Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking

This book has tons of recipes, minus the coffee-table book photos. Pictures are nice, but the recipes are where push comes to shove. This book is the first Indian cookbook that has not disappointed me. Most Indian cookbooks have only a few recipes that taste like they are straight from a kitchen in India, with the rest doctored up for western tastes. This book has so many fabulous recipes that it is hard to know where to start! I bought this book because of the great reputation that the author has, but expected more of the same old Americanized recipes that we usually get with Indian cookbooks. Don't get me wrong, I love Americanized Indian food but I also want to experience the real deal, as well. This book delivers on the real deal. My husband told me that the cauliflower, eggplant and potato korma was the best Indian food that I have ever made. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in cooking great Indian food, especially if you are a vegetarian. You will not be disappointed.

Great resource -full of basic information on ingredients as well as cooking techniques. It has been thoughtfully adapted to the American marketplace. A huge variety of recipes from all over India.

Although gift options were not available, this book was intended to be a gift, and it happily arrived very promptly and quite nicely wrapped & beribboned. Great!The book is my second favorite textbook, both of which are cookbooks, and should be in every vegan and vegetarian chefs' kitchens.

Julie Sahni is an excellent chef and an excellent cookbook author. Her recipes are reliably kitchen tested. We have found that her books are written in a way that teach you to create elegant and complicated dishes even if you have limitted experience with the ingredients.I had previously worked through her first book (also highly recommended: "Classic Indian Cooking") before ordering 2 copies of this book for my vegetarian parents and my omnivor self. Neither the vegetarians nor the meat-eaters were dissapointed, and we thoroughly enjoyed the much more diverse options.Highlights for me include the avocado curry, several of her soups, and the tomato pilaf.She uses a lot of Ghee in many of her recipes, but I recommend reducing make her meals even healthier.Definitely 5 stars, my "favorite food" has been one Julie Sahni recipe after another for the past 2 years now, and this book is a great source.

Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking I have so far cooked 9 recipes out of this book. Eight were superb & the other was quite good. (I feel that I can amend the quite good to make it superb, too.)Here are the names of the superb recipes:Sprouted Beans (how to make Indian-style)Hearty Blue Mountain Cabbage & Tomato StewJain Coriander-Scented Millet & Mung Bean PilafBengali Green Beans & Potatoes Smothered in Mustard OilSpicy Mushrooms with Ginger & ChiliesYellow Mung Beans Laced with HerbsCabbage Salad Laced with Mustard & Coconut -- if you are only going to try one recipe from this book, this coconut cole slaw is the one to try!White Gram Beans (Urad Dal) Laced with Onion Butter

This is one of the best cookbooks that I have ever used! You will have a very hard time finding an Indian restaurant offering you many of the dishes that you can find in this book. You won't like all of the dishes in the book, but if you try to prepare half of them, you should have a very good idea what Indian vegetarianism is all about. Reading the rest of the book will give you even more insight about the Indian food culture.I checked this book out from the library and I started to prepare recipes from it. Once I returned it, I missed it and decided to buy it. I will most likely use it for many years!

I must agree with the raves about the various dishes that the other reviewers have mentioned. I own several other Indian vegetarian cookbooks and I have found that this one is the best in its description of the spices and other ingredients that may be new to some people. I have no problem with the excellent quality of the recipes but beginners in Indian cuisine should not mistake this book as easy to master. Most of the recipes in this book are complex and mastering Indian cuisine requires a lot of experimentation with amounts of spices. There are few illustrations and no pictures of prepared food to help newer cooks. So the only downside to this great book is its lack of more complete instructions for beginners

Very good condition of book like new. Thanks

This book has been in print since 1985 - proof enough that it's not just another vegetarian book or indian cookbook, but a particularly good one. The recipes are excellent - some of them intriguing; the introduction is thorough; the index is good; recipes sometimes include ingredients that can't be found outside India, for authenticity's sake, but alternatives are also suggested in most cases; and the writing style is clear.But I won't give it 5 stars. To me, a book is the responsibility not only of the author, but also the publisher. It's just not acceptable to leave errors in a 20-year-old book, such as the dish from Mysore that turns out to be from Bangalore, or a reference to Tanjore as the site of the Meenakshi temple (that left me wondering - did they get the temple wrong, or is the recipe from Madurai?). Also, if I'm going to pay for a hardcover edition, I expect it to be durable, not start falling apart at the (glued-together) seams the minute I start using it.Also, I agree with another reviewer that this book should have had a lot more on other grains, especially millet and sorghum which are very popular in India but almost never available in restaurants.And I might as well mention my pet peeve with both Sahni's books: why the distinction between side dishes and main dishes? I find it meaningless - it would have made more sense to put veg with veg, dal with dal, etc.Still, if you like Indian cooking and don't want to limit yourself to what your corner curry house can offer, and if you want to learn about a vegetarian tradition which is far and away the richest in the world, you will find this book very enjoyable.

For years, I have faithfully taken this book out of the local library. I have learned how to make all my own curry mixes and other wonderful blends and my kitchen is fully stocked with all the magnificent spices of India. I also enjoy the history of India and the stories Ms. Sahni shares with the reader. I finally bought this book and it is a constant companion that helps me plan many delicious vegan meals for family and friends. I do cut back the fat in many recipes and also substitute the dairy products with vegan ones. For those struggling with eating vegetarian, I find vegetarian Indian cooking to be very fulfilling and enjoyable.

I find this book full of the basics that gives me a very good starting point. As a non-Indian chef I find that this book allows me to understand better how the flavors better blend to create the true Indian taste I am trying to achieve.

Great recipes,Really classic, great explanation for the produces.Vegeterian will enjoy it a lot because it is savory.The only hic is the Naan bread recipe which I did try few times and didn't turn out well