[Photograph: Nick Kindelsperger]

I started cooking from Ruta Kahate's Quick-Fix Indian the moment I got my hands on it. I'm always looking to cook more Indian meals during the week, and this one promised that most of recipes could be cooked in a Rachel-Ray-inspired speed of 30 minutes or less.

Though I tried a few, including the very good "instant chicken biryani," this recipe for coriander shrimp with zucchini was by far my favorite. That's probably due to the good deal of spice and the healthy helping of vegetables.

Why I Picked This Recipe: Though it's called "Quick-Fix Indian" and many of the recipes look simple enough, most have sub recipes, which you'll need to make ahead of time. This isn't a big deal, but sometimes this can extend the cooking process to over an hour. But if you sub freshly grated ginger here for the ginger paste (which she gives as a tip), this comes together in about 20 minutes.

What Worked: I never really thought about it before, but shrimp and zucchini are an inspired pair. When cooked right, they are both tender, juicy, and slightly sweet. The spices are nice, too, adding some depth without covering up any of the fresh flavors.

Suggested Tweaks: The ingredients in the title should be flipped, because this is really more of a zucchini recipe with some shrimp. Not that I'm complaining too much. I just split this whole recipe with my wife. But if you would like to bulk the dinner out to feed four, just double the amount of shrimp, and serve with some rice.

About the author: Nick Kindelsperger is the editor of Serious Eats: Chicago. He loves tacos and spicy food. You can follow him as @nickdk on Twitter.