I love Indian food, but I don’t go out for it as often as you might expect; for one, it’s pretty easy to make at home, but also, most Indian restaurants offer the same dozen or so vegetarian options and that gets boring.  So when I randomly chanced across this book on the clearance table at Pegasus Books I decided to snap it up before it disappeared.  Not too many Indian menus around here feature the likes of methi matar malai (with fresh fenugreek leaves, cashews, and cream), Keralan istoo (with broccoli and coconut milk that enhances the flavor instead of smothering everything), or asparagus in a complex mustard sauce.  Pretty much everything I tried⁠—and since this is a vegetarian cookbook, I could try everything instead of just one or two chapters⁠—was delightful and not too difficult to make.  All in all, this one was such a winner that I sought out the author’s previous cookbook…

Made in India
Meera Sodha, 2015

…which turned out to be a big disappointment!  What was supposedly potato curry turned out to just be a side dish of spiced potatoes that were a chore to get through; the cauliflower and spinach dishes were dull; the plantain dish was close to inedible.  Apparently the author radically upped her cookbook game between 2015 and 2018.  Though I guess that beats the alternative!

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