Indian Harvest: Classic and Contemporary Vegetarian Dishes

by Vikas Khanna

One of Vikas Khanna's favorite places in the world growing up was the garden he and his grandmother planted at their home in Amritsar, India. He would rush home from school to tend to the aromatic basil and cardamom, tomatoes, peas, and squash. His intimate knowledge of spices and produce would guide him on his journey to become the Michelin-starred chef at one of New York's most highly regarded Indian restaurants, Junoon. And this knowledge of nature's bounty and its seasons informs his inspiring and beautiful cookbook, in which vegetables are the star ingredients. Vegetables have always been integral to Indian cuisine, and Khanna's dishes expertly showcase their natural goodness, their flavor and color and hidden nuances.

Khanna brings together traditional recipes, handed down over generations, alongside exciting new ones--for soups, salads, and starters; main courses; rice dishes and lentil dishes; breads; condiments; desserts; and drinks. Though the flavors are complex, the recipes are written to be simple and inviting, to encourage seasonal substitutions and experimentation. Vikas Khanna's love of food and culture, his enthusiasm and warm hospitality shines on every page. Bursting with 125 recipes and more than 200 color photographs from Michael Swamy and Khanna himself, Indian Harvest opens a new world of inspiration to vegetarians and omnivores alike.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 2015

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like Indian food you will enjoy this book. If you are a vegetarian you will find many unique recipes that will add variety to your list of main dishes. The stories and photographs are wonderful. Really like the way many of the vegetable dishes are made without a lot of salt. The spices really do make you forget the low sodium of many dishes without any loss of flavor.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're thinking of dipping your toes in the world of Indian food, but are a little afraid, this is a good book to start your journey. The recipes aren't so out there with their flavor profiles that it's hard to get your tongue adjusted to them, but does provide a good introduction to the flavored of the various spices and veggies.

When you're ready to dive into Indian food and not just dip your toe, go buy the book "660 Curries." Probably the best one out there for the beginner and novice alike.

A recommendation to the author: give the Indian name of the type of lentils to use: moong, chana, etc. The names currently used are so generic as to be unuseful. Providing greater explanation on some of the ingredients would make this seem less of a vanity project.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of pretty pictures of the chef and lackluster photos of the food, I did love the India photos though hence the 2 stars. This was a rare occasion where I didn't copy one recipe and I love Indian food. Really disappointed.

[Jessie Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is terrible title, not Indian recipes or deeply Indian inspired. My most frustrating experience is investing in cookbook and the ratios or ingredients are off. Like he had ghost writer or skipped editing. I made the ginger cake with pistachio and description says there’s spice like star anise but nada listed in ingredient list…. If you are going to write a cookbook at minimum the ingredients should all be included in the recipe. Really lazy, still trying to dig up a few recipes worth trying but this book is massive fail. I made the veg zucchini soup was fine but so basic you certainly don’t need a 30 dollar book to figure that out. I don’t trust any of these recipes and what’s up with adding plantain to everything. Totally unnecessary. I spent a long time getting pistachio out of shell and it was complete loss, awful cake 🥺

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fusion American and Indian cookbook from a celebrity chef who works mostly in New York. There's quite a few unique recipes in here and a few novel spices that I've never heard of are showcased in the introduction. It's vegetarian, which is nice, many Indian cookbooks in English have a fair number of meat recipes which I don't eat at home and most of the recipes are straightforward and will be easy for home cooking. On the downside, the recipes are aimed at US eastern seaboard palates, for the most part they don't use many, if any, of the hotter pepper spices so if you're used to spicy food, they will seem a bit bland. There's also no general ingredients or recommended pantry list, this book is not a good introductory book for Indian cuisine.

[Deepti · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful book! this book is an excellent collection of easy and tasty Indian recipes. I thoroughly enjoyed making them -it introduced me to different combination of Indian ingredients as used from various parts of India .

For majority of the recipes in this book - the ingredients are available in USA . there are some recipes with a modern take on the traditional recipes - makes one push boundaries and use indian ingredients in new ways.

[Chuck Knudsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a fine cookbook, but I was disappointed. Mediocre picture to recipe ratio probably close to 1:5 or so. Otherwise lots of tasty looking food.