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Bio short:
Hi, I am Richa Hingle. I am the award winning recipe developer, blogger, and photographer behind VeganRicha.com. My instructions are easy to follow and step-by-step photographs welcome the uninitiated into their kitchen as vouched by millions of readers. I love to show people how easy it is to cook vegan Indian and other cuisines. I have been featured on Oprah.com, Huffington Post, Glamour, Babble, VegNews.com, Rediff.com (top 50 Indian food blogs), TheKitchn, Cosmopolitan, BuzzFeed, and many more. My first book Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen, about easy and delicious Indian Vegan recipes, is in stores and is a #1 Best Seller on Amazon. I live in Seattle. The cookbook was Top Cookbooks 2015 by Vegetarian times and in Peta’s Must have 7 Cookbooks. My second cookbook Vegan Richa’s Everyday Kitchen is available everywhere as well. My third book is out now! Vegan Richa’s instant pot cookbook
Connect with me about recipes, books, projects at veganricha at gmail
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VeganRicha
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/veganricha
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/veganricha
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/veganricha/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/veganricharecipes
A portion of the proceeds from the blog and my cookbooks Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen and Vegan Richa’s Everyday Kitchen and Vegan Richa’s instant pot cookbook go to the following organizations.
Contact me:
email: veganricha at gmail dot com (No Guest Posts Please)
About and My Story:
I live in Seattle with my husband. Chewie our resident fluffster left us in 2019.
I started up my cooking experiments once I took over most of the daily cooking from Vivek, who had been our resident chef in 2007(mid 2007 to early 2008). The problem with experimenting with dinner dishes at that time was that, even if the dish comes out good, we might just not like it taste wise. And that puts the dinner at risk. So I thought and thought and picked up baking. Baking helps me make snacks/breakfast/tea-time things which can always be substituted with something else if the taste buds reject the final product:)
I have been blogging since 2009. I like to keep it healthy. Vegan Richa is my baking, cooking blog and Hypnagogic is the random life blog.
I used to be a Software Developer, recovering (almost fully recovered as much as possible) from a Craniotomy done in 2006 to remove a meningioma(brain surgery to remove a tumor). Balance and vertigo issues post surgery kept me from going back to work. I started cooking and blogging as a hobby after a while.
I am a foster parent with dog rescues . I have some balance issues and fostering and baking are helped me get back on my feet. We were fostering dogs till mid 2010, then I was hit by panic disorder brought on most likely by the follow up MRI. Everything is clear, but my brain refuses to listen. So I am working on calming it down and getting life back on track.
My right eye nerves were affected during the surgery so that limits my reading, writing, browsing in general, online or books. I do read a lot of blogs intermittently and some books a couple of pages at a time, but since the eyes get tired very easily, I am not so active in the world of blogging, connecting and commenting. I am slowly trying to get more out there.
Food photography works a bit like Tai-chi for my eyes, getting better at browsing and editing pictures and such. Reading long pages is still a pain. I love reading everyone’s stories and posts, and try to spread it out during the day to help me get to as many blogs as I can.
We are on a plant based diet (transition started in 2010 by eliminating things one by one). All the current the recipes on the blog are now vegan. Some Recipes from the archives are non vegan, but can be veganized with simple substitutions. The connection was made because of being associated with rescue and foster of dogs, getting to know about puppy mills, associating and understanding chewie and the fosters, and finally realizing that the pain, suffering, feelings are the same for all animals. Read the detailed Our Journey here.
I try to use whole, organic as less processed as possible ingredients. I do use some new products and substitutes to find out how they taste and work, but eventually phase them out with home made or unprocessed options. Our food philosophy keeps changing based on things that make sense to me and you can notice that in the posts and recipes over the years.
Update 2013: this year I have been able to read more and more and spend a lot more time on the computer as you can see from the blog post frequency. Though more time in the kitchen is still a higher priority. :). Standing and cooking up a few dishes in one day is something I would love to do almost every day.
Update 2017: I can read a lot more of course. I developed some sinus issues(Apparently, I am allergic to Seattle weather :)) which affect my balance but thats life. Depending on the day I can, or cannot deal with small crowds, shopping, get togethers, long drives and such. This is the new normal now, taking things as we go and being ready for most things. If you happen to meet me and I suddenly look for something to sit on or whip out my own cushions and proceed to sit right there on the floor/road wherever, thats normal, as I cannot stand for too long and talk. Or if I close my ears and eyes for a bit, If I request a few minutes of no talking, thats normal too. Or if I just don’t respond, my brain probably dropped whatever you said. If I have to focus and listen to one person in a crowd, that hurts. For eg, In events with more than a few people/children and consistent noise and stimulation, My ears and eyes start to ache, my eyes eventually shut down after a while and all of this affects my sleep and things calm down sometimes next day depending on many factors. Also, I might not look at you while talking if you are not already in my existing line of sight. Lots of peculiar things, just roll with it.
Update 2020: extreme light sensitivity and neuropathy pain kicked my butt and made me non functional for months. More to come.
Who knew that grief could trigger up so much. Losing chewie put my neuro and vestibular symptoms into a heightened state. For the first half of 2020, I couldn’t even have conversations more than a sentence. Took me about 2 years to feel better and eventually be mentally ready to adopt again. We adopted Loki in sept 2021. A ball of floof who ended up being a one person dog (hubbs), probably for the better? 🙂
Why Vegan:
Me: I realized I couldn’t directly or indirectly cause extreme suffering and death of any other animal or human when there are alternatives. Hubbs, found about the impact on our own health and environment because of our food choices and decided. a little bit of my compassion rubbed off too. Animals are sentient, self-aware, and capable of experiencing both pleasure and pain. They deserve our respect and deserve a natural life and freedom. We choose less cruelty and we do it all without sacrificing taste, habits and pleasure. For our Journey details see here.
What keeps this food blog going, is to prove, that any food choice, is not about giving up something, it is about finding something better.
About food:
I cook very intuitively. On the blog, you will find many cuisines, mains, snacks, desserts, breads, Veganized Indian and fusion foods, cookies, cakes, breakfast, bakes, and more.
What do we Eat:
We eat a lot of different legumes, beans, lentils, pulses, veggies, whole grains, whole grain flatbreads, nuts, seeds, greens, and rarely use processed vegan meat substitutes, processed soy, vegan cheese, mayo, butter etc. What it does include is bold flavors, variety, healthy food with a bit of indulgence once in a while. More than 1000 recipes and counting. 🙂 Please see the Recipe Index or Category Menu on to top of the page.
Thank you for stopping by. and please do let me know how you like the blog and the recipes!
xoxo
-Richa Hingle-Garg
e-Mail: veganricha at gmail dot com , No Guest Posts please.
I’d love to hear from you!
FAQs
Would you do a book Review?
Not on the blog anymore. I mention some books on Instagram (stories) if I love them. There is no guarantee that they will get a mention.
Would you do a product review?
Yes. I do feature products occasionally on the blog that I can use in my recipes. Again, it depends on the product, its usefulness in everyday life, nutrition value, and the company values. See my review post rates here.
I do Not do product reviews anymore. I mention some products that I like on my Instagram stories.
Do you advertise on the blog?
Can I post your recipe on my site, blog, newsletter?
For most cases, please link up the original post instead of copying the recipe. For other feature requests, please email me for permission.
On Facebook
I’d love to hear from you!
Hi Veganricha,
My spouse and I love your recipes and you have made our meals so much better!
Just wanted to say thank you for all the creative recipes! Everything we have tried on your web site has been delicious 🙂
Thank you for this wonderful note! I am so happy that everything has turned out so well!
Thanks very much for your time and effort. And specially thanks for providing awesome recipes to make going vegan easier. We can talk about the health benefits, the environment and the animal issues but if you really want to catch people, show them how delicious vegan cooking can be. This is what you are doing. The blog is easy to follow, beautiful photos and the food looks as good as anything anywhere in my opinion.
thanks!
Hi Richa. I am planning on very short trip to Seattle to visit my family. I am thinking about cooking some creamy pasta dish for my cousin (non vegan) who will be mainly looking after her Mother in the hospital after surgery… My Cousin I know allergic to nuts, hates mushroom and tomato but loves other veggies. Do you think I should go with the “mushroom alfredo” sauce and just toss other veggies she likes? Or do you have another creamy pasta sauce (nut free) you would recommend for me that will wow non vegan that likes chicken alfredo =)
I also have a Cauliflower alfredo and pumpkin seed alfredo. Pumpkin seed might be an acquired flavor. https://fettabbau-trim.today/?s=alfredo Try both before making it for him. and add some of the flavoring ingredients from the mushroom alfredo recipe, like vegan Worcestershire etc. You can also try the rose sauce from the blog. Nut-free option is in the notes.
Hi Richa!
I love your recipes and your blog! I dream of standing in the kitchen cooking vegan food all day long everyday-and usually I do! It’s therapy:-) Can I get paid to do that??!!
I am very interested in the surgery you had. I am seeing a neurosurgeon next week to discuss the same surgery. Any words of advice on how to prepare or recover? Did you loose any of your sense of smell or taste? Difficulty remembering which spices go well with certain ingredients?
Thanks for all of your wonderful recipes!
I am so sorry you have to go through it. I met couple of neurosurgeons to get their views on what needs to be done and what will the outcome be. All of them thankfully said the same procedure was required. They did differ a bit in their views of how things would go, what kind of decisions they will need to make during surgery, what will they choose to do, and what can be expected post. Some had an aggressive point of view, ie, they will try to get all of the tumor out as much as possible which means higher risk of damages to nerves surrounding it, while others would choose to be more cautious. you want to discuss their point of view on this and why they would choose to be aggressive or not, a lot depends on the location and other things in the brain. We eventually went with the more confident aggressive surgeon, however his bedside manner wasnt as great. But he is very well known for successful surgeries. You also want to talk about who will be performing everything. Some surgeons are attached to universities and they have to have some students do portions of the surgery, which we had to be ok with, but as an afterthought later, we should probably not have gone that route. Now with the balance problems that i have post surgery i always wonder if that had anything to do with it. Brain is super complex, so you never know what happens either ways.
No i did not have difficulty remembering things, or smell etc (but all of this again is dependent on if there was damage to those nerves). You do slow down a bit for a month or 2 post surgery, somewhat like an overloaded computer which is running lots of processes, so it is slower to respond. Remember to rest. People might want you to move and exercise etc, just do limited stuff and listen to your brain and body. Do not tax the brain. If you feel like you are getting tired, rest. Every small thing like meeting a couple of people, watching a loud movie etc is taxing as the brain has to process a lot more information. Keep the month after surgery super chill, rest, eat well, do calm and light things, read, watch light non loud romantic movies, have someone with you in the house just to give you company or chat a bit etc. You can email me at veganricha at gmail for more info. All the best. Hugs
Hello Richa,
I love your book Everyday Kitchen and I always go to your website first when I am ready to try a new vegan recipe. One of my favorite parts of your book is the wonderful picture of your parents and Chewie in the Preface. This is a wonderful photo and they look like very nice and caring people. Your website photos are also very nicely done. Keep up the good work and thank you for the wonderful recipes.
Hi Cynthia,
Thank you for this wonderful note. Yes, my parents love him a lot too. Although it took some time for dad to warm up to him, but now they are inseparable when they visit.
Happy cooking!
Richa
Richa I just discovered your blog and am very glad I did. Your recipes are wonderful (especially the Indian ones) but I’m also just so inspired by your personal story and your strength! Thank you for sharing with us!
Thank you for this wonderful note Olivia. I am so glad you found the blog too!
I made the Smoky Vegan Cheese Sauce from your book Everyday Kitchen. It was very good. Loved it. And so much better than processed stuff in the grocery store. I am taking it to potluck today :).
Thats AWesome!!
Just wanted to let you know that Amazon closed their personal stores. Your link at the top to your Amazon store is now coming up as a 404 error.
Thanks! I updated the link last month to https://www.amazon.com/shop/veganricha . which link is taking you to the astore?
Hi Richa, I am very happy to stumble into your website today while searching for vegan recipes. I am very moved by your story and I am myself a cancer survivor and I really loved my dog who passed away 6 months ago. I am not 100% vegan yet, but working on it. With all your yummy vegan recipes, I think it will help me a lot to achieve my goal. Thank You.
I am glad you found the blog! Thats amazing that you are transitioning to a vegan diet. It takes time, all the best.
I am so sorry that you had to deal with cancer and also for the loss of your dog.
Good Evening Richa,
I am looking at purchasing an Instant Pot due to seeing you use it for many of your recipes.
I try not to have a cluttered kitchen and I am hesitant to purchase anything. Please can you tell me the benefits of an Instant Pot?
Thank you,
Ellen
Hi Ellen, it depends on how much pressure cooking you do or would do on a regular basis. Pressure cookers are generally great at cooking beans and lentils quickly and cooking them well. You can also use it for other things such as making yogurt, steaming etc, or batch cooking beans etc. I have been using pressure cookers since I started cooking as they are frequently used in Indian cooking. So it really depends on the kind of food you eat and cook.