cookbook review: the indian slow cooker by anupy singla

While searching for Indian recipes last December, I stumbled upon a new book entitled The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla. Anupy is the author of the blog Indian as Apple Pie. I’d never read her blog before, but as I looked through it I became more and more interested in this book. As you know, I love Indian food. I craved it constantly when I was pregnant with Laura (who incidentally loves it as well), and I make quite a few Indian and Indian-inspired recipes in my kitchen.

But putting my slow cooker to use to make mouth-watering Indian dishes — and healthy ones at that — seemed almost too good to be true! No, there’s no need for diet pills when you’re cooking with fresh veggies, beans, and heart-healthy oils.

The first recipe I made was “Dhuli Moong Dal – Simplest of Simple Yellow Lentils” (p. 55). Being new to cooking lentils, they still weren’t simple enough for me at first! I followed the recipe and let it cook for several hours. When I checked on my dal, I saw that the lentils weren’t cooking down at all. They were still quite hard. After doing a little research, I attribute this to adding salt at the start of cooking. So I poured out my lentils into a large pot and cranked the heat on the stove. This quick-fix worked quite well and my dish was saved! The result was delicious. Per the author’s suggestion, I topped it with a bit of butter, which made the dish extra-delicious. Don’t you want a bowl of this?

Sunday I decided to try making her recipe for “Aloo Gobi – Spiced Cauliflower and Potatoes” (p. 91). I halved the recipe and it turned out perfect! In an ideal world with extra time, I would probably saute the potatoes first to give them a little more texture, but even without doing so it was delicious. And the whole point of the book is simplifying cooking: chop, drop, and go.

Laura gobbled up both these dishes. She absolutely loves rice and lentils, so that didn’t surprise me. But the aloo gobi was quite spicy and she still devoured a dish. I’m really looking forward tor trying out more of these recipes, especially the Split Chickpea Curry, Dry Spiced Dal, Goan Black-Eyed Peas, Spicy Punjabi Eggplant with Potatoes, Minced Lamb with Peas, and Lamb Biryani.

I wish that the book had the nutritional information for the dishes, but it’s not that hard to figure it out. The book was tough to find when I was originally looking for it. It was out of stock at my local Barnes & Noble and Amazon didn’t have it, either. Thank goodness for Oblong Books! I checked their inventory online and was able to drive over that night and buy it. I don’t purchase a lot of cookbooks, but this is one I’m happy to have in my library.