When an Indian child fighting with another Indian child says, “I am going to make a bharta out of you,” he or she means that the intention is to make a mash out of the other child. This is my way of explaining that bhartas are mashed vegetables, seasoned in a variety...
Chokah is eaten all over Bihar. In the villages there, it could be the only dish of the day, eaten with simple whole-grain flatbreads, such as chapatis, or rice. (Similar dishes, known as “bharta,” exist all across North India.) It can also be served as part of a meal...
An inspired and variable mixture of vegetables, nuts, legumes, noodles, chutneys, and, most importantly, puffed rice, jhal moori is Calcutta street food par excellence, a kind of nutritious Bengali salad. It can be picked up from a vendor and eaten as a snack while on...
Many nations eat some sort of puffed rice. In the West, it is generally used for breakfast cereal, to be eaten with milk and sugar. In India, it is eaten in hundreds of different ways, some sweet but most others savory and spicy. The recipe here is for a crunchy,...
Here is another wonderful combination of fruit and raw vegetables that we often use to make our snack foods and salads. I find that it makes a light and delightful first course. This recipe may easily be doubled or tripled. You can use different types of radishes...
During the winter months, the tomatoes in our garden in India bore endless fruit. Some were made into juice for us to have midmorning, some were added to vegetable dishes and dals, and some were used to make salads. My father did not grow any heirloom tomatoes in...
Apart from being delicious, this is a very pretty salad that I often serve as a first course, sometimes combining it with cucumber spears. It is prettiest when made with cherry tomatoes of different sizes and colors. Placed in a single layer on a white plate, they...
Whenever I am looking for a snack that is not too fattening, I turn to these cucumber spears. We used to eat a simpler version as children, cucumber halves or quarters just sprinkled with lime juice and dusted with spices, but now I have started giving the dish a...
You can grill the zucchini outdoors in the summer, but I usually fry them indoors in a heavy frying pan. SERVES 6 AS A FIRST COURSE AND 4 AS A MAIN MEAL • About 2 tablespoons olive or peanut oil • 2 medium zucchinis (about 6 oz in all), trimmed and cut into long...
India is the second-largest producer of peanuts in the world, after China, and vegetarians make ample use of the protein-rich product by adding it to their meals, either cooking it along with vegetables and legumes (peanuts are a legume too, of course), or by adding...
Gojjus, beloved by the Madhwa Brahmin community of Karnataka, are hot, sweet, and sour relishes, usually eaten with rice. This gojju, a kind of chutney, may be served as such with most Indian meals, but I love it as a dip with crackers or oatcakes, or, better yet,...
During the four-month rainy season in the hills of Coorg (southern Karnataka), most people get their food by foraging in the dense forests that surround the rice fields and the massive coffee plantations. It is an age-old tradition followed by the rich and poor alike....