Chutney is a general word used in Indian cuisine for a condiment made with some mixture of spices, herbs, and vegetables or fruit.  Chutneys may be sweet, sour, spicy, or a combination of all three.  Chutneys are used frequently in Indian dishes to add flavor or heat to food.

Indian grocery stores all sell a variety of pre-made chutneys, and when you are a jam they are great.  If you have a little bit of time, however, nothing tastes as good as homemade chutney, which you can tailor to your tastes.  Another big plus, as always, is that you know the ingredients you are putting in your homemade chutney and there are not artificial ingredients or preservatives!

Like most people, I regularly eat oatmeal for breakfast.  When it is cold outside (and I will note that it is 37 degrees outside as I type this in mid-April), there is nothing more satisfying than a warm bowl of oatmeal to start your day.  In Indian cuisine there is a dish that is very similar to oatmeal:  sweet dalia.

Dalia is the Hindi word for a porridge made of "cracked wheat," or crushed raw wheat kernels.  Wheat gets a bad rap for being a carbohydrate, but this is exactly the kind of carbohydrate your body needs:  unprocessed whole grains!  Bob's Red Mill makes cracked wheat and you should be able to find it in your local grocery store.

Traditionally, sweet dalia is made with milk and sugar; sometimes cardamom and walnuts are added as well.  To make mine a bit healthier and more "breakfast-y," I added fresh strawberries instead of sugar.  I also used almond milk, but real milk is just fine of course.

Aloo gobi raswali is one of my favorite dishes, but this was not always the case!  As a child, I did not like the taste or texture of cauliflower.  When my mom would make this dish, I would often seek out and eat only the pieces of potato.  As an adult, however, I have grown to love the light and crisp texture of cauliflower.  This recipe is one of my "new" favorites because it is full of many different vegetables and a variety of nutrients.

I made a slight change to my mom's recipe--to cut down on the amount of starch, I use less potato and added chickpeas instead.  The addition of chickpeas makes this an even more well-balanced meal because chickpeas are chock-full of protein.  I really cannot think of many other dishes that are so nutritionally well-balanced!

This recipe is also fantastic because you cook everything in one big pot!  I am a huge fan of making food that requires the least amount of tools--especially on a weeknight--so that there is less to clean up.

Growing up, I loved eating paalak paneer at parties.  We did not eat it often at home because paneer--a type of non-melting fresh cheese--is not particularly healthy.  Yet, that is exactly why I loved eating it as a child!  In fact I would often pick out the paneer and eat it by itself, leaving the paalak (spinach) untouched.

As I got older, my mother began making paalak paneer at home more often because we discovered that baked tofu is an easy replacement for paneer!  It has a similar consistency, and can be cut into cubes just like paneer.  My mother's recipe is simple, easy, and well balanced:  you get protein from the tofu, iron and other vitamins from the spinach and tomatoes, and spices have been shown to have many health benefits.

My husband and I have been married for three-and-a-half years.  As he and his family are Gujarati, I have learned about and eaten many new Gujarati foods over the past few years.  My husband is a big fan of various types of chaat, a loose term for a snack generally prepared with some type of fried dough, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and various sauces.  In India, you will often find chaat being sold in markets and train stations.  Because my husband enjoys chaat, we often eat it when we visit my in-laws.  One of my favorite dishes that my mother-in-law makes is sev usar--a type of Gujarati chaat.  If you are a fan of ragada patties (another chaat dish), then you will like sev usar too!

I think the first time I had sev usar was during one of my very first trips to my in-laws' home, before my husband and I were even married.  It quickly became one of my favorites because (1) I love soup and anything resembling a soup, (2) I love healthy and light dishes.  Sev usar is an awesome dish to make when you are in the mood for chaat, but you want to be healthy!

Sev usar is essentially a thick soup made of dried green peas (vatana peas), and is topped with tamarind (imli) chutney, onions, tomatoes, and sev (small crunchy noodles made of chickpea flour).