Written by Madhu Gadia, The Indian Vegan Kitchen has numerous recipe suggestions for creating healthy, flavorful international food for the meatless crowd.

Those who already love Indian food will enjoy this book, and those looking to enjoy international cooking while remaining on a budget will appreciate savings that can come from the fact that meat and dairy are not included in these particular recipes. While not a vegan personally, we are exploring foods and menu pairings that use less of these items, so it’s been a particular treat to review The Indian Vegan Kitchen. A few recipes of note?

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  Mung bean crepes


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  Buckwheat potato fritters


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  Black-eyed pea dip


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  Buckwheat – zucchini pancakes

Featured Recipe:

I always like to feature one recipe when I review cookbooks, to give a sense of the types of ideas a potential reader can expect to find between the cover pages. Usually, the choice is a bit tougher. This time however, the featured recipe jumped right out at me. Why? Well, it isn’t because the other recipes weren’t worthy of their own solo performance, I can assure you. The reason I picked this particular recipe ( Bean and rice pancakes ) to feature is because it is literally the only recipe I’ve ever seen that combines the commonly suggested complete protein food pairing into one actual food. This adds another whole level of flexibility and creativity with meal planning that traditional bean and rice dishes don’t bring to the table.

Here’s what you need: 1 cup of uncooked long-grain rice, ½ cup of split and hulled chana dal, ¼ cup of split and hulled urad dal, ¼ cup split and hulled mung dal, 1 tbsp peeled and chopped ginger, 1 tbsp finely chopped green chile, 1 cup water, 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro, 2/3 tbsp canola or vegetable oil, ½ onion that has also been finely chopped.

Here’s what you do: Combine the rice and dals in a bowl and wash in 3-4 changes of water, then leave to soak 4 hours or overnight. Rinse and drain. In a food processor or blender, mix all ingredients except the cilantro and salt. Pulse or blend until coarse and grainy. Transfer back to bowl and mix in salt and cilantro. Then lightly coat a hot fry pan with the canola oil and pour about a ¼ cup of batter in the center, using a spoon to spread out the dough into a six-inch wide circle. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the edges start to lift, then flip and cook for an additional one minute. Repeat with the remaining batter.

These are great served with various chutneys and dipping sauces, and provide an additional alternative to bean burgers and falafel for those who don’t particularly care to eat meat. At our house, we actually do eat a variety of meat and fish, but make extra efforts to keep the intake low for planetary impact reasons.

Personal Verdict:

A nice addition to any personal library of international and / or vegan recipes, and a great source of affordable recipe ideas for those wanting to explore Indian cuisine.

Available from Amazon.Com in October of 2009.

Photo Credit: Amazon.Com

What you need:

* 2 cups red lentils
• 2 tbsp high quality vegetable oil
• 2 cups finely chopped shallots or red onions
• ¼ cup finely chopped fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp minced fresh serrano chili (or other hot chili)
• 2 tbsp pressed garlic
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground cayenne
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• ½ tsp ground cardamom
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 quarts hot water
• 2 cups diced tomato (or canned)
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

What you do: Rinse lentils and set aside. In a deep-sided sauce pan, heat oil and add all spices and remaining ingredients except for cilantro and lime juice. Cook until onions are slightly tender, or about eight minutes. Add lentils and hot water and cook until tender (at least a half hour). Remove from heat and add cilantro, lime juice and a pinch of salt if desired.

Serve with a fluffy batch of basmati and a healthy dollop of cool nonfat yogurt. If you happen to have access to some naan, go for it. For other great lentil recipes, check out this post over on my Wise Bread blog.

Photo Credit: Mary Sue Photoeth

Snag a great deal on some avocados? Dying to rip into them, but they aren’t quite soft enough to mash for sandwich spread or guacamole yet? Here’s a simple answer I came up with this weekend when the same situation came up at our house.

A week or so ago, I snagged some gorgeous avocados for 79 cents a piece at Save A Lot. Normally, I’m super lucky to find them on sale for a buck each at any of the other grocery stores in my area. My husband and I were both totally Jonesing for guacamole, so I sprung for a pack of roma tomatoes in addition to my usual grape ones and went home planning on waiting out the ripening process. A week later I was still out of luck. Slightly soft, but still too firm to mash. The problem? The roma tomatoes wouldn’t stay soft forever. So I devised this simple salad answer as a side dish for our toaster oven pesto and cheese melts on whole grain bread.

What you need: avocados, roma tomatoes, onions, sea salt and lemon juice.

What you do: Peel and slice the avocados. Rough is fine. No need to be all the same size and shape. In fact, I preferred the look of this salad as a totally rustic side dish. Wash and chop the roma tomatoes and peel and cut the onions roughly as well. Any kind of onion will work, but the red / purple ones add a bit more color. Drizzle and toss with lemon juice and sea salt. I used freshly ground sea salt, but the regular canister version would be fine as well. Also, with lemon juice you’ll need to choose if you want to go for the effort and cost of fresh squeezed. If I had some lemons to use up, I might. However, I normally use (and did for the salad this weekend) the large bottles of Real Lemon juice that come in a bulk size two-pack at the warehouse store.

The result is a rustic side dish blending simple flavors that are nearly as Mediterranean as they are Latin American. If you like simple dishes celebrating the flavors of fresh ingredients, this recipe just might be your answer to extra firm avocados.

Photo Credit: Emdot