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From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
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Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nB<\/span>estselling author and renowned restaurateur Camellia Panjabi MBE, celebrated for transforming the UK\u2019s perception of Indian cuisine through her stylish London restaurants and iconic cookbook, 50 Great Curries of India<\/em>, is now setting her sights on a new culinary mission: inspiring Brits to fall in love with vegetables.<\/p>\nDrawing on decades of experience as a hotelier managing restaurants across various cuisines, Panjabi observed that vegetables were too often relegated to the sidelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the facets of my job was to help set up restaurants for the different hotels, and they covered all kinds of cuisines,\u201d says Panjabi, who has shaped London\u2019s food scene, collaborating with her family to create celebrated restaurants like Veeraswamy, Amaya, Chutney Mary and the beloved Masala Zone chain. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I left that job, I then began to reflect on the past and thought, how come in every menu that we ever designed, vegetables were always in the section called sides? They were never part of the starters, they were never part of the main course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Determined to change this narrative, Panjabi has made vegetables the true \u201chero\u201d of every plate with her brand-new cookbook, Vegetables: The Indian Way<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cThe majority of food on anyone\u2019s plate is normally two or three kinds of vegetables, and we had failed to take that into account when we served the public,\u201d reflects the restaurateur, who is often referred to as \u201cthe Queen of Indian cuisine\u201d. \u201cI thought, I\u2019m going to do a 90-degree turn and say the hero of these dishes is going to be the vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulling together her own experiences in the food industry and her upbringing in Mumbai, alongside extensive research into traditional Indian cooking, Panjabi asked herself: how do you make a cauliflower a hero vegetable dish? How do you make potatoes a hero dish, rather than a little bit on the side?<\/p>\n
\u201cI discovered this whole world of stuff which can be made very sophisticated as well, because vegetarian hostesses have been having dinner parties celebrating their cuisine in the most attractive ways,\u201d says Panjabi. \u201cI found that it was possible to make the most beautiful compositions and the most beautiful colour combinations.\u201d<\/p>\n
While this legacy cookbook contains a plethora of fantastic vegetarian recipes, Panjabi wants to emphasise that this book is for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis book is not addressed to just vegetarians \u2013 it\u2019s addressed to the whole universe, because everybody is a vegetable eater,\u201d highlights Panjabi. \u201cSome eat less as they don\u2019t know how to handle it best, and many people have a repertoire of six to seven vegetables, and maybe two ways to make each vegetable, and over time, that can get quite boring.<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Panjabi\u2019s new cookbook, \u2018Vegetables: The Indian Way\u2019, celebrates plants as the star of the plate (Penguin)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\u201cI hope each person will re-examine their beliefs before they read the book and after, and how it changes their perspective. Because I think what will happen is that people won\u2019t think of vegetarian food as something to be consumed by a small bunch of people, but as the mainstay of everybody\u2019s way of eating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are her top tips for making vegetables the star of every dish.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Try a new root vegetable and a \u2018sun\u2019 vegetable combination\u00a0<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n While researching for the book, the restaurateur noticed a common theme in many traditional Indian vegetarian dishes \u2013 they regularly paired a root vegetable (such as cauliflower or carrots) with a \u201csun-grown\u201d vegetable (like tomatoes or beans).<\/p>\n
\u201cOne easy way to identify a good vegetarian meal is to choose a dish that contains vegetables which grow underground and those which grow in the sun,\u201d says Panjabi. \u201cOften in the West, especially in winter, you would have a meal with carrots and potatoes, for example, but both are underground vegetables. So, I noticed that this consciousness was not there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think among Indians it was conscious, more of a habit which they have inherited from previous generations, but there seems to be logic to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Learn the health benefits of every vegetable<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n The 120 authentic recipes in Panjabi\u2019s new cookbook are all organised by vegetable and are accompanied by notes on their nutritional values and unique wellness benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very important to understand the health benefits of each and every vegetable and what it does for you,\u201d says Panjabi. \u201cIn this book, we have tried to extend the confidence and knowledge of different vegetables to understand what role they play in health, and how they affect our gut, metabolism and absorption, and also bring in the ancient Ayurvedic belief systems about each of the vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n
Make your plate colourful<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe colours are very important \u2013 it\u2019s almost like fashion. It\u2019s like putting together an ensemble,\u201d says Panjabi. \u201cYou have to decide what the handbag, shoes, top and coat are going to be. So, when you assemble a meal, you say, okay, I have orange carrots, now I need something green. And what about purple cabbage? You can assemble it all in a great mix stir-fry, or individually in a little bowl and have a kind of symphony.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t be afraid to be eclectic and mix cuisines<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n If Panjabi had to sum up her cooking style in one word it would be \u201ceclectic\u201d \u2013and she encourages others to be bolder with their flavour combinations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t worry about which ingredient comes from which cuisine. If I want to add Thai lemon leaf to a stir fry, which would normally be Western, then I do that,\u201d says Panjabi. \u201cSimilarly, I don\u2019t restrict za\u2019atar to just Middle Eastern food; I would use it wherever I thought it would blend. It\u2019s like writing music. You put different notes together, and you don\u2019t know what the end sound will be, and it comes with trial and error.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buy and eat vegetables that are in season<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Her advice? Buy seasonally and make vegetables the centrepiece of your shopping basket (Alamy\/PA)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nEating food in season is often cheaper, has a better taste and a higher nutritional value.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have got so used to eating so many foods out of season, and this has been made possible by the fact that things are now grown in plastic poly tunnels and atmosphere and everything is controlled,\u201d says Panjabi. \u201cIt means a tomato looks like a tomato, tastes something like a real tomato, but is living on water filled with chemicals. It\u2019s not the real thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the consciousness of how to buy vegetables which might have been grown in soil, which might have seen the sun and are in season is a very good way to start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t throw away the greenery, use the whole vegetable<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost all vegetables have plant material attached \u2013 like a cauliflower wrapped in wonderful dark green leaves \u2013 and we tend to throw that away,\u201d acknowledges Panjabi. \u201cI think the consciousness of how to eat carrot greens, turnip greens, cauliflower greens, and take the whole vegetable in its whole form has been lost. Of course, supermarkets don\u2019t give us that possibility, but farmers’ markets and small vegetable vendors do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Vegetables: The Indian Way\u2019 by Camellia Panjabi\u00a0(Penguin Michael Joseph, \u00a340).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more Bestselling author and renowned restaurateur Camellia Panjabi MBE, celebrated for transforming the UK\u2019s perception of Indian cuisine through her stylish London restaurants and iconic cookbook, 50 Great Curries of India, is now setting her sights on a new culinary mission: inspiring Brits to fall in love with vegetables. Drawing on decades of experience as a hotelier managing restaurants across various cuisines, Panjabi observed that vegetables were too often relegated to the sidelines. \u201cOne of the facets of my job was to help set up restaurants for the different hotels, and they covered all kinds of cuisines,\u201d says Panjabi, who has shaped London\u2019s food scene, collaborating with her family to create celebrated restaurants like Veeraswamy, Amaya, Chutney Mary and the beloved Masala Zone chain. \u201cWhen I left that job, I then began to reflect on the past and thought, how come in every menu that we ever designed, vegetables were always in the section called sides? They were never part of the starters, they were never part …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}