Indian vegetarian cookbook [Hardcover]

Tarla Dalal (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The recipes in this collection represent traditional Indian vegetarian cooking. Following a brief introduction in which Dalal describes basic cooking techniques and ingredients, there are recipes for soups (yogurt shorba), vegetable, dal (beans and lentils) and rice dishes (corn curry, vegetable kheema, korma rice), side dishes and salads (coconut curry sauce), breads (chapatis, papadums), snacks and sweets. Readers unfamiliar with Indian foods may be frustrated by the need to refer back and forth from recipe to glossary, as some ingredients are listed in recipes only by their Indian name (one recipe calls for moong dal, masoor dal, urad dal and toovar dal; the glossary explains that these are skinned and split mung beans, red lentils, black beans and red beans); and some readers may be unaccustomed to recipes that designate ingredient amounts by weight alone. But with time and patience, the reader should become knowledgeable enough to create sour and hot pepper soup, saffron pullao, green chutney, and parathas stuffed with vegetables and cheese. November 21
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Hamlyn (1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0600322432
• ISBN-13: 978-0600322436
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,433,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ms. Tarla Dalal is India's best - selling cookery author since over 3 decades. She has written a total of 100 titles, several of which have been translated in various languages like Hindi, Gujrati, Marathi, Bengali and even Dutch and Russian! The total sales of her cookery books exceed 4.5 million copies.

In addition to writing cookbooks, Ms. Tarla Dalal also has a major web presence in the form of tarladalal.com, the largest and the most comprehensive Indian cookery website on the Internet. There are 2,50,000 members on Tarladalal.com.


Born in Pune. Indian Mrs. Dalal moved to Bombay after her marriage. In 1966, she started cookery classes form her residence. Her classes become a phenomenal success with a long waiting list of students wanting to join them. At one time, it was said 'If you want to get your daughter married, send her to Ms. Dalal's Classes'. This was because students attained guaranteed cookery expertise after attending her classes.

It was during this period that she began to compile her own recipes and also modified recipes from other cuisine's like Italian, Chinese, French, Thai, Mexican etc.which were predominantly non- vegetarian to vegetarian recipes. The Khaleej Times, Dubai quoted that "she has streamlined the eating habits in India". She has done cookery demonstrations in large parts of India and many major cities of the world such as Tokyo, Jakarta, Honkong, Singapore, Brussels Antwerp, Lisbon, Zurich, Nairobi, London, Toronto, New York etc. and now does cookery demonstrations to raise funds for various charities.

According to IndiaToday India's leading news analysis magazine, Ms. Dalal has sold the maximum number of books in any field as compared to any other Indian author and at a conservative estimate, her recipes have been tried in over 20 million Indian homes a chart bursting figure that would be the envy of pop stars and politicians.

Ms. Tarla Dalal writes a large number of cookery columns for various publications, newspapers and magazines.Indian Express, Dainik Jagaran, Manorama, Mid-Day, Femina, Afternoon, Loksatta, Lokprabha, The Telegraph (Calcutta), Malayala Manorama, Abhiyan, Stree etc. have carried her cookery columns. Her recipes heve been extensively covered by the electronic media including various TV stations/channels. She has participated in numerous cookery programmes on TV, Radio and had her own cookery show "Cook it Up with Tarla Dalal" on Sony Entertainment Television for 5 years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Few photos, mostly unappetizing; Unexciting recipes, August 12, 2011

By 

Sustainable Global Foodie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Indian Vegetarian Cookbook (Hardcover)

Tarla Dalal writes mostly brief special subject cookbooks. Indian Vegetarian Cookbook is one of her longer books, from what I have seen. Including the intro information, tables, Chapter title Pages, Glossary and Index, it is 128 pages long, but only around 102 pages are recipes and photos, including those on how to boil rice and boil beans.

The photos are difficult to use, several dishes are photographed in each photo, and not necessarily in close proximity to the recipes. The photos and recipes could be separated by around 40 pages. Also, the photos are not captioned on the photo, and are often captioned behind the photo, necessitating a hunting and flipping process. I don't think that the photo layout could have been handled worse. But, no worries, the photos are mostly unappetizing, so maybe it is better that we do not know that the dishes look like. Frankly, a lot of the photos put me off of trying to make the dishes. The recipes are simple, so no how-to photographs are provided nor are any needed.

The Papadums, or poppadums, recipe consists of telling you how to heat store-bought poppadums. Some recipes call for MSG, an excito-toxin, others call for substantial quantities of ketchup. Other recipes call for expensive metal edible gold and silver foils. She calls for black cumin, which is most likely Nigella, not cumin at all, and does not say so anywhere.

Luckily, I found this book at the library. I would not buy it, nor recommend it. Ms. Dalal is apparently a popular writer. However, given the opportunity to preview her books, and then read this one which is actually one of her better books, I concluded that Ms. Dalal is not a cookbook author for me. The best cookbooks are those which match your own tastes and level of cooking.

This cookbook could be suitable for vegetarians who would like to start cooking. Be forewarned that a lot of items in this cookbook are deep-fried, or fried, but there are also stewed recipes. However, I think that there are better vegetarian Indian cookbooks.

As almost all of the recipes call for cream, yogurt, butter, or cheese, vegans would be disappointed with this book, I think.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best easy to follow recipies, February 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Indian Vegetarian Cookbook (Hardcover)

Tarla Dalal has incorporated a variety of dishes in this one great book. Her dedication to Indian vegetarian cooking has to be applauded. Great fan of her cooking ideas. Let the books keep rolling in Ms. Dalal.