This is Dhruti, and I hope to share my journey of cooking a variety of vegetarian and vegan items with you. Being vegetarian happens to be a part of my upbringing, as I was born into a family believing in Jainism. A traditional Jain believes in avoiding root vegetables, meat and eggs. Amongst various other reasons, this is also a part of Jainism principle of compassion towards all.
As a young kid, I was brought up in a highly strict eating restrictions environment with no root vegetables such as onion, potatoes, garlic, as well as no eggs or meat permitted in the home. But despite such restrictions, everyday meals were always healthy, delicious and colorful.
Being a vegetarian was also the reason why my mother started eggless baking at home, As in those days in my hometown Rajkot, India, eggless cakes were far and few. So I was fortunate to see her journey of her baking her first cake in a small aluminum cooker with a base of sand, over a gas, to her becoming a professional at cakes using an electric oven and catering to birthday parties. I have been tremendously inspired by her love for cooking and her initiative to try something new. She would often go for Tarla Dalal’s live cooking demonstrations in Mumbai (Vegetarian Cooking Diva from India).It was the closest to a cook show in those days.
Later on in my adult days I became a big fan of Tarla Dalal cookbooks. These young childhood memories, combined with my living and traveling experiences in India, Australia, New Zealand and USA have opened my taste palate and exposure to different and creative cuisine ideas. I believe in imbibing these experiences into my cooking, while keeping my Vegetarian/Vegan/Jain principles at the core.
Over the years, I have dabbled in areas of art, gardening, cooking, photography, portfolio management, software consulting and management consulting. With encouragement from my friends, family and readers of this blog, I hope to share some happy, some delicious, some colorful and some challenging cooking moments via this blog,started as of November 2013.
