Pistachio burfi is a delightful example of a traditional Indian milk sweet, where the milk is reduced gradually until it thickens to a fudge-like paste. Note that, as all burfis, pistachio burfi will firm up as it sits. If you keep it well covered, you can store it for up to 10 days in the refrigerator.

Chickpeas are rich in good quality protein – 100 grams of cooked chickpeas contain nearly 20 grams of protein. These savoury, butter–soft chickpeas coated with spiced tomato glaze are substantial and delicious. Serve them with fresh bread or rice. Serves 4-6.

I tasted this ultra-delicious combination of fresh buffalo-milk mozzarella cheese, slices of ripe tomato, and fresh basil leaves for the first time in Rome.

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.

A pitabread (flatbread) is a simple bread made with flour, water, and salt and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many pitabreads are unleavened—made without yeast or sourdough culture, although some pitabread is made with yeast, such as pitabread made with whole wheat flour.

This dish proves just how delicious pumpkin can be if teamed up with the correct flavour partners. Succulent Gujarati Pumpkin is excellent served with hot chapatis. Makes enough for 6 persons.

This is a version of the famous "Radha Red" plum chutney that has been a favourite at many Hare Krishna multi-course feasts throughout Australia for decades.

This nourishing combination of beans and vegetables is given an extra protein boost with the addition of crumbled home-made curd cheese (panir).

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.

This moist carrot cake has a spicy, rich flavour and is iced with a vanilla cream-cheese frosting.

These are a favourite savoury item from Gujarat state on India's west coast. They're a good example of simple, tasty vegetarian "finger food". Most of the time spent to prepare these puffs lies in mashing and spicing the potatoes. The frying time is very quick because, even though they're cooked in a batter, the filling is already precooked, the wafer-thin crust cooking in only minutes. Serve Alu Vadas with Coconut Chutney (or fresh mint chutney or date and tamarind chutney) for a tasty treat. This recipe makes about 18 alu vadas.

This is a spicy, all-American favourite dessert. Select highly flavoured, dark-fleshed pumpkins for optimum flavour. For Australian readers, butternut, or especially Jap pumpkin, is highly recommended.

Known as Curcuma longa, turmeric is a tropical rhizome (under-ground stem) in the ginger family. Its large leaves are sometimes simmered in Malaysian Nyonya cooking. In Thailand the young tender shoots are boiled and used as a vegetable.

Most turmeric however is cultivated on a large scale to yield its brilliant orange-yellow rhizome (pictured below). The short, waxy rhizomes are boiled, cleaned, sun-dried and then ground to a fine aromatic yellow powder – the ubiquitous turmeric powder used throughout India, Asia and beyond to impart its familiar warm, yellow-orange glow to cooking.

Chapatis are one of India's most popular breads. They are enjoyed especially in the northern and central regions of India. They are partially cooked on a hot griddle and finished over an open-heat source. Chapatis are made from special wholemeal flour called atta, available from Indian grocers. If unavailable, substitute sifted wholemeal flour.

Chapatis are usually served at lunch or dinner and are great whether served with a 5-course dinner or just with a simple dal and salad. Makes 12 chapatis.

Curd cheese, or panir, is rich in protein and extremely versatile. It can be deep-fried and used in vegetable dishes, crumbled into salads, made into sweets, stuffed inside breads and pastries, and creamed into dips.

Curd cheese is the simplest kind of unripened cheese and is made by adding an acid or other curdling agent to hot milk. The solid milk protein coagulates to form the soft curd cheese, the liquid whey is separated, and the cheese is drained, pressed, and then used as required. Because curd cheese is not commonly available in shops, and the hom-made product is vastly superior, I have included the simple recipe for making your own.

The quality and freshness of the milk will determine the quality of the curd cheese. The higher the fat-content of the milk, the richer the curd cheese. Different curdling agents will produce different types of curd. The most common curdling agents are strained, fresh lemon juice, citric acid crystals dissolved in water, yogurt, cultured buttermilk, or sour whey from a previous batch of curd cheese.