“Food is Love: Plant-Based Indian-Inspired Recipes to Feel Joy and Connection” ($35, Harvest), available May 7, is the first cookbook from celebrity chef Palak Patel.
Born in India, Patel moved with her family to Stone Mountain in 1990. “In fact the day the book comes out will be the 34th anniversary of our arrival here,” Patel said when we spoke by telephone. Her family still lives in metro Atlanta and Patel returned here after living in San Francisco and New York City.
Growing up in Madhya Pradesh state in central India, Patel was raised in a vegetarian household with all meals cooked from scratch for the 15 family members living under the same roof. By age 7, she was helping in the kitchen, creating her own dishes and enjoying the compliments that came along with her cooking.
The book is organized into nine chapters that explore the connection between what you serve and eat and how you feel. From “Food is Caring” to “Food is Indulgent,” Patel shares stories of family, what she calls “Indian mom wisdom” and how her global travels have provided culinary inspiration.
For those just venturing into plant-based Indian cooking, the book includes a chapter on Patel’s pantry, with the ingredients she finds most versatile and instructions on how to make your own spice blends. The section on tools can help allay fears that Indian-inspired food requires an abundance of equipment. Patel lists only six as essential: a Tennessee-made Lodge cast-iron griddle, small food chopper, high-speed blender, nonstick skillet, enameled cast-iron skillet and a wooden rolling pin.
As for where to buy any ingredients not available at the local grocery store, Patel says her go-to source is any Patel Brothers shop (no relation). There are three in metro Atlanta: Decatur, Kennesaw and Suwanee. Patel will also launch an Amazon Marketplace May 7 to make it easy to source what’s needed to cook any of the recipes in this book. The marketplace will be accessible from her website, chefpalakpatel.com, which will also showcase videos on how to cook many of the recipes from the book.
RECIPES
Serve these four recipes from “Food is Love: Plant-Based Indian-Inspired Recipes to Feel Joy and Connection” by Palak Patel ($35, Harvest), in one delicious plant-based meal, then put them on repeat all summer. Recipes reproduced with permission from Harvest.
Credit: Adam Milliron
Credit: Adam Milliron
Peanut-Avocado Chaat Salad
Patel explained that she simply will not eat leafy greens, but she loves the components that go into a salad. This recipe was developed to marry the flavors of a chopped salad in a modernized version of chaat. “This is one of my most requested recipes, definitely a fan favorite. ‘Chaat’ by definition means ‘to lick’ and chaats are meant to inspire you to eat more.” This combination of crispy, tangy, sweet, spicy and crunchy elements will have your guests wishing they could lick their plates.
Credit: Adam Milliron
Credit: Adam Milliron
Palak Paneer
There is no paneer cheese in this recipe despite its title. Patel uses tofu to substitute for dairy-based paneer. The addition of baking soda to the water used to blanch the spinach keeps the spinach bright green after its brief cooking.
For nutritional calculations, the Diamond Crystal kosher salt included is defined as 1/4 teaspoon.
Credit: Adam Milliron
Credit: Adam Milliron
Spiced Phyllo Cake
Patel created this cake as a variation on a traditional Greek cake with oranges she first enjoyed while visiting Saudi Arabia. The baked and crumbled sheets of phyllo turn soft and custard-like when prepared in this way.
Patel recommends using certified organic cane sugar which is made exclusively from sugarcane. Other table sugar may be refined with bone char – animal-derived charcoal.
Aquafaba, the liquid from cooked or canned chickpeas, is used here as a substitute for egg whites. If using canned chickpeas, it may take two cans to get the 1 cup of aquafaba needed for this recipe. If you like, save the drained chickpeas to make Patel’s Roasted Chickpeas.
Credit: Adam Milliron
Credit: Adam Milliron
Roasted Chickpeas
Patel writes that cans of chickpeas are always in her pantry. “I cook with chickpeas and save the canned liquid (aquafaba) for baking. The addictive snack food aisle at an Indian grocery store has lots of snacks made from chickpea flour, including my go-to snack, fried black chickpeas dusted with spices (chana chor garam). My roasted chickpeas have that same lip-puckering taste and can be enjoyed as a snack or sprinkled on salad.” Baking the chickpeas before seasoning them helps make them crisp without frying. If you wish to use the aquafaba for baking, save it instead of draining and discarding it.
Sign up for the AJC Food and Dining Newsletter
Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on Twitter and @ajcdining on Instagram.
About the Author
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/ajc/FTAF5ZMCDZD5ZJ5SZ2U3Z5O2VI.JPG)
