Stuffed.

A few months ago we made a pact: We were going to start cooking Indian. Our kitchen was going to smell like a curry house at least once a week. The spice cupboard was going to get some new inhabitants. Black cumin. Black cardamom. Black salt. Tamarind. Oh, and some Citric Acid. The citric acid was on sale. Had to have it.

We needed a book to make it all happen. Our first read, Pure & Simple Homemade Vegetarian Cuisine, left us in the cold. Turns out we needed a pressure cooker for most of the recipes, as well as ghee, and loads of cheese, yogurt, and dairy exhaustion. There weren't many recipes that didn't require serious frying and fritteration, and these intricate, multi-step recipes would turn dinner into an all-day excursion.

Then Josh's Amazon account had a suggestion (don't you love how Amazon knows you better than you know yourself?) The Indian Vegan Kitchen. We also became the owners of a pressure cooker.

The next day, the book arrived (don't you love Amazon Prime?).

After power yoga yesterday, I was feeling a bit more Indian-inspired. Josh promised to make me the Stuffed Eggplant dish along with Flaxseed Roti. I met him after class at the Reading Terminal and we secured some key ingredients: soy flour. green chile. eggplant and other veg. I also picked out some rose water for a future recipe from the book.

All of the recipes in the book are nutritious and rely on a variety of spices with very little oil. Canola or vegetable oil are used to replace the ghee in many of the recipes. The nutrition information per serving is included and I was shocked at how light and low sodium your traditional Indian foods can be prepared.

The roti took about 20 minutes to prepare and was less greasy than a regular flatbread from our favorite takeout joint.



The Stuffed Eggplant took about 30 minutes of prep and 30 minutes to cook everything (all in the same pan) and was full of fresh peas, carrots, potatoes, eggplant, green chile, tomato, and spices. I love eggplant so much and this was tender and filling. You can also serve it over rice, but we kept it light.

I know how hard it is to find vegan Indian food in the city, so picking up this book could be a great move if you've ever wanted to try aloo-tikki chaat with soy yogurt.