In Vibrant India you will learn cooking techniques, along with pantry tips and how to serve authentic Indian dishes.

The recipes have a lot of ingredients but what I love is that often you are using small amounts so once you make the initial purchase ingredients, especially the spices, will last you many uses.

I wanted this book to give me a great curry recipe but it didn't. There isn't anything I would like to cook from this book. Chiles should this be chillies? The description of spices at the beginning needs to be slimmed down as I ended up skipping pages to get to recipes and then I was disappointed in them.

I love Indian food, but like many I find this rich and complex cuisine daunting.  Vibrant India makes Indian vegetarian more approachable for the novice and provides a rich assortment of recipes that even experienced chefs will treasure.

Normally, I skip the beginning and jump straight to the recipes.  Do not do that with Vibrant India!  Chitra Agrawal provides one of the best introductions detailing not only spices and their origin but also uses, techniques and necessary equipment.  I found the section on dal particularly useful as the varied assortment of beans have long been a mystery to me.

The recipes are not all traditional.  Often they are bold modern takes on traditional homestyle vegetarian recipes - far different from the heavy oily cuisine we find in restaurants.  I liked the Red Cabbage and Citrus Coleslaw (a variation on kosambri) that could be made with a wide variety of shredded vegetables.  My husband loves the Vangi Baath (Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Cauliflower). I liked the wide array of stirfries - they make for a refreshing change from other Asian dishes.  There are great desserts as well - I love the chia pudding.

The recipes do require you to have access to a wide variety of vegetables and spices, but once you have your kitchen kitted out things are a lot easier.  You should expect to spend time prepping, but many of the recipes are finished quickly if you’ve done your homework.  Vibrant India is definitely one of the nicest vegetarian Indian cookbooks I’ve had the pleasure to come across.

5/5

I received a copy of Vibrant India from the publisher and netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

—Crittermom

If you're familiar, or want to be, with recipes including raita, bitter gourd, meyer lemon pickle, then Vibrant India is for you, or those with more than a passing interest in Indian cuisine. The first quarter of the book gives a lengthy introduction into techniques, tips and ingredients, which are essential for the usage of this book, especially for someone new to authentic south Indian cooking. If you're looking for a long weekend of trying new, somewhat challenging recipes, along with possibly discovering new grocery stores, then this book is for you.

I loved the recipes and presentation of this book. I would have loved to make so many of the tantalising dishes but the ingredients needed aren't readily available.

This is a very personal cookbook, filled with family memories and recipes and is a great introduction to Southern Indian cooking. I found the food quite different to the Indian food I had tried before – more subtle in the spicing and tastes, and at times quite surprising (in a good way) in the resulting meals. While I doubt I could ever become a full time vegetarian, this book introduced me to a world where meal times didn’t revolve round meat, and I found so many recipes and cooking techniques that I will use again and again.
If nothing else, I have to thank this book for introducing me to idli and even more – to the Idli Stand steamer! It has to be the best piece of kitchen equipment that I bought in 2016. How could I have gone so many decades without knowing that such a wonderful cooking appliance existed?
Cooking this type of food requires a bit of a rethink. Preparation is everything – as we discovered early on. All the ingredients need lining up in the order of intended use – there is no time to go racing off part way through to grab something from the pantry. Luckily, the recipes have very full, explicit instructions, including timings and repeated warnings about potential mishaps: “when the oil is hot and shimmering add one black mustard seed. When the seed sizzles and pops, add the rest of the mustard seeds. Keep a lid handy to cover the pan while the mustard seeds are popping. When the popping starts to subside (a few seconds), turn the heat down to medium low. Rub the curry leaves between your fingers a little to release their natural oils, and drop them … into the pan. Cover immediately, as the moisture from the curry leaves will cause the oil to splatter.” A variation of this appears in many of the recipes. Our first foray into the book was very messy, time consuming and extremely frustrating. We learned to prepare, and to heed the warnings. Now I just need to say to my husband “the usual” plus …., and he knows exactly what to do. It is so worth persevering with these recipes. We have now made at least a third of the recipes. The salads, the curries, the rice dishes and of course the star turn – the idli – are all fantastic. We have found that our local Indian store does pre-prepared packets of idli mixes, but why bother with them, when it is so much fun to make them from scratch!
You need a steady supply of black mustard seeds, hing powder, fresh curry leaves, chana dal and urad dal, lots of little bowls for the ingredients and then you are ready to go. There is a helpful list of additional ingredients that may be needed at the start of the book, as well as some useful kitchen tools. Depending on whether your local Indian market is Southern Indian or not, some ingredients may have slightly different names to those in the book.
Vegetarian or omnivore, this book has so much to add to your repertoire. Start cooking and enjoy!