Cheap, filling, flavor. Sub out yogurt for coconut milk and this becomes a vegan meal. But I wasn’t opening a can of cocoi milk for two tablespoons.

Cost per person $1.38

  • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
    3·
    9 hours ago

    Indian cuisine has got to be #1 in the world for flavour at a low price. It’s pretty amazing. Back in the early colonial days it must’ve been crazy expensive for all the spices but now you can stock up at a local Indian grocery and get amazing spices in bulk for quite cheap.

    Do you use a masala dabba?

    • FauxPseudo @lemmy.worldOPM
      3·
      8 hours ago

      I have a huge spice cabinet that I built. It has a drawer underneath it to store bulk spices and then I use smaller vessels for ready access and refill them as necessary. I have those small metal cups that are about a quarter cup in size that I’ll portion everything out into for my mise in place. Which is very important when you’re doing Indian food because you might have 7 or 12 different things going into something at different stages.

      Indian food isn’t just a great choice for cheap, but it’s also the best tasting vegetarian and vegan food out there. I have a feeling that if people got away from the pseudo meats and focused onto Indian food that a lot more people would have no problem with vegetarianism. But they also have very tasty lamb and goat recipes. They have everyone covered.

      • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
        4·
        8 hours ago

        Yes, not only vegetarian and veganism, but also simply having vegetarian meals more often without giving up meat entirely. Sometimes I think folks “let the perfect be the enemy of the good” and insist on going cold turkey full vegan or bust and then busting out. They’d have much more success eating less meat by just trying some vegetarian Indian dishes and seeing how nice it can be to have a delicious, savoury, hearty, filling, and satisfying Indian meal, and even forget that they aren’t eating meat!

        Some of my favourites include Rajma, dal makhani, a very spicy masala dosa with 3 chutneys and a bowl of sambar, and Lahore style chole.

    • FauxPseudo @lemmy.worldOPM
      8·
      12 hours ago

      This was the base recipe.

      I made the following changes:
      Tomato sauce instead of tomatoes since it was supposed to be pureed anyway.
      I didn’t blend. I wanted the texture of the onions.
      I decided that some (1 tsp) of my scratch made horseradish would work instead of the ginger I didn’t have.
      I used a tsp of paprika instead of the 1/4 tsp cayenne.
      Yogurt instead of coconut milk, as previously mentioned.

      The recipe completely lies about how long to cook the potatoes. Plan on 40 minutes instead of ”10 to 15.”