Indian-Spiced Vegetables

My fabulous sister-in-law knows I am a sucker for cookbooks, so last time I saw her she showed up with THREE for my reading pleasure.  One of them was an Indian cookbook.  In flipping through it, I saw some lovely recipes for fresh vegetables, simply sauteed or pan-seared with a strong flavor profile.  

While I eat Indian food sometimes, I do not cook with those flavors often.  It was a simple approach to vegetables with some flavors I knew I would enjoy.  I chopped my eggplant and squash, and then got to cooking.  First, some cumin is toasted lightly in some oil in a very hot pan.  Then the vegetables are added to the spicy oil and cooked for a few minutes - with an occasional turn of the veggies.  You can stir some, but you get a nicer sear on the veggies, and some darker marks, if you let it sit some.  Once those veggies were cooked through, I added some freshly diced pepper, some turmeric and some salt.  A few more minutes of stirring, and the lovely, fragrant and richly flavored vegetables were ready for my dinner!