Hey there. I'm Vaishali and I am the author and recipe creator at Holy Cow! where I share tasty vegan recipes that anyone--experienced or not--can make quickly and easily. There are more than 1,000 recipes on this blog that I've shared since 2007, and I hope everyone--vegan, vegetarian or omnivore--will find something here that they will love.
Fast Facts about Holy Cow! and me:
- I live in Silver Spring, Maryland, a bustling suburb of Washington, D.C.
- I was born in Bombay, India; when I left it in 1996 to do my master's in the United States it had recently been renamed Mumbai.
- My family is my husband Desi (also the photographer for the blog), my son Jay, and my four divine fur babies, Lily and Leo (dogs) and Billy and Kala (cats).
- Holy Cow! was born on November 28, 2007.
- I called it Holy Cow! because someone needs to call out the hypocrisy--you can't both worship cows and factory-farm them. And because I try to show, through this blog, that Indian food can be just as delicious without the dairy.
- My favorite foods are savory. And they usually have potatoes in them. French fries are especially unsafe around me.
- The foods I cook are healthy and easy and delicious and always free of animal products. Jay has trained me well over the years and most of the recipes you'll find on this blog are both kid- and adult-friendly.
- In my former life I worked as a political journalist navigating political shenanigans in Congress and the Maryland statehouse, and I've worked as a reporter in three countries--India, the United Kingdom and the United States.
- My idea of bliss is spending time with my family or relaxing with a good book or the New York Times crossword. When I cook I listen to old Hindi songs (especially by Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar). I also love bingeing on YouTube videos about simple living and minimalism -- while I am not there yet, I hope to be some day.
- My pet peeve is when people forget the first "r" in turmeric. It's not tumeric, guys, and the first four letters are pronounced just like "term" 😉 And oh, while we're at it, I have one more --it's not a chai tea, it's not a chai latte: a chai is simply a chai. Chai means "tea" in Hindi, and in India, a chai is always made with milk. Calling it a chai tea or a chai latte is like calling an apple pie "an apple pie pastry made with apples". See? Redundant. And I don't care if Starbucks thinks "chai tea" or "chai latte" are right--they aren't.
My Story:
I started to write this food blog in 2007 shortly after becoming a vegan and about four years after going vegetarian. I've loved the alchemy of cooking for as long as I can remember, and I enjoyed eating meat as much as I enjoyed using it in the meals I made for myself and my family.
Until.
Desi and I adopted our great old dog Lucy (scroll down for her picture). Loving her -- and Opie who followed soon after -- as much as I did set me thinking about the complex intelligence of animals. The more I thought about it, the less I wanted to participate in the cruelty of meat production where billions of sentient animals just as sweet and wonderful as my dogs and cats are killed every year. In 2005 I became a vegetarian and two years later I had transitioned to a fully vegan life.
Because of how much I loved food, I challenged myself to create recipes that would taste as good as anything I'd ever cooked or eaten in my past life. Because I loved to write, I thought it would be a great idea to start a food blog to share these recipes with others who were looking for ways to either cut out or cut down on meat.
Today, Holy Cow! reaches millions of readers with original, fresh and healthy recipes that I cook up in my kitchen.
As a mom with a busy schedule, it is important to me that all recipes I create and share are easy, quick, healthy, and hassle-free. This is food we eat in our home every day, food you can cook whether you are a novice or an expert, and food you will love whether you are an omnivore or a vegan or somewhere in between.
You can also be sure that if we don't love a recipe, it won't be here on the blog.
I love to bake, so you'll find lots of recipes for homemade vegan cakes, cookies, pies and breads. Because Indian food is my comfort food, you'll find tons of Indian vegan recipes here. Because I'm mom to a picky preteen, a lot of my recipes are kid-friendly. And because I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, I cook, eat and post many, many gluten-free and soy-free recipes.
I also love experimenting with global cuisines, including Mexican, Italian, and Middle Eastern, and I love to bake, especially bread. All recipes use clean, wholesome, natural ingredients, most of which are already in your pantry. But don't just expect a recipe-- I like telling you the stories behind the food I serve up. You can also expect some chatter about the wonderfulness of animals (especially mine :)).
On this blog you'll find pages and pages dedicated to all the wonderful dogs and cats who have been part of our family, including our current group of furry troublemakers. Leo was rescued from a dog meat farm in Korea and flew halfway around the world to find a home with us, Lily was a street dog rescued from Puerto Rico. Billy, our adorable tuxedo cat, was found roaming the streets of Virginia. Kala Jamoon, our resident black cat, simply wandered off the streets to settle into our hearts and home.
I update Holy Cow! several times each week, so be sure to check back often for updates. You can sign up here to get new recipes by email. And you can follow Holy Cow! on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with what's cooking here.
I love to hear when you make a recipe from this blog, so if you do please leave a comment. Or send me a photo at MyVeganWorld@gmail.com, or post it on Instagram and tag me @HolyCowVegan. If a recipe doesn't work for you and you want to leave your feedback, please do so, but make sure you are polite and offer constructive criticism. Just saying "I didn't like it" doesn't tell me or other readers anything, because we have no idea what you do or don't like and as you know, there's no accounting for taste. 😉
Here are a few links you might find useful:
Recipe Index, where you can browse recipes by photo, date, and category.
Vegan Kid-Friendly Recipes, because over years of cooking for my son, I've picked a trick or two. 😉
If you are a baker, you might also find this link useful: Vegan Baking Substitutes
And read more about my vegan journey here.
She passed away in 2012, but lives in my heart forever. Thank you, Lucy. I love you.
Holy Cow! has featured in:
Many thanks for your recipes! Do you have a recommendation for a small spice grinder?
Hi Judi, I used to have a Braun coffee grinder that I loved for grinding spices. Now I just use my Vitamix which has a blending bowl attachment for smaller spice quantities.
Hi,
A few years ago, you had a recipe for avocado and Swiss chard quesadillas with a tomato chutney that was out of this world. I can’t find the recipe anymore. Any chance you can repost?
Hi Catherine, I deleted it, as I sometimes do with very old recipes, as I thought no one was really using it anymore. I see now I was wrong. 🙂 Anyway, here's the recipe. Hope that helps.
Savory Avocado and Herb Tortillas
Ingredients:
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour (this is important if you want a flaky, crispy tortilla. An all-wheat tortilla will be tasty but will be soft and not quesadilla-like)
1 ripe avocado, peeled, pit removed, then passed through a potato ricer or mashed smooth.
10 mint leaves
1 jalapeno or other fairly hot green pepper
Water for kneading
Salt to taste
Place the flours and salt in a bowl.
In a blender, process the avocado, mint and jalapeno until you have a fairly fine paste. Use water if needed to keep the blender blades running.
Make a well in the flour and pour in the avocado puree. Knead it in with your fingers. Add more water if needed to get a smooth dough. Place in an airtight box and set aside at least half an hour. (Instructions on how to roll the quesadillas follow)
Tomato Chutney with Chipotle
Chipotle is a very Mexican flavor, and here I used it to give an Indian-style tomato chutney a uniquely Mexican avatar.
Ingredients:
6 medium tomatoes, perfectly ripe
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, with 1 tsp of the liquid. Chop the chili really fine. (If you are sensitive to too much heat, cut this down by half or less)
1 small onion, minced
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp garlic powder or adobo seasoning
Coriander for garnish
Oil to spray
Salt to taste
Spray a skillet with oil. Add the onions and the sugar and saute until they start to soften and brown spots appear.
Add the tomatoes and the chipotle chili and sauce. Stir well and cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until the juice from the tomatoes has evaporated. You don’t want a soggy quesadilla, so it is important there is no visible liquid in your chutney.
Turn off the heat and add the chopped cilantro.
Rainbow Chard with Red Peppers
Ingredients:
1 bunch rainbow or green Swiss chard (about 6 large leaves), washed thoroughly and then chopped into thin strips.
1 large red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 tbsp sesame seeds
3 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced
Oil to spray
Spray a skillet with oil. Add the sesame seeds and stir. When they turn a shade darker, add the garlic and toss together for a few seconds.
Add the swiss chard and stir until it begins to reduce.
Add the red bell peppers. Cook, stirring frequently, until the peppers are tender enough but are still bright red and have a bite to them.
Add salt to taste.
To assemble the quesadilla:
Heat a nonstick or cast-iron griddle and spray with some oil.
Divide the avocado tortilla dough into 10 equal pieces and shape each into a smooth ball.
Using a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a tortilla, about 7 inches in diameter.
Place the tortilla on the hot skillet. When bubbles appear, turn over and cook until golden-brown spots appear on the underside.
Flip over again. Place some chard and then some chutney just off the center. Top with some vegan cheese, like vegan mozzarella, if you like.
Flip one half of the quesadilla over the top of the filling and press down with your spatula. Take off the griddle after about 30 seconds.
Cut the quesadilla into halves, or serve as is rightaway.
Hello Vaishali,
I just found your website and have earmarked several recipes to try. I have been a vegan for several years, and had a lot of recipes I loved. However, I recently started to cut out onions, garlic, and mushrooms. I thought I was a decent cook, but am now struggling to make anything palatable. I was wondering if maybe if you are familiar with substitutes for onion and garlic (like asfoedeta) if you could show these kinds of substitutes in your recipes.
Thank you so much for all your recipes.
Hi Geno, that's an interesting challenge--let me see how far I can address it in my upcoming recipes. 🙂 Asafetida is a nice flavor for umami, and works especially well in meat dishes but I am not sure it would always work as a garlic and onion substitute. Putting my mind to it--stay tuned!
Hello Vaishali,
I recently started receiving your recipes and have tried a few. I am having success with them. Most recently I tried the Whole Masoor Dahl and found it dry. You recommended using 1 cup of Brown Lentils. Is that dry or cooked. I used dry and then cooked it and as you know, you get much more. Please provide me with some guidance. Thank you,
Hi Mara,so happy you've enjoyed the recipes. I answered your question on the whole masoor dal question on that very post yesterday, but happy to repeat what I said here: you need 1 cup dry lentils which you will cook first, per the instructions. When you add the cooked lentils to the pot with the other ingredients add a cup of water or vegetable stock. If it's still too dry for your liking you can just add more water or stock and thin it out to your taste (step 5). Hope that helps! 🙂
Hello Vaishali
Thank you so much for your blog & recipes. I come back to them often, because they are really foolproof.
Do you have a cookbook in the pipeline?
Just wondering
Pia
Hi Pia, thanks for the kind words! I don't have a cookbook because I've never had time for one, but I'm soon making a move to full-time blogging and maybe then? 🙂 Stay tuned.
Hello Vaishali,
I am so grateful I found your website. My Husband and I started the plant based diet this year with our two young kids (but old enough to know something is missing). They have liked every recipe I have tried from this site. Today I made the Vegan Dirty Rice dish and they both ate it up. I was wondering if you have a cookbook out?
Thank you for your genius site!
Jennifer
Hi Vaishali,
My husband is trying the banana cake. Let’s see how it comes. He used the plastic cup measure which comes in the basmati rice.
I wonder how the consistency will be. This recipe sounds very healthy not a lot of sugar.
Good luck with the blog. I am going to Send this to my college going daughter who is a gluten free fanatic.
Hi Sumi, hope you and your daughter loved the cake! ❤️
I"m new at glutten free baking and would like to knoe if I plan on the gellette for the next day can i make the dough a day hard of time and just refrigerate until I'm ready to use it
Hello Vaishali, I followed a link, to another and accidentally found your article/recipe for gluten free sourdough starter. The recipe is now on my to-do list this week, but what prompted me was your disclosure that you are dealing with hypothyroidism. My endo has suggested that I go GF to see if my situation improves.
Can you share how long you have been GF, and if you believe that this dietary change has helped you. I am hoping to feel better over time (its only been 2 months without gluten now) and it would be encouraging to hear from someone on this journey. Thank you for being out there , be well!
Hi Marlene, I am not exclusively GF. I do eat gluten on and off simply because with a busy schedule I have been unable to go entirely gf, so unfortunately I can't offer very good advice on this. I would say however that when I am gf for a stretch it does seem to help improve my weight loss goals and my mood.
I am sorry I can't be of more help. I wish you well on your gluten-free journey.
I'm so happy to have discovered this blog! You and I seem to be mirror images of one another: I'm American, but moved to New Delhi in 1995 when my daughter was five weeks old and I was still recovering from a c-section (very long story). I ended up back in the US two years later, but Indian food was and remains my own comfort food. Also: thanks for posting your pics of the Rally to Restore Sanity -- I was there, like you, unable to get anywhere near the stage ... but the audience was actually the show!
Hi Kathleen, so lovely to "meet" you! And congratulations on surviving the madness of Delhi. 🙂 You brought back some great memories of the rally to restore sanity. How far we have come since then.
HI Vaishali, I came across your recipes as I have been transitioning to a whole food plant based diet. I have gone back and forth over the years between vegetarian diets, and regular diet (meat eater), but sometimes found it hard to keep up because it seems harder to create "complete meals". (I grew up in P.R. so the fact that you have a dog from there warms my heart. I had 2 doggies myself, and I love animals. Perhaps I'll share more in an email more about my own journey). Following a vegan diet has been easier than I thought, but of course it's more time consuming as I make everything at home now. I am excited about that but I too work FT and sometimes feel overwhelmed. I have made both the Vegan Gingerbread cake. I loved it but mine came out a bit too soft, perhaps more flour next time. Today I made the Vegan pancakes and I LOVE THEM!!, yay. The are moist which is key. I have made other ones but they come out to dry. Thank you for sharing your talent. I love food, and nutrition; and currently I am trying to figure out how and where I can share this with other enthusiasts. I am in the healthcare field, and I believe good nutrition is super important for good health. Thank you
P.S. I love Indian food, since I am from P.R. I am used to spicy foods and I love it.
Hi Sharon, what a lovely message--thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on transitioning to a vegan diet and your doggies. My Puerto Rico rescue, Lily, is the love of my life. ❤️ I am happy to hear you've loved the recipes too, and happy we share our love for good nutrition. Keep rocking!
Love your recipes and philosophy on sentient beings.
Thanks, Rags. 🙂 ❤️
Hi Vaishali,
I am a long time reader of your blog. My all-time favorite recipe is the "vegan dal makhani" which I make perhaps every two weeks!!
I have a question which is tangentially related. I want to adopt a dog and a cat, but I am morally conflicted about what I should feed them. Since you have had four-footed family members for a while, would you mind sharing what you feed them? I would appreciate any pointers you could provide.
Hi Deb, My dogs are not vegan--I feed them regular dog food. Some vegans might jump at me for saying this, but I've struggled with the idea of transitioning them to a vegan diet because they live to eat, and I can see they love eating animal-based foods far more so than vegetable based ones, which they will rarely touch. It's hard to impose my morality on them, although it is certainly also hard to ignore the fact that animals in dog food go through the same kinds of horrors that animals used for human food go through. When I give my dogs meat, I make sure I buy meat from animals treated humanely.
Research on vegan diets for dogs is mixed--there are lots of sources that say carefully designed vegan diets can work well for dogs while others say they require at least some animal fat and protein. I know a few people whose dogs eat a solely vegan diet and the dogs look fine and happy to me. There are vegan brands of dog food available at pet stores, if you decide to go that way.
Thank you so much for your reply, Vaishali!! You kind of echoed the thought process I have been through over time. Your words have helped me make a decision, and I will be adding to my family soon.
Thanks once again.
I found your site because we have lots of new friends who are either Vegetarian or Vegan and I was looking for more diversity in our cooking. SO happy to have found your recipes. Our favorite so far is:
Vegan African Peanut Stew with Eggplant and Okra. The only thing I added was a little acidity by including some lime leaves during the final 10 min of cooking time. I also enjoy being introduced to new spices, i.e. Fenugreek seeds. Wishing you a happy holiday season.
Hi Karin, so happy you enjoyed the peanut stew--one of my favorites too! 🙂 A very happy new year to you.
Hi Vaishali,
Love all your recipes! I eat plant based and do not use oil for cooking and I find your recipes taste great without the added oil. I recently saw a few videos pop up and they look fun but I am not able to find them on the website unless I open a recipe and then it is too distracting. Any chance you could put it up on you website under video? Just a suggestion.
Hi Sanaya, you can always X out of the videos if you don't want them sticking to the bottom of your screen. I think it's a good idea to have a separate tab for the videos but I've only posted 2 so far, so will prob wait a bit before doing that. Thanks!
Love your receipes. Hoping that you have or will create a recipe for steamed chocolate pudding.
I love the sound of that. Putting it on my list! Thanks for the suggestion.
I just made the Olive oil vegan brioche bread and it's amazing I'm using it in a recipe for Thanksgiving to make vegan bread pudding..
Lisa, so happy to hear! 🙂
Hi Vashali,
I googled South Indian Chickpea recipe and came across yours so decided to give it a try and used up my left over fresh aubergine.
The result is pretty good and I enjoyed the dish very much. Thank you for the lovely recipe.
It reminded me of the chickpea curry that my lodger used to cook to eat with his dosas
I am looking forward to trying some of your other recipes.
So happy to hear, Angie. 🙂
Hello Vaishali, I just discovered your blog and want to thank you for sharing your world view and wonderful recipes! I made lemon rice and cabbage thoran --how delicious! I too am a long term vegan and had a career in animal behavior science for 33 years. I don't understand how
humans can continue to exploit these beautiful, sentient beings. No creature deserves to be born to this kind of horrifying existence ! Maybe our new president will make headway, given the new pandemic task force. I noticed Cory Booker has taken this on. Anyway, I look forward to exploring your recipes, most likely, we'll be serving lots of cabbage a la Holy ! Regards, Sherry in Meres Point, Maine
Thanks for the kind words, Sherry, and couldn't agree more! It's time we moved away from exploiting animals and our diets are a great way to start. 🙂
I just made you vegan lasagna, my first time. I thought it came out really good. Ty
So happy to hear, Wendy!
Wow......you are such beautiful, sensitive soul. Thank you for sharing with us. Our son is dating a beautiful, sensitive soul like you, who is also influencing me to more and more avoid animal products.....not only for the cruelty involved, but for health reasons also. God bless you.
Thanks for your kind words, Paula. ❤️❤️
Hi,
Do you have any recommendations for indian desserts using vegan ricotta cheese?
Thanks
Monali
Hi Monali, you can find all my Indian vegan dessert recipes here: https://holycowvegan.net/vegan-indian-sweets/
Hello Vaishali..
thanks for posting some awesome recipes. My family and I have enjoyed making and eating many of your recipes. One favorite. Is the sundried tomato chutney, which seems to be no longer in the blog. Would you mind sharing it again, please? I apologize if you are seeing this request twice .. posting issues😀
Thank you, Paddy
Hi Paddy, here you go. So happy you've enjoyed the recipes!
Sundried Tomato Chutney
Ingredients
½ cup thick coconut milk
6 sundried tomatoes (I used ones that are packed in olive oil and they are really moist. If you are using dry sundried tomatoes, soak them in a little water for at least half an hour to soften them)
1 large clove of garlic , chopped
2 green chilies (adjust to your taste)
Salt to taste
Instructions
Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend into a smooth paste. Serve with the Brown Rice Uthappam.