Palak paneer is my favorite dish to order at Indian restaurants, and I’m excited to offer my homemade version to you! Palak paneer features tender cubes of paneer cheese in a well-seasoned, silky, spinach gravy. Palak literally means spinach, and this vibrant green dish is fully loaded. It’s vegetarian comfort food at its finest.

Palak paneer hails from the Punjab region in Northern India. I hope to visit India someday, but until then, I’m basing my version on the various Indian restaurants I frequent. I wanted to learn how to make my own palak paneer with organic spinach when I was expecting our son, since spinach is unfortunately higher in pesticide residues by weight than any other type of produce.

I made this dish over and over (no less than six times, to be exact) to ensure that the recipe offers maximum flavor while being streamlined from start to finish. Now you can make palak paneer for dinner any time you crave it. This recipe is ready in about 45 minutes!

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Let’s warm up with some fresh turmeric tea, shall we? It’s golden and earthy, spicy and soothing at the same time.

Fresh turmeric is too precious to go to waste, so this tea is the perfect way to use up any leftover turmeric you might have on hand.

If you’re a fan of fresh ginger tea, I’m confident you’ll enjoy turmeric tea. Turmeric and ginger are close cousins, after all. Like ginger tea, turmeric tea can also help settle an upset stomach.

Try turmeric tea as a mid-day pick-me-up, or wind down with a mug in the evenings. It’s simple to make, and a lovely alternative to caffeinated or alcoholic drinks.

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If you’re a fan of chai lattes and turmeric, you’re going to love this recipe. This ultra creamy golden milk is inspired by traditional Indian turmeric milk (haldi doodh), but it is by no means authentic.

In its most basic form, haldi doodh is made with turmeric (haldi) stirred into milk (doodh) or tea. Typically, households will add more warming spices to the mix, including ginger, cinnamon and cardamom.

Indian mothers prepare turmeric milk for colds, coughs and sore throats, and aches and pains. It’s warming, soothing and supports the immune system, which is exactly what we all need right now.

This recipe uses cashews instead of milk, which makes it lusciously thick, yet dairy free and vegan. Serve it warm in a mug, or cold over ice!

Watch How to Make Golden Milk

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Chana masala is one of my favorite menu items at Indian restaurants. It’s a hearty, saucy chickpea and tomato dish with warming spices. I bet you have the ingredients to make this easy homemade version in your pantry already!

I shared this recipe back in 2014, and wanted to revisit it as we’re all spending more time at home. I thoroughly enjoyed the fragrant 20 minutes I spent over the stove for this recipe.

To make this chana masala, you’ll need onion, ginger, garlic, and several good-for-you spices, including coriander, cumin, and turmeric. Garam masala is the traditional spice blend for chana masala, but if you don’t have that on hand, you’ll find alternatives below.

I’d like to start cooking Indian recipes more often. Which one would you like to see next? For more pantry-friendly recipes, check my healthy pantry recipes roundup.

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Have you tried roasted cauliflower? I don’t get very excited about raw cauliflower. Roasted cauliflower, though—I can eat it straight off the pan like French fries.

Raw cauliflower transforms into golden, caramelized deliciousness in the oven. If you roast it with just olive oil, salt and pepper, it’s a tasty snack. This roasted cauliflower recipe is the perfect simple side dish for your fall and winter meals.

You can also use basic roasted cauliflower to add bulk and tasty roasted flavor to other veggie dishes, like my lentil tacos and farro salad. It’s neutral enough that it doesn’t overwhelm other flavors, so it goes well with a variety of cuisines.

As much as I love basic roasted cauliflower, it’s the perfect vehicle for creative flavorings. I came up with three fun flavor combinations this week inspired by Italian, Mexican and Indian cuisines. I can’t decide which one I love best! In the recipe below, you’ll find options for plain roasted cauliflower plus my simple variations.

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Ever had real, fresh ginger tea? It’s soothing and invigorating at the same time. Ginger tea has been consumed for centuries, and yet it has only recently crossed my radar. I love it!

I’ve been drinking ginger tea because I enjoy fresh ginger flavor, but it has a lot more going for it than flavor alone.

Ginger tea is a lovely, lightly spicy drink for warming up on cold days. It’s a light, alcohol-free alternative to a night cap. It soothes upset stomachs and eases indigestion if you over-indulge this holiday season (don’t we all?).

All in all, fresh ginger tea recipe is an excellent drink to keep in your repertoire this winter. Ready to make some?

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Repeat after me: No more mushy rice! No more mushy rice! I’ve been using this brown rice cooking technique for years, and it never fails.

A few reasons to love this recipe:

• You don’t need a rice cooker or any special equipment (just a pot with a lid, and a kitchen stove).
• You can use this technique on any type of brown rice (long, medium or short grain, as long as it’s not a quick-cooking variety).
• It’s so easy to remember, you’ll never need to look up how to cook brown rice again.

For this technique, you’ll boil your rice in an abundance of water for 30 minutes. Drain off the excess water, return the rice to the pot, cover, and let the rice steam for 10 minutes. Ta da! Perfect brown rice, every time.

I originally found this technique on Saveur, and I’m so thankful I did. Their recipe calls for 12 cups of water (that’s a lot) per cup of rice, and I’ve learned that it really only needs 6 cups.

However, you don’t actually have to measure the water as long as you’re using a large enough pot. If too much water evaporates during the cooking process, just add more and return the water to a boil. Your rice will still turn out perfectly!

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Today is a big day for my friends Jack and Jeanine—it’s book launch day! I hope you’re familiar with their blog, Love and Lemons. It’s one of my very favorites, and I’ve been looking forward to their second cookbook for a long time.

Their new book is called Love and Lemons Everyday (affiliate link), and it’s absolutely stunning. The new book offers “more than 100 bright, plant-forward recipes for every meal.” Jeanine’s cooking style is super fresh and often inspired by the farmers’ market, and it shows.

I love how she weaves tips between the recipes, like how to freeze quinoa, and colorfully displays seasonal variations for recipes like fruit crumbles (four ways)! She even offers a giant visual grid of salad dressings, which I’ll be referencing often.

To celebrate their new book, I’m sharing Jeanine’s recipe for whole-roasted cauliflower slathered in seriously delicious turmeric-spiced yogurt sauce. Somehow, I’ve never prepared cauliflower in this fashion, and it was both fun to make and fun to eat. Want to see how it’s done?

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Intrigued? I was, too. I can’t take credit for this lovely combination of ingredients. This masala lentil salad comes from Gena Hamshaw’s new vegan cookbook, Power Plates: 100 Nutritionally Balanced, One-Dish Vegan Meals.

Perhaps you have come across Gena’s blog, The Full Helping, and come to appreciate her warm writing style and wholesome vegan recipes. If not, you’ve been missing out.

This salad combines tender roasted carrots, protein-rich lentils, fresh greens and mint with garam masala-infused vinaigrette. Raw red onion contrasts beautifully in both color and flavor, and pumpkin or sunflower seeds offer some welcome crunch.

I love sharing recipes from new cookbooks because it lets me share ideas I never would have come up with on my own. I wouldn’t have thought to add garam masala to a salad dressing, but it’s really nice. This is an unexpected alternative to traditional lentil salad.

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Are you familiar with dal makhani? It’s a rich, spiced, lentil-based stew made for special occasions in India (especially in the Punjab region in northern India). Someday, I hope to travel there and taste it for myself. Maybe next year, if I’m lucky.

For now, I’ll enjoy this dal makhani at home. Dal makhani traditionally takes quite a long time to make, starting with soaking the lentils and then cooking them for hours on the stove (or more quickly in a pressure cooker). It’s often reserved for special occasions, like birthdays and holidays.

I couldn’t find traditional whole black lentils (urad dal) in grocery stores, so I used regular black lentils instead, which cook much faster. I also used canned kidney beans rather than dried, so this dish only requires about 45 minutes on the stove.

Dal makhani is generally made creamy with lots of butter and cream, but I stole a trick from my favorite lentil soup to make this creamy—I blended up about two cups of the cooked stew and stirred it back into the pot. The starchy lentils get nice and creamy that way.

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