About Richa

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.