From Shankar's Vegetarian Kitchen 
My friend Vandana is always keen to try and share new recipes. After seeing my recent arrabbiata sauce she asked to get a recipe for the traditional South Indian standby, Tomato Gotsu or Gojju. It’s late summer and the potted tomato plants are in a hurry to produce several pounds of ripe tomatoes each day. Tomato … Continue reading
There are times things just turn out extraordinarily well. What started as any other soup just turned into sheer deliciousness. My daughter ate three bowls of it for dinner and asked for more at lunch the very next day. I have no explanation. But I share the recipe here. The ingredients were quite ordinary, even … Continue reading
Everyone loves the vegetable thogaiyals I make. Yes, nearly everyone. They eat it as an appetizer with crusty breads, on toast, with rice, with iddly or dosai, even with uppama or pongal. I’ve even served it as a pesto with spaghetti. I have widely shared this recipe that I first learned from Mrs. Rukmini Kesavan. I … Continue reading
As the title implies, this is a quick shortcut to making that ubiquitous South Indian comfort food, rasam. The name itself means, nectar, essence or ambrosia. In the hands of the right cook, it is quite clearly the latter. I have included several rasam recipes, but there is always one more. There are as many … Continue reading
It’s mid-July again and gardeners know what happens. There comes a day when the tomatoes all begin to ripen together. After what seems like months of waiting and peeking at them eagerly every day, they all decide it’s time to change color. Reds, orange, yellow and rust brown, the plants are covered with ripening fruit. Neighbours … Continue reading
When my neighbours invited me to join them for thanksgiving I asked them what I should bring. “Saag Paneer” was their rather surprising answer. It turns out when they were both students at Duke, the cafeteria would serve this once a week. It became their favorite dish. Now, I had never made saag paneer and … Continue reading
When my neigbours invited me to join them for thanksgiving I asked them what I should bring. “Saag Paneer” was their rather surprising answer. It turns out when they were both students at Duke, the cafeteria would serve this once a week. It became their favorite dish. Now, I had never made saag paneer and … Continue reading
Aloo Mutter literally means potatoes and peas. It is a menu staple in many Indian restaurants and is usually served with roti or nan. I have no idea what is an authentic way to make this dish nor how exactly it should taste. This is my version based on years of having eaten this stew with … Continue reading
My daughter and I had a blast making this soup. I had often wondered what I could do with acorn squash besides bake it with butter and brown sugar. We just decided to make soup and my daughter and I had fun peeling and slicing all the vegetables we had on hand. The end result … Continue reading
This dish should really be called vegetable rasam and it’s a perfect one pot dinner for a small family. I am not sure why I made it last night. I think it was because I was craving some spicy rasam flavors but didnt feel like making rice and a vegetable separately. I also had a … Continue reading