Indian As Apple Pie

This past weekend demoing at the Whole Foods in Willowbrook, I showcased one of the best-kept Indian food secrets - kala chana, or black chickpeas, high in protein and meatier in texture than their white counterpart. Not one person knew what they were trying, but once they did, they were sold! Here's an easy recipe for kala chana made with my Punjabi Masala, which is just onion/ginger/garlic/turmeric ground down into a paste.  Kala Chana Chaat with Punjabi MasalaMakes 6 cups  2 cups dried kala chana, cleaned and washed½ onion, finely chopped2 – 3 Thai, serrano, or cayenne chiles, stems removed and...

As many of you know, I have spent the last 3 years working on making Indian food easier to find for all of you. One goal has been to get our products on mainstream grocery shelves. While the Indian food section in most stores is pretty diverse, I will argue that many (not all) products lack in one of two areas: health and taste.  Many taste like someone non-Indian approved them. And, many load up on oils, creams and do include food dyes. No, not all. But, many fall into this category.  With my products, we are creating a #HealthyIndian...

The other night I was lusting over my girls' mac and cheese. It was the new hip organic kind out of the box. But, it was cheese. I've stayed away from dairy for over two decades now, well before it was hip to be vegan, plant-based, or whatever folks want to call themselves. I eat non-dairy because if I eat milk and cheese, my stomach starts to hurt. When I stopped eating it regularly I started to feel great, and the rest is history - I even wrote a book about it!  I'm human though, and I miss my creamy,...

I first saw a turmeric plant as a little girl visiting my grandmother's home in Chandigarh, India.  All of my cousins and I loved playing and climbing the lychee and mango trees in the back of our huge home in Sector 9. It was always a special time for me visiting from America - getting to pluck juicy, ripe lychees right off the stem and wander into our beloved gardner's patch of okra, eggplant, and turmeric.  Mali, as we would refer to him, would complain about the grassy plant overtaking his garden, and mumble under his breath as he cut away...

Traditionally, vegetarian Indian meals have at least three components: a vegetable sabzi (stir-fry), lentils, and rice or bread. The idea behind this theme? That the lentils afford a vegetarian protein to help nutritionally balance out the meal.  I don't know about you, but most days I'm lucky to just get dinner on the table. I'm not always able to make sure we have that protein component in our meals even if we still want to eat a vegetarian diet. Why, I'm on a mission to taste test non-traditional ingredients in my recipes. Ingredients like quinoa, cashew cream, edamame, are known outside the...

     Polenta, to me, always represented a stomach ache. Because whenever I've eaten it out, it's made with dairy.        I love splurging as much as the next person, but eating too much of anything dairy is just tough on my system, forcing me to be largely dairy-free for over 2 decades. If you have my second book, Vegan India Cooking, you already know this about me.       It's why I love finding different ways to make things that we traditionally believe rely on cheese and cream to taste good. This recipe does the trick. I...

My mother came up with the name for this snack. It's essentially a baked chickpea fritter or pakora cut up into little pieces - tukri in Hindi refers to little pieces. One of the key differences between this and a fried pakora is that most of the veggies are coarsely hand grated to give you a distinct texture rather than just chopped or sliced.  This recipe is in my second cookbook, Vegan Indian Cooking (page 104), but I got to thinking. Why limit myself to chickpea flour? I had Teff flour in the pantry and have always wanted to give it...

I've always had a love-hate relationship with Sweet Potatoes, shakarkandi in Hindi.  On the one hand, I know how good they are for us - high in beta-carotene and Vitamin A. On the other, they're intimidating to cook. Baking takes at least 45 minutes. Boiling means they are water logged and tasteless. I needed a better way. My go-to food bible, The World's Healthiest Foods by George Mateljan, had the solution. If you don't have this book, get it - every food is in here with basics on nutrition and optimal ways to cook and preserve nutrients along with delicious and easy recipes. ...

Chaat Masala is one of those spices that if you know it, you can't get enough of it. But, what is it? Chaat in Hindi literally means to 'lick'. The thought is that something is so delicious that you want to lick your fingers clean. It's used in most North Indian street foods. Most vendors create their own unique blends, but most blends have a few common ingredients including kala namak (black salt), black pepper, and dried mango powder. The citrus taste element from dried mango powder gives you a lemony base and profile that pairs perfectly with corn. So, Get your...

No doubt, the hottest spice these days is Turmeric. Warm, earthy, bold in flavor. Healthy for you. But how do you actually eat it? And why should you really?  Turmeric is a natural anti-inflammatory. In the most basic sense, think of how you feel when you wake up with a sore throat. It hurts to swallow. The tissue in your throat is swollen.  The curcumin in turmeric helps fight the infection and inflammation.  A very easy way to get fresh turmeric into your day? Pickle it!  You can find fresh turmeric now in many specialty grocers. In Chicago, I head to...