Hello! I am Soniya, the cofounder of The Belly Rules The Mind. Originally from Mumbai, India, now settled in Virginia with my husband (that is R1 on the blog) and my two boys. R2 is 19 now and pretty sure he knows everything, and R3 is 13, my resident food critic.
My roots are Punjabi but I grew up in Mumbai with family in both Punjab and Pune (Maharashtra). So I had the best of both worlds. Winters spent at my relatives place in Punjab eating fresh makki ki roti with sarson da saag, and summers in Pune eating misal pav and poha for breakfast. My kitchen still reflects that. One day it is rich Punjabi dal with loads of butter, the next day it is a simple Maharashtrian batata bhaji. My husband has learned to just go with it.
Food in our house was never just about eating. It was how my mom showed love. It was the reason our kitchen was always the loudest room in the house. When I moved to the US, the thing I missed most was not the restaurants or the street food (ok, I missed the street food a lot). It was the everyday home cooking. The simple dal chawal my mom made. The way she could whip up a sabzi from whatever vegetables were in the fridge. That is what I try to recreate here.
I must say, the Instant Pot was a total game changer for me. I will be honest, it sat in the box for 6 months because I was not convinced. But once I made my first batch of rajma in it, I was hooked. Now I use it for almost everything. Dals, rice, curries, even desserts. Most of our Instant Pot recipes come from my kitchen because I am basically obsessed.
When I am not cooking, I am probably driving R3 to some activity, debating dinner plans with R2 (who has very strong opinions now), scrolling Pinterest for recipe ideas at midnight, or arguing with Anvita about whether a recipe needs more salt (it always does, she just does not agree).
What I Cook
My specialties are Punjabi comfort food (chole, rajma, dal makhani, all the heavy hitters), Maharashtrian everyday cooking (poha, sabudana khichdi, batata bhaji), and Instant Pot everything. If it can be pressure cooked, I have tried it. I am also the one who usually develops our festival recipes. Diwali sweets, Navratri fasting recipes, Holi treats, because those are the traditions I want my boys to grow up with.
I also cook non-veg. Punjabi families often have meat eaters at the table, and I bring those recipes here too: butter chicken, tandoori chicken, fish curry, mutton biryani.
My Favorite Recipes
Soniya's favorites are all Thai dishes. She loves:
