Feasting

Cooking without meat in no way means cooking without flavor. 

In her sixth volume, "Indian Vegetarian Feast: Fresh, Simple, Healthy Dishes for Today's Family," BBC presenter Anjum Anand ("Indian Food Made Easy") concentrates on sensible vegetarian dishes. 

A London resident who visits Delhi and Calcutta regularly, she prepares mostly vegetarian foods for her husband and children. She offers ideas for meals throughout the day that privilege herbs, spices, rice, beans and whole grains. 

Her "desert island ingredient would be humble Bengal gram (chana dal), a type of lentil," she writes. Highly versatile, "it can be made into a curry, stir-fried with spices into a protein-rich side dish, even used to make a dessert." 

Anand combines yellow lentils with ginger and chilies to create "fluffy, spongy, savory" steamed lentil cakes, served in a spicy rasam broth. 

For appetizers, she makes tandoori baby potatoes — twice-cooked potatoes with cumin, garam masala, coriander and paprika — and tops them with herbed yogurt. 

To griddled zucchini carpaccio, she adds an Indian-inspired chickpea salsa "based upon a roadside chaat," drizzles pistachio dressing and scatters feta cheese. 

That none of the recipes here appears excessive or inaccessible is a testament to Anand's ability to simplify ingredients and techniques. Emma Lee's bright and evocative images add class to the presentation.

(A version of this review appeared originally at Publishers Weekly.)