As the granddaughter of a prominent landowner and farmer from the heart of Punjab, India, please do not refer to Saag as Palak. My family spent our years living in America viciously stringing vacation days together to visit my grandparents in the haweli where my father grew up. To even get to his childhood village, you have to drive your way through fields and fields of bright green and yellow-topped mustard green fields. I've been on a tractor in those same fields and can still smell that freshly-cut aroma from the tender stems. When cooked down with spices and some key ingredients,...
As the granddaughter of a prominent landowner and farmer from the heart of Punjab, India, please do not refer to Saag as Palak. My family spent our years living in America viciously stringing vacation days together to visit my grandparents in the haweli where my father grew up. To even get to his childhood village, you have to drive your way through fields and fields of bright green and yellow-topped mustard green fields. I've been on a tractor in those same fields and can still smell that freshly-cut aroma from the tender stems. When cooked down with spices and some key ingredients,...
I have been making this mock egg salad since I tried it at a Hindu Temple when I was living in Hawaii. I was a graduate student at the East-West Center there and loved visiting the temple for their food - delicious, plant-based Indian. The secret to a delicious eggless egg salad? Crunch. Color. Eggy Taste. In this recipe, the crunch is from onion, celery, and carrots. Try other fun adds like chopped watercress or jicama. The color is important. It gets its yellow hue from turmeric powder, which is a healthy anti-inflammatory. Eggy taste without the egg? You'll want some...
Hyderabad is the capital of two states in Southern India and is known as a center for India's pearl and diamond trade. And, biryani. Hyderabadi Biryani is known throughout India and beyond, made special by the mix of spices including mace, dried fruit, and nuts. Traditionally, there are two ways to cook this one-pot meal. One is to place your raw, marinated meat and other ingredients in a clay pot and seal it - opening only when perfectly cooked (this takes some serious practice). The other is to cook your ingredients partially and then put them together to finish up...
The other night I was lusting over my girls' mac and cheese. It was the new hip organic kind out of the box. But, it was cheese. I've stayed away from dairy for over two decades now, well before it was hip to be vegan, plant-based, or whatever folks want to call themselves. I eat non-dairy because if I eat milk and cheese, my stomach starts to hurt. When I stopped eating it regularly I started to feel great, and the rest is history - I even wrote a book about it! I'm human though, and I miss my creamy,...
I first saw a turmeric plant as a little girl visiting my grandmother's home in Chandigarh, India. All of my cousins and I loved playing and climbing the lychee and mango trees in the back of our huge home in Sector 9. It was always a special time for me visiting from America - getting to pluck juicy, ripe lychees right off the stem and wander into our beloved gardner's patch of okra, eggplant, and turmeric. Mali, as we would refer to him, would complain about the grassy plant overtaking his garden, and mumble under his breath as he cut away...
