Shuchi Agrawal

After moving out of India with my family about two decades ago, there were many challenges in our way. While we were trying our best to cope with a new country, a new culture, a new language, food remained the biggest challenge. We were born vegetarians, and there was not even the concept of vegetarianism. People did not know the word 'vegetarian.' We often felt like we were aliens. I decided to work in this direction and bring awareness on vegetarianism.

Over time, I have noticed a growing interest in vegetarian and vegan cuisine, as well as healthy ways to cook food. However, I have also realized that there is a lot of unfamiliarity surrounding these topics. Often, newly turned vegetarians eat a lot of factory-made fake vegetarian protein to compensate for the meat protein.

All of this inspired me to offer classes, write articles, and recipes to explain that the human body does not need that much protein. Vegetarian food is complete, delicious, and healthy.

I have always loved plants. My botanical science background helped me a lot in understanding the entire process of a plant's life cycle, their growth process, plant economy, soil, etc. After studying nutrition and Ayurveda, I gained a better understanding of the digestive system. I also learned that the same food could have different impacts on different digestive systems. Food plays the biggest role in day-to-day health issues. Eating clean is the key to healthy living, and it is not difficult to follow this path.

During my four years of stay in France, I was often bombarded with questions like - why are we vegetarians? How do vegetarians get their daily iron and calcium? How does a vegetarian diet provide enough protein? Some people thought that vegetarian food was boring and monotonous, while others wanted to include more vegetarian options in their routine meals but did not know many healthy and delicious recipes. All these questions and curiosity encouraged me to test and write about healthy vegetarian recipes.

Since my cooking journey started in France, I have given a French name to my website. The words 'Chez Shuchi' mean 'From Shuchi's place'.

Well, the flavor comes from natural ingredients; chemicals make it unnatural. Clean ingredients like nuts, spices, oils, leaves, grains etc. each have their own aroma and taste. The right combination of ingredients, timing, cooking method, utensils, and temperature all play an important role in enhancing the flavor.

For example, garam masala is a key ingredient in Indian vegetable/curry preparation. Garam masala is a combination of various aromatic spices. I dry roast the whole spices on low heat and grind them coarsely at low heat. Homemade garam masala is very aromatic and enhances the flavor of any curry. If we grind the spice mix at high heat, the aroma of the spices will be altered, and it may also lose some delicate antioxidants present in the spices.

So basically, we need the right ingredients to enhance the flavor of the food, not chemicals.

Balance! That is the key word of Ayurveda. Eat everything but in balance! Traditional Indian food is naturally designed to be balanced. Dal is eaten with rice, providing a balance of protein and carbs. Buttermilk is served with meals to aid in the digestion of food. Mango pana, a raw mango drink, is served on hot summer afternoons to keep the body cool in dealing with the hot climate. Sesame, peanuts, and jaggery-based sweets are served in winters to provide warmth to the body. It is all about balancing the diet.

My readers' support and encouragement on my website motivated me to work on my book, 'Health, Taste, and Traditions: A Vegetarian Journey from Ayurveda to Modern Times.' My book is very different; it is not just a cookbook. 'Health, Taste, and Traditions' is a journey that takes readers inside a traditional Indian household. There are more than nine articles that tell you how you can make a small change in your daily meal planning to make your food healthier and tastier. These articles cover family traditions, the story behind recipes, the health aspects of spices used in Indian cuisine, Ayurvedic approaches, and more.

As per traditional Indian theory, food is categorized into two potency types: hot and cold potency, which indicates the effect or tendency that the food produces in the body. In the summer season, foods with cold potency are consumed. Watermelon, cantaloupe, gourds, squash, etc., are all grown in the summer season and considered to have cold potency. Green leafy vegetables like methi (fenugreek), mustard, radish, etc., are easily available at a very low cost in winter. All these greens are considered to have hot potency. Seasonal food and ingredients are easily available, cheaper, easy to digest, and healthier. Additionally, it is much easier to grow the right seasonal produce in the right climate. That is the main reason I focus on using local and seasonal ingredients. Going natural, going local, going seasonal is my way of working!

When my first cooking class was being organized in a community kitchen in the USA- I noticed an ad asking for support in some schools in a developing country. At that moment it just clicked in my mind to donate the revenue coming from my class to that school. Education is important for everyone. That day onwards I donated all the profits that came from the cooking classes to one or other charity organizations focusing on kids’ education. Currently, I am deeply connected to two organizations focused on education: (a) Laxmi Ashram, an organization in Kausani hills in India, that works for the education of underprivileged girls, and (b) Anjali School, located in the city of Varanasi in India, that works for the education of orphans and the poorest of the poor.

I did masters in botanical sciences and I was a gold medalist. However, to be frank, that knowledge was mostly theoretical. It was only when I started planting vegetables from seeds that I truly learned a lot. I realized how the land, soil type, compost quality, climate, water, and sunlight all play a significant role in the life cycle of a seed's growth. I discovered that I could easily grow bitter melon, bottle gourd, okra, watermelon, cucumber, etc., in hot summers, while it was much easier to grow tomatoes, bell peppers, coriander (cilantro), and celery in milder weather. Maple cannot be grown in tropical climate and mango can’t be grown in mountains. My gardening journey taught me a lifelong lesson: to go local and go seasonal.

Oh, there are so many. In general, I have modified recipes of most Indian desserts to have less amount of sugar and or ghee, and of most vegetable preparations to have less amount of oil. For example, consider the recipe of Moong Dal Halwa. This very traditional dessert is prepared by first making a paste of soaked moong dal, which is then fried in ghee. I modified the recipe to use dry coarsely ground moong dal, which reduced the amount of frying needed, as well as also reduces the need for a lot of ghee. Taste comes from better ingredients and careful cooking, not from loads of sugar and ghee.

It totally depends on individual taste buds. You can start from wherever you want, but don't compare. Do not try to give your vegetarian dish a meaty texture. That not only ruins the taste but also compromises the health aspects.

Traditional Indian food is extremely healthy, seasonal, and balanced. In the race of modernization, we have made so many changes to traditional food for our convenience. Some changes are good, while some are extremely unhealthy and toxic.

It is not difficult for me to work on the nutrition part. It is a wrong impression that nutritious food is not tasty. It is all about the mindset. Even Khichdi has its own natural delicious taste.

Sure. Ayurvedic texts have expounded in detail about diabetes and mention 20 types of sugar related diseases. Eating in excess, overconsuming new rice or wheat, oversleeping, not exercising, excessive increase in Vata, Pitt or Kaph dosha, obesity, etc. can increase the amount of sugar in the blood. According to Ayurveda, four types of food imbalances can harm diabetics. Food that is fatty, food that is fried and contains lots of oil / ghee, food that is very sour in taste, and very salty food. So, diabetics should reduce sweet, sour, and salty tastes and increase bitter, pungent, and astringent tastes in their food. This is an alternate, intriguing view of diet for diabetes and is different from the usual focus on reducing sugar or rice or potato from your diet. Yes, you need to reduce sugary and carbohydrate rich foods, but balance comes from increasing different types of food in your diet – foods that have bitter, pungent and astringent tastes.

I am working on gluten. From breakfast to lunch snacks, main courses to drinks, and desserts, everything contains gluten. Gluten allergies and sensitivities have grown significantly around the world. Gluten is a protein mainly present in wheat, which is an integral part of most cuisines. I am developing recipes where wheat can be easily replaced with healthy grains or millets.