Garlic and onions and mushrooms… OH MY!
Garlic and onions (and to a large extent, mushrooms) are considered low class, for lack of a better term, by many Sikhs, Hindus and Vaisnavas (Hare Krishnas). Basically, everything material can be placed into one of the “modes of nature.” These “modes” are: goodness, passion and ignorance. This goes for food as well.
It’s pretty cut and dry. Veggies, fruit, etc. are in the mode of goodness. Meats and icky things are in the mode of ignorance. The mode of passion is a bit of a gray area, but things like onions and garlic fall into that. Mushrooms, because they’re fungi, are in the mode of ignorance – though that doesn’t mean that we believe eating a mushroom is evil, just to be clear).
We are supposed to offer our food to Krishna prior to eating it. Cooking then becomes a ritual. We aren’t just cooking for ourselves, we’re cooking for Krishna. Think of it as cooking for a really important guest. When we cook, we try to think of what Krishna would like (as opposed to what we would like). That’s why we want to use the freshest, mode of goodnessest, ingredients. Also, we don’t taste the food prior to offering it. Big BIG pet peeve of mine when people do that. It’s just icky. Stop it.
Anyway, I use a few things with garlic/onions in them. Mostly powdered mixes. Like chili powder and taco seasoning. I also use pasta sauce. I’m trying to break away from such things. It’s MUCH nicer to not use mixes anyway, Krishna or not.
This is a really long introduction and I apologize.
I want to make my own taco seasonings and chili powder. Both would be fairly easy to do without garlic and onions. I’ve been looking around for some good ones and have found a few. I really want to do this. I want that everything I cook or warm up is offerable (in this case, minus garlic, onions and mushrooms).
Ok, so taco seasonings and chili powder is simple. But what about pasta sauce. Jeff will remember that I used to make a REALLY killer pasta sauce. But tomatos are so expensive. I’ll have to find another recipe. And veggie burgers. What about them? Sad, really. You’d think I’d know.
Mostly what I cook is Indian. But I like to eat things aside from Indian food. Like tacos, chili, veggie burgers, pizza and pasta. Wow.. carb-city! Oh! A good stir fry sauce would be nice too.
So – who can help me?
I need:
-Veggie Burger recipe
-Pasta sauce (marinara) recipe
-Stir fry sauce recipe
Anyone?
Huh-elp?
