One great cookbook: Madhur Jaffrey's 'Vegetarian India'
The 2015 tome will reshape how you think about both vegetables and Indian food


Madhur Jaffrey has been writing cookbooks for more than 40 years. Many of them, including 1973's "An Invitation to Indian Cooking" and 2010's "At Home with Madhur Jaffrey," are deserved classics. "Vegetarian India," published in 2015, might be her magnum opus.
It is a falsehood commonly perpetrated in the West that India is a predominately vegetarian country. In truth, only about 40% of the country's population identifies as vegetarian. But! India does indeed have a robust, electrifying history of vegetarian cooking across its 28 states and eight union territories, and Jaffrey aims to extol it.
Around the subcontinent in 416 pages
"Vegetarian India" does not quite cover all of India, though Jaffrey sure tries. The northern metropolises are featured, of course: Mumbai and its environs are showcased with the iconic toasties and a bowlful of variations of fresh, plucky koshambir, a style of zippy salad; New Delhi has a handful of recipes, like flaky, triangular parathas and a breeze of a green bean dish with cumin, chile and ginger. Then Jaffrey spreads her wings, with coconut-laced beets from Mysore in the southwest; far northeastern Nepalese pickled potatoes and simple fried eggs with fresh chile, shallots and tomatoes from Sri Lanka.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Jaffrey never cooked growing up. Her family had staff doing the kitchen work, and her privileged position shows in the book's recipe sourcing. If you were given a dollar every time she mentions a recipe being gifted to her by a Taj Hotel or a fancy businessperson friend, you could pay for your own extended India adventure. Many an Indian cook has also rolled their eyes at Jaffrey's insistence on using olive oil in her recipes, rather than a more authentic Indian cooking fat like sunflower or sesame oils.
Still, Jaffrey coming to the kitchen later in life is a boon for home cooks. She, being a comparative neophyte herself, writes recipes that make no assumptions. They are clear; they guide with a sure hand; most importantly, they work.
A great cookbook is one with reliable recipes
The book is divided into eight sections: Soups, Appetizers and Snacks; Vegetables; Dals: Dried Beans and Legumes; Grains: Rice, Semolina and Quinoa; Grains: Breads, Pancakes, Savories and Noodles; Eggs and Dairy; Chutneys, Relishes and Salads; Drinks, Sweets and Desserts. Seems obvious, no? Perhaps not.
Say you have potatoes around. Say, also, you have stocked your Indian pantry well. You could jump to the Vegetables chapter, find the "p" section and choose from six potato recipes from all over India, based on your cravings. A different book might have organized the recipes by region, an approach that has its allure but less functionality.
Best of all is the book's breadth. Yes, it covers a lot of the subcontinent's territory. It also shows how creative and diverse Indian cooking is. Common vegetables are seasoned in uncommon ways; legumes are cooked into the familiar dals but also soaked and whirred in a blender before being swirled onto a hot griddle for savory pancakes that upend everything you might have thought you knew about the humble bean.
"Vegetarian India" is both comforting and inspiring. It soothes as it reshapes your thinking. A cookbook that can accomplish one of those goals is a feat. When it achieves them all, you have a masterpiece near your stove.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Scott Hocker is an award-winning freelance writer and editor at The Week Digital. He has written food, travel, culture and lifestyle stories for local, national and international publications for more than 20 years. Scott also has more than 15 years of experience creating, implementing and managing content initiatives while working across departments to grow companies. His most recent editorial post was as editor-in-chief of Liquor.com. Previously, he was the editor-in-chief of Tasting Table and a senior editor at San Francisco magazine.
-
June 1 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include Donald Trump's golden comb-over, brain drain in America, and a new TACO presidential seal.
-
5 cartoons about the TACO trade
Cartoons Political cartoonists take on America's tariffs, Vladimir Putin waiting for taco Tuesday, and a new presidential seal
-
A city of culture in the high Andes
The Week Recommends Cuenca is a must-visit for those keen to see the 'real Ecuador'
-
Green goddess salad recipe
The Week Recommends Avocado can be the creamy star of the show in this fresh, sharp salad
-
Fast-and-furious zombies, serial killer sharks and a matchmaking conundrum in June's new movies
the week recommends Danny Boyle is back with '28 Years Later' and Dakota Johnson has a Sophie's choice to make in 'Materialists'
-
Ancient India: living traditions – 'ethereal and sensual' exhibition
The Week Recommends Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are explored in show that remains 'remarkably compact'
-
'Less is more' in The Fifth Step
The Week Recommends Jack Lowden from Slow Horses is 'staggeringly good' in this new production at London's @sohoplace
-
Here comes the end of 'Squid Game!' Plus more great TV shows to see this June.
the week recommends The next great sports comedy, a young Marvel heroine and the conclusion of 'Squid Game'
-
Book reviews: 'Melting Point: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Land' and 'No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson'
Feature A promised land in Texas and the takedown of a healthcare giant
-
The top period dramas to stream now
The Week Recommends Heaving bosoms and billowing shirts are standard fare in these historical TV classics
-
Beauty is a bed away at these 7 fashionable hotels
The Week Recommends Make these hotels in Macau, Italy and Washington, D.C., your personal runway