Indian Vegetable & Pulses Foods
Many Indians are vegetarian either through religious belief of as a result of poverty, so the imaginative diversity of dishes based on vegetables and pulses is breathtaking. Indian cooks treat vegetables with great respect - not surprising in a country that boasts 18 different varieties of spinach.
The Keynote of vegetable dishes is contrasting flavors so hot spices are matched with cooling yogurt or sour tamarind, and savoury greens with sweet nuts or fruit. Virtually all vegetables familiar to western cooks are at home in the Indian kitchen too - onions, potatoes, aubergines, peppers, tomatoes, cauliflower, okra, spinach, peas and green beans - so as well as a huge choice of main-course vegetarian dishes, there is always an ideal side dish to choose.
Pulses, whether dried beans, chickpeas, lentils or split peas, are very nutritious and have a natural affinity with herbs and spices. They may be cooked whole or pureed and made into dhal-virtually every region on India has its own dhal specialty. They can also, of course be combined with each other and / or vegetables.
With the exception of lentils, pulses need to be soaked in cold water before cooking. However, for your convenience, most of the recipes in this book use canned pulses, which are pre-soaked and cooked and therefor considerably reduce the overall cooking time.