During my childhood, my mother would start preparing for Holi a few days before by making savory and sweet snacks. One of my favorite snacks was mathi, a salty deep-fried cracker usually spiced with black pepper.

Rotis are ubiquitous to Indian cooking and the ones in Sri Lanka differ only slightly. This traditional pol roti has grated coconut, minced onion, and slight heat from serrano peppers.

Incorporating roti or bread doughs with vegetables is a long-time much-loved practice.

Cooking the stems and roasting the tops bring out a wonderful textural contrast with the toast.

Infusing vegetable peelings into doughs has become roti du jour for us!

Not as hard to make as one might think!

Taking a page out of my own book, I adapted the royal naan recipe from Masala to give this bread a thick fluffier consistency yet kept the spirit of a naan intact. I added plums, onions, and seasonings on top. Serve it with yogurt tossed with cumin and black pepper, bean spreads, flavored oils, or ghee as a starter or to accompany a hearty stew.

Stuffed parathas are delicious for breakfast or lunch and make a great appetizer for dinner when cut into wedges. Top them with a chutney and a slaw. Stuffing can vary from simple mashed potato to grated daikon, keema (ground meat) to a sweet paratha stuffed with jaggery and nuts.

This is a simple take on a classic South Indian paratha (also called Kerala parotta). The flatbread is made entirely with white flour and is pan-fried to a glorious golden crisp.

Sometimes, the best ideas are born out of improvisation. Stuck indoors due to the pandemic and not a fresh tomato in sight, we used Indian pickles to spread onto cooked naan, topped it with local feta cheese and some gloriously fragrant herbs to make a delicious make shift pizza. We liked it so much that it went on the menu at Pondicheri. There are plenty of Indian pickles in grocery stores to play around with.

Seeing the bounty of kale among almost all the farms around Houston and knowing that kale is much more nutrient and fiber dense than other greens, especially local kale, I decided to go on a journey to find new ways to eat kale. It’s a wonderful sandwich to take on a picnic or a park so do give it a try!

Eating cooling foods such as yogurt and watermelon in the summer and warming foods — think peppers and squashes — in the winter is one of the most fundamental tenets of Ayurveda. It’s what keeps our digestive fire under control. However, when warming foods such as gorgeous heirloom tomatoes appear in the summer, the best way to eat them is to combine them with cooling foods including yogurt, ricotta or fennel seeds. The season for tasty, sweet heirloom tomatoes is short — enjoy them while you can. Once summer gets hotter, and we know it will, local tomatoes will be gone. This tomato ricotta masala packs a bit of heat with the Calabrian chiles but will keep in your refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. Smear it on a piece of toast or waffle for breakfast or place small dollops on cucumber slices for an appetizer.

Naan, the fluffy bread usually made in a tandoor at most Indian restaurants, can also be made at home.

A few years ago, I discovered the Chinese condiment Chili crisp or fried chili in oil in jars at my favorite oriental market and instantly fell in love with the piquant bright hot flavors.

Oven roasting a head of cauliflower is the easiest and the best way to cook it given that braising it often causes it to steam and/or break into smaller pieces. Rosemary adds an aromatic touch and a side of luxurious creamy cream cheese with a shot of blueberries to smear on a toast can make for a surprisingly simple and delicious bite.

Rotis, the national bread of India, are almost like tortillas except they are more pliable and always made with finely ground whole-wheat flour.

India’s version of grilled cheese, a popular sandwich worldwide, is filled with masala and spices and is referred to commonly as cheese toast

Many years ago, a friend and an expert German baker in Houston gave me a lesson in breadmaking. Within a matter of a few hours, while trading food secrets and stories, I watched him transform flour, water, yeast and a few other ingredients into crispy, delicious focaccia.

I love adding chili crips to simple foods such as a grilled cheese, a universal crowd pleaser. The mango chutney on the other side adds a sweet tangy balance.

Deep fried balloon breads popular all over India, adding herbs to poori dough just gives it a little more interest and fragrance.

While I love the traditional mayonnaise and cheese on sandwiches, with this garlicky spread, I missed neither. Do give it a try or at the very least, go buy the delicious Taha Toum at the farmers market or at Central Market, where it is now sold as well.

Another snack inspired by the Indian state of Gujarat, this semolina bread bears close resemblance to the “handvo,” a savory hearty vegetable bar usually eaten with a cup of chai.

Here is a delicious savory cracker with a touch of sweet using mostly calcium-rich sesame seeds, magnesium-rich pumpkin seeds, fragrant spices and maple syrup.

This is a no-brainer crowd pleaser recipe.

A soft roti dough makes for a moist, satisfying roti.

Chutneys are to India what salsa is to Mexico and then some. India’s love affair with mangoes goes back millennia. One of the main tenets of Ayurveda is to always eat fruits alone; however, they make an inexplicable exception with mango. You can line a sandwich with mango chutney, eat it on the side with eggs and toast or top grilled fish or chicken with it. My favorite way to eat it is for breakfast with a slice of avocado and toast. Here is a sandwich version.

Vegetables are our past, present and future — and incorporating them into doughs and batters has begun to define the way I cook.

A lesser-known bread is the lowly loli — an onion- and spice-laden, twice-cooked flatbread native to the people of Sindh province. The dough resembles pie crust more than flatbread; has outrageous amounts of ghee or butter, and I indulge it in very rarely. However, on the rare occasion that I stay with my 82-year-old aunt in Mumbai, India, it goes without saying that breakfast will be a crisp loli with strawberry jam. And unless I protest loudly and clearly, a second one will land on my plate before the first is done.

My sister in law Gita, an amazing and creative cook, made these rotis for me one morning. I could not believe how good bitter melon peel, which essentially was waste in the past, tasted in the roti.

Stuffed parathas are the stuff of breakfast dreams for North Indians – Punjabis love the cauliflower and daikon stuffing, the Sindhis love the potato and lentil.

Try this Spinach based iteration!

Never to be eaten with a fork or a knife, most Indians use rotis as a delicious vehicle to scoop up a sabzi (cooked vegetable), dal (cooked lentils) or a curry with their hands.

This bread is inspired by one of the savory baked breads of Gujarat called the handvo.

Chillka roti is an unfermented crepe style bread usually eaten with meals or as a snack with chutney or pickles.