Vegan – Global Dine In

Begun Bhaji (Fried Eggplant)

I love eggplant for its delicious taste and smooth and velvety texture. It doesn’t hurt that it’s healthy too. Growing up, my Mom used eggplant in many dishes. She would either deep fry it in a chick pea flour batter, stir fry it, or pan fry it in a skillet. The pan-fried version of this dish is called Begun bhaji, which is what I make in this recipe.

Vegan Fried Rice

Fried rice is one of those dishes that you can make in no time if you have some leftover rice in your refrigerator. You can make it as simple or as elaborate as you want. I don’t know about you but I like to eat rice pretty much every day, maybe because I grew up in Asia.

Coriander Chutney (Zhoug Sauce)

Several years ago we were invited to a friend’s house for a delicious taco meal. She gave us so many toppings and salsas to try. One of my favorites was green and fairly spicy. It turned out to be from Trader Joe’s and called Zhoug sauce.

Beet Hummus

I have recently been harvesting lots of vegetables like snap peas, zucchini, and cucumbers from my garden. I get so many of these I’m not always sure what to do with them. One great way is to keep them raw and eat them with a dip.

Tahini Sauce

Over the years, I have bought many jars of Tahini paste from the store, which is basically just toasted sesame seeds with oil. I buy this because I like to combine it with spices, lime juice, and other ingredients to make a Tahini sauce to use as a dip, to make hummus, or to drizzle over meat on the grill. Tahini sauce is really versatile and wonderful and you need to know about if you don’t already!

White Bean hummus

One of my favorite dips to serve for a large gathering is hummus. Hummus is normally made from cooked, mashed chickpeas blended with tahini, lemon juice, and garlic.

Masala Green Beans

As I was going down the produce aisle, I saw some green beans at the grocery store. They looked really fresh, almost as if they were picked that same morning! It may not be the right time of year for fresh green beans, but they looked too good to pass on the opportunity. I bought a couple of pounds.

Dal with Spinach

As a child growing up I ate dal at most meals. Dal are dried and split pulses or lentils that are very common in South Asian cooking. My mother cooked lentils on almost a daily basis to serve with fried spinach and fish curry. I did not actually like dal growing up, as I was a very picky eater!