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The myriad cuisines of India all love their vegetables! Veggies are diced and sliced, grated and mashed, stir-fried and curried into hundreds of vegetable dishes In this series, the A to Z of Indian Vegetables , we take an alphabetical journey through the various avatars of vegetables relished in Indian cuisine. For each letter, we will make a tasty vegetable dish that illustrates one manner in which vegetables are savored in India. Before we start this round up, a brief announcement : In two weeks, we will come to the Q of Indian vegetables. Now, Q is a very cha llenging letter, so I have built in a loophole. Q is for Quick , so recipes with the prefix "quick" will be welcomed as entries. If you have a favorite quick Indian/ Indian-inspired recipe involving vegetables, please do consider participating. Do you *have* to send in "Q for quick" entries? Absolutely not! If you want to get creative and make other Q recipes or use other Q words, please do so, I woul

The myriad cuisines of India all love their vegetables! Veggies are diced and sliced, grated and mashed, stir-fried and curried into hundreds of vegetable dishes In this series, the A to Z of Indian Vegetables , we take an alphabetical journey through the various avatars of vegetables relished in Indian cuisine. For each letter, we will make a tasty vegetable dish that illustrates one manner in which vegetables are savored in India. Welcome to the second half of our alphabetical journey... The "N" of Indian Vegetables The letter N inspired f ourteen novel Indian flavors! Truly, the entries in this round-up are extra-creative, no two are alike, with bloggers making the most of a pretty challenging letter... Let's start with an N flower ...the Neem Flower . The neem tree is a beautiful evergreen with great medicinal value and a plethora of uses . But I had no idea about the culinary use of the neem flower! Suganya of Tasty Palettes shows us how sun-dried neem flowe

This week at One Hot Stove , it is "Q for quick" ! So here is a quick post featuring my favorite quick meal It maximizes flavor and nutrition while minimizing effort and prep time. Mixed vegetables , lentils and rice come together, and are flavored by tamarind and a ready-made spice mix . The whole thing virtually cooks itself in the pressure cooker and you are in for a treat! Bisibele rice is a specialty from the Southern Indian state of Karnataka, featuring lentils, rice, vegetables and spices cooked together slowly and lovingly into a festive dish. In my quick khichdi, I use bisibele spice mix to approximate those flavors in a fraction of the time and make faux bisibele rice . Here's how... 1. Prepare 2 cups of mixed vegetables , cut in medium dice. Here, I have used green beans, frozen peas and carrots. Other vegetables that work well are zucchini, eggplant, cauliflower, lima beans etc. 2. Prepare 1 tbsp thick tamarind paste . If you use tamarind pulp, the past

Lakshmi of Veggie Cuisine has come up with a new event that is close to my heart: Regional Cuisines of India or RCI. Each month, we will be making the food of one region/ state of India. This month, the RCI event is being hosted by Latha of Masala Magic . The theme is Andhra Cuisine , i.e., the cuisine of the Southern state of Andhra Pradesh . I am a relative newcomer to the world of Andhra food. A few years ago, I was living in Bangalore for the summer, a nd ended up with some friends at a Andhra restaurant called Bheema's . That evening was my memorable introduction to Andhra cuisine . We ate off verdant banana leaves; the courses kept coming, progressively ever tastier and ever more fiery, until I had tears of pain running down my cheeks. But I kept gulping down cool water and eating some more. I don't know what they put in that food, but that stuff was downright addictive . Now, the world of food blogs has provided me with several wonderful "teachers" who ar

The myriad cuisines of India all love their vegetables! Veggies are diced and sliced, grated and mashed, stir-fried and curried into hundreds of vegetable dishes In this series, the A to Z of Indian Vegetables , we take an alphabetical journey through the various avatars of vegetables relished in Indian cuisine. For each letter, we will make a tasty vegetable dish that illustrates one manner in which vegetables are savored in India. The "Q" of Indian Vegetables (Note: I had written this round-up and was a couple of minutes away from posting it, and very unluckily , blogger wiped it off and I lost the whole write-up! :( :( This is the painfully re-written version. If I accidentally left an entry out during the re-writing process, please let me know and I will include it right away). The letter Q inspired twenty-three q uirky Indian flavors! First up, the only bona-fide English language Q ingredient that I can think of: the ancient seed, Quinoa . Quinoa is used as a grai

A couple of months ago, Lakshmi of Veggie Cuisine started an event that is very close to my heart: it is called RCI or Regional Cuisine of India . Each month, a region or state of India is chosen as a theme, and food bloggers are encouraged to explore the cuisine of that region and try making some delicious and authentic food from that region. The first month was Tamilian Cuisine , and here is the appetizing feast of the Tamil round-up . Right now, the second event, Andhra Cuisine is ongoing (last 2-3 days, so hurry!), hosted by Latha of Masala Magic ...that round-up will be up by the first of June. When Lakshmi was looking for bloggers to host for this event, I jumped up and begged her to let me host one of them. And so, here i t is, the RCI for the month of June is... (Pictured: Marigold flowers and Mango leaves, depicted in yarn, woven into a garland or "toran", a must-have for every festive occasion in Maharashtra) ...Maharashtrian Food! From the Southern India

The Heart of the Matter is a food blog event with a difference- like many other events, you make a dish every month based on a theme, BUT with one important criterion: the food has to be heart-friendly and healthful ! It is a wonderful challenge to think of the food we eat and come up with something that is both delicious and good for the body The round-ups are collected in the HotM blog so that we can all have a handy collection of recipes to try out. The theme this month is something we all crave: Pasta ! The pasta I am making today comes from the lovely PBS food show Everyday Food . I always feel a keen sense of relief when I watch this calm and professional show, with efficient chefs demonstrating eminently do-able recipes for the home cook. It helps me recover from the trauma that I undergo when I c ome across some of those shows on Food Network that are so out-of-tune with where we should be headed, like Paula Deen's shows, with the sickeningly fatty recipes that are

The myriad cuisines of India all love their vegetables! Veggies are diced and sliced, grated and mashed, stir-fried and curried into hundreds of vegetable dishes In this series, the A to Z of Indian Vegetables , we take an alphabetical journey through the various avatars of vegetables relished in Indian cuisine. For each letter, we will make a tasty vegetable dish that illustrates one manner in which vegetables are savored in India. The "R" of Indian Vegetables The letter R inspired twenty-six r esourceful Indian flavors! First, the R vegetabl es . Let's start with a vegetable that generally comes in two shades: r adiant white and r osy red or pink. With its pungent taste and sharp aroma, you can't miss the Radish ! TC of The Cooker uses the beautiful little Red Radishes and blends them with another R food, Red Rice , to create her own unique Radish and Red Rice Pulao . Asha of Aroma/Foodie's Hope shreds a gorgeous snow-white Radish , also known as daik

The myriad cuisines of India all love their vegetables! Veggies are diced and sliced, grated and mashed, stir-fried and curried into hundreds of vegetable dishes In this series, the A to Z of Indian Vegetables , we take an alphabetical journey through the various avatars of vegetables relished in Indian cuisine. For each letter, we will make a tasty vegetable dish that illustrates one manner in which vegetables are savored in India. The "S" of Indian Vegetables The letter S inspired a s morgarbord of thirty-two Indian flavors! First, a s undry bunch of S vegetables ... Let's start with the s velte and s tylish Spring Onion , also known as Scallions or green onions. The spring onion is almost two vegetables in one: the "white parts" are little onions that are great in starting off a stir-fry on an aromatic note, and the "green parts" make for a colorful and flavorful garnish. Jai and Bee of Jugalbandi share a great recipe for using up any spri

Weekend Dog Blogging: A Day At The Dog Run You know how other people walk their dogs? Well, our Dale walks his humans! Today, he is taking us to the dog run .. At the dog run, the normally placid and sleepy Dale runs around wildly... ...and plays with his friends... ...and then, he needs to cool off. Dale digs up the dirt the reveal the wet, cooler soil underneath the surface (bad dog!)... ...and gets some rest on the cool mud, thereby ruining the grooming efforts of the morning! My parents are visiting from India for my convocation (I just got back from NYC) and that is the reason for my sluggish blogging (and delayed e-mail replies) these days...too busy traveling and having fun with them! Here is a lovely gift that my mother got for me: She knows a lady who is an expert at embroidery and patch-work, so my mother did a littl e collaborative project with her. She creatively drew out some designs and then this lady executed them in fabric, to make three unique custom-made kitchen a

The myriad cuisines of India all love their vegetables! Veggies are diced and sliced, grated and mashed, stir-fried and curried into hundreds of vegetable dishes In this series, the A to Z of Indian Vegetables , we take an alphabetical journey through the various avatars of vegetables relished in Indian cuisine. For each letter, we will make a tasty vegetable dish that illustrates one manner in which vegetables are savored in India. The "T" of Indian Vegetables The letter T inspired twenty-seven t empting Indian flavors! First, the T vegetables ... First, the ripe and red- t inged tomato , botanically a fruit, but used as a vegetable in the kitchen, whose antioxidant properties are much- t outed! This new world fruit is a relatively late addition to the Indian kitchen, but has been embraced lovingly and whole-heartedly into Indian cuisine. Here are five t asty t raditional ways that use the tomato as a main ingredient and not just an accessory to the recipe, plus a specia