Share
Upon my recent visit to Vana, a wellness Retreat located in Dehradun, I had the opportunity to experience the 'vanavasi lifestyle'. The Retreat’s recently introduced wellness journey allows a fresher to get acquainted with Vana or provides a quick recharge programme to the already familiar Vanavasis as they address every guest visiting the retreat. I was overwhelmed by Vana's cuisine; hence, I conversed with an expert to explore further. In an exclusive interaction with Chef Mohan Rawat, the Executive Chef at Vana, I learnt about various facts related to Vana's cuisine and specific delicacies included in a Vanavasi meal.
All you need to know about a Vanavasis meal
Vanavasi's meal keeps the nutritional concept from Western nutrition, so all the meals are planned to complement all the dietary requirements. Also, portion size is kept less, which helps you digest well and prepare for your next meal.
Calories Per Day
A Vanavasis meal teaches the need to control your calories to avoid overindulgence. Hence, Vana has an SOP or a set of calories with each course like the main course cannot exceed up to 380 calories, desserts should be 80 calories, and the entire meal throughout the day should not increase up to 1800 to 1900 calories (which is an ideal requirement). Keeping that in mind, Chef Rawat says, "We do have a living cookbook that we use to track down your calories from the meal. Calories are derived from a particular software, i.e. protein, fat, carbs and fibres. If some culprit is going beyond specific calories, suppose the main course is below 380 to 440 or 480 calories, then you need to see how we alter it."
Alternative ingredients
Chef Rawat further suggests replacing certain ingredients in our meals with healthier ones. For example, if cashew is there in a meal, it would be high calorie, so we generally replace the cashew with some seed like a melon seed. The same goes for pasta, as they have this cream and butter-based sauce. The chef does the trials for cooking mushroom and pouring it with melon seeds to get the creaminess. However, the taste is very similar to that of cream. Nowadays, pumpkin-based sauce or any vegetable-based sauce like carrot puree, green pea sauce, and beetroot. So these are all included in their recipes.
How the cuisine contributes to revive Indian traditions and culture?
Chef Mohan states, "Vana's cuisine stands on four words, SLOW, i.e. seasonal, local, organic and wholesome. First of all, we do not import any products, so they are either locally or domestically sourced in terms of sustainability and give a local hand to the farmers who contribute to nature. Also, we get a chance to include them and to reflect them on our menu."
What does the menu include?
Further, the chef adds, "On our menu, you see that nothing is non-seasonal. If you ask me to get me a mango now, I will not get it because that's a summer fruit. Same way, if you ask me to get orange juice, I will not get it again because this compliments in winters. Orange contains citrus which heats the body, that's why you'll always see all citrus family comes in winters only. In summers, your body is in heating mode; hence, watery foods like cucumber and watermelon are recommended. It cools down your body, so the same sync we apply to our menu."
Shravan menu explained by chef
Organic millets are older than our ancestors. So we are striving to revive those customs and traditions like going with the season. So currently, we're following the monsoon/Shravan menu. This season, the vegetables are pumpkin, bottle gourd, bitter melon, etc., which complement your body and match the weather.
Uttarakhand specific delicacies and beverages
Buransh juice is the speciality of Uttarakhand. In winters, you can have this citrus family called malta, the squash and a mix of popular fruits. These two are very specific, which you can find in Uttarakhand usually. Rest nimbu pani is also commonly found here. Food-wise, pahadi people are very simple, and they eat a humble meal. So whatever grows, a staple with the season they adapt to that only, millets are very much in abundance in Uttarakhand due to the concept of step farming, and that's why they use drought-resistance seeds.
Ragi
The higher you go, you will find drought resistance seeds like ragi, jhangura, bakui, makai, etc. So there's ragi flour with which they make a kind of porridge, also known as salty jhangura, a typical meal during winters. Ragi is hot, and you will find this in winters as a regular breakfast with a block of jaggery and a cup of tea. You have ragi bread, which is a little thicker because ragi cannot be torn, so you just wet your palms and then spread it. It's thicker like a bhakri in Gujarat. Almost every household has a cow at home, so you'll have a fresh splash of cow ghee on the top with this typical tea and jaggery that's their standard breakfast.
