Vibrant India: Fresh Vegetarian Recipes from Bangalore to Brooklyn is a beautiful new cookbook from Brooklyn Delhi owner and chef Chitra Agrawal from Ten Speed Press. It is filled with gorgeous photographs of food and ingredients, and beautiful illustrations. Every recipe comes with a full-page overhead photo (like the one on the cover), and all of the photos are full of color. All of the food sounds absolutely mouth-watering. I have tried a lot of these dishes at restaurants, and never imagined the I could actually make them myself! Dosas (scrumptious, very thing and crisp crepes made of rice and lentil flour), idli (rice and lentil cakes), and roti (yummy fried flatbreads) are some of my favorite dishes from southern Indian restaurants, and they are all represented here with very clear recipes that explain these admittedly complicated dishes in a straight-forward way. This is not to say these recipes are super easy or short; in fact, many of them are pretty long, but again, they're clearly explained. The dosas, idli, and roti are classic Indian dishes, but there are also lots of dishes that are less traditional takes on Indian flavors, like chickpea salad with summer vegetables and avocado; lettuce dosa wraps with curried potato and chutney; stuffed shishito pepper fritters; and pan-roasted masala peanuts. This is a lovely book, and the recipes are good, but don't expect super easy and fast home-cooking!
(I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.)
(I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.)
