We made three separate edibles in an hour and a half on a weeknight, an endeavor the thought of which would ordinarily have slayed me before I began. Okay, one of them was just a condiment, but hey, even condiments take work. Totally vegetarian, totally awesome. Saag with Chickpeas Ingredients: 12 oz baby spinach oil (2-3 tablespoons) 2 heaping teaspoons gram flour (chickpea flour; you can also use regular flour or corn starch, but gram flour rocks so why would you?) 2 red onions, chopped 1 green chill, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 inches ginger, minced 2 tomatoes, sliced 1/4 tsp tumeric 3/4 tsp red chilli powder 1 tsp coriander powder 1 tsp garam masala 1 tsp salt light cream, 1/2 1 can chickpeas a touch of ghee (or butter) Blanch the spinach for a minute or two in boiling water and transfer to an ice bath. Drain and blend until smooth. Cook the gram flour in the oil until it becomes smooth and a nutty brown color -- several minutes. Then add the onions and fry the heck out of them. You want them to be golden brown, but if you've been frying for 15 minutes and they're not there yet, don't worry. Just move on. Add the green chilli, garlic, and ginger, and cook for a couple more minutes. Then add the tomatoes, mix, cover the pan, and cook for a few minutes. Next, add the spinach paste. Also add the dry spices (including salt) and the cream. Stir, simmer 10 minutes. Add the chickpeas and cook until they're soft. Add the touch of ghee or butter just before serving. Voila! Spinach and Cauliflower Pakoras Ingredients: oil for deep frying about 2 cups of baby spinach 1/2 a cauliflower or one whole small one, cut into finger-sized pieces 2 cups gram flour (see above) 1 small onion, diced small 1.5 cups water 1/2 tsp red chilli powder 1/4 tsp turmeric 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 and 1/4 tsp salt (the recipe calls for 2, but we found the batter a little too salty. Maybe 1.5 tsp would be good too.) 1 green chilli, diced fine small bunch of cilantro, chopped fine Put the gram flour in a mixing bowl and add water, turmeric, red chilli powder, cumin, and salt. Whisk until it's smooth. Then add the onions, green chilli, and cilantro. Mix well. Heat the oil. Dip the cauliflower pieces and individual spinach leaves, one by one, in the batter and transfer to the oil. Don't try to cook too many at once! Fry until golden brown and serve with cilantro chutney. Cilantro Chutney Blend 1 small bunch of cilantro, 1/2 a small onion, 1/2 a green chilli, the juice of half a lemon, 2-3 spoons of water, and 1/4 tsp of salt in a blender until smooth. That's it!

Fake schnitzels are made by pouring chick pea flour (gram flour) into simmering stock until it thickens and pulls away from the side. The recipe suggests putting the "dough" into glass containers to form long cylinders so that it can later be sliced and cooked. Not knowing how I would remove the cooled dough from a glass container (and not having any tall straight glasses) I decided to press it out on a board as I would polenta. Once cool I used cookie cutters to produce rounds. The recipe has 2 cups of chick pea flour to 1 quart+2 cups of stock. 1 quart (assuming American pints) is 4 cups so that is 6 stock to 2 flour. It would be so runny that it would never set. I made it with 2 cups of stock to 2 cups of flour.