Health, Taste and Traditions- A Vegetarian Journey from Ayurveda to Modern Times

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Today, the aspects of health and longevity outlined in ancient Ayurvedic texts are being reexamined and appreciated across the world. Modern scientific research has also confirmed several Ayurvedic principles related to diet and nutrition. These include the concepts related to a balanced diet, medicinal aspects of spices, and benefits related to a vegetarian diet.

Shuchi's book Health, Taste & Traditions: A Vegetarian Journey from Ayurveda to Modern Times combines the knowledge from several ancient Ayurvedic texts, including Ashtanga Hridayam and Charaka Samhita, with current research on diet and nutrition to suggest how anyone can make healthy and delicious food with ingredients commonly available in one's kitchen.

The book explores several questions related to day-to-day cooking such as - which oils are best suited for cooking? How to add more greens to your diet? How to make delicious dietary choices for a diabetic person? Be it daily cuisines or festivities, snacks, or desserts, this book simplifies how to make unique, easy, and delectable recipes without comprising your health."

Shuchi Agrawal is a renowned food and nutrition expert. She has been working on vegetarianism and health for several years. She develops recipes which promote healthy living and healthy eating habits. She holds a master's degree in botanical sciences and has studied health, ethnobotany, plant-based nutrition, and digestion from Cornell University in America.

Shuchi moved to France from India in 2004 with her family, where she started working on promoting vegetarianism and healthy living. Slowly her cooking classes and recipes became popular. In 2008, after moving to the USA, she was amazed to see turmeric and ginger capsules being sold over the counter in medical stores promoting a stronger immune system. This prompted her curiosity to explore the treasure of ancient Indian knowledge better and she devoted herself to a serious study of Ayurveda from a modern scientific perspective.

Along with her passion for cooking, Shuchi loves to read and write. Her bilingual website- www.chezshuchi.com is quite popular; she writes about vegetarian recipes and articles in Hindi and English. Shuchi also writes articles in local newspapers and magazines focused on healthy living, where she tries to bring together the learnings from age-old traditions and modern nutrition. She works with several charity organizations who are focused on educating underprivileged kids and alleviating hunger.

She maintains a beautiful vegetable garden where she grows ayurvedic herbs, vegetables, fruits, and flowers. In her spare time, she also indulges herself in scrapbooking.

Authentic cuisine of the Indian subcontinent is known far and Land wide. Indian cuisine has been influenced over the centuries via interactions with traders and colonizers from Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and even parts of Africa. Indian recipes are as old as the land. We find rich descriptions of exotic cuisine even in old Sanskrit texts. However, there are many Indian recipes that have been passed down through the generations yet are never found on menus of "Indian" restaurants. From Mangaudi Aloo to Kadhi to Methi Malai Paneer to Tehri, there is a wide variety of recipes that have enticed generations of Indians. Living on three different continents, I have noticed a new worldwide interest in Indian vegetarian cuisine. This book is an attempt to explore traditional vegetarian Indian cuisine using a contemporary lens.

Indian vegetarian food is a fascinating mix of taste and health. Ayurvedic texts have expounded the relationship between diet, taste, and health. There is a large overlap between Ayurvedic principles and modern notions of diet and nutrition. The properties of many vegetables, lentils, milk, ghee, oils, spices, etc., are described in detail in Ayurveda. For example, we find description of several vegetables such as bottlegourd, bittergourd, eggplant/brinjal; leafy vegetables such as spinach and methi; and herbs such as coriander, mustard, and amaranth in Ayurvedic texts. Lentils such as mung, peas, gram, urad, rajma; spices such as cumin, turmeric, asafoetida, black pepper, fenugreek; sweeteners such as sugar and jaggery, and various types of salt have also been described in detail. Onions and garlic also find a mention. Some vegetables such as green chili, capsicum (bell pepper), tomato, and pineapple have come to India through cultural exchanges, and we do not find their description in Ayurveda. It is surprising that for thousands of years, the ingredients of Indian vegetarian food have remained the same!

The goal of this book is to bring forth a wide variety of healthy vegetarian options, both ancient and contemporary, for everyone. I have attempted to explain the traditions of Indian cooking in simple language by carefully integrating the knowledge from the ancient Ayurvedic and culinary texts with today's science. I have also explained gluten sensitivity and gluten allergies and have added healthy gluten free recipes such as pearl millet and carrot crêpes, oat and bottlegourd thalipeeth, and ramdana halwa etc. I hope you benefit from this book!

When Swad Sehat aur Shakahar- Ayurveda se Aaj Tak was published in Hindi at the beginning of 2021, my English- speaking readers requested for the English version of the book. I am extremely grateful for everyone's love and support. In this book, I have attempted to give a detailed explanation of the ingredients and the recipes in English and have also given information about various spices. Most of the spices are available in Indian/Asian stores, in the bulk section of organic stores, and some regular supermarkets as well. I have also tried to give alternative options for vegetables which might be hard to find outside India, such as green pumpkin which can be replaced with zucchini, or radish greens that can be replaced with kale leaves.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages