![]() Take chickpea flour, for example - an innocuous and cheap supermarket ingredient, but with a Gujarati sleight of hand it is transformed into a variety of dishes of different textures and forms - from the gossamer-like chickpea bread dhokla studded with sesame and mustard seeds, to a silken handkerchief-like pasta called khandvi. It's a food lab of the most magnificent proportions.The kind that Rene Redzepi and Ferran Adria could only dream of, where each ingredient has been tested, cooked and stretched to its limits over many years. You can see it on the streets, in homes, restaurants and temples. This limitation has encouraged constant creativity. Meera Sodha: 'The spirit of Gujarat exists in most aspects of my daily life: I think like a Gujarati, I speak Gujarati and day in, day out, I cook Gujarati food.' Photograph: Elena Heatherwick/Guardian This is the way it has been for centuries, so it is a way of life rather than a choice: restaurants there are not "vegetarian restaurants", but simply "restaurants". Nearly all of Gujarat's 62 million inhabitants are vegetarian because of the age-old Hindu and Jain principal of ahimsa, which means "non-violence" to all living things. But there is one thing about Gujarat that marks it out from the rest of India: its incredible ingenuity with food, and with veg in particular. It might have been the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi and Narendra Modi but it's not as sexy as Rajasthan with its maharajahs and grand palaces, and it can't boast perfect winter sun beaches like Goa. Patel is Gujarati) than restaurateurs (a trade that's dominated by Bengalis and Bangladeshis). This may be because, as a group, we are quiet and industrious, more inclined to become accountants and corner-shop owners (Mr. It's one of the most interesting gastromonic regions in India. Little is commonly known about Gujarat in the UK, despite the fact there are hundreds of thousands of Gujaratis here. ![]() Although I've never lived there, the spirit of this place exists in most aspects of my daily life: I think like a Gujarati, I speak Gujarati and day in, day out, I cook Gujarati food. At the start and heart of every story is a place called Gujarat. And while my own family has lost most of its material possessions over the years, our stories have been kept intact through recipes and food. Sometimes it's a series of handwritten letters or boxes of strange objects in the attic, occasionally it's drawn up in a family tree. ![]() Here she shares with us a treasured Gujarati family recipe for stuffed baby aubergines passed down through countless generations.Ĭharting a family history can take many forms. New resident columnist Meera Sodha visited Gujarat - where vegetarian cuisine is king - to explore her Indian roots. ![]()
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