Cooking
Prasādam recipes
The dishes served at any temple, to make at home. All of them are vegetarian and contain no onion or garlic. With these six you can already put together a complete meal.
Serves 4 · 45 min
Kicharī with rice, mung dal and vegetables
Rice and lentils cooked together until creamy. The simplest and most comforting dish in Vaishnava cooking.
See the recipe →Serves 4 · 45 min
Spiced lentil dāl
The thick lentil soup that goes with rice at every temple meal.
See the recipe →Serves 6 · 25 min
Semolina halavā
The sweet of semolina toasted in butter that is handed out at every temple. Ready in twenty minutes.
See the recipe →Makes 10 · 45 min
Chapātī, the everyday flatbread
Unleavened wholemeal bread cooked in a pan. Three ingredients and a little practice.
See the recipe →Serves 4 · 35 min
Potato and cauliflower sabjī
Spiced stewed vegetables: the everyday dish, made with one of the best-loved combinations.
See the recipe →Serves 6 · 70 min
Sweet rice (kṣīra)
Rice cooked very slowly in milk until creamy. Devotees say it is Krishna’s favourite sweet.
See the recipe →The basic store cupboard
With these at home you can make almost any recipe in this cuisine:
- Ghī: clarified butter. It takes high heat without burning and gives the characteristic flavour. Butter or oil can be used instead.
- Asafoetida (hing): a strong-smelling powdered resin that, once cooked, recalls onion and garlic. A pinch is enough.
- Split mung dal: yellow mung lentils, skinned. They cook quickly and are very easy to digest.
- Whole spices: cumin seeds and black mustard seeds, fried at the start to release their aroma.
- Ground spices: turmeric, coriander and cardamom.
- Fresh ginger and fresh coriander.
You will find them in Indian or Asian grocers, and more and more in large supermarkets.
Before serving, remember that the food is first offered to Krishna. We explain how in Prasādam: sanctified food.