Spicy, exciting, flavour-packed dishes that are loaded with vegetables and legumes. Indian food has always been a favourite in my family, so when we went out for dinner recently to celebrate my brother finishing high school, we had this cuisine on our minds.

Both Virginia and I love cooking Indian food ourselves. With its emphasis on vegetables and as hero, it's a cuisine that lends itself so well to plant-based diets.

I had heard good reviews of Mukka restaurant in Fitzroy, so we decided to check it out!

They have a 'Just Feed Me' menu option that is only $30 pp for the vegan set, which we thought was amazing value! For 3 people it included:

• papadums

• bhel puri - puffed rice, Bombay Mix and nylon sev tossed with pomegranate, tomato, onion, lime, tamarind and mint. (This dish was awesome - so many contrasting flavours and textures).

• Samosas filled with spiced potato, pea and cashew

• Tibetan momos - Himalyaan dumplings filled with potato and cabbage, served with sesame chilli chutney.

• Kachumbar salad

• Tandoori roti

• 3 Curries: dhaal, aloo baingan (eggplant + potato in tomatoes) and matar paneer tofu (cubed tofu and peas in a tomato based gravy)

• Jalebi dessert with vegan vanilla ice-cream

There were 4 of us, so we also added on a chickpea curry (my fav dish) and a non-vegan curry for the omnivores. As you can probably guess, we walked out of there with take-away leftovers.

(I love that they charge 30c for t/a containers too.. yuss for recognising plastic as a resource!)

Mukka Indian Restaurant

365 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
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P.S. - A few of my favourite plant-based Indian dishes to make are:

• Lentil dhal

• Tandoori cauliflower, mushroom & tofu (just chop these up into bite sized chunks, and stir through tandoori paste + coconut yogurt, then bake in a covered casserole dish in the oven on medium heat for about 1 hour)

• Steamed potato cubes, gently stir-fried in a splash of coconut oil with mustard seeds and turmeric, with peas stirred through at the end.

Here's a recipe for Indian Spiced, Roasted Turmeric Potatoes + a Creamy Cauliflower & Tofu Curry.