More Vegan Treasures of India Eats!

I've been steadily working my way through Anusha Moorthy Santosh's new Vegan Treasures of India cookbook. I'm loving how each recipe is from a different region of India, and the recipes are more varied than what you'd find on a typical Indian restaurant menu in the U.S.

One of my favorite dishes so far has been the Light Lemon Sevai with Coconut Chutney. This is made with broken rice vermicelli noodles, which are seasoned with a mustard seed tadka with curry leaves and hing. I'm sort of addicted to that hing flavor (aka asafoetida). I served the sevai with my homemade, unsweetened soy yogurt. Anusha includes serving suggestions for every recipe, which is really helpful! I like knowing what would be traditionally eaten with each dish.

Here's the Coconut Chutney that's on that dish. It's made with frozen coconut, chiles, curry leaves, and spices. I could eat this with a spoon on its own.

The chutney also made a great topping for these Crispy Adai — lentil flour pancakes. For these, you soak white rice and several types of dal and then blend it all with spices in a high-speed blender. Then you cook it like pancakes. I love a good dal-based batter; it reminded me of dosa but without all the fermentation.

And last night, I made the Earthy Beet Poriyal with the Soothing Thayir Sadam. The poriyal was a beet and chickpea stir-fry seasoned with curry leaves, mustard seed, and coconut. And the thayir sadam is Indian yogurt rice. The cozy, savory rice pudding is made with white rice, unsweetened yogurt (I used my homemade version), plant milk, vegan butter, and a spicy tadka oil. I could eat this stuff ALL DAY.