Category: Main Dish Recipes

  • A Very Desi Thanksgiving

    I’ve never characterized Thanksgiving as just “a day to be thankful” – it’s always been more about a day of good food, parades and family because I just don’t understand limiting thankfulness to one day.  A thing as difficult as say parades, however, I do understand limiting.  The loss of life and terror we saw this past […]

  • Chili When Chilly

    When winter hits, thoughts of a steaming bowl of hearty, vegetarian chili makes the wind slapping my face, the ringing chill in my ears and frostbite in my fingers seem a little less awful.  A stockpot of it warms up our house and our bellies for a few days.  I like to top mine with […]

  • Black-Eyed Peas and Aloo Sabji

    For the longest time, black-eyed peas were filed away in the gray matter of my brain as a high school cafeteria side dish likely to be flavored with ham hocks.  I might have been confusing them with pinto beans for years.  I finally learned how tasty they are after trying Guru the Caterer’s black-eyed peas with […]

  • (Vegetarian) Unchicken Tikka Masala

    N, a good friend of mine who is a self-described “recovering corporate attorney who enjoys writing, traveling and the arts,” introduced me to veat when she brought Veat Makhani to a potluck dinner a few years ago.  R and I were immediately hooked on her makhani dish and on veat.  Veat’s a nice alternative when […]

  • Vegetarian Sushi…Beyond California Rolls

    R first introduced me to sushi was four years ago in Lake Tahoe.  I loved the combo of rice and fresh veggies, rice and fried sweet potatoes, rice and tempura.  Sushi at non-vegetarian restaurants gives me the heebee jeebees though…I picture fish juice contaminating my veggie sushi (sounds crazy but is it really?).  Once, I […]

  • Chayote Squash Kura

    Chayote squash is a curious little vegetable.  It’s slightly intimidating with its odd pursed seam along one edge making it look like a cartoonish venus fly trap or the Grinch’s balled up fist.  When you peel it, it lets off heavy beads of sweat and gets slippery.  The juice dries on your hands making them […]

  • Eggplant in Peanut Sauce

    With the season starting to change and the weather turning cooler, I’ve been craving the velvety taste of baingan, or eggplant.  So tonight I tried to recreate a dish that my mom makes – eggplant in a peanut sauce.  R and I went grocery shopping at the new Whole Foods in Tribeca, which usually has […]

  • Simple Sides – Quick Aloo Gobi

    I found this beautiful, oddly yellow colored cauliflower at the   grocery store today and was intrigued to see what it tasted like…I have to say that tasted just like regular cauliflower to us.  Would love to hear from anyone else who has tried these cross bred veggies (which is kind of creepy, no?)… Normally, I like […]

  • Soba Noodles and Tofu in Cilantro-Tamarind Sauce

    I had a craving for soba noodles tonight and no time to stop by the grocery store, so my ride back to Brooklyn was spent ticking through things we already had in the fridge which might be soba noodle worthy.  My result was inspired by Heidi Swanson’s post on her blog, 101cookbooks.com (you can find […]

  • Matar Mushroom – Shitake Mushrooms and Peas

    I wanted to make one of our favorites for dinner tonight – mattar paneer – since R came home after a week of traveling and is about to set off on another week of traveling.  Unfortunately, paneer is hard to come by in Brooklyn so I made mattar mushroom instead using shitake mushrooms.  I rarely follow […]