If you had to eat Gujarati food for the rest of your life, would you?
For those of my readers who aren’t familiar with the cuisine, it is purely, completely vegetarian.
No meat, no fish and no eggs.
In fact, a large number of Gujarati people do not eat garlic, potatoes or onions either.
I used to wonder how many recipes a cuisine can POSSIBLY have when you remove all these ingredients from the equation.
The Gujaratis however, are foodies like no other – often carrying delicious snacks that can feed a dozen people at any given time. Handwa, Dhokla, Fafda, Khakra … and other funny sounding things will be packed into tiffins of various sizes and stuffed into their bags. While this may make us giggle, there’s no denying that we’d happily grab a handful if we were offered some.
I find the simplicity of Gujarati food extremely refreshing. It’s light on the stomach and tastes flavourful even with half the “normal” ingredients missing. I’d gladly eat it for a day…maybe a week. But many Gujaratis I know, and even vegetarians for that matter, groan at the sight of the same old veggies and the standard food preparations.
Who can blame them? It can get monotonous.
That’s where Sonal Ved comes in.
Weekend chef and seasoned writer, Sonal wrote a book for people who couldn’t see how exciting vegetarian food can be. Inspired by her family’s cooking and the delicious food her friends’ mothers fed her, she came up with a digital cookbook fit for the 21st century.
‘Gujju Goes Gourmet’ aims at giving time-starved vegetarians a hip new way to pair ingredients and a welcome break from paneer and pasta. This mobile book app was launched at the beautiful sky lounge, Asilo last week.
Because, face it – who takes ACTUAL books to the kitchen anymore?
What makes ‘Gujju Goes Gourmet’ special is the fact that Sonal has paired unusual ingredients together – like beetroot and strawberries, peanut butter and celery, avocado and orange juice and others. Recipes like deconstructed falafel, halloumi, cereal and strawberry parfait feature in the book too.
Another huge plus is that it comes in handy for single people with little time and barely any kitchen skills.
The idea behind this was to create recipes that are exciting without being too boring or daring.
Here’s some of the vegetarian food I indulged in that day along with renowned people in the publishing world and blogosphere
Wait… there’s more!
Slow down over a weekend brunch at Asilo on the 38th floor of Regis in Lower Parel. The view and food is simply spectacular.
Don’t forget to try out some of Sonal’s recipes The book is exclusively available on the Juggernaut Books App.
Cya next time! In the meantime, let’s chat on Twitter
xoxo