Hey there. I’m Vaishali and I am the author and recipe creator at Holy Cow! where I share tasty vegan recipes that anyone–experienced or not–can make quickly and easily. There are more than 1,000 recipes on this blog that I’ve shared since 2007, and I hope everyone–vegan, vegetarian or omnivore–will find something here that they will love.

​​Fast facts about Holy Cow! and me:

• I live in Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
• I was born in Bombay, India; when I left the city in 1996 to do my master’s in the United States it had recently been renamed Mumbai.
• My family is my husband Desi (also the photographer for the blog), my son Jay, and my four divine fur babies, all rescues — Lily and Leo (dogs) and Billy and Kala (cats).
• Holy Cow! was born on November 28, 2007.
• I called it Holy Cow! because someone needs to call out the hypocrisy–you can’t both worship cows and factory-farm them. And because I try to show, through this blog, that Indian food can be just as delicious without the dairy.
• My favorite foods are savory. And they usually have potatoes in them. French fries are especially unsafe around me.
• The foods I cook are healthy and easy and delicious and always free of animal products. Jay has trained me well over the years and most of the recipes you’ll find on this blog are both kid- and adult-friendly.
• In my former life I worked as a political journalist navigating political shenanigans in Congress and the Maryland statehouse, and I’ve worked as a reporter in three countries–India, the United Kingdom and the United States.
• My idea of bliss is spending time with my family or relaxing with a good book or the New York Times crossword. When I cook I listen to old Hindi songs (especially by Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar). I also love bingeing on YouTube videos about simple living and minimalism — while I am not there yet, I hope to be some day.
• My pet peeve is when people forget the first “r” in turmeric. It’s not tumeric, guys, and the first four letters are pronounced just like “term” And oh, while we’re at it, I have one more –it’s not a chai tea, it’s not a chai latte: a chai is simply a chai. Chai means “tea” in Hindi, and in India, a chai is always made with milk. Calling it a chai tea or a chai latte is like calling an apple pie “an apple pie pastry made with apples”. See? Redundant. And I don’t care if Starbucks thinks “chai tea” or “chai latte” are right–they aren’t.

I started to write this food blog in 2007 shortly after becoming a vegan and about four years after going vegetarian. I’ve loved the alchemy of cooking for as long as I can remember, and I enjoyed eating meat as much as I enjoyed using it in the meals I made for myself and my family.

I love to bake, so you’ll find lots of recipes for homemade vegan cakes, cookies, pies and breads. Because Indian food is my comfort food, you’ll find tons of Indian vegan recipes here. Because I’m mom to a picky teen, a lot of my recipes are kid-friendly. And because I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, I cook, eat and post many, many gluten-free and soy-free recipes.

I also love experimenting with global cuisines, including Mexican, Italian, Irish and Middle Eastern, and I love to bake, especially bread. All recipes use clean, wholesome, natural ingredients, most of which are already in your pantry. But don’t just expect a recipe– I like telling you the stories behind the food I serve up. You can also expect some chatter about the wonderfulness of animals (especially mine :)).