Peri’s Spice Ladle is one year old…
It’s the same feeling I had when my little ones turned a year old. Their fun infant stages brought so much joy and laughter, I didn’t realize the passage of time (could’ve also been the sleep deprivation.)
Our Previous Flavorful Serving:
Mixed Vegetable Bulgur Pulao
Now that we’re a year wiser, with better knowledge of what our followers & readers expect from Peri’s Spice Ladle, it’s time to get geared up for year two.
We’ve got some interesting changes in the pipelines, with many more useful resources, to get everyone with a kitchen and a love for Indian food flavors, churning up home-cooked Indian- inspired meals.
Peri’s Spice Ladle was started with a notion that while Indian food has a global fan following (which my statistics now show to be true,) there is still some hesitation to cook it at home, perhaps due to a perception of difficult cooking techniques and inaccessible ingredients.
So, our mission ‘to add Indian-inspired flavors to everyday favorites and tweak Indian classics for a more global appeal’ remains stronger than ever.
As we offer more informative articles that demystify Indian food, we’ll continue to walk you through all the steps in our recipes, offering easily-available ingredients or substitutions wherever required, while maintaining the essence of Indian flavors.
Parsi Wedding Stew,
a Unique Dish served on Special Occasions
Today’s recipe for Parsi Stew is a wonderful way to celebrate our one year anniversary; it goes back to my roots and to happy memories of special occasions, Parsi weddings & Navjotes (Zoroastrian religious ceremony similar to a Christening or Bar Mitzvah.)
This healthy, vegetable-rich, gluten-free Parsi stew looks and tastes unlike any other you’ve ever had, made using seasonal vegetables like sweet potatoes or yams along with carrots, green peas and bell peppers, with a unique flavoring blend of cider vinegar, sugar and Worcestershire sauce.
In its authentic version, Parsi Wedding Stew is probably not as healthy, since each vegetable needs to be deep-fried individually. But our recipe takes the frying out of the picture with one easy change, we oven-roast the vegetables, leaving everything else in the recipe much the same as we make it at home for special events and potlucks.
Thanks for joining the party and we look forward to another interesting year!
Parsi Wedding Stew
Serves 4
Parsi Wedding Stew is Best Served Hot
with Indian Flatbread ‘Roti-Chapati’ or your Favorite Bread
Ingredients
2 (approx. 1lb) sweet potatoes or yams/suran, diced into 1 inch cubes*
1 medium carrot, diced in cubes*
1½ tablespoons oil, for roasting
½ teaspoon each, salt and pepper
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
½ cup finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste (3-4 cloves garlic & 1 inch ginger, grated)
¼ teaspoon ground red chili or Cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon salt
1 bell pepper of choice, cut into dices*
½ cup green peas, frozen or fresh*
1 medium tomato, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon garam masala
2 tablespoons red vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce**
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Lime/lemon juice
*Choice of vegetables, in addition to the ones above include: potatoes (found in most traditional recipes,) french beans, cauliflower and capsicum/green bell pepper.
**Worcestershire sauce (sold under the Lea & Perrins brand) is generally used with fish or meat like burgers; however it adds a unique flavor to this hearty stew. If unavailable, leave it out, the cider vinegar and sugar blend will do just fine.
Directions
Oven-roasted Sweet Potatoes and Carrots, for the Parsi Wedding Stew
Preheat the oven to 400F.
Toss the diced sweet potatoes and carrots with oil, salt/pepper and lay them in a single layer on a sheet pan. Roast at 400F for 30-35 minutes, turning halfway through the cooking.
Note: Vegetables like sweet potatoes/yam and carrots (even potatoes and cauliflower, if used) generally gets mushy when cooked in water/steam. Hence, these vegetables are deep-fried or oven-roasted separately and then added to the onion tomato base so they can retain their shape after cooking.
Heat the canola oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds and when they sizzle, add the onions. Cook onions till they are nicely browned, then stir in the ginger-garlic paste and cook for a minute.
Sprinkle the dry spices and salt, roast them well for 2 minutes, adding a teaspoon of water if required. Toss in the bell peppers, green peas and tomatoes; cook for a few minutes.
Next, gently stir in the roasted sweet potatoes and carrots. Sprinkle garam masala and cilantro over the vegetables; avoid covering or stirring the stew too often, so the vegetables don’t get mushy.
Parsi Wedding Stew with Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Carrots, Bell Pepper and Green Peas, in the pan
To finish the stew, add red vinegar, sugar and Worcestershire sauce to the pan. Let the flavors come together on medium-low heat for 3-4 minutes.
The Parsi Wedding Stew is best served hot with a drizzle of lime/lemon juice and Indian flatbread ‘roti-chapati’ or your favorite bread.
Happy anniversary.. Looks so yummy
Thanks Veena…it’s a fun ride in the blogging world:)
I love your ABCs of Indian food. Is that new or did I miss it? (no matter) It will be a great resource….
Thanks…Its been there, though I do plan to add more resources on Indian food this year:)
Loved this, Peri. I made it yesterday and some fiends who were visiting wiped their plates clean TWICE! I also added roasted brussells sprouts since I had those on hand
Thank you, Antara! So happy to hear you tried the Parsi stew:) I’ve always had the same experience. Once took it for a potluck and it was wiped clean with no seconds! Love the Brussels sprouts idea! Thanks for sharing it, plan to try it the next time:) xxPeri.
Terrific recipes again! And congratulations on your anniversary. Also, thanks for the nomination–I told my facebook friends to check out your blog!
Thanks for the wishes…and thanks for sharing the blog, truly appreciate it! Your nomination was well deserved…I enjoy reading your posts:)
Congratulations on your anniversary! What a beautiful recipe and it sounds positively healthy the way you make it. Was surprised to see one of my favourites, Worcestershire Sauce, in there..wonderful! Looking forward to making this one,
Thanks for the wishes:) The Worcestershire sauce is not typical to Indian food, but shows up in Parsi food at times, really works well in this veg stew! Hope you like it…
Dearest Peri, happy happy 1st year!! how time flies, and so very deliciously too, thanks to you: ) it’s been such a pleasure to share this foodie journey with you, grateful to your amazing company, healthy, delicious Indian food that we can now recreate in our homes, thanks to you
A big toast to you, here is to many more! xxx Ozlem : )
Dearest Ozlem, it is a wonderful feeling, completing one year doing something I love, is a sense of achievement tough to describe! I’m so blessed to have such supporting friends like you and such amazing followers:) Thank you for being with me on this journey, it helps to know I always have an experienced blogger to count on! Xxx Peri.
oh my oh my oh my! What a superb way to begin the new year. I am always looking for new ways to spice up my vegetables (which are a huge part of my daily food) and still enjoying your Pav Bhaji almost every week. I look forward this week to trying out this recipe which sounds just scrumptious! Hope to get to it today or tomorrow depending on how many of the ingredients are missing in my kitchen!
Mazal Tov on beginning a new year…we, your readers, are most definitely blessed to have found you!
much love light and JOY
Thank you, thank you, toda, dear Jane, your kind words are so appreciated! Funnily, my two favorite indian mixed vegetable recipes are pav bhaji and this stew! That’s not counting all the things I do with mixed vegetables and rice/bulgur/couscous/lentils, those are countless!! Feel free to swap out the veges for this recipe and add your special Jane-touch to it:) xxPeri
a great year for a lot of nice recipes
Thanks so much
Chantal
Thanks! It’s been a fun journey, look forward to year two:) And your comment has lead me to your amazing recipes and website! What a lovely collection, can’t wait to check it out further:)
thank so much,
have a good day
Happy, happy anniversary and all the best for the forthcoming year! Being very fond of sweet potatoes, this will be an exciting new recipe to file and try
!
Thank you so much! This stew is my favorite for the same reason, I love sweet potatoes! Most authentic versions of this stew use regular potatoes too, I just double up on the sweet potatoes!
Happy One Year Anniversary and many more!
Thanks Marcy, for your wishes and precious support:)
Congratulations on your first year anniversary. I love our Parsi stew and love the idea of roasting the vegetables instead of frying them. Will definitely try it out. Thanks for sharing all the yummy recipes.
Thank you for the wishes! Our stew really is comforting and filled with fun memories. You know, mum and I discovered the roasting trick by accident once when we were making it for a potluck! We’ve never fried again, even cauliflower tastes so much better roasted:)
Oh this looks splendid! I’m actually studying in Denmark at the moment for four months, and the cuisine here has been quite meat-heavy. However, a wonderful vegetable stew like this one would be a splendid break! I think I’m going to try making it next week!
Wow, Denmark! It must be a cold few months for you. This stew is a great way to break a meat heavy diet, hope you like it:)
Congratulations dearest, how time flies!
Looks yum even though veg
Thank you, my dearest! It does fly when one is having fun:) Remember how this stew was a saving grace at weddings during my vegetarian years, when we had our thali meals! Good times:)
Happy anniversary to you! This looks wonderful and the addition of Worcestershire sauce is so unusual!
Thank you! Yes, Worcestershire sauce is a very unique flavor blend for Indian food! Its goes so well with red vinegar and sugar, which are typical flavors to Parsi cuisine…Tastes really good!
Happy Anniversary! Looking forward to what year 2 holds for Peri’s Spice! Great recipe to celebrate, too ~ Kat
Thanks Kat, you’ve been a wonderful e-friend, greatly appreciate your support:) Thought the wedding stew makes a nice celebratory dish instead of cakes and desserts (much as I love those too!)
Congratulations on your first anniversary! What a fine recipe to celebrate it with. Your plans for this year sound great, we look forward to what you come up with.
Thank you for the wishes and your support, it has been an interesting first year! This stew is celebratory and comforting, kinda like our blog:)