Rakhee Yadav - Heavenly Vegan Dals & Curries

EXCITING NEW DISHES

From an Indian Girls Kitchen Abroad

RAKHEE YADAV

Creator of boxofspice

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the authors copyright, please notify the publisher at: http://us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

This book is dedicated to the world we live in, the world I leave behind for my daughter.

It is an endeavor to strive for respect for our environment, to eating consciously and always in moderation.

It is dedicated to my holistic and humble upbringing that made this thought process survive within me and to the woman, my mother, who taught me to be forever modest and without excess.

I was raised purely on plant-based foods, and Indias abundance of plant life ensured a diversified meal plan. We never missed meat nor did our health suffer as a result of it. In fact, I attribute my good health to eating purely plant-based foods. Buying food seasonally and locally also made sure that our wallet didnt suffer and neither did the flavors of our meals. It is my mothers love for simple, wholesome and delicious foodalongside her philosophy for minimum wastethat resonates in my cooking approach to this day.

The recipes here were created out of an intense love for plant-based foods, and I hope to show you how exciting vegan food can be and what a plethora of choices you have. Indian foodbesides being easy to cookis extremely diverse and for the most part, naturally vegan. These recipes are sometimes quirky with flavors you may never think to combine and sometimes as familiar as your mothers cooking.

Growing up, dals and curries were my absolute favorite part of the meal and have a special place in my heart. Dals are known as poor mans food in India because of how cheap the ingredients are and how easy they are to cook. Dalschickpeas, beans and lentilshave endless possibilities and can easily be combined into curries alongside vegetables. They also have a long list of health benefits, and no one makes them quite like the Indians do.

Eaten as you would soups in the West, dals make a great meal by themselves or can be eaten with rice, rotis or naan bread, like the Indians would. At home in India or abroad, no meal is complete without a dal or curry. Dals may be humble and unassuming, but they are the ultimate comfort food. The dals and the deeply soul-satisfying curries in this book combine age-old flavors with new international twists to great successsome recipes are downright addictive.

I create all of my recipes in my little kitchenmy favorite place in the housein The Netherlands. Here I am surrounded by the beloved flavors and exotic fragrances of my favorite hand-ground masalas and the wisps and threads of the memories they hold. Hidden in the fragrance of these familiar scents are stories of my childhood and my family, which are woven into this book.

Those familiar aromas and the vision of my mother cooking effortlessly are my inspiration for everything I do and every recipe I develop. Everyday spices such as turmeric and cumin that are so popular today were used frequently back then and are still a big part of my cooking, whether fusion or traditional. This book is a direct reflection of the traditional dishes I grew up on, combined with updated dishes inspired by my travels. The result, in my opinion, is a dramatic bang of flavors, colors and textures that you are going to love.

I hope this book and its contents will inspire you to be creative with your food, mixing and combining different elements from different chapters to make your own inventions. I hope this book also persuades you to minimize waste by substituting one ingredient in a recipe with another that you already may have in your house. If you are a new vegan, this book will show you how versatile and appetizing vegan food is, and if you have always been a plant-based eater like me, I hope this book may entice you into trying something new.

We all know that cooking food lovingly and slowly can bring out flavor like nothing else. And there is no food that confirms and demonstrates this more than Indian food. We also see this with the women in India, who spend most of their days in the kitchen, slowly stirring their pots with a huge measure of masala and love thrown in.

It is, however, possible to do quick Indian meals. My mom was a genius at it.

This chapter shows you how an Indian dish with all its flavor and amazing exotic spices is attainable in an hour or less. Perfect for those busy weeknights when all you want is a delicious dish on your lap to savor as you relax after a hard days work.

Indian hospitality is famous, and it is common to be served at least two warm dishes for every meal. These two dishes are usually family favorites or paired dishes that are universally special together. Unlike the previous section where the dish could be potentially eaten all by itself, this section focuses on pairings. They are carefully crafted to maximize the comfort aspect that is so important to wholesome cooking. Served with rice or fresh Indian bread, these meals are lip-smackingly delicious in their simplicity.

These vegan power bowls also celebrate the vibrancy of local produce at hand.

I have put together my favorite combinations in this section with each bowl, but I urge the reader to mix and match elements from different bowls to make their own creations to suit their palate.

Indian food is all about an overload of masalas (spices) and a generous helping of love thrown in to make it the delicious and popular food that it is. For my mother, weekday cooking with all the fresh produce was mostly with just three masalas: coriander, chili and turmeric powder. To this day, almost all my cooking is based on these three spices. I rarely go without one or all three. On the weekends however, we got treats of the rich curry kind. Hours spent in the kitchen, grinding fresh masala blends and roasting them lovingly with all sorts of vegetables in season.

This section doesnt require you to perhaps spend hours in the kitchen like my mom did, but it will require relaxed time to cook at leisure. And while you pour yourself a glass of wine, you will discover how intensely cathartic and meditative it might be as you prepare all your masalas, mindfully cook all your vegetables and smell the fresh aromas of the happy unions float through the house.