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When my grandmother first explained why our family avoided onion and garlic during certain months, she pointed to her temple and said, “Food feeds more than your stomach, beta.” At eight years old, watching her prepare elaborate meals without these two ingredients that seemed essential to every other kitchen in our Mumbai neighbourhood, I thought she was making cooking unnecessarily difficult. Twenty-three...

My neighbour Priya knocked on my door last Tuesday evening, holding a packet of hing and looking completely defeated. Her mother-in-law had moved in, following strict Sattvic principles, and suddenly every recipe Priya knew seemed to revolve around those two forbidden ingredients. “Everything tastes like boiled vegetables,” she whispered, as if admitting culinary failure. She’s not alone. Across India in 2026, millions...

My neighbour Priya threw away an entire batch of sambar last week. Not because it was burnt or oversalted, but because she’d accidentally added garlic to what was supposed to be her first attempt at no onion no garlic cooking. The look of genuine distress on her face surprised me more than her mistake—this wasn’t just about following a recipe. This was...

My grandmother used to hide a small piece of hing (asafoetida) in her kitchen like it was precious gold. "This tiny pinch," she'd whisper while tempering dal, "does what a whole onion tries to do." She was probably exaggerating, but after decades of Sattvic cooking, I've realised she wasn't entirely wrong. The no onion, no garlic cooking style isn't some modern dietary...

Last Tuesday evening, I watched my neighbour’s eight-year-old daughter eagerly slurp down a bowl of what looked like regular noodles while exclaiming they were “better than Maggi.” The twist? These were foxtail millet noodles, completely free of refined wheat, and prepared following strict Sattvic principles—no onion, no garlic, yet bursting with flavour that had this young food critic completely convinced. This scene...

Last Tuesday evening, I watched my neighbour Priya throw her perfectly good foxtail millet noodles into boiling water like they were regular wheat pasta. Fifteen minutes later, she was staring at a mushy, nutrient-depleted mess, wondering why everyone raves about millet’s health benefits. The texture resembled overcooked vermicelli from a roadside stall, and most of the magnesium and B-vitamins had probably leached...