Indian food, my final frontier

I came across an interesting and relevant article today about cooking vegan Indian food. The couple at the center of the article went vegan after reading The China Study, the book I've written about several times lately. Beware the power of this book!

I like to cook food from various countries' cuisines, but I've always been hesitant about Indian food and sushi. I eat fish very rarely, so sushi is not something I'm motivated to master. But Indian food has a great vegetarian tradition, I love it, and I'd like to be able to cook it better. When I make it, it just tastes like whatever with Indian spices added. It just doesn't come together, somehow.

I found a promising vegetable curry recipe in Cooks' Illustrated a few weeks ago and have curry spices on the way from Penzey's. I hope to try some of the recipes in the Washington Post article when the spices arrive, especially the lentil spinach cakes and the mint chutney. The latter sounds like an excellent palate cleanser.