To Live and Eat in L.A. – A Vegan Food Photo Blog

It’s no secret that I can’t cook. Well, it’s not that I can’t cook, it’s that I usually don’t. I am perpetually in awe of people who on a regular basis go to the trouble of creating amazing meals and desserts from scratch. To me, you people are like superheroes… it amazes me that in the same time that I can waste sitting around doing nothing, you kitchen folk can whip out a casserole or a cake likes it’s nothing. That’s pure magic.

Me? I generally can’t be bothered. I do enjoy cooking when I actually get around to doing it, but when I do it’s a big deal. Geez, what a production just to get vegetables cleaned and chopped! I’d much rather just enjoy the fruits of someone elses more talented labor. I’m blown away whenever someone feeds me something they’ve made, as I know that even the simplest things take so much time & effort to create. Many of you out there spend a lot of your time in the kitchen cooking up awesome dinners and incredible desserts for the people who matter to you, and for that you deserve mad respect. Cooking with care & love is just about one of the greatest (and sexiest) things you could ever do for someone, so in case no one’s thanked you for it lately, allow me: THANKS! I could not be a Foodeater without you Foodmakers.

You know where this is heading, right? You guessed it- I cooked! While it is a rare occurance that I bust out and cook up an entire feast, it does actually happen once in a blue moon. This latest cooking adventure took place because of a wonderful offer I took advantage of courtesy of Basu’s Homestyle, a new Indian food service here in Los Angeles. Basu’s make delicious traditional masala’s (sauces) that you can use to create an amazing Indian meal in very little time. As of this writing, Los Angelenos can try Basu’s yummy offerings at the Whole Foods hot bar on Santa Monica & Fairfax (and they plan to expand to more locations in the near future). Mr. Meaner over at Quarrygirl.com did an excellent write up of the prepped Indian goodies by Basu’s that you can now get at Whole Foods, including: basil vindaloo with peas and mushrooms, tofu apple masala, vegan curried beef with basil vindaloo, channa dal and peanut masala with roasted red potatoes. Oh man, it all looks so good.

While I haven’t tried the ready-made options at Whole Foods yet, I was lucky enough to take Basu’s Homestyle up on their generous free taste-test of their masalas and other goodies. At first figured I’d just serve the sauces over rice but they gave me so much great stuff (Masala Sauce, Peanut Masala Sauce, Chana Dal, Tamarind Chutney and Saffron Rice) that I was immediately inspired to cook a real meal with it.

I used the regular Masala Sauce in a simple red potato and cauliflower dish, both really good choices for letting the flavor of the masala come through. This stuff was so good… I really didn’t expect to get such complex and authentic flavors from something that I’d just poured out of a plastic bag. One bite and I realized that the Basu’s Homestyle website wasn’t lying when they talked about spending a lot of time experimenting to bring their authentic homecooking to the public… this really is the best Indian food I’ve ever had that didn’t come directly from an awesome Indian food restaurant. This isn’t some Americanized style “Tasty Bite”, 100 year shelf life nonsense- it’s the real deal, top-notch high quality deliciousness.

My favorite out of everything was the Peanut Masala Sauce which I served over tofu which I’d pan fried with a little bit of garlic, curry, coriander and lime juice. Amazing. I could eat this peanut sauce by the spoonful. I’ve never had a peanut based sauce with Indian food before, so it was an interesting combo of flavors you’d expect from Indian cuisine, like curry and cumin, but along with what to me tasted like a Thai twist, probably because I associate peanut sauce with Thai food. It went perfect with the tofu, but I really can’t imagine this sauce not going well with anything you might put it on. It’s thick, rich and delicious- eat it on tofu like I did, roast some vegetables with it, or just pour some over rice and you’re good to go. Mmmmmmm, I’m also imagining this stuff as a dressing on an Indonesian style gado-gado salad… the possibilities are limitless.

The Saffron Rice they gave me was fantastic on it’s own and didn’t need me to do anything to it other than heat it up (which I did in a steamer). I’ve had saffron rice at other places before where you can tell that the saffron is either from an artificial flavor, or is so subtle that you can barely taste it. Restaurants skimp on real saffron because it’s ridiculously expensive. Not Basu’s though, I just barely got the bag open before I was overcome with the dreamy, flowery fragrance of saffron. The rice was perfectly (pre-)cooked and the yummy combo of basmati and saffron is excellent just on it’s own. What I did was spoon some of the Tamarind Chutney over it and then I was really in heaven. The chutney is so good, a most wonderful dip for naan bread, papadams, samosas, or heck, just to dip your fingers in and go for it. I couldn’t stop myself from doing just that.

I also went out on a limb and made something from scratch, my attempt at a vegan dill raita (Indian yogurt sauce). I made it with lots of dill, roasted cumin, cucumbers and tomatoes. It would have been absolutely awesome had the yogurt I used not been too sweet. I used the plain soy yogurt from Wildwood Foods but unfortunately I didn’t taste it first. Despite being the ‘plain’ variety it was way too sweet, and raita should be much more sour than that. I tried souring it up a bit with a little lemon juice, but then it just tasted sweet and lemony. All the other flavors were spot on so it wasn’t a total failure, but next time I try to make raita I’ll make sure to pick a plain yogurt that hasn’t been sneakily sweetened (or maybe mix in some vegan sour cream?).

I still haven’t tried the Chana Dal yet (that’s a lentil curry for you honkies) because I was overwhelmed by how much food I ended up with, so I’m excited for that future meal yet to come.

The moral of this story is that if you live in the area, you need to get your butts down to the Whole Foods in WeHo to try the stuff they have from Basu’s A.S.A.P. The meals they’re serving over there look way tastier than my meager attempts here do, and you don’t have to go to a sit-down restaurant in order to get it. I don’t know if they sell the products they gave me individually to the public, but if they don’t yet I’m sure they will soon. Anything that can help an amateur like myself in the kitchen to create an entire Indian dinner with very little fuss is worth waiting for. In the meantime my tip of the day is that you should first go to Whole Foods and stuff your face with Basu’s Indian delicacies… then, go visit the Basu’s Homestyle website because last I checked, they’re still looking for taste-testers. That might change at any time so I suggest taking them up on this amazing offer while the getting’s still good.

Basu’s HomeStyle Indian Cuisine
(available in the hot bar at:)
Whole Foods
7871 Santa Monica Blvd. (at Fairfax Ave.)
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 848-4200
www.basushomestyle.com

1. Copper Chimney: New vegan Indian food in the Valley.
2. Paru’s Indian Vegetarian Restaurant
3. Indian style red lentil frittata at Hugo’s.
4. Vegan Feast at HealthyCA
5. Vegan Tamarind Lentils recipe from Veganomicon.

Both comments and pings are currently closed.