Vegan Indian Cooking Cookbook Offers Great Recipes
A new cookbook with bold-flavored, meat-free Indian dishes
We're always looking for an excuse to trawl the Indian and Pakistani stretch of Devon Avenue.
The most recent one provides fodder for multiple shopping trips: Vegan Indian Cooking ($20), a new cookbook from Chicago-based author Anupy Singla.
Singla's first book, The Indian Slow Cooker, is packed with braises, both meat- and vegetable-based. Her newest book embodies how she often eats: a vegetable-based diet heavy on herbs and spices, and loaded with flavor.
Our first venture with the book yielded two dishes that earned immediate staple status. A simple, Punjabi-style bhindi masala ?(pictured), with deeply caramelized onions and a rainbow of spices, is a superb way to take advantage of okra season. Babaji's Eggplant, with potatoes, tomatoes and garam masala, will make repeat appearances once the weather cools.
Stock the requisite spices with Singla's spice tiffin ($50) or head to Devon, where she recommends Patel Brothers for spices, flour and rice, Fresh Farms for the neighborhood's best produce, and Kamdar Plaza for a snack.