I tried to just take this as a compliment

Here are five recipes from around the internet that I’ve been making. Check them out!

1. Simple Asparagus Soup – The two things that I love about this soup are that it is truly simple to make and that the curry paste gives it a gently kick of heat which makes it light but also belly warming. And it’s very simple to make.
2. Rigatoni with Easy Vodka Sauce – We love a saucy rigatoni in vodka sauce, but I had never tried to make it at home before. True to its name, this recipe is easy. It’s also finger licking good. The double concentrated tomato paste is a must.
3. Crispy Shallot Spring Rolls with Seared Tofu – The light, rice paper wrapped rolls are a perfect appetizer or side for a dinner of red curry and rice, which is what we had. The crunch from the crispy shallots makes them that much more delightful.
4. Instant Pot Butter Chickpeas – This easy Indian recipe from one of my favorite Indian Instapot bloggers has been appearing on our dinner table at least once every two weeks. I opt for canned chickpeas instead of dried chickpeas (less planning required) which means you only need to pressure cook for 5 minutes instead of 35 minutes and can reduce the water by about half. I’ve also substituted paneer for the chickpeas and would try potatoes as well.
5. Spinach Lasagna – I made a vegetarian version of this Spinach and Beef Lasagna (I substituted crumbles for the beef). The layering instructions in this recipe result in light, thin layers of cheese, sauce and filling. The butter cubes on the top are a bit decadent but they did give it a really nice golden crusty top.

As a kid, I remember being really fascinated with how my Dad could take a big, sturdy purple eggplant and turn it into a silky, sweet yet savory and nutty vegetable. Sometimes this transformation involved roasting the eggplant in the oven and peeling off the purple skin. This revealed the eggplant’s slowly roasted, silky tendons.

I have to confess that to this day, when I go to the grocery store, if I see a good looking eggplant, I cannot resist putting it into my cart. And forget about it if it is Chinese Eggplant. Then I’m hauling way more of those home than we can eat (because they shrink when you cook them…so I need a lot).

I came home with two big sturdy Italian eggplants – one for a soup (cubed and crisped up and dunked into tomato soup) and one that I was going to roast for something Indian.

And then I read this Hungry Desi post from March 2010 about Eggplant Barbeque. Eggplant Barbeque was a frequent eggplant dish in our house and favorite of my Dad’s. When he told me the recipe by phone back in 2010, he also mentioned that it had been his dad’s favorite dish.

I never knew it was one of his father’s favorite foods until now.  Certain foods remind me of a place, a trip, a special occasion…but I’ve never had a food associated with such a significant memory – that of a loved one who is no longer with me.  It makes me wonder what my dad thought of each time he made Eggplant Barbeque for us.  Was he thinking about his father?  If so, he never let on.

I remembered a roasted eggplant yogurt that my Dad also used to make often. It’s simple – creamy, sweet, savory with little nuggets of crispy urad daal and mustard seeds. This was one of those eggplant dishes that my Dad made which mystified me. I mean how does a big, solid purple eggplant turn into this silky, smooth yogurt dip?

And so, of course, I used my haul of eggplant that day to make my Dad’s Roasted Eggplant Yogurt. I don’t remember him teaching me how to make it, but fortunately my Mom gave me a quick recipe.

This Roasted Eggplant Yogurt is mild, sweet and savory. It is served cool and pairs well with any other Indian curries or just mixed with rice and a side of Indian pickle.

I’d also serve it in a heartbeat with toasted crostini or pita as an appetizer. 
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I like ordering in (who doesn’t love to slurp up lo mein from a paper carton?), and I love eating at restaurants (bring me food and do the dishes for me? yes please.) but it doesn’t compare to cooking in and eating in my own kitchen.

We live in a busy world packed with noise. Slowing down, cooking a meal with your own two hands and enjoying it in the comfort of your own home is about self care. It’s creative, fun and the best gift I can give to the people I love.

So if you’re like us and love cooking in, here’s five recipes for you to try out for the coming week and a few of my favorite food sites to follow on Instagram.

Yes, Instagram. It’s become my main recipe discovery tool. My feed nowadays is 50% food. The other 50% is friends, dogs and a bunch of sports figures that my daughter added.

A few of my favorite Instagram food follows:

• @nytcooking 
• @minimalist baker
• @bonappetitemag
• @seriouseats
• @epicurious
• @pinchofyum

Any others that I should be following?

For cooking in this week, here are five recipes to try:

• Baked Crispy Peanut Tofu from Minimalist Baker – I followed this recipe as is except that I sauteed one large eggplant which I combined with the tofu. I also added about a half cup of water to the peanut sauce. We paired this with quiona for a flavorful, filling and quick meal.
• Roasted Broccoli from NY Times Cooking – This is a no recipe recipe from Sam Sifton at the NY Times. It’s become a go to side dish for weeknight dinners. So far, my favorites are EVOO+Salt+Pepper+Soy Sauce and EVOO+Salt+Pepper+Balsamic Vinegar.

• Spinach and Paneer Curry from Piping Pot Curry – This is like creamed spinach’s Indian best friend. A foolproof recipe that you can throw into the Instant Pot. It’s a great reason to buy a hand blender if you are looking for an excuse.

• Mushroom Tacos with Kale, Guac and Chipotle Peppers from Evergreen Kitchen – We’ve made these TWICE. Do I need to say more? I added less chipotle peppers (because kids) and also sauteed long cubes of tofu to boost up the protein. We also put out a bevy of toppings – feta cheese, corn and tomatoes.

• No list is completed with something sweet. We were pleasantly surprised by these Almond Flour Cookies Loaded with Chocolate Chips and Chewy Oats from the blog Peanut Butter and Chocolate.

I’m not sure if there’s a rule against re-posting old recipes. But I decided that in service of sharing delicious things to eat with you, I should repost my recipe for Skillet Potatoes in Mojo De Ajo (Garlic Oil) from 2009.

Mojo De Ajo means Garlic Oil but it also translates into Garlicky Tangy Oil That You Will Want to Lick From Your Fingers.

In case it’s still unclear, the magic of this recipe is in the Mojo De Ajo. Essentially, you cook a few cloves of minced garlic just until soft – not browned – in a 1/4 cup of olive oil. Then stir in lime juice and salt.

Then, you drizzle it on everything. Potatoes are a great start but broccoli works just as well. I could see putting it on tofu or even serving up some extra (This is crazy. There’s not going to be any extra. That is the whole point.) with a loaf of crusty bread to dip into it.

Find a vehicle for it. I have faith in you.

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A light corn chowder is just what the unseasonably warm weather that we had this week called for making. Although, it’s the kind of soup that’s really perfect for any weather.

Juicy plump bites of corn amongst creamy soft potato bites with sweet carrots chunks surrounded by a rich, naturally creamy and sweet soup backed up by just a light hint of heat from harissa.

It kind of doesn’t matter what happens with the weather this week in Hoboken. We’re all set with this soup.

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This recipe is adapted just slightly from 101CookBook’s Corn Soup Recipe. I liked Heidi’s recipe because it was one of the relatively easier corn chowder soup recipes out there and because she called for an extra kick with harissa, which I fully believe should be put on everything.

I took the flavor up a few more notches by adding cumin powder, coriander powder and red chili powder and rounded it out by adding a diced sweet very orange carrot. After cooking the diced onions, potatoes, carrots and garlic until the potatoes and carrots were tender, the potato mixture and corn are added to the broth and simmered.

Because we all deserve to have our cake and eat it too, you reserve almost half of the corn mixture and puree the rest before combining again.

Top the whole thing off with a healthy portion of harissa and chopped scallions. Stir the entire glorious pot together and enjoy. If you prefer to add the harissa in to individual soup portions you can choose to do that instead. 

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I’ve been making a soups on Monday in preparation for the week. What are some of your favorite soup recipes? Healthy soup recipes is a bonus but not a requirement!

Plus this stir fried veggie loaded noodles is quick and easy to make, packed with tons of veggies and proteins and belly warming.

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You can easily use other proteins and veggies based on what you have in your fridge. Here are some substitutes to try:

• Tofu, paneer, tempeh or 2 scrambled eggs in lieu of the seitan
• Peanuts for the cashews
• Zucchini, squash, red or green bellpeppers, snow peas, red onions, asparagus and mushrooms. The possibilities are for real endless here.

For the noodles, I used whole wheat linguine but you can also opt for more authentic Chinese noodles, Hakka noodles or soba noodles.

Serve hot and be sure to scrape up the crispy bits from the bottom of the pan.

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Adapted moderately from The Kitchn’s Easiest Chicken Chow Mein.

I can’t say it is Roald Dahl’s fault, but I think we could agree that he played a hand in it. Cabbage soup for lunch. Cabbage soup for supper. Watery cabbage soup that left you with a horrible empty feeling in your stomach.

Remember that from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? I adore Roald Dahl and his books, but I hate that cabbage is such a strong contender for the most unloved vegetable award. Cabbage needs the same publicity campaign that took brussels sprouts from a punishment you threatened your children with to star of the farm to table movement.

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So let’s start the campaign. Here’s my case for cabbage.

First, the health benefits. Cabbage is known to be a preventer of type two diabetes, has antioxidants known to decreases risks of cardiovascular disease, supports the digestive track, provides high fiber density at a low calorie count and some of the red cabbages are high in anti-inflamatory anthocyanins.

If you need to take a short break here to add cabbage to your grocery list, please do so. Go ahead.

Second, cabbage provides a mild sweet, crunchy, fresh and quick to cook canvas. This recipe is for an easy, traditional South Indian vegetable sauté, or kura. We eat it on a weeknight with rice and rasam or sambar followed by rice mixed with yogurt and a side of spicy pickle.

With the combination of just a few ingredients, you can really make any South Indian vegetable sauté. You can substitute cabbage for another leafy green vegetable like brussels sprouts, kale or spinach or a root vegetable like potatoes. For a heartier dish, combine a leafy green with a root vegetable and adding in diced garlic or ginger and shredded, unsweetened coconut.

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Indian restaurant paneer makhani is next level comfort food…creamy tomato sauce, mild spice in the background and pillowy cubes of chewy paneer. It’s not surprising that paneer makhani has become Surya’s go to Indian food.

Of course, this means that any paneer makhani that I make at home has very strong competition to measure up to restaurant paneer makhani. Like most 9 year olds (happy birthday to my newly minted 9 yo!), she’s not persuaded by  my rationale argument that my recipe doesn’t call for heavy cream and loads of butter.

But this version of paneer makhani has elicited a “restaurant worthy” response from the family. It uses a cashew sauce for creaminess. My original recipe calls for almond butter or cashew butter plus yogurt to get that creamy consistency. Both are winners but this version is tops in our house for right now.

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Removing the skins from the tomatoes is another key step to achieving a smooth, restaurant style sauce. It also helps to bring out the juices in tomatoes which is great if you have a few less than plump, red tomatoes on hand.

To skin tomatoes, you simply cut an “X” into the bottom of the tomato like shown above. You only need to go an inch or so deep, not all the way through. Drop the tomatoes into boiling water for a few minutes until the skins start to peel. Take them out and place in a colander then run cold water over them. When they are cool enough to handle, the skins slips right off.

You can easily substitute tofu, seitan or chicken for the paneer in this dish. Chickpeas would also work well.

Let’s talk about paneer for a minute because I get a lot of questions on this front.

Do I make my own paneer? I generally do not make my own paneer sheerly out of a lack of time and pre-planning. Also, it take a lot of milk to make not a lot of paneer.

Where can I buy paneer? You can find paneer at any Indian grocery store. I recommend buying it from the refrigerated section rather than frozen section if possible because it is softer when it has not been frozen.

What brand of paneer do you buy? I used to buy Nanak brand paneer, but more recently I have found that Swad brand paneer is softer and tastes fresher. It has a long shelf life so I buy a few packages and keep them in the refrigerator. If the paneer does not feel fresh and soft when I take it out of the package, I cut it then drop it into a pot of boiling water for 3-5 minutes.

Do I have to fry the paneer? I often am asked if the paneer needs to be fried before putting it into the curry. While I do fry it for some curries, I find that it is not needed for this thick, rich tomato sauce. So I cube it up and drop it right into the sauce. See above for my note about putting it into boiling water to soften it up if needed.

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But if you are like me and ask way too many questions, then you probably already discovered that most Thai curries use fish sauce. And most Thai restaurants use pre-made curry paste which contains fish sauce. On occasion, we’ve found a Thai restaurant that makes their paste from scratch and will omit the fish sauce for us but this is rare and those restaurants seem to have come and gone.

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Although I’m still on a near constant hunt for vegetarian friendly Thai restaurants, I’ve also learned to make a solid red curry paste at home thanks to Bowl by Lukas Volger.

Learning how to make a good curry paste recipe is in the category of “very useful kitchen basics to master.” Once you have a good curry paste recipe and a batch of the paste on hand, cooking the rest of the dish becomes very straightforward.

This red curry paste recipe can turn out very spicy depending on the chiles you use, which is perfectly acceptable in my book because it means I always end up with some curry paste to freeze for later. Translation: leftover curry paste for a second meal makes it worth getting out  the spice grinder and the food processor.

Once you’ve made the red curry paste, you can use it in a lot of different ways from a big vegetable curry served over rice or ramen or soba noodles or add a bit to scrambled eggs, a marinara sauce or soup base to kick it up a bit.

A hearty vegetable curry is my favorite. I generally pair up whatever vegetables I have in the fridge but focusing on combining vegetables which are a mix of colors and textures will help provide a good balance. I also generally limit it to 2-3 vegetables to avoid overwhelming the curry. Some of my favorite combinations are cubes of tofu or seitan with:

• Broccoli, red bell pepper and mushrooms
• Carrots, potatoes and kale 
• Eggplant, broccoli and mushrooms  

Bonus points if you top the bowl off with a slices of a hard boiled egg, diced cherry tomatoes and a handful of toasted peanuts.

We usually buy a high quality seitan as an alternative to tofu as a protein and texture add for curries and stirfry. After making this seitan – or chickwheat shreds – from Avocado and Ales, I’m not sure we’ll go back to the storebought version. The homemade version was softer, more absorbent of the curry sauce and way more cost efficient than buying seitan.

Here’s the recipe for Lukas’ red curry paste from his book, Bowl, which is one of the most used cookbooks in my kitchen right now. The pictures are beautiful and the book is full of fresh, flavorful vegetarian recipes to make ramen, pho, bibimbap, dumplings and other one-dish meals.

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The menu generally centers around a decadent eggplant parmesan or Indian main dishes prepared more richly than normal (read: cream in lieu of low fat yogurt and ghee tempering). If you’re looking for vegetarian Thanksgiving ideas, here are ten of our favorites that you can work into any menu:

Ten Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes

1. Brussels Sprouts in Honey Butter with Chili Flakes – I once ate a pound of these by myself without even realizing it. It was like I started and just couldn’t stop. 
2. CousCous with Lemons and Haloumi Cheese – Preserved lemons are one of my favorite ingredients to brighten up the taste of pretty much any type of grain or noodle dish. They also add a beautiful and sophisticated touch which will help back up that story that you spent hours slaving away in the kitchen. If you can’t find preserved lemons, use regular lemons. Haloumi cheese adds a nice salty taste with a chewy texture and makes this a more substantial side dish. You could substitute feta cheese for the haloumi.
3. Stuffed Mushrooms – These make a regular appearance at our Thanksgiving dinners. They are kind of like the brussels sprouts – once you start eating them, you can’t stop. The main challenge with these is keeping them coming out of the oven at the pace at which they are being eaten. A plus here is that you can make these ahead of time and bake them right before ready to serve.
   
4. Farmer’s Market Vegetable Tian – A tian is an easy, crowd pleaser which you can modify based on vegetables that are seasonal at the moment. Because leftover potential should also be a factor in deciding on what to make for Thanksgiving, it feels like I should mention that tians are great in sandwiches – hoagies or open face – the next day.
5. Puff Pastry Samosas – This quick samosa recipe has been a life saver ever since I discovered it as an “emergency appetizer”. You know those moments where you realize that you need to serve something but have almost no groceries and no time? Puff Pastry Samosas are your answer. All you really need are potatoes, frozen peas and a package of frozen puff pastry. You can serve these samosas as an appetizer or even a main dish. I’ve made them both as individual triangle samosas but also as a larger loaf to save cooking time. Both are big hits.
6. Crispy Spinach Chaat – This recipe is an adaptation of a popular dish at the restaurant, Rasika, in Washington D.C. After I made it for the first time, I received the cookbook and was able to see the real recipe. Mine is a little simpler so I’m sharing that one here. Also, maybe I should have led with battered, fried spinach and had you at that.
7. Vegetarian Chicken Wings – These are also an annual tradition when we get together with my side of the family. We order a huge frozen bag from May-Wah in New York City. Over the course of the Thanksgiving break, we try out different seasoning marinades. Some of our favorite are a yogurt-tikka masala blend, teriyaki and sometimes just olive oil-salt-pepper.
   
8. Whole Cauliflower in Makhani Sauce – Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables because it can be transformed into so many shapes and textures. A whole cooked cauliflower is a great vegetarian main dish option. This version drenches a blanched head of cauliflower in a creamy, tomato spiced sauce.
9. Grilled Cauliflower with Spicy Tomato Sauce – I told you I love cauliflower! Here’s another way to serve it up either as a whole blanched head of cauliflower (using the same technique as above) or cut into smaller pieces and grilled and served with a piquant tomato sauce.
10. Eggplant Parmesan – Our Thanksgiving dinner is often anchored around Eggplant Parmesan. This is a version that I learned from a chef in Costa Rica (of all places). The differentiator with this recipe is adding a few dollops of pesto with each layer of the dish and using as high a quality parmesan and mozzarella as you can get.