Love Papad/popadum/papadum, then you must try this vegan curry. Packed with flavor, loaded with veggies & common spices,this is one substantial family meal.

I am not surprised that more and more non Indians are leaning more towards Indian food today. But its only after I moved to the US did I realize this. Every other local person I meet keeps raving about Indian cuisine and how much they love it. I have neighbors who follow me on Instagram and some have even subscribed to the blog as they love cooking Indian food at home and always want to know what I am making. Some of KR’s colleagues (including his boss) always want to go to an Indian restaurant during their lunch breaks and they keep asking him for restaurant recommendations. In fact, his boss’s wife follows my blog and has even recreated a couple of my recipes. She makes it a point to let me know whenever we meet socially how much she loves my recipes. I love it when someone messages me on Insta or sends me a mail to tell me that they prepared my recipe and how everyone at home loved it! All this makes me feel so good and motivated. This is all the validation I need to keep going. 

All this goes on to prove that making Indian food at home doesn’t have to be intimidating. Most of the recipes come together in under an hour! But then we have recipes for all occasions! Whether you want to whip up something quick on a weeknight or prepare something elaborate to show off to your family over brunch, we cater to all needs. If you just browse through the Recipes tab here, I am sure you will find something in here for every occasion. Indian food is very vast. There is a new cuisine every 100 miles which revolves around its local produce and seasons. I am not just talking about entree here, we have a large line up even in condiments/accompaniments, be it pickle or a chutney. In fact even the papad or papadum or popadum or appalam prepared in every cuisine tastes different as its made with different flours and ingredients. Since today’s curry recipe involves papad, its only fair we talk about this in little detail. A papadum is a thin, crisp, disc-shaped food, normally made with a seasoned dough using any flour. They are either fried or cooked with dry heat (usually flipping it over an open flame) or even roasted in the microwave (I got to know of this technique only after moving to US, courtesy KR). 

In most happy occasions like a wedding or on any festival, fried papad is served and that is what tastes the best (of course). Everyone loves a fried papad! Its served as an accompaniment with any rice dish, it gives the required crunch to any dish, in a lot of Indian restaurants, it’s served as an appetizer with chutney dips and of course if you are like KR, you will want a papad on every other dish. He eats papad with instant noodles! Anyways, I have always been a fan of roasted papad and there is one funny story associated with it. On some days, I just roast a papad and eat it as a snack. Once when I had some family visiting us, back in Bombay, I decided to roast some papad for all of us. After giving everyone their papad, I made mine. I was eagerly walking towards the dining table to devour it when my aunt accidentally banged into me. The papad and my dream to eat it was shattered and I couldn’t stop crying over it! My aunt felt so guilty and apologized profusely and even promised to make some for me but I was in no mood to listen. Even thinking of it today makes me laugh and I feel so silly to having reacted that way to a papad! I am always mocked at family gatherings about my fixation to this crunchy snack. 

There is a dish called Papad ki sabzi that’s made is many parts of India. Each have their own way of making it so I too wanted to create my own version of this dish that’s vegan, soy-free, nut-free and gluten-free. Here is what I did. For this recipe you need a good quantity of papadum. It can be fried or roasted. I used the fried ones as I had them handy. The first thing to do is to crush the papadum. Put them in a ziplock and go bonkers with it (refer above pic)! Then we need to blanch the tomatoes and we will be removing the skin to make the masala base. The traditional way to do it is to immerse it in boiling water for a couple of minutes and then peel the tomatoes. But I tried the internet method which is to cut a plus sign on the eye of a tomato and place it in a microwave for 35-45 seconds. Then peel the skin off. It comes off easily. Make a puree of these peeled tomatoes and keep it aside for now. Heat oil in a pan and temper cumin seeds. Once they crackle, add minced garlic, grated ginger, chopped green chillies, chopped cilantro and onions to the pan. Saute till they are cooked and then add the tomato puree and sugar. 

Continue to cook for 5-7 minutes. Then add the green peas, turmeric powder, chilly powder, coriander cumin powder and salt. Add water and mix it all together and continue to cook this masala base for another 7-8 minutes till it begins to boil. Then add the crushed papadum to the pan and give it a mix. Lastly add garam masala and stir. Turn off the gas after 3-4 minutes. You can garnish this sabzi with some chopped raw onions and cilantro. Papadum & Green Peas Curry is now ready. Serve this with steamed rice or any Indian bread. This curry reminded us of chaat for some reason and we loved it! You must try it too. If you do try this recipe, please do share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. This will keep me motivated to develop more interesting recipes. Click a pic and post it with the hashtag #cookiliciousveg . I would love to see your pictures on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter!

I use the hashtag #cookiliciousveg on all social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) so you can get access to what's cooking in my kitchen. To stay updated, you can either subscribe to our newsletter  (free gift if you do so!) or follow me on my social media Instagram , Facebook   and Twitter! There is even a Pinterest board called Cookilicious Recipes  from where you can pin the recipes you love.

I was not kidding when I said that it’s easy to make Indian food at home. All you need are these basic spices – Homemade Garam Masala, Turmeric Powder, Dhania Jeera Powder and chilly powder. You can either make them at home and stock it for months or you can pick it up from any Indian grocery store. Nowadays, you can find some of these spices in popular grocery chains like Walmart, Publix, Kroger, Whole Foods and even Lucky’s Market. Rest of the ingredients are pretty basic and are easy to find. Here are some quick Indian meals that you can try – Vangyacha Rassa Bhaji | Indian Eggplant Curry, Chanya Ros | Goan Vegetarian Vatana curry, Mint & Pistachio Vegetable Rice, Shahjahani Dal | Royal Chickpeas Stew, Vegan Rajasthani Carrot & Peas Gravy, Vegan Sesame Flavored Green Beans Stir Fry and Chickpea & Black Rice Dumplings in Spinach Sauce Gravy.