flour, chili, and chaat masala — converts even the okra-averse. The trick is okra so dry it fries instead of steaming. If you've ever been hesitant about cooking okra because of its dreaded slimy texture, this...