There’s nothing like a good cookbook. Especially one created to help us cook, offer, and eat our food in Krishna consciousness. Eating for Enlightenment is a new cookbook which is available to download for free as a PDF file.

The following words are from the first chapter: “Eating nourishes the body. Different foods affect the mind in different ways, calming or invigorating it, and when the food is properly prepared and of the right quality of consciousness it also nourishes the soul. Nothing tastes as good as a ‘home-cooked meal,’ and that’s because of the consciousness, and above all else, the love that goes into it. Cooking as an act of devotion purifies the mind of both the cook and the persons who partake of the meal.”

Eating for Enlightenment

It was His Holiness Devamrita Swami who first suggested the idea of producing Eating for enlightenment. Sitapati das helped create the cookbook and offers it as a free download on his web site.

“There are a number of Hare Krishna cookbooks, but they are mainly traditional Indian recipes. This is the cuisine that has been traditionally associated with the Hare Krishna movement in the West, but it's certainly not the extent of our culinary contribution,” Sitapati says.

“In Bhagavad-gita Krishna describes food in the mode of goodness as being ‘juicy, fatty, and prolonging of life’. Many people have health issues such as gluten or dairy intolerance, health concerns such as low fat, food combination, and nutritional balancing, and ethical concerns about the source and environmental impact of ingredients,” he says.

“We've developed a style of sattvic and conscious cooking that takes these factors into account,” Sitapati says. “Devamrita Swami suggested compiling a cookbook of these recipes, which really represent a further evolution of our tradition in contact with the modern world. Just as the art of the BBT has been recognised as creating a new school, by fusing traditional Vaisnava themes with Western techniques, Eating for Enlightenment is the initial effort to compile recipes that represent the "new-school ISKCON kitchen".

The compilation was a team effort. “We would pass scraps of paper back and forth,” Sitapati said. “I was the main bottle neck, because once they'd written the recipes down I had to put them into a computer and lay the document out.”

The book needed a title. “We thought about Food for Love,” Sitapati says,“and Eat to Live. Eventually we settled on Eating for Enlightenment, because that's the effect of both eating food in the mode of goodness and taking prasadam. Also, it recognises that what you eat affects your consciousness. Did you know that the consciousness of the cook affects the consciousness of the eater?"

In Eating for Enlightenment you will find recipes for Thai green curry, Vegetarian shepards pie, crunchy sweet and sour salad, as well as pesto pasta, and lentil tabouli salad. Don’t worry you will also find banana, date and carrot muffins, dream cookies, carrot cake and much more.

The cookbook is a work in motion and it's opensource. “We’re happy to include recipes from anyone else in the new school who wants to share the love.” Sitapati says. “Send them to me at sitapati@worldsankirtan.net, with a note that you license them for use under CC BY-SA. Copyright remains with you and we'll credit you as an author.

Sitapati dasa is a devotee of Krishna. He writes a blog called www.atmayogi.com.

Click to here to download your copy of Eating for enlightenment.

Click here to see previous entries in The Kitchen.

There are currently no posts in this category.