Lord Krishna’s Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking

If you can only afford to purchase one cookbook, you should seriously consider this one. Forget cookbook – try encyclopedia. More than just recipes, this is a veritable course in the art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking. With Lord Krishna’s Cuisine, Yamuna devi presents us with a feast for the eyes, for the tongue and for the spirit.

If you lost all your other cookbooks and only had this one left, you might never need another. The depth and breadth of Lord Krishna’s Cuisine will inspire everyone who reads it to start cooking.

In the introduction, Yamuna tells us how her involvement with the Indian vegetarian lifestyle began. It was in 1966, when she was invited to her sister’s wedding. Both the sister and her fiancée were studying the Bhagavad Gita with Srila Prabhupada and were to be married in New York.

Arriving a few days before the wedding, Yamuna devi was asked by Srila Prabhupada to assist with the cooking. He said it was the custom for family members to assist. “My planned two week stay in New York lengthened to nearly three months,” Yamuna writes. “Looking back, when I first climbed the stairs to Prabhupada’s apartment, I could never have imagined the treasure of transcendental philosophy, music, art and cuisine that awaited me. On and off over the next eight years I was fortunate enough to serve has his personal cook.”

There are hundreds of recipes to choose from here in an enticing variety of categories: Rice, dhal, breads, vegetables, dairy-based dishes, salads, chutneys, sauces and relishes, light meals, snacks, sweets, and beverages.

Each recipe category starts with an essay on the subject. Take the bread chapter for example. It opens with an essay describing the different categories of bread, types of flour, dough-making techniques, and cooking hints, before it hands you no less than twenty-nine bread recipes. Many chapters could be separate cookbooks in themselves.

Flip to the back of Lord Krishna’s Cuisine, and you’ll find an A-Z of general information which covers diverse topics including menu planning, recipe conversions, unfamiliar ingredients, procedures and techniques.

This book is the piece de resistance, the dessert of all cookbooks. If you’re not convinced yet, take a moment to imagine royal pudding with chenna cheese, creamy almond and rice dessert; melt in your mouth fudge and pretzels in saffron syrup. These are just a few of the sweets you will enjoy after a mouth watering lunch, dinner, or breakfast drawn from the world of Lord Krishna’s Cuisine.

Get your copy of Lord Krishna’s cuisine at Krishna.com.