The most memorable times of my early childhood were the fun-filled summer holidays spent in my mother’s maternal home in a small town near Mumbai. It was a big house filled with lots of uncles, aunts and cousins, easily numbering 50 during the summer. A lot of that time would be spent in the big kitchen helping my aunts and mother prepare the meals. I learned so much by just watching them cook. Certain dishes were prepared only in summer because they helped cool the body and some only in winter for their heat-creating properties. Some dishes were made only for lunch and some only for dinner. Certain vegetables required a particular spice to be added to enhance its digestion. Certain dishes were always served with other accompanying dishes and others not. All these do’s and don’ts were based on simple Ayurvedic principles of digestion. Although unaware at the time, this was the start of my training in Ayurvedic cooking.
Later, in my teens, lifestyle changes affected our daily diet. One of those changes was that my family hired a cook. Of course, the cook was trained by my mother to prepare dishes according to the tradition of our family. But having someone from outside the family prepare the meals changed the quality of the food. The cook was using the same ingredients and the same technique of cooking but there was a very important ingredient missing. It was the care and love that my mother or grandma or aunts would put into the food while preparing it. They used to put some thought into the menu planning so that the dishes would be compatible, and they were mindful of the right proportion of ingredients and spices.
This is not to say that the cook didn’t care, he did but his training and his motivation were very different. The cook was mostly concerned with making sure his employers were happy with his cooking and he was trained to achieve that by making the food very tasty by using more oil, spices, sugar and salt. And as I’ve found through my own experiments with cooking, it’s easier to make food taste good when you’re not concerned with nutrition. Food prepared with excessive amounts of oil, ghee, butter, cream, cheese, salt, sweeteners, spices and refined products like white flour, will always give more pleasure. And so these same traditional dishes that our family had been eating for generations suddenly became more intense in taste, more salty, spicy and rich in fat.
Another change was in the menu planning; meals were getting more and more elaborate—the dishes that used to be cooked for special occasions were being served on a regular basis. And the number of dishes served in a meal also increased. This led to bad food combinations and provided opportunities for gluttony and over-eating. I noticed that the food was satisfying to eat but I didn’t feel good after. I felt tired and heavy. I felt unmotivated and found it difficult to concentrate on schoolwork, which caused me to change a few things in my diet.
I felt the need to cut down on the oil and the hot spices in the food. But it seemed unlikely that the cook could be convinced to cook without oil or to use less oil. So I would ask the cook to set aside some of the boiled lentils and the steamed vegetables before they were seasoned with spices and oil. I stopped adding ghee to my chapattis. At meal times I would add some of the spiced dal to my boiled version and I would do the same with the vegetables. So my food was now lightly spiced, as per my preference. This was when I learned to appreciate the taste of food close to its natural flavour without the spices. I found that the food really energized me and I could eat as much as I wanted.
Eating like this for a few years helped me maintain a healthy weight. At this time I was eating eggs and dairy in the form of milk, ghee, homemade butter, cheese, yogourt and paneer regularly. I was quite aware of how good I felt when my food was low in dairy, eggs, oils but then I would slip up and have them again in my food. So I would go from little dairy and eggs to a lot because I would be tempted by my taste buds. This went on all through my teens, 20s and 30s.
In 2001 I immigrated to the U.S. and a few years later I was fortunate to get introduced to the raw vegan diet. When I understood what veganism meant, I realized that I had always been one in principal.
Sampaachitam Stotra—Well-ness Prayer
Shrasta Sampaachitam Maya Tava Krite
Anam Guneir Vridheertama
Hastabhyam Tu Samarpitam Bahu Vidhim
Yada Bhukta May Taadhiya
Bhuktwa Sopi Bhavet Sadaa Suvimalam
Pushtim Vidhaa Dhyaat Maya
Swi Kuryaan Mama Prarthana Akhil Guro
Ya Darshanaayah Krita
Anam Yaina Samudgatam Chavimalam
Truptyeyi Prakaa Maam Jagat
Sam Kshretra Dupaniya Pachita Maho
Bhaktya Samaakshi Kritam
Tam Bhunjaniya Niramayam Satu Bhavet
Paramaushadham Tushtidam
Sanshudhim Manasaa Bhavetu Satatam
Jivyaat Satam Sarvadaa— Sanskrit translation by Shastriji Baldau Tripathi
Oh Divine Creator,
Please bless the food that is placed before you,
Let it nourish all who partake of it,
Let all who have played a role in its co-creation be blessed by you.
Enable all who eat of it, to be complete and healed in the body, mind and soul
With true humility, please do accept this prayer from Darshana
Let the food heal our bodies so that we may perform right action
Let the food cleanse our minds so that we may be clear in our thoughts
Let the food purify our souls so that we might advance further towards the divinity within each of us
Bless us with lives rich in health, happiness and unconditional love
May we always be in gratitude of your infinite blessings!–Prayer in English by Darshana Thacker
[su_panel background=”#f2f2f2″ color=”#000000″ border=”0px none #ffffff” shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff”]Darshana Thacker is a well-known Ayurvedic chef in the yoga/kirtan community of Los Angeles. Her recipes have been published in LA Yoga Magazine and the newly released Forks Over Knives—Companion Book. Specializing in vegan Ayurvedic cuisine she’s acknowledged for her contemporary Ayurvedic interpretations while staying true to the original cooking she learned in her mother’s kitchen, growing up in India. She can be contacted on 310-809-0494 and Mumbai, India +91-98213-59669 or follow her on Twitter : @VapikaSpirit.
