ISKCON NewsThe News Agency of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

This nourishing combination of beans and vegetables is given an extra protein boost with the addition of crumbled home-made curd cheese (panir). To make this a dairy-free dish, add frozen tofu that's been thawed and crumbled instead of the curd cheese. Chili is delicious served with your choice of breads or rice.

Serves 6-8.

Wild rice is the seed of an aquatic grass that grows in ponds, lakes and waterways of the USA and Canada. It is not actually a grain, but it is treated as such. It’s long, thin ash-brown to blackish grains cook to a chewy texture, with a slightly smoky flavour. Wild rice teams up very well with basmati rice, and in this recipe is joined by continental parsley, slivered toasted pecans, currants and orange zest.

Select the thin, green-stalked variety (English Asparagus) for this soup. It serves 5-6 people.

Vaidhi Bhakti from Mauritius wrote:

"I have made sambar using your sambar powder recipe. It's tastes great. Only by your kind mercy can I make my own sambar powder.

I have a humble request. If you have a recipe for rasam powder, I will very much appreciate if you could share it with me.

This irresistible dessert can be served in two ways. You can smother the freshly cooked crisp hot doughnuts with the cold, smooth, fruit-studded yogurt for an experience of contrasting textures and temperatures. Alternatively, if you leave the doughnuts in the yogurt, they swell up and become succulent, soft and spongy, drinking up the juices and flavours of their sauce. The choice is yours. Serves 6-8.

Simply Wonderfuls are fudge-like sweets made from butter, sugar, and milk powder. They require no cooking. Combine the ingredients, and the result is simply wonderful!

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes, YIELD: about 15 sweets

Tempe is a cheesy substance made by soaking and boiling soya beans, inoculating them with a fungus Rhizopus oligosporus, packing them into thin slabs wrapped in polythene (or banana leaves pierced with holes) and leaving to ferment. Tempe is easily digested, delicious and a great source of protein, and best fried for optimum taste and texture. Serves 4.

South India has many regional varieties of rasam. This one comes from Bangalore. Serves four.

The brilliant corn chutney has become one of my favourites. It marries perfectly with sweet potato, its South American partner from ages past. Best consumed the day it’s made.

Anyone who enjoys a good shortbread will love these melt-in-the-mouth delights from Iraq. They are exceptionally easy to make.

Here is a recipe from my first cookbook 'Great Vegetarian Dishes'. A friend's grandmother from Tuscany, Italy, parted with this recipe for doughnuts (Bomboloni). Serve them hot at afternoon tea for a delicious treat.

I've not named this recipe after myself! Rather, the name korma, sometimes spelled quorma, indicates a fragrant braised dish often containing yogurt and sweet spices, and thickened with either ground white poppy seeds or a paste of ground almonds. This Mogul-influenced style of cooking invariably centres around non-vegetarian ingredients. My version features cauliflower, the "queen" of vegetables. Serve Cauliflower Korma hot with flatbreads or rice.