Vegan Indian Cooking: 140 Simple and Healthy Vegan Recipes

your Indian kitchen.
Dum is the process of cooking food in
its own steam. Traditionally, this was
done in large pots that were sealed with
dough so that no steam was released
during cooking. Whenever a recipe
instructs you to turn down the heat, put
the lid on the container, and let the dish
cook, it’s telling you to follow the rules
of dum cooking. The slow cooker is a
modern-day take on this style of cooking.
The traditional way to cook Indian
food is to season it with a tarka, which
is also called a chounk or vaghar. This
simply means that after cooking a lentil
dish (dal) or before cooking a dry dish
(such as Crackling Okra [see recipe on
page 178]), you heat your oil and add the