Lighter bags, heavier hearts: Kitchens feel pinch of vegetable price rise

Those who couldn't buy fresh vegetables would smash open an onion, sprinkle salt and eat it with a roti. But even those days are gone with the humble onion just too expensive, says vegetable vendor Imad Khan, recalling the staple image of the poor in India.

About 10 km from the Sahibabad Sabzi Mandi in Ghaziabad where Khan sets up shop, homemaker Poonam Singh in Delhi's Mayur Vihar has not put tomatoes in any dish for almost a month, taking away an essential ingredient from her cooking.

Khan and Singh may be at different points on the socio-economic spectrum but sit on the same side of a graph that has put everyday vegetables out of the reach of many in Delhi-NCR.

While restaurateurs and home catering businesses are looking at how to absorb the extra costs and wondering whether they should hike their rates, home cooks are going for alternatives or just doing without.

How can one make almost anything without onions, tomatoes or potatoes? Not that other vegetables are any cheaper, b