vegetarian recipes | The Hare Krishna Movement

Sweet Rice

13 Feb 2022 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in sweet rice, Vegetarian Recipies Tags: Prasadam, sweet rice, vegetarian cooking, vegetarian recipes

With the advent of Lord Nityananda’s appearance day coming up on on Monday February 14th, I am already planing the feast we will offer. One of my personal favorite preparations that is usually offered on festival days is sweet rice. It should be chilled before offering so I have decided to cook it today (Sunday) so it can chill in refrigerator overnight. The following recipe is from the original The Hare Krishna Cookbook.

Sweet Rice III

1/4 cup white or Basmati rice

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 gallon milk

15 whole cardamom pods (opt.)

Cook all the rice with one cup of milk for about 20 minutes until soft. Then add the cardamom pods. Gradually, add the remaining amount of milk, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon over the next hour or two over low heat. Before you remove the sweet rice from heat, add the sugar and stir untill the sugar is completely absorbed. (if cardamom pods were used, remove them before sweet rice cools) Place sweet rice in refrigerator and offer when very cold.

Note: Do not cook sweet rice in an aluminum pot.

Eggless Pumpkin Pie

25 Nov 2021 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in eggless pumpkin pie, Vegetarian Cooking, Vegetarian Recipies Tags: eggless pumpkin pie, thanksgiving recipe, vegetarian cooking, vegetarian recipes

Today in the West people are celebrating “Thanksgiving”. So we are posting a traditional Thanksgiving recipe; Pumpkin Pie (without the eggs). I have been making egg-less pies for the last 39 years, and have tried many different variations. I use 2 tablespoons of sour cream instead of 2 eggs, and one year I used Philadelphia cream cheese instead of evaporated milk, all with good success.

If you want to do everything yourself, there is the do it yourself recipe for a “homemade” pie crust, pumpkin puree, spicing, and sweetened whipped cream.

Ingredients:

Basic Chapati Recipe

14 Apr 2020 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in chapati, Vegetarian Recipies, Vegetarianism Tags: basic vegetarian recipes, cooking for Krishna, vegerarian cooking, vegetarian recipes, vegetarianism

With all this extra time at home, I have been spending more time in the kitchen. Instead of the quick meal that often took place after a long days work, we are finding renewed pleasure in going through our vegetarian cookbooks and planning nice well balanced meals. One thing we have been eating more of is chapatis. They go well with almost every vegetable dish, are easy to prepare, and are a healthy alternative to bread which usually contains yeast.

From The Hare KRSNA Cookbook 1972

Basic Chapati
1 cup Whole Weat Flour
1/4 cup Melted Butter
Warm water

Mix the flour and water together, adding water gradually until dough is soft but not wet, and can be kneaded. Knead the dough until it’s fairly soft (8 to 10 minutes). Cover and let dough rest for one hour. Sprinkle flour on rolling area and makes 1-1/2 inch balls out of dough. Flatten balls and roll out to about 4-5″ diameter. Place the chapati on a heated skillet (dry, free from oil) and cook until bubbles appear. Turn chapati quickly and let cook until bubbles appear again. Using tongs, remove chapati from pan, and hold over an open flame or burner to make it puff up. Heat it first on the side that was first cooked. You can lay directly on the burner for a brief moment, but don’t let it stick. When chapati puffs up, turn quickly and repeat on other side till it puffs. Remove, butter both sides, and cover with a clean cloth to keep in heat while remaining chapatis are cooked.

Eggless Tapioca Pudding

24 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Vegetarian Cooking, Vegetarian Recipies, Vegetarianism Tags: cooking without eggs, eggless cooking, eggless tapioca pudding, Ekadashi, Tapioca Pudding, thanksgiving, vegetarian cooking, vegetarian recipes

This morning I was thinking what to cook for a Thanksgiving Offering. There was some confusion on the two calendars we have, because one said that today was Ekadashi (fasting day from grains and beans) and the other gave an alternate date of tomorrow for our location. But I decided to play it safe and observe Ekadashi with my menu planning. I decided it would be good to make a nice Tapioca Pudding (without eggs).

The beauty of this tapioca pudding is that it is egg-less and it does not need baking. It is cooked right on stove top with just three main ingredients: tapioca, milk and sugar. Just like that it tastes good but often it is further embellished with cashews, saffron and cardamom. Or you can use seasonal fruits to garnish.

Eggless Tapioca Pudding

1/2 cup tapioca
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

* Combine tapioca, milk & sugar in a medium/large saucepan and let sit for 5 minutes.

* Bring to a slow boil over medium high heat. Stir the milk and tapioca and sugar frequently to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the container. It thickens as it cooks but will still be a liquid.

* Remove from heat and add vanilla.

* Cardamom (optional), Saffron (optional), and Cashews (optional)

* Stir & allow to cool. It thickens as it cools.

Makes 8-10 servings

Note: Two tablespoons of tapioca for a cup of milk will give you a fairly thick pudding. If you want yours thin, use less tapioca or more milk. Same goes for sugar.

Kachori Recipes

14 Dec 2014 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Kachori, Vegetarian Cooking, Vegetarianism Tags: deep fried in ghee, flaky dough, ghee, kachoris, pastry with filling, poori, puris, sunday feast, vegetarian, vegetarian cookbook, vegetarian cooking, vegetarian recipes

Kachoris Recipes

Today being Sunday, and with the weather cold and wet, I decided to stay indoors and practice my cooking, by learning how to cook Kachoris, which is basically a pastry with filling, for the Lord. I have never actually made them before, although I have eaten countless kachoris at various feasts. So I searched for some recipes in our cookbooks and on the Internet and found a nice selection of recipes for different types of Kachoris at harekrsna.com. So I have posted many nice Kachori recipes or variations, and will pick one to cook today for our Sunday Feast.

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.

Vegetarian Health and Nutrition

03 Dec 2011 5 Comments

by The Hare Krishna Movement in The Hare Krsna Cookbook, Vegetarian Cooking, Vegetarianism Tags: Hare Krishna Movement, vegetarian cooking, vegetarian health and nutrition, vegetarian recipes, vegetarian times, vegetarianism

Vegetarian Health and Nutrition
From the book “The Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking”
By Adiraja Dasa

“Can a vegetarian diet improve or restore health? Can it prevent certain diseases?

Advocates of vegetarianism have said yes for many years, although they didn’t have much support from modern science until recently. Now, medical researchers have discovered evidence of a link between meat-eating and such killers as heart disease and cancer, so they’re giving vegetarianism another look.

Since the 1960s, scientists have suspected that a meat-based diet is somehow related to the development of arteriosclerosis and heart disease. As early as 1961, the Journal of the American Medical Association said: “Ninety to ninety-seven percent of heart disease can be prevented by a vegetarian diet.” Since that time, several well-organized studies have scientifically shown that after tobacco and alcohol, the consumption of meat is the greatest single cause of mortality in Western Europe, the United States, Australia, and other affluent areas of the world.

Eggless Pumpkin Pie Recipe

24 Nov 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Vegetarian Cooking Tags: Divine Taste, eggless pumpkin pie, vegetarian, vegetarian cooking, vegetarian recipes, vegetarian Thanksgiving

Eggless Pumpkin Pie

Eggless Pumpkin Pie Recipe
By: Divine Taste

This recipe called for freshly-ground whole allspice berries. Since I didn’t have them on hand, I substituted it with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and dry ginger.

Ingredients:

For the crust:
• 140 gm (1 cup) unbleached plain flour
• 1/3 cup cold butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5-7 tablespoons cold water

For the filling

• 2 cups (500 ml) Pumpkin puree
• 400g, 1 1/4 cups, sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly-grated nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Prepare the crust:

Mix the flour with the salt and cut the cold butter into the flour using a pastry blender or with your fingers until you get coarse breadcrumbs. Alternatively, combine the flour, butter and salt in a food processor and process with 12-15 short bursts until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Put in the cold water and form into a soft dough. Do not handle the dough more than required at this stage. Gather the dough into a ball and chill well for an hour or two. Place the dough on a floured surface. Roll out the dough to a circle, approximately 12″ in diameter to line a 22.5cm (9-inch) pie dish or tart pan with removable bottom. Prepare the edges and chill while you prepare the filling.

Prepare the filling:
For the pumpkin puree:

Cut the pumpkin into wedges. Scoop out the seeds, pith and fibre with the help of a spoon. Pre heat the oven to 350F/180C/4G. Place the pumpkin wedges cut side down on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour or until the pumpkin is tender when pierced with a knife. Scoop flesh out of the skins and puree with a hand blender or mash well by hand.

To make the pie:

Pre-heat the oven to 200 C/390 F. In a bowl, mix in the pumpkin puree, condensed milk, cornflour, spices and salt and beat until there are no lumps. Spoon the filling into the chilled crust and level with the help of a palette knife. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the filling is set and the top crust is a nice golden brown. Allow to cool, cut into wedges and serve with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or sweetened yogurt.

Pasted from http://www.divinetaste.com/archives/eggless-pumpkin-pie/

Spiritual Food

16 Aug 2011 1 Comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Bhagavad-gita, The Hare Krishna Movement, Vegetarian Cooking, Vegetarianism Tags: bhagavad-gita, spiritual food, The Hare Krishna Movement, vegetarian cookbook, vegetarian cooking, vegetarian recipes, vegetarianism

Spiritual Food

The Hare Krishna’s are famous for their delicious vegetarian food. Get a cookbook from The Hare Krishna Movement today, and begin your journey into the joys of cooking foods in the mode of goodness.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is
Macmillan 1972 Edition
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter 17 The Divisions of Faith
Text 8-10

Foods in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such nourishing foods are sweet, juicy, fattening and palatable. Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, pungent, dry and hot, are liked by people in the modes of passion. Such foods cause pain, distress, and disease. Food cooked more than three hours before being eaten, which is tasteless, stale, putrid, decomposed and unclean, is food liked by people in the mode of ignorance.

PURPORT

Thc purpose of food is to increase the duration of life, purify the mind and aid bodily strength. This is its only purpose. In the past, great authorities selected those foods that best aid health and increase life’s duration, such as milk products, sugar, rice, wheat, fruits and vegetables. These foods are very dear to those in the mode of goodness. Some other foods, such as baked corn and molasses, while not very palatable in themselves, can be made pleasant when mixed with milk or other foods. They are then in the mode of goodness. All these foods are pure by nature. They are quite distinct from untouchable things like meat and liquor. Fatty foods, as mentioned in the eighth verse, have no connection with animal fat obtained by slaughter. Animal fat is available in the form of milk, which is the most wonderful of all foods. Milk, butter, cheese and similar products give animal fat in a form which rules out any need for the killing of innocent creatures. It is only through brute mentality that this killing goes on. The civilized method of obtaining needed fat is by milk. Slaughter is the way of subhumans. Protein is amply available through split peas, dhall, whole wheat, etc.

Foods in the mode of passion, which are bitter, too salty, or too hot or overly mixed with red pepper, cause misery by producing mucous in the stomach, leading to disease. Foods in the mode of ignorance or darkness are essentially those that are not fresh. Any food cooked more than three hours before it is eaten (except prasādam, food offered to the Lord) is considered to be in the mode of darkness. Because they are decomposing, such foods give a bad odor, which often attracts people in this mode but repulses those in the mode of goodness.

Remnants of food may be eaten only when they are part of a meal that was first offered to the Supreme Lord or first eaten by saintly persons, especially the spiritual master. Otherwise the remnants of food are considered to be in the mode of darkness, and they increase infection or disease. Such foodstuffs, although very palatable to persons in the mode of darkness, are neither liked nor even touched by those in the mode of goodness. The best food is the remnant of what is offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In Bhagavad-gītā the Supreme Lord says that He accepts preparations of vegetables, flour and milk when offered with devotion. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam. Of course, devotion and love are the chief things which the Supreme Personality of Godhead accepts. But it is also mentioned that the prasādam should be prepared in a particular way. Any food prepared by the injunction of the scripture offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be taken even if prepared long, long ago, because such food is transcendental. Therefore to make food antiseptic, eatable and palatable for all persons, one should offer food to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

“FLUFFY EGGLESS PANCAKES”

27 Apr 2011 Leave a comment

by The Hare Krishna Movement in Vegetarian Cooking Tags: Dawn Linke, eggless pancakes, vegetarian cooking, vegetarian recipes, vegetarianism

“FLUFFY EGGLESS PANCAKES”
Submitted by: Dawn Linke

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon butter

Method

Combine dry ingredients and mix slightly. Add milk, oil, water, and vanilla. Whisk together until just combined. Be careful not to over mix – it should still be slightly lumpy. Set aside to rest for a few minutes.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. While pan is heating, add butter. As soon as the butter is melted, add melted butter to pancake batter.

Return pan to stove and stir butter into batter.

When pan is hot, with a measuring cup or ladle, pour 1/4 cup of batter into the skillet for each pancake.

Cook until bubbles form on the surface. Carefully flip pancakes with turner/spatula and cook until golden brown.

Note: This recipe also works well with whole wheat flour. Chopped fruit or nuts can be added to batter before cooking for a unique treat, serve with honey.

Offer to Prabhupada.