Summary: Meeru Dhalwala tells us how Indian cuisine is more than butter chicken.<br> <br> Host: Gloria Tsang, RD<br> Guest: Meeru Dhalwala<br> <br> In celebration of May being Asian Heritage month, and inspired by the success of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, we cast this month's spotlight on tasty Indian cuisine. Author and Vancouver Sun columnist Meeru Dhalwala, co-owner of the world-famous restaurant Vij's in Vancouver, BC, tells us how Indian cuisine is more than butter chicken.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Transcript:<br> Gloria Tsang, RD: In celebration of May being Asian Heritage month, and inspired by the success of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, we cast this month's spotlight on tasty Indian cuisine. Now, if the image that comes to your mind at the mention of Indian cuisine is butter chicken, then you have a long way to go! Welcome to the Nutrition Tidbits podcast. This is Gloria Tsang, editor-in-chief for HealthCastle.com. Joining me today is author and Vancouver Sun columnist Meeru Dhalwala, co-owner of the world-famous restaurant Vij's in Vancouver, BC. She is here today to tell us how Indian cuisine is more than butter chicken.<br> <br> Thank you for joining me Meeru.<br> <br> Meeru Dhalwala: Hi Gloria. Thank you for having me.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: Let's expand our definition of Indian cuisine. Now India has such a rich, diverse food culture. And one important part of that food culture consists of many vegetarian dishes. Could you give us examples of some common vegetarian entrees?<br> <br> Meeru Dhalwala: Well, the most common are eggplant, cauliflower, peas, spinach and all of the greens. There really isn't a green that you wouldn't use. You could even use broccoli when you are cooking Indian food. Then, you've also got the lentils and beans. Basically, the spice pallet is so huge that you really that there is really an ingredient that you can't use with Indian food.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: One of our items that we often talk to ours users about on HealthCastle.com is legumes (beans and lentils). But many really shy away from them thinking that they take a long time to prepare or simply just too difficult to prepare. Can you share some of your favorite ways to prepare legumes or some tricks and tips for a good meatless dish?<br> <br> Meeru Dhalwala: There are different types of legumes. Let's say you don't have a whole lot of time. I tell people, look, even if you don't have to soak the bean or put them in a pressure cooker or slow cooker because you don't think that far in advance about dinner, can just buy the canned beans. That is absolutely fine. At home, I tend to use a pressure cooker. This can be intimidating to people at times but it's worth the investment and once you get a hang of how it's used, you can have organic beans literally for $0.45 or something. It's not just beans and salt, which is boring, but its beans with onions, garlic, cumin seeds, coriander and turmeric. If you want, you can add a little bit of yogurt in to the whatever bean curry that you are making. You turn something as boring as beans into a really hearty meal that is way better tasting than even a vegetarian chilli, which has tofu and kidney beans in it.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: That sounds so tasty!<br> <br> Meeru Dhalwala: The depth that you get, whether you get chickpeas, kidsney beans, pinto beans, mung beans, and even orange / red lentils, those cook very quickly, in about 20 minutes. So it's almost endless.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: Wow, you sound so excited about cooking beans.<br> <br> Meeru Dhalwala: Yes, I do get quite excited about it.<br> <br> Gloria Tsang, RD: For some of the home cooks, what are some of the common spices or maybe spice combinations that you recommend they stock in their own pantries?<br> <br> Meeru Dhalwala: What I recommend first of all for everything is turmeric.
