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No onion, no garlic recipes (Swaminarayan and sattvic)

3,470

3470 vegetarian recipes cooked without onion or garlic, as in Swaminarayan and sattvic kitchens, with no meat, fish, eggs or alcohol. Each has photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Apfelschorle, takes 2 minutes. Most take around 45 minutes.

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BarankiTea bread rings

Strings of baranki once hung on poles at every Russian fair, and you still see them threaded on twine in Moscow markets and station kiosks. The dough is boiled briefly like a bagel, then baked until hard, golden and glossy, so the rings keep for weeks and soften only when dunked in hot, sweet tea from the samovar. This version is vegan, made with oil instead of butter and eggs. The common mistake is a soft, wet dough, which makes puffy bread rolls instead of crunchy rings. Chef's tip: knead the dough stiff and leave the shaped rings uncovered for 20 minutes to form a skin before boiling; that gives the shine.

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Sukhe kale chaneDry black chickpeas

On Ashtami, the eighth day of Navratri, homes in Delhi, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh invite young girls for kanjak puja and feed them puri, sooji halwa and these dry black chickpeas, cooked without onion or garlic. The kala chana are boiled until tender and then tossed in a hot, dry masala of cumin, coriander, amchur and green chilli until every chickpea is coated and the edges catch slightly. Outside festivals they make a protein-rich side or a snack with a squeeze of lemon. A portion is about 240 kcal. Soak the chickpeas overnight first. The common mistake is undercooking them: black chickpeas need longer than white, and should squash easily between two fingers. Chef's tip: keep 3 tablespoons of the cooking water and add it with the spices; it helps the masala cling to each chickpea.

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WajikSticky rice palm sugar cake

Wajik means diamond, the shape it is cut into for Javanese weddings, Lebaran open houses and the trays carried to a family's new baby. Glutinous rice is steamed, then folded through a bubbling caramel of palm sugar, coconut milk and pandan until every grain is glossy and the mass pulls away from the wok. Pressed and cooled, it slices into chewy, toffee-brown pieces that keep for days. Chef's tip: keep stirring once the rice goes into the syrup; walking away for even a minute lets the sugar scorch on the bottom and the whole batch tastes bitter.

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Fakhfakhina (Alexandrian fruit salad with ice cream)

Fakhfakhina belongs to Alexandria's summer corniche, where juice shops like the famous ones near Mahatet el Raml build tall glasses of chopped mango, banana, guava, strawberries and apple, soaked in mango juice and crowned with scoops of ice cream, nuts and honey. It's an after-beach treat, eaten with a long spoon. The mistake is cutting the fruit hours ahead: banana and apple brown and the juice turns flat, so chop just before serving. Chef's tip: use thick mango nectar rather than thin juice; it clings to the fruit like a sauce. Contains milk and tree nuts; check the ice cream label for gelatine and egg.

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NifroBoiled wheat and chickpeas

When a baby cuts a first tooth, Ethiopian families celebrate with tirs mastecha, and the dish at the centre is nifro: a big pot of whole wheat berries, chickpeas and fava beans boiled with salt and handed round warm in cupped hands or small bowls. It also turns up at funerals, saints' day gatherings and long coffee ceremonies in Gondar and Addis, chewy, nutty and plain in the best way. The common mistake is boiling everything together from dry, so the wheat bursts while the fava stay hard; soak them all overnight and add the wheat later. Fava beans are unsafe for anyone with G6PD deficiency (favism), so leave them out if in doubt. Not gluten free. Chef's tip: once drained, toss the warm nifro in a dry pan for two minutes; it dries the surface and makes the salt and a pinch of berbere cling.

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Roz bel shaareya (Egyptian vermicelli rice)

Not a single Egyptian stew is served without roz bel shaareya: short-grain rice cooked with vermicelli that has been toasted in butter or samna until it's the colour of a walnut shell. It's on the table every day in homes from Aswan to Alexandria, soft and slightly sticky, with nutty brown flecks through it. Serve it under fasolia, bamia or molokhia. Most people under-toast the vermicelli out of fear of burning it; pale shaareya tastes of nothing. Chef's tip: let the cooked rice sit covered with a clean tea towel under the lid for 10 minutes; it dries the grains and keeps them separate.

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Kuskusi bel sukkar (Egyptian sweet couscous)

Egyptians eat couscous sweet, not savoury: in Cairo and the Delta, street-side sweet shops sell kuskusi by the bowl in the evening, steamed with samna, heaped with powdered sugar, nuts and raisins, and sometimes covered with hot milk. At home it's a winter supper or a Friday breakfast treat. Pouring boiling water straight over instant couscous and leaving it gives a gluey lump; steaming it in two short rounds and rubbing in the butter keeps every grain separate. Chef's tip: warm the milk with a cinnamon stick and pour it over just before eating, so the couscous stays fluffy on top. Contains wheat, milk and tree nuts.

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Baba dudu

Yoruba children of the 70s and 80s remember baba dudu, "the black one", bought for a coin from sweet sellers outside school gates in Ibadan and Abeokuta: sugar and butter cooked until almost black, then pulled and cut into small chewy pieces that taste of toffee and burnt caramel. It is easy to make at home, but hot sugar burns badly, so keep children away from the stove. The candy is a choking risk for small children and isn't suitable for under-1s. The mistake is taking it off the heat too early: pale caramel stays soft and sticky, so wait until it is the colour of strong tea and a drop sets firm in cold water. Chef's tip: oil your scissors and cut the strip while it is warm and pliable; once cold it shatters.

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Teh O ais limauIced black tea with lime

In kopitiam shorthand, 'teh' is tea with milk, 'O' means no milk, 'ais' is iced and 'limau' adds lime, so this is the order Malaysians shout across the counter on a sticky afternoon in Penang or Kuala Lumpur. Strong, sweetened black tea is cooled over ice and squeezed with lime until it tastes like a sharper, less perfumed iced lemon tea. It goes with fried noodles and roti. Chef's tip: pouring hot tea straight onto a glass of ice dilutes it into weak tea; brew it double strength, or chill it first.

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Air jagungSweet corn drink

Night markets in Selangor and Perak sell air jagung in tall cups, a pale-yellow, lightly sweet drink made from fresh corn cooked with pandan and blended smooth; some stalls stir in evaporated milk, but the plain version is vegan and very refreshing. It tastes like the milk from the bottom of a bowl of sweetcorn, with a grassy pandan note. Chef's tip: skipping the sieve is a common short cut that leaves the drink gritty with husk; strain it well, pressing on the pulp.

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Es cincauGrass jelly drink

Glasses of es cincau are handed out at Ramadan iftar tables across Java and sold from roadside carts all year on hot afternoons. Cubes of black grass jelly, with its slightly bitter, herbal taste, sit in pale coconut milk and dark palm-sugar syrup over crushed ice, and the contrast is the whole joy of it. Ready-made grass jelly in tins is fine; this recipe sets your own from grass jelly powder. Chef's tip: let the jelly set fully and cold before cutting; cut warm, it tears and melts into the drink.

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Getuk lindriSteamed cassava sweets

Magelang is the getuk capital of Central Java, and market stalls there pile up these soft cassava cakes in stripes of pink, green and white, cut into slices and showered with grated coconut. Cassava is steamed, pounded with palm sugar or white sugar and a little salt, then pressed through a mincer into ribbons (lindri) or simply rolled into a log. It is eaten in the morning with tea or as an afternoon jajan pasar. Chef's tip: mash the cassava while it is steaming hot and remove every stringy core; cold cassava turns lumpy and won't come together smoothly.

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Kuih lopesSticky rice triangles with coconut

Kuih lopes turn up at Malay breakfast stalls and Ramadan bazaars, especially in Perak and Selangor: dense triangles of soft-cooked glutinous rice rolled in white grated coconut, then flooded with thick gula Melaka syrup at the moment of serving. Cooking the rice wrapped tightly in pandan leaves or foil for a long time is what fuses the grains into one chewy slab. The contrast of salty coconut, smoky syrup and plain rice is the point. Chef's tip: don't skimp on the boiling time; under-cooked lopes stay grainy and fall apart when cut.

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Lompat tikamLayered pandan and coconut sweet

Kota Bharu and Kuala Terengganu Ramadan stalls ladle lompat tikam into plastic bags or cups for the walk home before buka puasa: a pool of dark gula Melaka syrup, chewy strips of green pandan dough, soft glutinous rice and a lid of salted coconut cream. The name means roughly 'jump and stab', and nobody agrees why. It is three small jobs that come together in a glass, so make the parts ahead. Chef's tip: a thin, runny coconut layer is the common disappointment; cook it until it is thick and spoonable so it sits on top instead of sinking into the syrup.

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Donkwa

Children in Kano and Sokoto buy donkwa from trays at the market gate, and in Yoruba towns it is sold as a sweet-hot snack on the walk home from school: firm little balls of toasted corn flour pounded with roasted groundnuts, sugar and a pinch of dried pepper, bound by the nuts' own oil. They are crumbly, nutty and gently spicy. Contains peanut. The common mistake is under-toasting the corn: raw corn flour tastes chalky and floury, so keep stirring until it is pale biscuit-coloured and smells like popcorn. Chef's tip: if the mixture won't hold, add the oil drop by drop and squeeze each ball hard in your fist before rolling it smooth.

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Nigerian custard

In homes across Nigeria, from Kaduna to Benin City, custard is a breakfast drink-porridge as much as a pudding: custard powder is mixed to a paste, then set in seconds with a kettle of boiling water and finished with evaporated milk and sugar. Bowls of it are eaten hot with akara or moi moi, the sweet custard against the peppery bean cakes. The mistake is using water that has gone off the boil; it must be furiously boiling or the custard stays thin and floury. Custard powder is mostly cornflour, but check the label if you need it gluten-free. Chef's tip: stir the boiling water in with one hand while you pour with the other, in a steady stream, and the custard sets glossy and lump-free.

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Mahalabeya (Egyptian milk pudding)

Every corner sweet shop in Cairo has trays of mahalabeya cooling in the window, and at home it is the dessert made in ten minutes when guests ring to say they're coming. Milk is thickened with cornflour into a trembling, silky pudding, scented with rose or orange-blossom water and topped with chopped pistachios or coconut. Serve chilled in small glasses. Lumps are the usual complaint: mix the cornflour into cold milk first, never into hot. Chef's tip: stir in the rose water only after the pan comes off the heat; boiling kills its perfume. Contains milk and nuts (pistachio topping).

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Shlada khiar (grated cucumber salad with oregano)

In the heat of a Fes or Marrakech summer, this ice-cold grated cucumber salad is served in bowls with spoons, half salad, half drink, alongside rich tagines or a plate of fried fish. Cucumber is grated and loosened with water, vinegar and a little sugar, then perfumed with crushed dried oregano or zaatar. Grating ahead and leaving it to sit in salt is the usual slip; the cucumber goes limp and bitter. Chef's tip: rub the oregano between your palms over the bowl to wake its oils.

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Air katiraBasil seed and gum drink

Air katira comes out at Kelantan's Ramadan bazaars in Kota Bharu, sold in bags of milky drink full of soft, jelly-like katira gum and speckled basil seeds, often with slivers of date. Katira is tragacanth gum, soaked overnight until it swells into translucent, wobbly crystals; it is believed to cool the body after a day of fasting. Find it at Indian or Middle Eastern grocers as 'gond katira'. Chef's tip: not soaking the katira long enough is the usual mistake; hard centres crunch unpleasantly, so give it at least 8 hours in plenty of water.

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Wedang uwuhSpiced herbal infusion

The name means 'rubbish drink', because a glass looks like a jumble of twigs and leaves, but around the royal tombs at Imogiri, south of Yogyakarta, wedang uwuh is a point of pride. Chips of sappan wood stain hot water a deep ruby red, while ginger, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg leaf and rock sugar give a sweet, woody spice. It is sold by roadside warung as a dry pack to brew at home. Chef's tip: steep it, don't boil it for long; sappan wood turns from red to a muddy brown and tastes tannic if cooked hard.

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Cà phê muốiSalt coffee

A family café in Huế's citadel quarter began topping its coffee with salted cream, and now cà phê muối is served across central Vietnam and in trendy cafés in Saigon and Hanoi. Sip it without stirring: first the cool, faintly salty cream, then sweet condensed milk and strong phin coffee, the salt rounding off the bitterness much like a pinch in caramel. It is good hot or poured over ice. Chef's tip: use only a small pinch of salt per glass; too much and the drink tastes like seawater rather than salted caramel.

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Chanh muốiSalted lime drink

Vietnamese households keep a jar of chanh muối, limes cured in salt until they turn soft and olive-brown, on a sunny shelf for months; on a sweltering day a lime or two is muddled with sugar and topped up with ice water or soda water. The drink is salty, sour and sweet all at once, and grandmothers swear by it for sore throats and after a bout of sun. This recipe makes the jar of cured limes (allow four weeks before the first glass) and then the drink itself. Chef's tip: dry the limes completely after blanching; any water left on the skins lets mould take hold in the jar.

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Kuih talamPandan coconut layer cake

Trays of kuih talam sit on almost every kuih stall from Johor Bahru to Alor Setar, cut into neat green-and-white squares that office workers pick up with their morning kopi. The bottom layer is a springy pandan jelly of rice flour and tapioca; the top is a soft, slightly salty coconut layer that melts against it. It needs a 20 cm square tin and a wok or steamer with a lid, and it slices best the next morning. Chef's tip: wrap the steamer lid in a cloth; condensation dripping onto the white layer leaves pockmarks and a watery top.

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Moroccan quince preserve (mrabba sfarjal)

When quinces fill the market stalls of Fes and Meknes in October, households cook them down into this deep red preserve for winter breakfasts with msemen, baghrir and fresh cheese. The pale fruit turns ruby only with long, gentle cooking, the slices staying whole in a thick, cinnamon-scented syrup. Spread it on bread or serve a spoon next to soft cheese. Impatient cooks boil it hard and get a pale, sticky jam; the colour needs slow simmering. Chef's tip: tie the quince cores and peel in muslin and cook them with the fruit — they hold the pectin that sets the syrup. Store in sterilised jars.

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