cooking for Krsna | The Hare Krishna Movement

Kṛṣṇa Prasādam; The Lord’s Mercy

16 Sep 2012 2 Comments

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Practicing Krishna Consciousness at Home, Prasadam, Vegetarian Cooking, Vegetarianism Tags: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, cooking for Krsna, Krsna prasadam, Lord's mercy, Prasadam, service of the lord, Srila Prabhupada, vegetarian cooking, vegetarianism

…By development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness one can know that everything has its use in the service of the Lord.

…After cooking is finished and when it is offered to the Deity, then you take as much as you like, as much as you like. So that means there is God consciousness, that “This thing is being cooked for the Lord.” The cooking will go on. If you don’t think of God, you require cooking because you want to eat. The cooking is there in the program. But if you think that this cooking is done for God, then your God consciousness is there. The cooking you cannot avoid. As a householder you have to cook for yourself, you have to cook for your children, you have to cook for somebody else or for your own self. Just like I am cooking. I have no here family or children, but I am cooking for myself. So cooking you cannot stop. But if you cook with the understanding that “This foodstuff is being cooked for the Lord. The Lord may be offered first; then we shall take,” this is God consciousness. This is God consciousness. But is it very difficult thing? Anyone can accept this.” (Srila Prabhupada Lecture on Bhagavad-Gita, 04-01-66, New York)

…So on the higher platform, there is nothing material when everything is accepted in relationship with Krishna or the Supreme Spirit.

1970’s Devotee Cookbook

03 Aug 2012 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Prasadam, Vegetarian Cooking, Vegetarian Recipies, Vegetarianism Tags: cookbook manuscript, cooking for Krsna, devotee cookbook, Hare Krishna recipes, Iskcon, Prasadam, prasadam pastimes, Revatinanda dasa, Srila Prabhupada, The Hare Krishna Movement, vegetarian cooking, vegetarian recipes, vegetarianism

Ran across this fine devotee cookbook on the Sampradaya Sun this morning, and thought we should share it with our readers. The recipes did in fact remind us of the early “love feasts”, and devotee diet in the early days of the Hare Krishna Movement. Very Nice!

1970’s Devotee Cookbook
BY: SUN STAFF
Aug 02, 2012 — CANADA (SUN) —

The following cookbook manuscript, which contains a wonderful collection of vintage Hare Krsna recipes, was handed to us several years ago by a devotee, who’d been carrying an old photocopy of it around for many years. While the manuscript doesn’t bear the author’s name, we’re told that it was likely compiled in the early 1970’s by Revatinanda dasa.

A bit of the text was illegible, but the manuscript is reproduced below. Obviously the cookbook was written while Srila Prabhupada was still physically present. Judging from the language and recipes, our best guess is that it’s circa 1972-73. The recipes will be pleasurably familiar to devotees who remember the wonderful prasadam pastimes in ISKCON temples during the ‘early days’.

Devotee Cookbook

“This is a very limited presentation of recipes for prasadam offerings that I have become practiced in preparing over the last few years. The ingredients and basic techniques used in the preparations are according to parampara tradition. Whether the details are as Srila Prabhupada would have exactly instructed, I do not know, but I have experienced on many occasions that He has been pleased by some of these exact preparations. Also I have experienced that devotees especially, and usually karmies (non-devotees) as well, are very much attracted by my preparations. For these reasons – to increase the attractiveness of our offerings to Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, and to increase the satisfaction of both the devotees and karmies with the prasadam they take to purify their existence – I have prepared this small cook-book. It is simply an offering of one devotee’s experience in the matter of prasadam preparation.

Basic Cooking Ingredients

14 Jul 2011 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in The Hare Krsna Cookbook, Vegetarian Cooking Tags: basic cooking ingredients, cooking for Krsna, Krsna prasadam, The Hare Krsna Cookbook, vegetarian cooking

The Hare Krsna Cookbook
Chapter One

Basic Cooking Ingredients

In the Vedic scriptures it is stated that the Supreme Lord has provided ample varieties of food-stuffs for all living creatures and that one should take only that which is allotted to him by the Lord, not more. For Humanity the Lord has set aside simple foods such as grains, vegetables, fruit and milk products and He has requested that we offer Him such pure and nourishing foods. In this way, there are hundred and thousands of palatable dishes that may be prepared and then offered to Lord Krishna.

Listed below are some of the ingredients most commonly used in preparing Krsna prasadam.

white flour (unbleached if available)
whole mung beans *
chick-pea flour, somtimes called besan or gram flour *
whole chick-peas
yellow split peas
split, cleaned urad dahl *
split, claned mung dahl *
powdered milk
almonds (raw and shelled)
walnuts (raw and shelled)
peanuts (raw and shelled)
white rice flour *
sugar

Most of these ingredients are readily abailable from regular grocery stores. The items marked was asterisks would more likely be found at Chinese food stores or Indian specialty stores.

Note; There are of course many more key ingredients, but it is our humble attempt to present “The Hare Krsna Cookbook” the way it was written back in 1973. Next post will be on Spices, which are the jewels of cooking for Krsna.