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Eat to health
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“Everyday Vegetarian Cooking” provides easy, tasty, and healthy recipes
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HEALTHY TOME The book focusses on nutrition
Tasty food that is healthy as well. That is the aspiration of every homemaker. “A Delicious Guide to Healthy Eating”, by Meenakshi Kumari aims at fulfilling that ambition. The book was recently released by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Diks
hit at Oxford Bookstore. This Rupa publication is more than a recipe book. It explains the science behind cooking. Through rich detail, food is transformed from a mere dish to the sum of our health. Kumari said, at the launch, that with junk food replacing nutritional food, there is a need for a book like this.
Confessing, “I am not a cook at all,” Dikshit added, “The most important person in my life is always a cook.” She was panic stricken when she had to first move to Cambridge. “How do you boil an egg,” was her first question to her cook. “What temperature should the fire be,” was her next query.
She acknowledged that necessity is the mother of invention. Pastries cooked in an oven, she discovered, came out like the famous paranthas of Agra.
Cooking is a science
While accidents can be providential, the book shows that cooking is a science as well as an art. A business studies graduate, the author said, “I was handling finance for a multi-national. I didn’t realise that food requires so much knowledge!”
When she married she was unfamiliar with the kitchen. But having time, resources and a husband who was fond of eating, she started to explore the world of food. Seeing health problems in her own family, she realised that the nutritional aspect had to be investigated as well.
Today she uses home remedies to save her family from visits to the doctor. Throat and body ache are cured with asafoetida in water. Stomach pains are dispelled with ajwain in water. While spices don’t have nutritional aspects per se, they have medicinal values and are essential for health. Kumari explained, “If food is not tasty enough, glands will not secrete enough juices for digestion.”
Having started work in 2001, she worked on the manuscript for six years. The effort is evident in the attention to detail and density of information.
Currently she is taking a break from the labour that went into this book. “One has to write from the heart, otherwise there is no point in writing,” she added.
Also present at the launch was Chef B. Dean, the Executive Chef of the Park Hotel, Delhi. He lent his support to the book, adding, “This book has great elements to stay healthy. We are forgetting the slogan ‘Jaan hai to jahan hai’.”
NANDINI NAIR
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