Notes about Recipes in this book

• Ginger paste

  • Ganga108 on December 27, 2025

    Like the chilli paste, I add a good amount of salt (but not too much) to help with preservation in the fridge, and make it without water. If it needs liquid to grind I add a little vinegar.

• Green chilli paste

  • Ganga108 on December 27, 2025

    I add salt to help with preservation in the fridge, and make without water. If it needs liquid to grind I add a little vinegar.

• Cashew paste

  • Ganga108 on December 27, 2025

    A great paste to use in place of dairy in Indian recipes. See also the one in Plant-based India.

• Tomato purée

  • Ganga108 on December 27, 2025

    Easy to make in a high-speed blender - no peeling required. I'll also use store-bought passata in place of tomatoes when tomatoes are out of season.

• Tamarind purée

  • Ganga108 on December 27, 2025

    The traditional way. Tamarind concentrates are common now, but this way gives the best taste.

• Strained yogurt

  • Ganga108 on December 27, 2025

    I use fine cheesecloth to strain yoghurt in. I adore strained yoghurt on its own (start with good quality yoghurt), and in Indian raitas and curries.

• Red lentil dal (Lal masoor dal)

  • debkellie on November 14, 2021

    Easy, very tasty. Just don't make the mistake of eating the dried red chillies unless you like an instant heat attack!

  • jenburkholder on July 14, 2022

    Good, basic dal. Didn’t bother soaking. Unsurprisingly, nothing special, but good for an easy weekday meal.

  • Ganga108 on July 11, 2023

    Simple, easy, tasty.

• Easy dal (Lachko dal)

  • jenburkholder on March 12, 2023

    Delicious for how simple it is. Definite make-again combo of flavors for the tadka.

• Garlic and potato curry (Lasaniya batata)

  • debkellie on September 20, 2022

    I didn't use the optional garlic scapes .. maybe next time. A very "hot" spiced curry, but worth the heat.

  • Ganga108 on July 01, 2023

    Excellent! It takes about 1.5 hours to make. The potatoes are delicious on their own (after marination), even without the sauce. Spicy, but not too hot for us. Temper the heat if you prefer less spicy (less chilli, chilli powder, etc). NOTE it is even more delicious when left for a few hours. NOTE 2: I also love "Baby potatoes with seasoned tomato sauce (Aloo tamatar sabji)" from The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi. Spicier but also good. In order I'd rank this one from Vina Patel first by a hair's breadth or two.

• Spiced scrambled eggs (Egg bhurji)

  • Ganga108 on December 07, 2024

    Mmmm delicious, spicy, and somehow the eggs are quite creamy. I could have made my own bhaji masala, but it is Sunday morning. I used my already made home-mixed curry powder instead.

• Cauliflower with curry leaves

  • jenburkholder on April 28, 2022

    Quite good. The cooking method was interesting, with the boiling of the aromatics, but it worked well and the dish ended up flavorful. The spice mixture was great, but there was too much of it - we used about half of what gets blitzed up, and that was plenty; if made as written, it would be overspiced.

  • Ganga108 on July 02, 2023

    A gentle dish spiced with mainly coriander seed where an onion-rich sauce is simmered, then the cauliflower is simmered in the sauce. Finally it is finished with chillies, curry leaves, chilli powder and more of the coriander-heavy spice powder. I'd like the cauli cooked longer next time, until really really soft. It is good, but not my favourite dish from this book. NOTE to self, remember to snap the dried chillies in half (or pinch them), so that they don't explode in the oil (caught them just in time, they were beginning to swell).

• Easy-peasy potato curry (Sukhi bhaji)

  • Ganga108 on February 12, 2026

    A lovely dry curry of potatoes and peas.

• Amritsari chole

  • Ganga108 on June 25, 2023

    Such a beautiful dish! I have a recipe that I love, layered with deep and complex flavours. This one from Amritsari is much simpler but no less delicious! A new favourite indeed. It is easy to make even tho made it on the stove top rather then the suggested pressure cooker. The chickpeas simmered while I pottered in the kitchen and sauteed the onions. The rest came together quickly. Perfect.

  • Ganga108 on December 24, 2025

    I made a big pot of this for a gathering. SUPERB! My favourite chole recipe now.

• Cluster beans with sesame seeds (Gawar nu shaak)

  • jenburkholder on July 14, 2022

    Excellent. Subbed in green beans for cluster beans - just cooked them in the sauce rather than steaming. Sesame seeds were toasted and we didn’t feel they needed any sugar. Slightly different treatment of beans than the typical poriyal or tomato-based curry.

• Butter beans in jaggery and tamarind (Rangooni vaal)

  • jenburkholder on April 28, 2022

    I really liked this - a different flavor profile from the Indian dishes we normally cook. There's too much liquid as written; we poured off most of the cooking liquid and it ended up perfect. Mild, but not boring. One of us thought it would be better without the ajwain (not our favorite flavor). Subbed brown sugar for jaggery and used pre-made Thai tamarind paste (eyeballed, probably not the same amount as called for).

• Guava in gravy

  • jenburkholder on July 14, 2022

    Glad we tried this but probably won’t make it again. The sauce is on the watery side, though the flavor was good, and we didn’t care for the texture of the guava. Soft, but with the seeds, we found it unpleasant. Might be better with fresh guava (used frozen).

• Simple butter paneer

  • debkellie on November 11, 2021

    Easy & tasty. Sauce would probably be great with pre-cooked pork and chicken too.

• Burnt garlic rice

  • Ganga108 on December 26, 2025

    Golly gosh, this is great. It's a crispy-bottomed rice, rather than than burnt. I chopped a leftover half onion and sauteed it before adding the garlic. Loved the tofu in it, loved this dish.

• Chutney pulao (Kothmira rice)

  • Ganga108 on April 06, 2024

    A lovely, fresh and green rice. Excellent. I reckon any green fresh green chutney could be used, as long as it has coriander and chilli. I used on I had pre-made and it was awesome.

• Smoky aubergine (Ringan no odo)

  • Ganga108 on July 03, 2023

    Excellent! It takes some time to prepare - roasting and peeling eggplant, caramelising onions, etc. - around 2 hours from scratch. Luckily I had some eggplant from the garden that I roasted in Summer and placed in the freezer. Together with our tomatoes, also from the freezer, it took about half the time. It is another recipe where a rich tomato sauce is made and the main ingredients sit in the sauce, but it is quite different to the one made for the potato curry. Everyone exclaimed when tasting it, it is so good.