Gluten-Free, Vegetarian Recipe: Aloo Methi

Good Indian food is something I didn't exactly expect to find in and around Seoul, but lately I've been hooked on it. Finding a hot, wheat-free, vegetarian meal here isn't entirely unlike finding the proverbial needle. Even Indian curry often contains wheat flour as a thickening agent, but if the mixed veggie and palak paneer curries at the delicious and charming Kinza in Beomgye do, then I thank the gods it isn't enough to make me sick. The portions aren't very big, but then the price isn't either, so I can't complain.

This is the very colourful mixed vegetable variety. It says "I love you" in Korean.

The decor is abundant and quite sparkly; it's a great place to go as a group or on a date.

Some of their other curry dishes. Kinza is just behind the building that houses the popular foreign bar Happidus.

Moving on to what is definitely a gluten-free and vegan option, I found a can of this popular side dish, aloo methi, at one of the foreign markets in Itaewon, and it's really tasty. I'd never had fenugreek leaves before and I don't really know how to describe the flavour, but the potatoes smell wonderful while they're cooking (or being heated up, derp) and it's not too strong or anything. It's sort of very subtly sweet, spicy, sour and savory all at the same time.

If you want to make aloo methi at home, I suggest clicking on the above link so that a charming Indian grandma named Manjula can show you how :D

From: Manjula's Kitchen.com

Manjula's kitchen is a great resource for vegetarian recipes, but if you're like me and unaccustomed to Indian food (for whatever reason because there's a huge Indian population in Phoenix), beware! A lot of it is breaded, contains wheat or is actually just bread. If nothing else, though, it'd be good for discovering new ways to season your daily veg.