Vegan dhansak, by the way, turns out to be a packaged pre-cooked mixed vegetables stew with some mashed lentils to thicken the gravy, tomato paste, plus sugar and lemon juice to give it a Persian tang, the usual garlic ginger etcetera, and Delhi spice mix. The kind of muck a dabba in the Tenderloin would serve to pasty-faced "woke" people from the East Bay.
That inevitably guided me to a website with recipes. Among which: Gajar ka Halwa with soy granules. Soy granule veg chops. None of the recipes spoke to me, or if they did, they were screaming about the pain, cruelty, and pointlessness of life in an uncaring and apathetic universe. It was "food" to encourage an existential crisis.
The Indian store five blocks away caters primarily to Sardars and Patels, and rather few Gauras. So they might not have soy granules. Maybe I'd have to go to Berkeley for that.
Life is too short to make daytrips to Berkeley.
[Not true; there's always Vic's Chaat.]
Ab initio, vegan dhansak is crap for stupid white people.
Or BJP and RSS Sanghis from Gujarat and UP.
Dhansak is mutton (or goat) with a mashed thick lentil and pumpkin sludge ("gravy") flavoured with methi (fenugreek) leaves, mint, cilantro, and dhansak masala. Dhansak masala contains at a minimum the following spices: chilies, fenugreek seeds, cumin, coriander seed, green cardamon, and cinnamon. It might also have peppercorns, fennel seed, star-anise, cloves, nutmeg or mace. There is no chicken dhansak. There is no vegetarian or vegan dhansak. There is no soy product dhansak. Carrots and cauliflower do not belong in dhansak.
It is served with Parsee brown rice, and chicken pattice.
Plus ambakalio on the side.
One pound small green mangoes (NOT squishy ripe mangoes).
Half a pound jaggery (palm sugar in big chunks).
A fragment of stick cinnamon.
Chopped onion (about a quarter to a half) optional (some cooks leave it out).
A green cardamom or two, a whole clove or two.
Water - two to four tablespoons.
Break jaggery apart, put in an enamel saucepan with water, the cardamom, and the cloves. Plus the onion, if you decided to use it. Cook till the jaggery is dissolved.
Peel, cut, and de-seed the mangoes. Green mangoes will have a tender seed and the flesh will not have become all fibrous around it. Nor will juice and pulp cascade over your hands at this stage of unripeness, and the flesh is firm and fragrant, albeit pleasingly tart.
Add the sliced mango to the jaggery water, and simmer till the mango has softened and the liquid has become stroppy. Cool.
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