October 1, 2023
Fans of Patel's blog The Chutney Life will be happy to see her debut cookbook on the shelves. Full of beautiful photos featuring food and her family and friends, the cookbook is an extension of Patel's food and lifestyle blog and a look inside her experience of being born and raised in Philadelphia by parents from Gujarat, India. Focused primarily on fusion cooking, the book features a wide variety of recipes that mix Indian spices with nontraditional ingredients or techniques, such as vegetarian zuppa Toscana with lentils, or banana-cardamom crumb muffins. Most of the recipes are vegetarian along with some that are vegan, although there's one "non-veg" chapter. Cooks new to Indian recipes may need to stock up on ingredients at a South Asian market or online. Many of the recipes are fairly time-intensive, and the section of quick weeknight recipes relies on readers to prep the more time-consuming aspects of those dishes ahead of time. VERDICT While aimed at fans of Patel's blog, this is accessible to all readers and a good choice for home cooks wanting to dip their toes into Patel's style of Indian American cooking.--Carrie Byrd
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