Vina Patel - From Gujarat With Love: 100 Authentic Indian Vegetarian Recipes

This book is dedicated to my father, my supportive husband Haresh and my three beautiful children Elissa, Aamir and Ravina. I love you always.

Photography credits

Jonathan Lovekin: .

Samar Singh Virdi: .

On the cover:
Recipe photography by Jonathan Lovekin
Textile pattern by Kamlesh V. Makawana
Patan ni Vav, Gujarat by Rahul Gajjar
Breadmaker by Samar Singh Virdi

Corn or vegetable oil is used throughout unless specified otherwise.

When deep-frying the oil is hot enough when a cube of bread turns golden in 30 seconds. Take care not to over-fill your pan.

Green chillies are always serranos unless specified otherwise.

Vegetables are medium-sized unless specified otherwise.

Vegetables are always washed; garlic is always peeled.

Eggs are medium (US large).

Mustard seeds are always black unless specified otherwise, although yellow could be substituted.

Sugar is white unless specified otherwise.

Salt is according to preference.

Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) are gluten-free.

In September 2017, my elder daughter, Elissa, returned home to keep me company, as she would whenever my husband was out of town which is much too often. I prepared a meal of her favourite dishes, we enjoyed the meal together, and then she and her younger sister went upstairs to spend some quality sister time together. When I joined them, she said Meemez (her nickname for me), dinner was great. And then exclaimed, Why dont you write a cookbook for the family and the world? We would love to preserve all your wonderful recipes and share them as heirlooms with generations to come.

She gave me a sixty-day deadline to collect all the recipes many of which were tucked away in a big blue Tupperware box in the pantry and created an extensive to-do list to keep me focused. When I gave her a look of desperation, she said Mom, its not that hard. You just need to write two recipes per day and youll be done in two months. Her deadline was cute and funny but also daunting.

Her motivation and enthusiasm for pushing the issue became something I could no longer ignore. I fell in love with the idea that I could leave a legacy for my kids and all the family members and friends who have enjoyed my cooking over the years. Soon, the excitement of writing a book consumed not only myself but my husband, Haresh, my son, Aamir, and the baby of our family, young Ravina who still offers plenty of trendy advice that only a teenager can offer! My labour of culinary love over many years has led to this: a collection of recipes that I am so proud to share with you.

I felt very honoured that my children requested I write a cookbook to preserve all my recipes, and I began to realize how every recipe of mine was so special to my family and friends. They are the products of many years of trial and error; they are a collection of thirty years of flavours I had picked up, extracted and learnt from my travels all over the world. I realized how much I wanted to share Gujarati food with the rest of the world. I am so proud of our deep heritage, identity and traditions, all of which have informed the person I am today. It has become my mission to bring Gujarati cuisine to those outside our beautiful land and to invite readers to discover the wealth of our rich, vibrant culture.

Of course, while we played with the idea for a cookbook only a few years ago, my story with food began much, much earlier

I grew up in Gujarat, a state in western India, as the youngest of five children with a fourteen-year age gap, making me as young as my own nieces and nephews! I had a wonderful, carefree childhood, indulged by my protective and affectionate parents. My father was a magnificent man who was something of a local hero in my community after building a grain-manufacturing empire throughout Vadodara, Surat and Amritsar in Punjab. He was a risk-taker (much like me), but I value another inherited quality even more: his passion for good quality and produce.