Indian recipes are unusually specific about when salt goes into a vegetable dish. The instruction is not fussiness, because the timing determines whether the vegetable steams or fries.
Salt moves water out of the cells
A vegetable cell holds water behind a membrane. Salt on the outside creates a concentration difference, and water crosses out to balance it, pooling in the pan.
That released liquid changes the cooking environment immediately. A pan that was frying in oil becomes a pan simmering in vegetable juice, at a much lower effective temperature.
Nothing browns in that environment. The pieces soften and take on a uniform, slightly translucent look rather than developing colored, caramelized edges.
Early salt is the right choice for some dishes
Where the aim is a soft, cohesive dish that carries a gravy, drawing water out early is useful. The liquid becomes the sauce, and the vegetable takes on seasoning throughout.
Cooks use early salt with eggplant, zucchini, cabbage and gourds, all of which hold a lot of water and turn silky rather than mushy when it is released.
It also shortens cooking. A cabbage that has given up its water wilts in a fraction of the time it would need to soften by dry heat alone.
Late salt preserves definition
Potatoes, okra, cauliflower and green beans are usually salted near the end, because the point is browned surfaces and pieces that stay separate on the plate.
Okra makes the case plainly. Salted early, it releases moisture that activates its mucilage and turns the dish slimy, which is the fault most home cooks complain about.
Holding the salt back means the surface stays dry long enough to sear. Once color has developed, the same salt seasons without undoing the texture already built.
Seasoning depth is a separate question
Salt added early penetrates further, since there is more time for it to diffuse inward. Late salt sits closer to the surface and reads as sharper on the tongue.
Many cooks split the difference, seasoning lightly at the start for depth and correcting at the end for brightness. The two additions do different jobs.
Dried pulses are the clearest case of the tradeoff, since salt slows their softening but a bean salted only at the end tastes seasoned on the outside alone.
Salted ingredients count toward the total
Yogurt, pickles, ready-made pastes and canned tomatoes all carry salt of their own. Adding a full measure alongside them is the usual cause of an oversalted pan.
Salt crystal size matters too. A US kitchen stocked with coarse kosher salt measures very differently by volume from the fine salt most Indian recipes assume.
Weighing solves the mismatch, but most cooks manage it by adding less than the recipe states and tasting once the vegetable has released whatever water it intends to.