Khichadi.

This is a basic indian porridge of rice and mung beans. You may use any other kind of lentil if you wish. This reminds me very much of jok or kao thom in Thai which is a basic rice porridge, without beans but usually with added meat or vegetables. I grew up eating kao thom on days when your stomach isn't feeling well or when you are sick. Today I needed some cheering up and I wanted to enjoy some kind of comfort food. I chose to make khichadi because I like the addition of mung beans for protein.

Here's a good recipe online. It says to soak the mung beans and rice but I didn't do that. I also used white rice instead of brown. The spices I used in mine were: cumin, turmeric, grated ginger, veggie broth powder and mushroom soy sauce. The Sriracha hot sauce on top is essential!

Pav Bhaji.

Indian cravings call for a spicy mashed vegetable curry (bhaji) served with "buttered" bread (pav). Pav Bhaji is a popular street food in Mumbai which is a potato based curry that is mashed up with a variety of veggies, spices and tomato until it becomes thick and saucy. I like to leave some of the vegetables chunky in mine. The recipe I use calls for cauliflower as one of the ingredients but I didn't have any so I used a 1/2 bag of "mixed vegetables including lima beans" that I found in my freezer. Worked in a pinch with the potatoes and 1/2 bell pepper I had. The curry is eaten with buttered buns which I didn't have (shame!) so I made do with pita breads spread with Earth Balance vegan margarine. I served it with mango ginger chutney, chopped red onion and a squeeze of lemon. This was SO DELICIOUS. I have to remember next time not to wear a white shirt when eating this!

Here's a link to the recipe. Don't forget to sub Earth Balance for the butter!

Kidney Bean Curry

Indian curry tonight! I used a channa masala recipe but substituted kidney beans for the chickpeas. Deliciousness!

Indian in less than an hour.

Check out this lovely plate of food. My co-worker Cynthia and I were talking indian food at work and we got so hungry and inspired that we decided to go to my house and make what you see here. I made the red lentil dal and mint chutney and Cynthia made the saag aloo (spinach and potatoes). It all turned out delicious and was so quick to make. It was really just throwing everything in a pot and letting it simmer. In case you're wondering, the mint chutney was made with Tofutti sour cream instead of yogurt.

Mock Chicken Salad Sandwich and Dal Makhani

This was a quick lunch during the week. Mashed chickpeas combined with vegan mayo, celery, carrot, a touch of mustard, garlic powder and onion powder makes a delicious salad filling. I livened up the whole thing with a layer of Piccalilli relish.


I got the recipe for this tasty vegan Dal Makhani from the Holy Cow blog. It's sooo yummy! I used Earth Balance margarine and plain soymilk in mine for creaminess. I ate it with lavash bread instead of rice. Can't wait to make this again. Recipe is posted here.

Nepali food, Indian food and cake.

Lunch today was this beautiful plate of Nepali food, namely the moong dal (split mung bean soup) in the little bowl and the hot and fiery tomato achaar (chutney) which you can see on the rice. The Indian element of my meal is the alu matar (potatoes and peas) which was the perfect curried accompaniment to the rice and soup. Just can't get enough of this good stuff.


This is a closeup of the roasted tomato hot and spicy achaar. It's basically roasted tomatoes, green chiles, garlic blended into a puree and combined with fresh garlic, ginger, timbur (szechuan pepper), salt, fenugreek and red chili. The recipe is from the book "Taste of Nepal" which I highly recommend!


This is a boiled raisin "depression era" cake that I've made before. This time I used brown sugar and added orange blossom water and cardamom.

Baked Tofu Sandwich, TVP Indian Curry and Banana Split Tea Bread

I made this sandwich last week using delicious baked tofu. Toast some whole grain bread, throw on some Vegenaise, lettuce, tomato and you've got a great lunch. Soy or tempeh bacon and avocado would be great additions as well.


Experimented with TVP chunks again to make this simple indian curry with kale and potatoes. It was so good on jasmine rice. I don't use TVP often so this was a nice treat.


This is the banana split tea bread recipe from Vegan Planet. It's so colorful and has bananas, walnuts, chocolate chips, cherries and coconut (my addition). It baked up beautiful but because of my wonky oven, it was a little underdone even though I checked it with a toothpick and it came out clean! WTH?


Thankfully the underdone bits are more "mushy banana" tasting rather than "uncooked batter" tasting.

Brinjal Curry

I had some nice eggplants that needed to be used so I pulled out my favorite cookbook Olive Trees and Honey and made the Brinjal Curry recipe. It's a tasty curry of eggplant, chickpeas, tomatoes, spinach and spices like cumin and mustard seeds. Went well with both rice and pita spread with dairy free margarine.

Channa Masala

Stayed in today. Even though it's gorgeous out, I felt the need to be domestic today. In between bouts of laundry, scrubbing the bathroom, vacuuming and watching Doctor Who on 'On Demand' (I needed to catch up on Series 5), I whipped up this beautiful curry for lunch. Very very good and filling. Can't wait to have more for supper! I always use this recipe.

Channa Masala

When my husband is on his own for dinner, I like to make indian food for myself because he doesn't really care for it. I was excited to come home from work today to make my favorite channa masala recipe. I added peas to it and enjoyed it with rice and buttered pita bread (Earth Balance margarine). 'Twas delicious. Recipe to be found here.

Leftovers Burrito and Indian Dinner.

Lunch. Yesterday's leftover refried beans, tvp meat and rice got shoved into a tortilla and was then covered in red chile sauce. Absolutely yum.


For dinner I wanted something simple yet tasty and easy to prepare. The masoor dal with beautiful flavors of ginger and light spices simmered away while I sauteed the kale that was flavored with garlic, onion, cumin, cayenne and lemon juice. Both recipes are from "Flavors of India" cookbook.


Closeup of masoor dal.


Closeup of kale bhaji.

Nepalese Style Daal, Alu Matar and Achar

Yesterday I visited my dear cousin and her family. Her husband is Nepalese and he made the most beautiful lunch of lentil daal, vegetable curry and a fiery tomato achar which is a pickle that is served alongside the food. He packed for me a little container of achar to go. I was very excited to eat it again so I made a few things to eat with it.


This daal was based on this recipe that I found at Food-Nepal.com. I did not have any other kind of lentils like black lentils or yellow so I used green/brown. I could have used red but I wanted to see if the green lentil would work. I didn't have a couple of the spices like jimbu and asafetida either. I'm sure that the use of these would have made the daal more authentic. The step at the end where you fry the chiles, garlic and onions, I added a teaspoon of black mustard seed. I fried them in olive oil instead of ghee which is clarified butter which I do not eat.


This is the alu matar (potatoes and peas) from 'The Flavors of India' cookbook. I thought since a lot of the spices and flavors are similar to Nepalese cooking, I'd enjoy this with the daal and achar.


A beautiful feast. My cousin's achar is in the little bowl in front. I don't remember what's in it (except for roasted tomatoes!) but it's very special and very spicy! I have to ask for the recipe one day.

Edited to add: I found a tomato achar recipe here.
I don't know if it's the same as my cousin's recipe but a lot of the spices/flavors seem right.

Channa Masala and Peas Pillau

I was going to crack open 1,000 Vegan Recipes again tonight for dinner but felt a strong pull towards Indian food. I haven't made channa masala in a while so I gave into it. I paired it with peas pillau from Flavors of India cookbook and called it dinner. Delicious!

Lentil Dal and Alu Matar

Indian food is one of my favorite cuisines. Today I made two dishes: Red Lentil Dal (adapted ppk recipe) and Alu Matar from "Flavors of India" cookbook.

Chickpea and Vegetable Korma

As some of my readers already know, I love a good curry. Thai, Indian, whatever, I'm all over it. It's one of the easiest things to make. I like plopping everything in a pot and letting it simmer away while my rice cooker cooks the rice for me. All I had to do was sit back in front of the fan with the ball game on. Super easy, no fuss! You'll find the recipe here. I added a few things to my curry: 1 TB tomato paste, 2 tsp. unrefined sugar and low sodium soy sauce to taste. I also used 1 can coconut milk instead of the creamed coconut/water mixture. I've never had korma before, vegetarian or not so I can't say how authentic it is. But one thing I can say, this is delicious.

Breakfast in Bed + Ready Made Curry

This was my breakfast this morning, in bed while reading my Agatha Christie. I had a whole grain english muffin spread with Earth Balance margarine, a piece of orange blossom cake and hot ceylon tea (with a dash of soymilk and agave). I enjoyed this very very much. Only thing missing was fresh fruit which I didn't have today.


A close up of the cake. It was supposed to be sour cherry/orange blossom but the sour cherry flavor never came through. I used a half recipe of kittee's vanilla cake and used a mixture of water/sour cherry syrup for the liquid portion but I think I should have added more sour cherry, less water. Oh well. I will try to tweak it next time. But even so, this cake was delicious. Orange blossom is wonderful in desserts.


Sorry about the bad lighting but by the time I got around to eating this, it was late and the light was terrible. This is Trader Joe's Choley curry with toasted and "buttered" rolls. I served it with a side of cucumber salad. Yummy.

Kidney Bean Mushroom Curry

I was in the mood for my top comfort food: curry. I adapted this from a mushroom masala curry recipe that I got from a blog which no longer exists, otherwise I'd point you to the recipe. I will post it here so you can try it if you like.

Kidney Bean and Mushroom Curry

1 TB canola oil
1 large onion, chopped
1" piece ginger, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 TB Earth Balance margarine
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 large tomato, chopped
2 TB tomato paste
1 TB chopped jalapeno or 1/8 tsp cayenne
2 tsp. garam masala
1 cup plain soymilk
1 container fresh mushrooms sliced
1 14oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup water
fresh cilantro, chopped

Heat oil in a pot and saute onion, ginger and garlic until they soften. Add margarine and let it melt, then add cumin seeds and fry until everything browns. Add tomato paste, chopped tomato, jalapeno and garam masala and cook for a few minutes. Add mushrooms and stir around some more before adding soymilk and water. Let come to a boil. Add beans and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add cilantro at the end. Serve hot with rice.

Curry & Scones.

I have Brian McCarthy's book 'The Vegan Family Cookbook' and I've only made a few things from it which have been absolutely stellar. I decided to try another one today. This is the "Tomato Garam Masala with Garbanzo Beans" which is kind of a saucier version of channa masala. It's very tomatoey and a little light on the spices so I upped the garam masala and added cumin, cayenne, coriander, ginger, cumin seed and mustard seed. I also added potatoes which was a good idea. Very yummy, saucy and comfort foody.


Really good cranberry and raisin scones. An easy easy recipe that I got from Vegweb.com. I love this site. You'll find the recipe here. I used half whole wheat flour and half white flour. Yum yum. I want to eat these all the time! They are great with a cuppa tea.


A pat of Earth Balance margarine make it even better.

Pav Bhaji + Hummus with Veggies

Some time has passed and I have recovered from the bug incident. I was ready to make Pav Bhaji again. This dish is beautiful. It's a spicy mashed vegetable curry that is served with buttered rolls. It's really delicious and filling! I used this recipe here. (I substituted vegan margarine for the butter!) I also made creamy garlicky lemony hummus and cut up assorted veggies for snacking. I had to buy a few produce items for all of this but I didn't spend more than 6 bucks.

Ingredients I already had:
garlic
potatoes
frozen green beans
frozen peas
pav bhaji masala spice mixture
tomato sauce
chickpeas
lemons
tahini

Ingredients I had to purchase:
cauliflower
red bell peppers
carrots
celery
wheat kaiser rolls


I find that eating raw vegetables is so much easier with a yummy dip!

Red Lentil Dhal and Peas Pillau

I was going to make a plain soup today for dinner but I wanted to use up the vast quantities of basmati rice and red lentils I have in my pantry. So what better meal to treat myself to than an indian feast? I adore the red lentil dahl recipe posted here. I was lazy and didn't grind up and toast the spices like the recipe says but I had a little taste and it was amazing, especially with a squeeze of lemon juice. To go with the dahl, I made the 'Peas Pillau' recipe from a lovely little vegetarian book called 'Flavors of India'. This rice is beautifully fragrant with the aromas of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and clove. I took these pictures in the afternoon to get the best light but I won't be eating until tonight after I get home from work. Can't wait!


Peas Pillau in all it's glory.