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.
- My day job (I still have one) is at one of the world's largest animal protection nonprofit organizations. This food blog is not related to my job. Before I got involved in animal protection professionally, I was a 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 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 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 by 2007 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 working mom, 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 [email protected], 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 it's 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 List featuring nearly 1,000 recipes and photographs that have appeared so far on this blog.
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:
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.
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!
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/