Simple and Soothing Dal-Roti

If you were to go by food stereotypes, my family is the most unlikely Punjabi family one can come across. Pure vegetarians, we stay away from heavy spices as much as possible. While we have our fill our fill of rajma-chawal, kadhi-chawal and winter quintessential aaloo ke paraanthe with white butter, it's simple, non-spicy regular food that rules on the dining table. From the mundane ghiya, tinde, tori in summers to gaajar, gobhi, matar et al in winters, we all love veggies and in combination with salad, raita, chutney and achar, roti-sabzi makes for a dominant feature on our dining table.

Now since a few members of the household are regulars on the London-Delhi route, a lot of international cuisines too have been jostling for a place in the regular menu. Variety of sandwiches, fusion experimental stews, spaghetti, easy on spices enchiladas made out of a variety of tortillas...these too keep featuring regularly on the dining table.

But when it comes to dinner, nothing makes us happier than the regular dal-roti. A few days of a different menu - veggies, or pasta or spaghetti or eating out - and there would come an uniform chorus from everyone - some light dal tonight please! Right from Papa Puri to the oh-so sophisticated been-there-done-that Beta Puri, everyone would go - yeah some respite from fancy food please. Make dal tonight! Comfort food, stomach soother, call it what you will - nothing brings our family together than a simple dal-roti dinner. Moongi dhuli, moongi sabut, masoor ki dal, urad ki dal, maahi ki daal and what not - but for us kids in the family, it's always peeli daal, orange daal, green daal...and yes, kaali daal! Hahah...

This is how an almost perfectly laid out dinner looks like on our dining table - yellow moong tadka daal tempered with chopped onions and garlic paste and beautifully garnished with coriander leaves, fluffy rotis slobbered with home-made ghee, neat ringlets of onion, capsicum and tomatoes for salad and mint chutney to add some spice to the otherwise moderate meal! And ll of this ready to be washed down with diluted salted lassi! Wholesome, isn't it?

Now while this meal to me is fulfilling to say the least, my only grouse is the 'steel ke bartan' they are served in. If you would have noticed I wrote 'almost perfectly' laid our dinner, and it's these steel ke bartan - the pateelas, the dongas and the kadchis that dilute the beauty of the food, and add that 'almost' to the perfect dinner! If only all that food came served in elegant and trendy dinnerware, it would add much beauty and visual appeal to the dinner table. Something like the gorgeous  Melamine range from Borosil - comforting and delicious home-made food served in these trendy dinnerware would so compliment each other! And I am sure the dal and the chutney would look much more appealing arriving at the dinner table in smart microwavable casseroles instead of the clumsy dongas! 

Ah, looks it's time for some kitchen-ware shopping from Borosil right away - to add a huge dash of class, colour and trend to the kitchen and the dining table! So I will take your leave now. Hope you enjoyed the post, do share what your favourite food/meal is! :)

This post is a part of My Beautiful Food blogging drive by Borosil, in association with IndiBlogger.