Welcome to My Vegetarian Roots!
My name is Hetal, a girl from India. I grew up in a small city of Gujarat called Surat in India. Surat is known for it’s delicious food! I was not a trouble making child growing up, never gave my parents hard time, At least I like to think that! I was always very good at academics but there was something inside me that was always attracted to cooking. I grew up watching my mother and both grand maas cooking. I naturally learnt how to cook by just watching them I guess. I never took special training for it.
Though I was unconsciously so much into cooking, I never paid too much attention to it while growing up besides cooking everyday due to having working parents. I was always focused on getting good education and making a great career. I earned bachelors and masters in Mathematics and was so close to pursuing my PhD, but my parents introduced me to this guy from USA as my parents were looking for a guy for me to marry and same on other end, the guy’s parents were trying the same. I was not interested in leaving India at all but my mom suggested that I at least make an effort to know this guy and if it does not work out then no worries.
Guess what happened?!?! I am happily married to THAT guy. It is crazy how it happened though. He came to India, we met one day, next day we got engaged and in 10 days we got married! We have been married for over 14 years now! He is my my biggest support system. We have two beautiful girls and living our happy healthy lives!
Yes, I married my prince and moved across the world. It was all like a fairy tale until I came to the states. Oh boy, was it rough?!?! Whole new country, new language, new family. I left everything behind. 24 years of my life, family, friends, and list goes on and on. Life is tough, but you know what? We are tougher! I knew I had to start somewhere, do something meaningful with my life and capabilities. So I decided to go for more academics LOL. Yes, I earned another master degree in Computer Science and have been working engineering job for over a decade now!
All this time, I was still having fun with my hidden skills of cooking. Back in India, all I knew was how to cook all the delicious Indian Food. Being in the states for over a decade now, I have had fortune to try so many other types of cuisine and that encouraged me to experiments with different recipes which is outside my comfort zone, specially being vegetarian I like to reproduce many dishes without any meat! But you know what, I truly enjoy it and I finally decided to document my experience with you all! My Vegetarian Roots is an outcome of my love of cooking and engineering skills.
I am here to share my food creations which is a great combination of my Indian roots and food diversity I experienced in America! On My Vegetarian Roots, you’ll find some healthy delicious vegetarian recipes, that I make with my proud Indian roots I inherited from my mom, mom in-law and grand maas with a touch of my creativity!
Thank you for being part of my roots, I am so glad to share my story with you all!