Quinoa Biryani with Kala Chana

A biryani may be the ultimate indulgence, food-wise, but truth is that it can also be transformed into a super-healthy-- and decadently delicious-- weeknight dish. All you need to work that magic is your imagination.

My Quinoa Biryani with Kala Chana has all the flavor of a traditional biryani because it has the same spices and flavor building blocks-- with important modifications to the two main ingredients, the rice and the meat. The rice is replaced by nutty quinoa, a wonder food and one of the best sources of vegan protein, and the meat is replaced by kala chana, a smaller, darker version of a chickpea or garbanzo bean that you can find at any Indian store. Kala chana has more flavor and texture and it holds more firmly after cooking, compared to a chickpea. All of which makes it a wonderful meat substitute in this dish. And being a legume, it's also packed with protein, of course.

You can substitute chickpeas in this recipe, but the flavor won't be as hearty. Be sure to cook your chickpea to a slightly al dente texture instead of letting it get too mushy. And don't forget to rinse your quinoa thoroughly before you cook it to get rid of the saponin, a bitter coating that covers and protects each grain until it's ready for you to eat.

In My Kitchen, April 2013

What's in my kitchen this month?

This Spaghetti Gratin with Artichoke Cashew Cheese. But first, what else is in my kitchen?

I turned an interested eye to the most used room in my home after reading Nupur's post which in turn was inspired by a meme hosted each month by Celia of the blog Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. It is such a great idea, I couldn't wait to get started!

My kitchen, like everyone else's I suppose, is the heart of my home. It's the place I enjoy being in most because I love to cook and to eat. It's the place where we spend many evenings chatting about the important  things and the trivial.  It's where guests seem to naturally congregate, no matter how comfortable the other rooms are.

Gluten-Free Multigrain Pancakes

It's not easy to be vegan and discuss weight gain.

Vegans, we are told unequivocally by all the experts in the field of plant-based nutrition, don't gain weight. And if they do, it's because they are doing something wrong. They are eating too much junk. Or they are eating too much. Period. It makes those among us who watch what we eat but also have to watch the scales feel very guilty. And very helpless.

I worked for a plant-based nutrition advocacy group where the message about vegan diet equals weight loss was drilled deep into our heads. But at work, even as I was expected to push out messages to the media about vegans not getting fat, I felt more than a little hypocritical and very angry. Because my mirror was telling me quite something else. I was a vegan and I was putting on weight.

Mushroom Achari

Baingan Achari is a mouthwatering side-dish that cashes in on the great Indian obsession with pickles. Indian pickles, called achar in north India, are quite different from the pickles we eat here in the United States. They are made with all sorts of vegetables-- mango and lemon being the more popular choices-- and they are fiery red with bold tones of tart and hot that tease your tastebuds and whet your appetite.

The reason why pickles taste so special are a couple of very special spices that go into them: nigella seeds, or kalonji, and fennel seeds, or saunf. Baingan Achari takes the alchemy of those spices and puts them to work in a subzi, or a side dish, that is much quicker-- and easier -- to make than a jar of pickles, and has about the same effect on the appetite.

In my eggplant-loving home Baingan Achari is always a popular choice for dinner. But the last time I had a craving for this dish I didn't have any eggplant on hand. I did have some mushrooms, though, so I thought, why not?

Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread

 I've been experimenting more with gluten-free baking, and today I wanted to share a foolproof recipe for a wheat-free sandwich bread. Vegan, of course.

I bake a lot and I love baking breads most of all. But I had rarely baked a bread free of gluten, unless you count some Indian flatbreads like bhakris and missi rotis which are often made with flours like millet and sorghum and corn. So when I rolled up my sleeves and set out to bake a gluten-free bread, I did a lot of reading and incorporated a lot of the advice in my recipe. Here's what I learned:

--Start with an open mind, especially if you're a seasoned baker, because all of your long-held notions about baking bread will be challenged. Gluten-free breads present a fundamental conundrum: gluten is the substance that gives breads structure and helps them rise (it's why you knead bread dough so much-- to develop those gluten strands that will stretch and make your bread grow big and light and airy in the oven). So then how do you get a bread that lacks any gluten at all to rise? Relax, because there is an answer: xanthan gum. This thickener adds viscosity and elasticity to a gluten-free dough, allowing it to rise in a hot oven, much as a wheat bread would. Xanthan gum can easily be found at stores like Whole Foods or online.