Everyday Indian: 100 Fast, Fresh and Healthy Recipes [Paperback]

Bal Arneson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2010

This exciting new cookbook introduces a modern concept in Indian cuisine-it can be simple, quick and delicious. With most of the healthy recipes in [i]Everyday Indian: 100 Fast, Fresh, and Healthy Recipes[/i] ready in less than 25 minutes, Bal Arneson proves that Indian cooking doesn't have to be complicated. Her recipes use everyday spices and common techniques to create simply mouth-watering dishes that the novice cook and experienced home chef alike can whip up at home. [i]Everyday Indian: 100 Fast, Fresh, and Healthy Recipes[/i] also offers low-fat options for the health conscious without ever compromising taste.Indian food is simple, quick and delicious with dishes like:. Sal's no-butter chicken. Baked samosas. Whole wheat naan bread. Tandoori halibut patties. New York steak with fennel seeds and ginger potatoes

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bal Arneson was born in Punjab, India, where she learned to cook traditional Indian cuisine from her elders at the age of nine. Today she teaches cooking classes and is sponsored by Cuisinart and Vollrath. She lives in Vancouver, B.C. with her husband and two children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Whitecap Books Ltd. (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1552859487
• ISBN-13: 978-1552859483
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Asian > Indian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh Indian. Simple Recipes. Delicious., January 12, 2010

By 

Bill Scott "billwscott" (Morgan Hill, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everyday Indian: 100 Fast, Fresh and Healthy Recipes (Paperback)

I have only had the opportunity to make a half-dozen of the dishes. But every one of these has been delicious.

Some real favorites in there: My Mother's Chickpeas, Cherry Tomato & Paneer Salad, Tandoori Quesadillas, Bal's No-Butter Chicken.

Several things stand out.
1) Beautiful photography of the dishes.
2) Entertaining narrative for each dish. I felt like I know the author after just reading a couple of recipes. Very, very warm and personal.
3) Focuses on fast - fresh - and healthy... just as the subtitle says. She got me on the grapeseed & flaxseed oil kick when I cook.

One note. You should take the time to prepare her masalas and various spice blends as it will help prepare some of the dishes.

One small criticism. Give me a list of all of the recipes that use a given masala.

Still give it a 5 star. Please note the 3 star of another reviewer was a criticism that the book was not cut correctly. Not really a reflection on the content of this book and hardly the author's fault.

42 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real breakthrough: delicious Indian meals in 25 minutes, July 30, 2009

By 

Jesse Kornbluth "Head Butler" (New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Everyday Indian: 100 Fast, Fresh and Healthy Recipes (Paperback)

If we are thinking about healthy food with lots of flavor, we gravitate to the cuisines of China and Japan. They use meat, but chopped and sliced and diced so a little goes a long way. They make vegetables interesting. They have integrity --- their recipes don't call for Westernized industrial products. As for preparation, they're generally quick.

But why stop there? Why not go right on to Indian food?

Ignorance, mostly. We believe that Indian recipes call for enough spices to fill a walk-in closet. And we suspect that Indian recipes are complicated, requiring hours of preparation and constant attention.

Gandhi liberated India once. Now it's Bal Arneson's turn. And in "Everyday Indian", she really does present "100 fast, fresh and healthy recipes."

Fast? She was raised in a small village in Punjab, where a woman's day was filled with chores. There were no "modern conveniences" --- all chores were done by hand. Water had to be fetched from the pump. Cooking was done over an open pit, with cow dung patties for fuel. Better believe those women were swift.

Ingredient-heavy recipes? "Garam masala (a mixture of dried spices that can be found in most specialty stores) and turmeric powder were the only two spices I used to cook with on a daily basis."

When she was 20, an arranged marriage brought her to Canada. Now remarried and living in Vancouver, she was not challenged by the demands of raising two children and running a house. She went back to school, then started to teach cooking classes as a way of paying off her student loans.

Her culture has stayed with her, which is a fine thing for people who like interesting food without courting heart disease. Her recipes cut out butter, oil and cream; the depth in her food comes from the spicing. And she's still fast --- most of her dishes take less than 25 minutes.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Delightful read - great recipies!, January 30, 2010

By 

J. E. McDonough - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Everyday Indian: 100 Fast, Fresh and Healthy Recipes (Paperback)

What a lovely book - I've only had it a short time, but I've already made three of the recipies ("Chicken South Indian style" is particularly yummy), and read the book cover-to-cover . . . then again, I'm a cookbook nut - I read them like most people read romance novels. This is the first cookbook I've owned that is Indian-food themed - a terrific introduction.