Vegetarianism in Lockdown
The
lockdown forced many Carnivores into vegetarians. The side tracked stocks of vegetable
varieties got a boost at the vendor stalls. Some were smart enough to push the
non moving vegetables to customers and the gullible, scared of shortage customer
just bought it. I for myself a proclaimed Carnivore was in for a shock and it
did bring out the poet in me sarcastically extolling the new stars in my vegetarian
basket.....bhindi (ladies finger), dudhi (snake gourd), karela (bitter gourd),
parwal, turia (ribbed gourd) and so on.
To
plan from breakfast to dinner was a task.
Options
for breakfast (without cholesterol) poha, upma, sheera, bread chivda, vermicelli
upma, sabudana khichdi. Missed eggs & sausages. So some different innovations
like Oats Thepla, Thalipeeth, Dhokla, Idly were introduced to my menu. If bored
then a Oats in hot milk quick fix was handy.
Meals were a task, Dals were easy to
think from akkha masoor, masoor dal, toor dal, moondal, black urad dal etc.
Favourites turned out to be Varan (toor dal tempered with ghee & cumin),
akhha masoor spiced up and Maa ki Dal
(dal makhani though time consuming but yummy. Time anyways was plenty). Missed
Fish curry. No Option found !
From the available vegetables it was a
rotating menu, no questions asked. Bhindi was tried with curd gravy, with
stuffing (cumin coriander chilly stuffing), just masala sautéed. Dudhi (snake
gourd) did manage to slither in with addition of chana dal (gram), with
different flavoured mint green masala. Cabbage was big disappointment as I
tried paratha, kofta, porial. Capsicum was partnered with potato... stuffed
capsicum, sliced potato capsicum, capsicum mixed with besan (gram flour) and
passed with flying colors. The failures but essentials were parwal, turia,
karela, tindli, beans, cauliflower. Missed chicken & Mutton. Options tried
were Arbi malvani masala fried (tastes like malvani fried fish), Soya Kheema,
Soya kofta biryani, Suran Masala (same method as mutton masala).
Paneer scored good marks in the menu
with its variety show of bhurjee, makhani, kadhai, biryani, pakoda. Aloo or
Gobi Paratha with curd and pickle always gave abreak from the routine.
Some odd menus were – Sheer with French fries,
Maggie with Kanda Bhajiya, knorr soups
and chapatti tawa pizza, Beans & Carrot Pulav with spicy tomato
chutney (tomato thecha).
Yes lockdown did teach us self reliant,
crisis cooking, enjoying the own cooked food, doing the house chores and also
understanding how much the housewives do for the family. Salute to the women
folks. Salute to the vegetables !
