The Indian Slow Cooker

We’ve just received word that the powers-that-be have green-lit Cookbooks on Trial for a second season! I’m going to kick off this round of reviews with one of The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla, or as I like to call it: “Lentils, Lentils, Lentils!”

I first read about this book at CityMama and since Stefania is a fantastic cook and she liked the book I put it on my wishlist. I’m really glad I picked it up.

Aloo Gobi is one of my favorite Indian dishes and so it was the first recipe I tried from the book. We liked it so much that I made it again a week later but decreased the amount of red pepper a bit. I love really spicy food but the first time around my mouth was ON FIRE.

Aloo Gobi on the right with some curry shrimp and rice

Aloo Gobi (Spiced Cauliflower and potatoes)
from The Indian Slow Cooker

Yield 7 cups

Ingredients

  • 1 large cauliflower, washed and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 8 cups)
  • 1 large potato (russet or yellow), peeled and diced (about 2 cups)
  • 1 medium yellow or red onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 1 medium tomato, diced (optional)
  • 1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and grated
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped, minced, or grated
  • 3-4 green Thai, Serrano, or cayenne chilies, stems removed, chopped or sliced lengthwise
  • 1 Tablespoon cumin seeds
  • 1 Tablespoon red chili powder (Too much for me–decreased it to a heaping teaspoon)
  • 1 Tablespoon garam masala
  • 1 Tablespoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 3 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
  • 1 heaping Tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions

  1. Put all the ingredients except the cilantro in the slow cooker. Mix well.
  2. Cook on low for 3 hours. Mix once or twice during cooking, especially in the beginning. Eventually the cauliflower will release enough liquid to prevent anything from sticking to the sides of the slow cooker
  3. Add cilantro. Mix well but gently so as not to break up the cauliflower. Serve with roti or naan and a side of onion and cucumber salad.

The Verdict
4 1/2 (out of 5) stars. If you want to learn to cook Indian food this slim volume (130 pages) is surprisingly useful. Cooking Indian food can be pretty time-intensive but the recipes in this book enable you to dump everything in your slow cooker and go along your merry way. The book focuses on healthy recipes and leans heavily towards the vegetarian (the breakdown is 27 recipes for lentils and beans/peas, 11 for vegetables, 8 for meat dishes, and a few for sides/desserts) so if you’re looking for a book to help you recreate heavy Indian restaurant food, this is not it.

This book is useful for cooking vegetable sides to go along with other dishes. I can get flustered when I have too many dishes going on at once so when I want to make Indian food for dinner I like being able to have a side bubbling away in the slow cooker so I can focus all my attention on a more demanding main dish. The list price of $19.95 seems a little high but it’s under $12 at Amazon which is a good deal and where I got mine.

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