My Mother's Ayurvedic Kitchen
Honoring three generations of women and their adaptations to Gujarati cuisine for food sustainability
Written with Lata Nathwani. When patients ask what they should eat to get better, the answer is never simply "eat the recipes in my cookbook." Diet is critical to health, yet nourishing the body is about much more than nutrient composition and avoiding the foods labeled bad.
This book began with the recipes my mother, Lata Nathwani, cooked for our family, and with the recipes her mother cooked before her. Each of us learned Gujarati home cooking in a different kitchen, with different ingredients on hand, and each of us adapted it to fit. Those adaptations are the heart of the book.
Ayurveda has never asked anyone to eat a fixed list of foods. It asks us to understand the qualities of what we eat and to choose with the person, the season and the place in mind. A recipe written in one part of the world may need a different grain, a different green or a gentler hand with the spices somewhere else, and that change is part of the tradition rather than a departure from it. The book offers substitutions throughout, so the dishes can be made sustainably with what grows and sells where you live.
Inside are everyday meals rather than special-occasion dishes, the kind of food that appears on a Gujarati table on an ordinary day. Each recipe is a starting point. Adjust it to your digestion and your constitution, and let it become your own.