Fresh India: 130 Quick, Easy, and Delicious Vegetarian Recipes for Every Day

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Meanwhile, put 2 tablespoons of oil into a large lidded frying pan over a medium heat and, when hot, add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the chillies and onion. Cook for 12 minutes, until the onion is soft and golden, then add the garlic. Cook for another couple of minutes, then add the beans and stir to mix together. Add the tomatoes and cook for a few more minutes until soft and jammy around the edges. There's no better gift to give or receive than a great cookbook, and this collection of tasty, meat-free Indian dishes is the ultimate present for foodies! Some of the dishes in Fresh India have been passed down the generations in my family and haven’t seen the light of day outside our home until now. Many have come from my travels all over India and the people I have met along the way, from home cooks to street stall vendors, temple cooks to chefs in top restaurants. I grew up here in England in a small farming village in Lincolnshire. Behind our house were fields bursting with potatoes, leeks, corn, and chard, and down the road, mustard, cauliflower, and all sorts of greens. Mum adopted and adapted, spicing all this produce to make our very own special dishes, from zucchini kofta to green bean bhajis, rhubarb chutney, and even rainbow chard saag. With every dish, you could see the Gujarati resourcefulness and creativity at work.

Chiles and ground chile vary hugely in potency. I (almost) always use the same slim Indian green chiles and buy the same brand of Kashmiri ground red chile too. I've got to know my chiles and spices intimately so there are never any nasty surprises and I can judge how much to use. All vegetable-based, all flavour-full, these recipes will be loved by vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. Add the fenugreek leaves, cinnamon, cloves, chilli powder, honey and salt. Stir, then add the fried paneer, cover with a lid and cook for 5 minutes, or until cooked through. Add the peas and cream and cook for a further 5 minutes. The recipes are unpretentious and were immediately promoted by my family of critics into must-makes for the monthly dinner rotation, new staples for a season of chill and damp." —Sam Sifton, The New York Times Use the additional contents to find First-Timer Recipes, 30-Minute Midweek Meals or Freezer and Store-Cupboard Cooking and follow the seasons with dishes that use ingredients in their prime.

This is a beautiful book to look through! I love looking at great food, this has lots of very attractive pictures of vegetables and bright images of Indian art and illustrations. If you enjoy looking through cookery books for fun this is highly recommended. Mix together the flour with just enough cold water to make a dough. Line the rim of the casserole dish with it and then put the lid on top to make an airtight seal. Bake for 30 minutes.

At the heart of every one of my recipes is a place called Gujarat. It’s where, as long as anyone can remember, our family came from. And although my family has now settled in England, we are still Gujarati, and day in day out we talk, think, and eat like Gujaratis.This is a perfect finger food that can be served as a starter or as a main meal. Me and my friends stuffed the kebabs into garlic pitta bread added chilli sauce and lime Raita. Others have come from my experiments in the kitchen, taking classic Indian techniques and flavors and imagining something new. After all, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has wondered what an Indian salad could look and taste like. My second book, Fresh India, was published in July 2016 and is a celebration of India’s love of vegetables. It won The Observer Food Monthly’s Best New Cookbook.

Appetites will vary (so plan accordingly), but as a general rule allocate 4 tablespoons of dry rice per person. As for legumes, allow ¼ pound of the dried variety per person, or a generous ¾ cup of cooked. Dishoom uses butter, cream and saffron. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for The Guardian Spices and aromatics What I thought:Hara Bara kebabs are so easy to make with common ingredients and taste super delicious. All ingredients can be found in a local supermarket.Whether you are vegetarian, want to eat more vegetables, or just want to make great, modern Indian food, this is the book for you. Gujarat, a small state on the western coast of India, has had a very big impact on Indian food culture. It all started in 269 BC when Emperor Ashoka banned the slaughter of any living animal in the name of peace. Since that time, the majority of the millions of Hindus in the state have been vegetarian. Over thousands of years, a rich and resourceful vegetable-first way of cooking has evolved. Home cooks, restaurant chefs, and street-food stallholders alike have all been creating simple but extraordinary dishes, using just what grows on the land and is in season. Serves: 4 as a main course Fresh India, Meera Sodha’s second cookbook, “is a celebration of India’s love of vegetables.” Photo by Flatiron Books Add the crushed coriander and cumin, followed by the potatoes. Cook for 10 minutes, turning every now and then until crispy. Add a couple of tablespoons of water, cover with the lid and cook for a further 5 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and no longer resist the point of a knife. When rolled, place on the oiled pan and repeat. You may need to cook them in a couple of batches, in which case cover the dough and roll it out just before baking, so it doesn't dry out. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until they are golden brown and hard when you tap them.

Although Gujarat in particular is famous for this, a similar story exists all across India. For hundreds of millions of people in India, vegetarianism is not a choice but a way of life. Indian cuisine is one of the most vibrant vegetable cuisines in the entire world, and in Fresh India Meera leads home cooks on a culinary journey through its many flavorful dishes that will delight vegetarians and those simply looking to add to their recipe repertoire alike. Meanwhile, put 2 tablespoons of oil into a large lidded frying pan over a medium heat and, when hot, add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the slit green chillies and the onion. Cook for 12 minutes, or until the onion is soft and golden, then add the garlic. Cook for another couple of minutes, then add the drained beans and stir to mix together. Add the tomatoes and cook for a few more minutes until soft and jammy around the edges.Taste as you go, from beginning to middle to end. This is the simplest but best piece of advice my mother ever gave me. That way you'll learn what you like and what you don't. It will also give you a better understanding of the personalities of the ingredients you're dealing with and how they change with time, heat, and when mixed with other things. Soon you'll be able to create great food without a recipe. Spicewise, biryani tends to be a fairly delicate dish: sweet garam masala is common, along with a little turmeric for colour, cumin and a bit of chilli powder. Fearnley-Whittinstall adds ground coriander and cinnamon, but I’m going to keep it fairly simple. However, I do like the saffron used in both his and the Dishoom recipe, which makes the dish feel gratifyingly regal, as well as taste wonderful. Dishoom infuses butter and cream with it and then pours it over the top of the rice before cooking, which adds an extra touch of decadence, although I think in a non-restaurant context, milk will do the same job just fine. Fry for 10 to 12 minutes, until they turn translucent and start to caramelize, then add the garlic and ginger. Stir-fry for around 3 minutes, then add the tinned tomatoes, pouring them in with one hand and crushing them with the other. Fill the empty tin a third of the way up with water and add that to the pan too.