Foodie & social media influencer Karan Dua talks about lockdown menu

Karan Dua, founder, and director of Dilsefoodie a team of food lovers in Delhi has been cooking, eating, and reviewing restaurants and food and has gathered a large following on his social media platforms.

“Food has bought the focus to the home kitchen as people are cooking and experimenting during the lockdown”, says Dua, speaking exclusively to Lonely Planet.

“It’s best that we reduce trips to going out to buy fresh food and grocery or keep our bills down by not over-ordering food online. The trick is to keep it simple and cook meals for the entire day so that we don’t waste food, let leftover go waste in our refrigerators or in the heat and keep our time in the kitchen short and easy”, he says.

Here he shares his home cooking menu to keep it simple in the heat of Delhi.

Kadhi Chawal

The beauty of this dish is its simplicity. The rice and kadhi made of besan or chickpea flour make for a cooling broth that works well at lunch. You can mop up the leftover kadhi from lunch with rotis for dinner to clean up your plate for the day.

Mung dal

The humble dal gets a lot of flak for being ‘meh’, but I disagree.in these times of the pandemic, we need food that’s nourishing and simple. A mung dal had for dinner can be repurposed as a fried dal parantha for breakfast the next morning.

Sambar meals and idli and dosa

Make a big pot of sambar with mixed veggies and make a batch of dough and you are sorted for a few days. Sambar can go with rice for lunch and with idli and dosa for breakfast.

Chicken korma

In the heat of Delhi, I would recommend a mostly vegetarian diet with lighter non-vegetarian options like lean chicken. A chicken korma is a filling dish for the family under lockdown and is an easy dish to make with rotis or rice.

Pasta

Keeping kids fed under lockdown is a challenge for parents. A hearty pasta with vegetables and chicken or a simple spaghetti dish like spaghetti aglio e olio should do the trick.

Desserts

There is an explosion of baking desserts and cakes and making Indian sweets all over social media during the lockdown. Use what’s in your larders like even bread for making gulab jamun or split milk for rasmalai.

Lockdown tonic

While there are many homegrown drinks in India like aam panna which gives a shot of vitamins or a salty chaanch made of whey which is good protein. You can also end the day a kada chai - a piping glass of black kadak chai with ginger and black pepper is good for lining your throat.

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