East: 120 Easy and Delicious Asian-inspired Vegetarian and Vegan recipes

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This could and should be a cheap meal, especially if you buy the ingredients from an Asian supermarket (or one online). If you buy more curry leaves and lemongrass than you need, keep them wrapped up in the freezer for next time. Serve with paratha (you can buy these from the freezer section of many Asian supermarkets) or steamed rice. Full of delectable, mouth-watering dishes . . . we guarantee you'll be devouring the entire book in no time Stylist on Fresh India Next up: chilli tofu. With a reputation for being notoriously bland, I was curious to see how Meera treated this favourite amongst veggies. Again, the familiar-looking ingredients list caught my attention and, as with the curry, the recipe came out looking exactly like the picture. I expected the tofu chunks to be a little more crisp (the method asks you to coat them in cornflour and fry first) but the sweet tomato and soy sauce coating took away from that a little. It was still delicious though and a recipe I will definitely return to in the future. Crispy chilli oil, to serve – the Laoganma brand, which is widely available at large supermarkets, south-east Asian food stores and online, is far and away my favourite Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/400°F/gas 6. Put the radishes into a heatproof bowl, cover with 100ml of just-boiled water, and add the salt, mirin and vinegar. Stir and leave to cool.

The book is divided into 11 sections; you can search by a specific meal such as salads, noodles and curries or take inspiration from the ingredient-lead sections for recipes with rice, tofu, pulses and eggs.

Spread the tofu on a large plate and dust with the cornflour, turning the cubes to coat. Take a deep frying pan for which you have a lid and add enough oil to come 0.5cm up the sides, and heat over a medium flame. Line a dish with kitchen towel, to drain the cooked tofu on. There are no frighteningly long ingredient lists or recherché spices - just simple recipes that really work. It's become my go-to Indian cookery book The Times (Books of the Year) on Made in India The dish itself is easy to make – it’s a one-pot recipe that predominantly requires stirring and simmering – and the ingredients are ones you’re likely to already have at home. The result was a coconut-y, spiced, mildly-hot curry punctured with wedges of fried paneer and, as you can imagine, tasted rather good. Although the kale is blitzed in a food processor and wilts to nothing, I expect you could swap it for spinach if you prefer. The same goes for the cheese: if you’re vegan, leave it out. My first book, Made In India was named a book of the year by the Times. My second, Fresh India, won the 2017 Observer Food Monthly’s Best New Cookbook Award. The third, East, was called ‘fabulous’/ by Nigella Lawson. I live in London, where I’m currently working on my fourth book.

Sodha, who has written three cookbooks, excels at fresh, vegetable-forward cooking, which often pulls from the Gujarati cuisine she grew up with, as well as other Asian cuisines, but always with results that are entirely her own.” Enticing, inviting and delicious. Vegan and vegetarian dishes that are hard to resist (and why should you?) Yotam Ottolenghi Enticing, inviting and delicious. Vegan and vegetarian dishes that are hard to resist (and why should you?).” Put the cauliflower on a baking tray in a single layer and put the beetroot and swede on another baking sheet in a single layer. In a small bowl, mix the garam masala, 5 tablespoons of rapeseed oil and ¾ teaspoon of salt, then drizzle over the veg on both trays and toss to coat. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, until tender and caramelized in places (the swede and beetroot may need a little longer).

To cook the eggs, take a saucepan just big enough to hold the eggs snugly (so they can’t rattle around too much), fill it half full of water and bring to the boil over a medium-high heat. When the water is at a rolling boil, gently lower the eggs into the water using a large spoon. As an outsider, I thought I was in a good place to create new and exciting vegan recipes. I understood meat-eaters and knew the textures, flavors, and the “richness” they might miss. But I had also spent two years writing a vegetarian book, Fresh India, and knew how to make bitter kale leaves sing and how to tempt a beet hater into eating a plateful. Something happens to me when I get within 10 miles of Leicester. I crave chilli tofu: the urge is so strong, I swear I can smell it the closer I get to into the city. Varieties such as Crown Prince and Delica grace farmers’ markets, and their nutty, honey flavours make them a powerful weapon for the home cook. I have loosely based this recipe on the Bengali malai kari, a dish made with sweet onions, garam masala and rich coconut milk. Warming, hearty and sharpened with a little lime for freshness, it’s best eaten with rice or scooped on to the softest naan you can find. Heat a large frying pan on a medium flame and, when hot, toast the fennel, mustard, cumin and coriander seeds for a minute or two, shaking the pan every few seconds, until the coriander seeds turn golden (coriander always takes first). Tip the seeds into a mortar and bash until fairly well ground.