Notes about Recipes in this book

• Lebanese lentil soup with orzo and lemon

  • RhymesWithPhone on July 21, 2025

    I've made this soup multiple times and I find it delicious. Be careful of the number of chilies if you're sensitive to heat though. It's essentially a caramelized onion broth deeply spiked by cumin and turmeric. Tastes more complex than the ingredient list would make it seem.

• Simple lentil dal with cumin and dried red chiles

  • Wlow on May 21, 2023

    Very good

• Simple lentil dal with fresh ginger, green chiles, and cilantro

  • westminstr on January 09, 2014

    This dal has been a family favorite for many years. Just made it again recently and it was great as always! This is probably my favorite version of all the dals I make.

  • Wlow on August 27, 2017

    2/2009 Excellent w/o green chile, cilantro or cayenne (lemon at table). Only half of the tempering oil needed!

  • Wlow on December 31, 2023

    Great 12/2023 with 2 Thai chiles (seeded & minced), cilantro, gochugaru for cayenne, lime juice, though might be a little tart for G

• Simple lentil dal with whole cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves

  • westminstr on November 10, 2015

    This is another favorite dal that I have made many times. The warm spices make it really delicious, and my kids like it. It is a little more time-consuming than the preceding recipes (more measuring and chopping) but not too bad.

• Simple Gujarati dal with three chiles

  • Wlow on July 20, 2025

    Great dal— family loved. Used masonry dal, brown mustard seeds, no hot green chile, about 10 freshly dried curry leaves, Kashmiri chile in place of cayenne and no cilantro, although that would be good. Lime juice as garnish.

• Yellow mung beans with spinach and panchphoran

  • HarlanH on March 23, 2013

    Outstanding. Make spice mix with fennel, fenugreek, cumin, and nigella. Use some mustard oil in the tempering oil. Use a bit less water than called for.

• "Kwalitys" chickpeas

  • English_Daisy on November 18, 2018

    The best Chana Masala recipe I’ve ever cooked. I added a tbs sugar to the end of the recipe to lift the sourness I’d got from the lemon and lime juice ( that I subbed as for mango and pomegranate powder as directed)

• Red kidney beans with ginger, tomato, and curry leaves

  • Laura on December 17, 2010

    Pg. 42. I did not use the curry leaves or asafetida, otherwise followed the recipe as written. Served it over jasmine rice. We enjoyed it a lot. It's quite spicy!

  • HarlanH on March 23, 2013

    pretty good. Try using less tomato product, and more onions? Chutney and yogurt definitely perk it up.

• Stir-fried green beans with cumin

  • PennyG on May 10, 2011

    This was delicious. I especially liked the technique and will vary the flavors, using the same technique in the future.

• Stir-fried cabbage with South Indian spices

  • HarlanH on March 23, 2013

    savoy cabbage is really good here -- gives it a lightness. Definitely worth using curry leaves.

  • rhb on October 28, 2022

    Made this many times - so good! I use 1 to 3 T yellow split peas or chana dal, 1/2 t mustard seeds, omit the asafetida, substitute poppyseeds (1/4 t to 1/2 t) for the curry leaves, and sometimes omit the lime.

• Stir-fried carrots with cumin and lime

  • MollyB on May 23, 2016

    Great recipe, both hot and at room temperature. It was the perfect accompaniment to some ground lamb kebabs.

• Stir-fried cauliflower and potato with crunchy Bengali spices

  • HarlanH on March 23, 2013

    Excellent. Rather than finishing on stove top, use a heavy dutch oven, and bake covered at 375 after adding the cauliflower.

• Cauliflower sautéed with green peppers, tomato, and yogurt

  • bill_u5o0t8 on November 04, 2025

    Easy and good

• Stir-fried okra with tomatoes, onions, and northern spices

  • PennyG on August 15, 2011

    This was a nice recipe - not slimy at all. I generally like my vegetables more crisp, but this wasn't bad. I did make this in advance and reheat as the headnote suggests and it was just fine.

  • RhymesWithPhone on August 21, 2025

    This is my go-to recipe for okra. I’ve made it 8-10 times. It comes out a bit different every time, but it’s always tasty. The recipe says something about cooking until the okra is brown or crisp. That has never happened for me.

• Sweet green peas and fresh Indian cheese in a fragrant tomato sauce

  • HarlanH on March 23, 2013

    Really good! Use more yogurt and less water than called for. Cooking much longer than called for seems to improve it.

  • VineTomato on December 28, 2018

    I used shop brought paneer, so can't comment on the ricotta strategy (although I'm tempted to try this in the future). There was a long list of ingredients, even for an Indian dish. The result was underwhelming - way too watery and as previous comment states I think it would benefit from a longer cooking time - before adding the peas and paneer at the end. I won't be making this one again.

• Crispy potatoes with cumin

  • PennyG on July 01, 2014

    These were fantastic! I was in a hurry so I cubed the raw potatoes, boiled them for 10 minutes then proceeded with the recipe. Really good!

• Spinach with potatoes

  • PennyG on April 13, 2014

    I liked this. The spices were incredible!

• Stir-fried mixed summer squash

  • Wlow on July 16, 2025

    Very good. Used part green beans, no coconut

• Lemon rice

  • Wlow on September 03, 2018

    Great even without yellow split peas, chiles, red onion (used yellow). Used leftover cold rice slightly warmed, still worked. Kept cashews separate for kids.

  • rhb on October 28, 2022

    Really good. We doubled the yellow split peas, cashews, and lemon. Omitted the asafetida and substituted 1/2 t poppyseeds for the curry leaves.

• Rice pilaf with peas, potatoes, and whole garam masala

  • MollyB on June 21, 2023

    Delicious rice pilaf. It's a nice side dish with grilled meat or a lamb burger, or it works as a vegetarian main dish (if you're in the mood for carbs) with some yogurt or raita and chutney on the side. I almost always have the ingredients on hand in the pantry and freezer, so it's a good recipe for times when your fridge supplies are running low.

• Lahori chicken curry with whole spices and potatoes

  • westminstr on January 15, 2014

    This was fine, but overall not good enough to justify the amount of time it took, which was at least an hour. I didn't think the extra potatoes or spices added much, so if I made this again, I'd do the simplest version. I used boneless skinless thighs and had to omit the cayenne, so it's possible these changes negatively affected the final result. I also thought it was a bit heavy on the ginger and I didn't like accidentally biting into the whole cardamom pods.

• South Indian-style chicken with curry leaves and black peppercorns

  • rhb on October 28, 2022

    We used 1/4 t poppyseeds instead of the curry leaves.

• Ground turkey with spinach and whole spices

  • Laura on March 16, 2011

    Pg. 126. I hadn't cooked ground turkey in many years due to multiple bad experiences. Taking the plunge again, I found this recipe on EYB and thought it might have a chance because of the many spices. And yes, it was good! I used ground turkey thighs. I did remove the larger spices (cardamom pods, dried chiles, cloves) prior to serving, so that might have muted the flavor, although it certainly increased the ease of eating. I chose this recipe as I'm trying to eat low-cal and healthy. I'd give it high marks for a recipe that meets those criteria.

  • milgwimper on October 10, 2011

    The recipe was great, and I did the recipe looking at the other review, and checking the recipe. We served it with rice, and it was a fast dinner to put together. We added 1 tsp of graham marsala, since we decreased the peppers for the baby.

• Spicy fried salmon

  • mcvl on August 08, 2012

    OK, not strongly enough flavored for us.

• Goan shrimp balacho

  • stepharama1 on February 03, 2022

    The recipe was annoyingly vague on certain points such as type of dried pepper and cooking times for sauce. I used one large guajillo since that's what I had but would have used 4 smaller, hotter peppers if available. Instructions for sauce said "cook until tomatoes lose some of their moisture." Not knowing what the dish should look like (no picture), I cooked until the sauce started looking saucy (6 minutes or so). The dish itself was very, very good and worth repeating. Next time I might blend the sauce before mixing with the shrimp to make a smoother sauce.

• Mixed raita

  • wkhull on May 07, 2020

    I like the concept of this raita because it has more than just cucumbers. I used 2 serranos and the entire 1 t cayenne and found this too spicy. Would probably substitute 1 jalapenos (de-seeded and de-ribbed) and 1/4 t cayenne.

• Chapatis

  • wkhull on May 07, 2020

    Very bland. If making again, I would add salt and toasted spices in the dough.