The Kitchen Religion: Ekadasi Buckwheat Cookies

The Kitchen Religion

The Kitchen Religion is dedicated to my beloved spiritual master A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who taught his disciples by his personal example how to cook and offer delicious vegetarian food to Lord Shri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Dear Friends, Welcome to The Kitchen Religion. I love to cook, and am a follower of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, whose disciples taught me how to cook "Krishna prasadam" back in the early 70's. Krishna prasadam (or "God's mercy") is vegetarian food that's offered to Krishna (Krishna, or Lord Shri Krishna, is a name of God the Father which means "the all-attractive person who attracts the hearts of all living beings").

Ever wonder why the Hare Krishnas are called "The Kitchen Religion?" Because for us, cooking is a meditation. Everything we eat, we first cook with love for Lord Sri Krishna, then offer it to Him, then eat (or "honor") His remnants. The Hare Krishna Movement has become known as "The Kitchen Religion" because so much of what we are as a group has to do with cooking for Lord Krishna and then honoring and sharing His holy remnants, or prasadam, with others. We call eating prasadam "honoring" prasadam, because we understand that after we have offered the food to God and He has kindly accepted our loving offering, the food has become spiritualized. So it's like accepting a treasured gift from the Lord when we eat His remnants. Spiritual food is uplifting to the heart and purifying to the soul. Krishna prasadam is meant to be honored.

Srila Prabhupada taught us that because all things come from God, they are meant to be used in His service. He explained that we should lovingly cook vegetarian dishes for Krishna and offer them to Him with devotion. Krishna then accepts and blesses our offerings so that when we partake of His remnants, we become purified of all kinds of unwanted, sinful desires within our hearts. I was happy to learn this, as I had always wanted to know of practical ways to serve God, and I had never thought about cooking for God. But this idea made so much sense to me that I took it up immediately and have been enjoying the pleasure of cooking for God for the last 40 years! After all, God is a person. Granted, He is the Supreme Person, but a person nonetheless. And God eats. He doesn't need to eat, but He eats what His devotees lovingly cook for Him, just to give them pleasure.

By the way, did you know that God likes cows? His supreme abode, Goloka Vrndavana, is named after cows. Gau, or go, means cow, and loka means place or abode or planet. So Goloka means the abode of the cows. Because God puts so much importance on cows, we should understand that cows are very, very important for human society. We humans are given the responsibility to protect cows, and in turn, we are blessed with milk, the miracle food.

Although a lot of my recipes are influenced by my American upbringing, they are all pure vegetarian. Not all are vegan, but they're all vegetarian. We humans are given a diet just like all the other creatures on earth, and our diet is supposed to include milk and milk products. Cow's milk and milk products are beneficial and very important for human consumption. But they must be prepared properly and offered with love to Lord Krishna to provide the greatest benefit to human society.

Of course, using milk and other products from the cow necessitates treating the cow humanely. How ungrateful some people are, that they consume milk, yogurt, cream, sour cream, ice cream, butter and cheese from the cow and then turn around and slap the cow in her face by killing her and eating her slaughtered carcass! How can those people be so cruel, heartless and ungrateful?

Srila Prabhupada explained that we humans have more than one mother. Not only is our birth mother our mother, but the earth is one of our mothers as well as the cow, because the earth gives us food and the cow gives us her milk. Therefore, it behooves us to treat both Mother Earth and the cow with respect and love, just as we would our birth mother.

Speaking of mothers, my love of cooking awakened in my early childhood as I watched my mother cook and bake. From her guidance as well as the tutoring of my Hare Krishna friends, combined with years of cooking and baking for my family, trying out new recipes and repeating old ones, making up some of my own recipes and adjusting many that I have found on the internet and in cookbooks, I feel inspired to share with you some of my cooking experiences and favorite recipes.

In the recipes below, "c" means "cup," "T" means "Tablespoon," and "t" means "teaspoon."

Thanks for being here! Hare Krishna!

Phalini devi dasi

PS Srila Prabhupada demonstrated a high standard for his disciples by always using fresh ingredients. Because I almost always seem to be in a hurry, I have adopted the use of canned goods on occasion. I apologize for this aberration, and hope to switch to using all fresh (uncanned, unfrozen) ingredients in the near future.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Ekadasi Buckwheat Cookies

We Hare Krishnas follow a fast day called "Ekadasi" twice a month. "Eka" means one and "dasi" means ten. Ten plus one equals eleven. On this day, which falls eleven days after the full moon and eleven days after the new moon, we avoid eating legumes and grains as an austerity for purification of heart and for the pleasure of the Lord. Buckwheat is not a grain, as its name might lead one to believe. It's actually a fruit, so we use buckwheat occasionally on Ekadasi. These Ekadasi Buckwheat Cookies are chewy, nutritious and protein-rich. They're great to have on hand not only on Ekadasi, but any day of the month.

Ekadasi Buckwheat Cookies

2 sticks + 2 T softened butter
1/3 c sour cream
2 X egg replacer, pre-mixed (I use Ener-G egg replacer)
1 t vanilla
1/2 t almond flavor
2 c sugar
3 1/2 c buckwheat flour
1 T baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3 T carob powder or rajgiri (chestnut) fasting flour

Cream butter and sugar together. Mix egg replacer powder with water (1 T powder to 4 T water). Stir pre-mixed egg replacer into butter and sugar mixture. Add sour cream, vanilla, and almond flavoring. Mix well. In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients, then stir dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Roll into 1 1/2" balls and place at least 1" apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool slightly on pan before removing to wire cooling rack. Offer to Krishna, the Lord who feeds all of us, with love and devotion.

Yield: about 3 1/2 dozen

Serving suggestion: try sandwiching two of these cookies together with a dollop of vanilla ice cream in between. Makes a great little ice cream sandwich!

3 comments:

TVulgarisJuly 29, 2016 at 11:28 AM
I still do not have a definitive determination from any reliable source whether vanilla violates ekadasi, I was curious that you didn't say anything about this in the recipe. Do you know if it is a fruit or seed and NOT actually a bean?
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AnonymousAugust 22, 2022 at 12:38 PM
Also baking powder is very tricky ingredient has fillers like corn starch not good to promote such please
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