Tag: Cooking — Vegan Recipes

As a vegetarian, I struggle with getting enough protein and calcium in my diet.  In fact, sometimes I wonder how I survived several years of my life given how poorly I have eaten at times.  In any case, I've been trying to integrate more lentils and beans into my diet to get more protein.  One easy way is to always include dal with any Indian meals or any other meals with rice.  

I recently decided to make a more complicated dish than I usually make by adding some additional vegetables in my pappu (dal).  This simple, quick recipe was sadly not documented by a picture, but will be likely be replicated again soon in my kitchen.

Cucumber and Tomato Dal

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dried toor dal
• 1 cucumber, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 medium tomato, coarsely chopped
• 1 tsp. ginger, minced
• 1 Thai green chili, sliced
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. tamarind concentrate
• 1/2 tsp. dried chili powder
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. urad dal (available in Indian grocery stores)
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 3 Indian curry leaves
• water
• vegetable oil
• salt to taste

Directions

• Rinse the toor dal well and put it in a pot with 1 cup of water.  Bring contents to a boil on medium-high heat, and then reduce heat to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add additional water as necessary to ensure the mixture is not dry (approx 1/2 cup). 
• After dal is mostly cooked to taste, add the cucumber, tomato, ginger, green chili, turmeric, and tamarind and stir well.  Add additional water as necessary and then re-cover, cooking for another 5 – 7 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked to taste.
• In a small saucepan, heat on medium heat 1 tbsp. of oil, and when hot, add urad dal, cumin and mustard seeds and cook until the mustard seeds begin to pop.  After the mustard seeds pop, add the curry leaves and remove the mixture from the heat.
• Stir the contents of the saucepan into the pot of dal, and add chili powder.  Salt to taste and serve.

I'm not going to provide much backstory to this recipe – just that I wanted to eat some Indian-spiced cauliflower and this is the successful recipe I used 🙂  It is a pretty hands off, simple recipe so perfect to add into a dinner party or a quick weeknight meal.  In the picture below, cauliflower is on the right and mutter paneer is on the left.

Indian Spiced Cauliflower

Ingredients:

• One head cauliflower, cleaned, trimmed and florets chopped into roughly 1 inch pieces
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. black mustard seeds (available in Indian grocery stores)
• 2 dried red chilis, broken in half
• 1 tsp. whole cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp. urad dal (available in Indian grocery stores)
• 1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. minced fresh ginger
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 3 thai green chilis, chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tbsp. chopped cilantro

Directions:

• In a medium-to-large skillet, heat the vegetable oil on medium-high heat.  When warm, add the mustard seeds and dried red chili peppers to the pan.
• When the mustard seeds begin popping, add the cumin and urad dal.  Stir the skillet and simmer for 30 seconds.
• Add the ginger, garlic and chilis and saute until the ginger and garlic is fragrant (and before the garlic browns).
• Add the onions and saute until translucent.
• Add the cauliflower, 1/4 cup water and turmeric.  Stir to coat the turmeric over the cauliflower, cover the skillet and steam the cauliflower for approximately 5 – 7 minutes (or until your liking).  Add more water as necessary to avoid the cauliflower sticking to the pan.
• When cauliflower is cooked to your liking, add taste to salt, garnish the dish with cilantro and serve.