OUR VEGETARIAN BLOG
LIFESAVER LENTILS
I ate this dish outside Amber Fort, one of Rajasthan’s most breathtakingly beautiful palaces, but perhaps it was memorable because it was very nearly my last meal before I got caught between a fort wall and an elephant. There’s a small possibility that the lively,…
RAJMA FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Gujaratis love to get the whole family over, and food is always central to the occasion. The only problem is that the family is usually pretty big. There’s an art to cooking for a lot of people. You need a dish that doesn’t require much prep, isn’t technically…
GUJARATI DAL WITH PEANUTS + STAR ANISE
This dal is my and every other Gujarati’s taste of home. One spoonful and I am transported. It has a more complex taste than most dals due to the subtle jabs of star anise, curry leaves, and lemon, all rounded off with the sweetness of honey. Because of the time it…
TEMPLE TOMATO RASAM
In India, food and religion go hand in hand. Most Hindu kitchens have god figurines nestled in among the pots, pans, and spices, and most temples have a lively kitchen attached. Visits to temples usually involve a meal of some kind, and one of the most common dishes…
BENGALI COCONUT DAL
This is a gentle and luxurious dal, nutty from the split chickpeas, and sweet and creamy from the cinnamon, cardamom, and coconut. Serves 4 as part of a main course 1½ cups chana dal (split black chickpeas)4 tablespoons desiccated or fresh grated coconut2 tablespoons…
SRI LANKAN DAL WITH COCONUT + LIME KALE
This classic and soothing creamy red lentil Sri Lankan dal is offset by spiky “mallum,” or shredded greens cooked with onions, coconut, and fresh lime. In Sri Lanka all sorts of nutritious greens are used to make mallum, from chrysanthemum leaves to turnip tops. I use…
BUTTERNUT SQUASH, EGGPLANT, + RED LENTIL SAMBHAR
In the 1960s and ’70s when English curry-house menus were first printed and laminated, South Indian food hardly got a second look. The strange outcome of this trend has been that many lovers of Indian food have hardly tried classic South Indian dishes such as sambhar,…
MOONG DAL WITH A GARLIC + CUMIN TARKA
This is an unassuming but gorgeous dal and one of my favorite lentil dishes of all time. A gentle and soothing marriage of soft lentils and earthy cumin and chiles, tempered by butter, it’s old-fashioned home cooking at its best: nourishing, cheap to make, and…
PUMPKIN, BLACK-EYED PEA, + COCONUT CURRY
The smell of roasted pumpkin, and curry leaves sizzling in coconut oil, is enough to make anyone want to go to Kerala, which is where a variation of this dish, known as “olan,” originates. The sweet pumpkin, earthy beans, and creamy coconut come together to create a…
PANEER BUTTER MASALA
Hindus consider cows and all their milky produce—cream, butter, and cheese—sacred. I can’t argue with that. Traditionally, this dish would be made with a few large slabs of golden butter, but for the sake of decency I’ve toned things down a bit. It’s still an…
PANEER STUFFED ROMANO PEPPERS
I’m a child of the eighties—no one can stop me from stuffing peppers. These make for a beautiful starter alongside simply dressed leaves, and you can, if you want, stuff the peppers and refrigerate them, then roast them when you want to eat them. Serves 4 as a starter…
STICKY MANGO PANEER SKEWERS
Jim Pizer is more Indian than a lot of Indians I know. While growing up he was in and out of his Indian friends’ houses in Birmingham, eating their mums’ home cooking, and was so disappointed with the state of Indian food in restaurants in the UK that he decided to…