#218: Nisha Vora - How this Corporate Lawyer Traded the Courtroom for the Kitchen
Nisha Vora was raised in a traditional vegetarian Indian household, went to undergrad at Berkeley, Harvard Law School, and then worked as a corporate lawyer for a few years in New York City.
It didn’t take long for her to realize that this was NOT what she wanted to do because, even as a young girl, Nisha loved food and cooking. She was the girl who would watch cooking shows on TV and take cooking classes for fun. And, as a corporate lawyer, she definitely didn’t have time for cooking and she wasn’t having any fun.
So, in 2016, after binge-watching food documentaries all weekend long, Nisha became fully plant-based and started a food blog side hustle – rainbowplantlfe.com. That “side” hustle has now become a full-time career as she teaches her one million YouTube subscribers how to be better cooks and consume fewer animals.
In 2019, she released her first book, The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook: Wholesome Indulgent Plant-Based Recipes and that’s what we dive into today. People are so intimidated by this wildly popular kitchen tool and she breaks it down, teaches us how to start simple, and then shows us the magic you can create with the Instant Pot.
Rip and Nisha discuss:
Her parent’s reaction when she told them she was leaving her law career to become a food blogger
Transitioning from Instagram to her own food blog
Her personal journey from vegetarianism to veganism
Exploring the versatility of the Instant Pot and why she wanted to write this book
How to start with the basics of Instant Pot cooking
Her unique approach to cooking
A sample of delicious recipes from the book including breakfasts, veggies, soups/curries, and comfort foods
About Nisha Vora
Nisha Vora, author of The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook
Nisha Vora is the creator and chef behind Rainbow Plant Life, the vegan cooking blog, Instagram account, and YouTube Channel. She is the author of The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook.
Nisha is a Harvard Law graduate and former corporate attorney who turned away from the courtroom and turned towards the kitchen when she went vegan in 2016 and started her online food blog.
Today she has over one million YouTube subscribers who tune in to master vegan cooking from home.
Episode Resources
Nisha’s Website - RainbowPlantLife.com
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Full Episode Transcription via AI Transcription Service
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Go Peanut Curry Mix!
I'm Rip Esselstyn and welcome to the PlantStrong Podcast. The mission at PlantStrong is to further the advancement of all things within the plant-based movement.
We advocate for the scientifically proven benefits of plant-based living and envision a world that universally understands, promotes, and prescribes plants as a solution to empowering your health, enhancing your performance, restoring the environment, and becoming better guardians to the animals we share this planet with.
We welcome you wherever you are on your PlantStrong journey, and I hope that you enjoy the show.
But I guess today has a fascinating backstory and one that is super inspiring.
[3:09] Nisha Vora was raised in a traditional vegetarian Indian household went to undergraduate at California Berkeley Harvard Law School and then worked as a corporate lawyer for a few years in the Big Apple, New York City, and it didn't take long for her to realize that this is not.
[3:31] Not in any way what she wanted to do because as a young girl She loved food and cooking She was the girl who would watch cooking shows on TV, and take cooking classes just for the fun of it.
And as a corporate lawyer, she definitely didn't have time for cooking, and she wasn't having any kind of fun.
So in 2016, after binge watching food documentaries for a whole weekend, Nisha became fully plant-based and started a food blog as a side hustle called Rainbow Plant Life.
Well, that side hustle has now become a full time career as she teaches her 1 million plus YouTube subscribers, how to be better cooks and consume fewer animals.
In 2019, she released her first book, The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook, Wholesome Indulgent Plant-Based Recipes.
And that's what we dive into today. People are so intimidated by this wildly popular kitchen tool, and she breaks it down, teaches us how to start simple, and then shows us the magic, that you can create with the Instant Pot.
It definitely inspired me to finally get ours out of the box.
And I hope it does the same for you today.
Welcome, Nisha Vora.
Introduction and Location
[4:59] Hey, Nisha, welcome to the PlantStrong Podcast. Thanks so much for having me here, Rip.
Yes, yes. You know, we have never met, have we?
We have not. We haven't.
We should do something about that. Well, we're sort of e-meeting today. We are.
Where are you located? Where am I talking? I am in San Diego, California.
Aha, you like San Diego? I do.
I would say I used to live in New York City for a very long time.
And so moving anywhere besides there is kind of a hard move because New York City is just like that's own crazy magical, unique place.
And so I feel like I'm often comparing life to life in New York, which these are very different places but overall San Diego is a lovely, lovely place.
Right. How long were you in New York city?
Uh, eight years. Uh-huh. And is that when you were, were you a lawyer out of New York city or what were you doing?
Yeah, I went to New York city straight after law school. Like a lot of my classmates worked at a big wall street law firm, which was terrible, did a couple other things. And then eventually it was like, I don't want to be a lawyer anymore.
Let me figure out how I can navigate out of this world.
Yeah. So let's just, let's jump in there because you know, You went down, you say that you were studious.
[6:19] You were a student, a little nerdy, and you traded in your 17 magazine, for the Bon Appetit magazines, kind of love food, and you went down this career path.
[6:39] You went to Harvard Law School, right? Yep. And before that, were you at Berkeley?
Where were you? Yep, yep, Berkeley.
Wow, so Berkeley to Harvard. I mean, you gotta be kidding me, right?
And then you land a job at a, I would imagine a pretty prestigious law firm, yes?
Yes.
And you just hated the Dickens out of it. I did. So I kind of knew, yeah, go ahead, sorry.
No, yeah. I was gonna say, at what point did you know, like, this is just kind of eating at my soul and I can't stand this.
Yeah. So the corporate job I took right after law school, I knew pretty much immediately.
I didn't go to law school to become a corporate lawyer, but it did pay the bills very nicely in the first couple of years when you have lots of things to pay off and you're just trying to find your feet.
And so I was like, I'm going to do this for a few years.
It was terrible for many reasons. Like.
[7:35] People just don't treat you like a valuable human being there.
The work hours are crazy.
The work itself is like you're defending large multinational, international corporations and banks who have clearly committed legal wrongdoings and are getting away with it.
So it's not inspiring work. But then I quit after two years.
I did some traveling, came back, and I was like, I'm going to start a legal career in a path that I know that I think I know what I want to do.
I started working in the nonprofit space where I was representing low-income tenants in New York City, which was definitely more aligned with my values and felt better.
Continuing Dissatisfaction in Nonprofit Work
[8:12] But after a while, it still felt like the same anxiety. You know, I'd wake up every morning anxious.
I'm a morning person and I would be like, I don't wanna wake up right now.
I don't wanna go to work. Like, and I was just coming home, like just miserable, you know?
It's not a good existence. It doesn't- It's not, you know, and you can do it for a short period of time.
But after a while you're like, how long am I gonna do this for?
Is it two years? Is it 10 years? Is it 20 years?
Can we go, let's go back for a sec. Yeah. You said you were two years with this law firm, this big law firm.
Have you ever seen the series that's on Netflix called Suits?
[8:50] I haven't, but I will say it's nothing like Suits from what I have seen like little glimpses of.
Well, okay. All right.
Well, just the, like you said, you weren't appreciated, kind of the borderline abuse of these first year, I guess, law, what's it called?
What do you call it? Associates. Associate, yeah, yeah. I mean, and that go, ah, I just, I can't believe that goes on and that you aren't appreciated and people aren't lathering you with all kinds of praise and thank yous and stuff like that.
It was more like, I didn't need to be adorned with praise. It was more, it would be nice for someone to say thank you once in a while.
It would be nice just to be treated like I'm a person who has other obligations, who's not gonna just like slave away at this place.
And they pay you a lot. So I get that, like, they expect you to work a lot, but it was the combination of the work not being fulfilling, at least for me, no one really being a very nice person.
And the crazy hours, you know, you're expected to be available at all times, including weekends, including at 10 p.m., if that's what it calls for.
Well, and that's the stereotype. Like you just said, it's like, you know, not very nice people, but you think that, I just can't imagine that's how these people were.
Do you think it's- No, it changes you, for sure.
Okay, so somehow this culture.
[10:20] It somehow like sucks the life and the soul and the energy out of you where you're just focused on, I guess what, making money and winning.
And pleasing your boss. And I was like, I know that not everyone here was a bad person, right?
Like there's probably lots of eager, lovely people and their souls kind of just got crushed over time.
And I was like, I don't want that to be my life. Like I need to get out before that starts to happen to me.
Yeah, and how courageous of you to be able to make that move and know that I got to get out of this.
[10:56] Because most people, it seems, they're probably just as unhappy, would you, right?
Absolutely. And yet for whatever reason, they don't have the fortitude or whatever it is to make that leap.
And so you made it to the kind of nonprofit and then you were still not satisfied.
And so at one point, did you decide to make the leap and go into food?
Disillusionment with the Legal System and Exploring New Paths
[11:18] Sure. Absolutely. It sounds like you've loved since you were a little child. Yeah.
I would say within a year of working at the nonprofit, I knew I was like, I thought this was going to be the path for me.
I wanted to go to law school to help people. And in a certain way, I was.
But I was also seeing how, I guess, disillusioning the legal system in the US can be.
Like, there I was at this corporate law firm, very easy to get off big corporate wealthy actors, got free for doing illegal things. And then there I was being a lawyer for low income people where there were laws to protect them on the books, but so hard to enforce so hard to get legal assistance for these folks who really needed it, you know, to stay in their homes, like one of the most fundamental, you know, things in your life, and I just got very disillusioned by how difficult it was to use the law to do good.
[12:12] Then there was just like the ordinary anxiety and stress and that kind of stuff of being a lawyer.
And so about a year in, I was like, I have to figure out what I want to do with my life that might be something very different.
And I tried a couple of different things. I thought I wanted to go become a coder, like a programmer.
I took some online courses. I was like, I don't think my brain is set up this way.
And then eventually, I just got, I think, honest with myself.
And I was like, I've always loved food. Why is that not something I'm thinking about?
And I had started an Instagram account back around the same time, really just as a creative outlet to share what I was making. And I had gone- 2016?
2016, and I went vegetarian around the same time.
And so I was just like trying new things and it started to take off.
And I was like, is this, can I turn this into a career?
And I started applying to food startups in New York City and eventually found a vegan food startup that was like, yeah, you see, we could use someone eager and young who's willing to try new things.
And so I started there at the beginning of 2017 doing basically like all different things, recipe development, recipe testing, food photography, social media, you know, just like had my hands in a lot of different pockets.
Was this a CPG company?
[13:35] Yeah, it's called Hungry Root. still in business. They're not a vegan company anymore, but at the time they were. And then I was just building my own business as a side hustle on the weekends and at night and the morning before work. And so when you say building your business as a side hustle, what did that business look like? Is that a blog? Was it Instagram? Was it? Yeah. I know you now.
[13:58] Have built up your Facebook following, or your YouTube following. You've got over a million and followers on YouTube, I mean, that's.
That's serious. Yes, it did start off that way. Never does.
No, it never does. I just started with an Instagram account at the beginning.
And then eventually, I was like, I'd like a place for my recipes to live that's not just, an account owned by Instagram.
Transitioning from Instagram to a Recipe Blog
[14:25] And so I started a blog where I started to put my recipes and write more about them, like this is how you should make it, or here's some tips or substitutions and things like that.
And then eventually I started a YouTube channel because I felt like I was learning so much about cooking.
I forgot to mention, I went vegan in 2016 and I was learning so much about vegan cooking and like the vegan lifestyle and all this new information that I was so excited about and felt like I wanna share this with other people.
And I felt like I needed a video format to do that. And so I started a YouTube channel, but this was like early, early on. And I would film when I had time cause I was working a full-time job.
So it wasn't like a serious endeavor at the time.
Right.
From Vegetarian to Vegan: A Personal Journey
[15:12] You said you went vegan 2017, I think you said. 16. 16. Yeah.
Did you grow up as a vegetarian?
[15:21] I did not. My parents are vegetarian, so they're from India and they pretty much have always been vegetarian, grew up that way.
But when they moved to America and my sister and I were born, I think they were just like, let's make their lives easier. Let us let them do what they want kind of thing.
So my mom, who cooked, only cooked vegetarian, mostly Indian food.
[15:45] But if we were at lunch at school or after school, we could get fast food and meat and all that kind of stuff.
So I had a fairly dichotomous diet at home. It was pretty wholesome Indian vegetarian food.
And then when I was not at home, it was a lot of processed food, a lot of fast food, of drunk food. Uh-huh, okay. And why did you decide in 2016 then?
To make the leap to vegan. Yeah, so I had stopped eating meat.
I mentioned earlier, I had gone vegetarian at some point in 2016, mostly because I felt that when I ate meat, I felt a little weighed down, like a little sluggish, a little heavy, not like weight-wise, just like, ugh, you know?
And so I stopped eating it, started to feel more energized. And as I stopped eating meat, I was like, I should, you know, I'm doing this Instagram thing.
I'm posting about my food. should learn more about where my food is coming from.
And so one week, my partner, who traveled a lot for work at the time, went on a business trip.
And I was like, this is my time to watch all the things he doesn't like to watch, which are documentaries.
And so I started watching Food, Inc. one night, the documentary.
[16:57] And I was like, oh my god, I can't believe this is how we raise animals for food, and this is where food comes from. And so then the next three nights, I watched, I think, nine more documentaries, just like binge watched one after another.
And when he came home, I was like, hey, I'm vegan now. And he was like, what?
He's like, I've been gone for four days. I was like, I know.
And a lot has changed in those four days.
Wow.
And what about your parents?
[17:26] What did they think about, or what did they think back then about you going vegan?
Any issues or are they supportive of that?
Pretty easy, you know, because they are vegetarians. So I think they're probably happy I stopped eating meat.
But I think in the first few months, I thought more, oh, she's on a diet.
This is some new trend. She'll grow tired of it. And so I would go over, and my dad likes to make a lot of desserts.
And he'd be like, oh, have just a bite. It's OK. You can cheat.
And I'm like, no, dad. It's not a diet. Like, what I saw in those documentaries, what we do to animals, what animal agriculture does to the planet, I was just like, oh, my god, I can't believe.
I felt like this information was being hidden from me. And I was so angry that I hadn't known all that before, but also so energized that now I did know that and I could do something about it, at least in my own personal life.
And so I was like, no, dad, it's a lifestyle. It's not a diet.
You know, like all those talking points.
And over a few months after the first few months, they were like, oh, we get it.
So it was never really that difficult.
[18:28] Now, the other thing with your parents that you had to have a reckoning with, maybe a little bit, was you leaving.
You know, being a lawyer and everything, how you self-identified, because I'm sure there's a certain amount of esteem that is just bestowed upon you, especially as a woman, right?
When people say, oh, well, what do you do, Nisha? And you're like, I am a lawyer, right?
That probably feeds into a lot of things.
So not only did you give that up, but you also had to basically tell your parents, I'm not gonna be a lawyer anymore. And I'm sure that that was probably difficult for them.
So can you talk us through that a little bit?
Leaving Behind a Prestigious Career: Difficult Conversations with Parents
[19:12] Yes, definitely a more difficult series of conversations than going vegan.
I feel like going vegan was like, okay, that's kind of weird.
Well, whatever, sure.
Hey, this prestigious career that you worked really hard to get me to, it just no longer fits me.
That was definitely a more difficult conversation, especially because my parents are immigrants from India, they worked their entire life to help me get to where I got to, made so many sacrifices.
[19:45] Just for instance, in high school, my mom drove me twice a week my senior year to an SAT prep course because it was the best one.
We didn't live in a great area where we could have access to that stuff.
And so she would drive me two hours one way, twice a week to go to an SAT course so that I could do really well on my SATs.
Just like one example of a type of sacrifice they made. And so because education was so important to us, both to my parents and to me growing up, I think that like when I came to the decision that being a lawyer was not the path for me, it felt very confusing to them. I think it felt hurtful. I think it just was like, well, now what? Like, what do... Are you lost? I think they really thought that I was just lost and like looking for And so there was a period of time.
[20:35] Difficult for me to explain to them because it's hard. It's like basically like, mom and dad, thanks for all your help.
I'm just going to go follow my passion now, right? So it sounds like very frivolous.
But over a few years when I got to the point where I was like, I'm really happy.
Like I'm doing something that I enjoy, and I'm getting meaning out of it, and I'm no longer feeling constantly anxious and miserable.
My parents were like, oh, well, what we want for you is to be happy.
So if that's where you are in life, then this makes sense.
And now, I don't know if you've seen them on my channel, but they make regular appearances on my YouTube channel and they're the biggest fans, biggest supporters. So it's a lovely full circle story, just took a little bit of time.
[21:21] And do they get what it is you do now? Yeah, yeah, yeah, they do, they do, yeah.
I mean, they make appearances on my channel, So they know that like I make videos and I develop recipes and you know.
And they understand and have embraced that you can, this can be a career path.
You can't be living doing this.
Yeah. You're in a very unique stratosphere actually really with you know, your following and what you've created.
It's pretty spectacular. Thank you. The fact that you've written books, you've got this, Your brand is called Rainbow Life, is that right?
Rainbow Plant Life. Rainbow Plant Life. And how'd you come up with that name?
I think when I first went vegan, I was just astounded by how colorful a vegan diet was.
You know, like once I stopped like having chicken breast at the center of my plate or whatever it was, I was like, oh my gosh, it's so colorful. So that's the rainbow, the plant is, you know, the vegan.
And then life was like, this is not a diet. This is my lifestyle.
This is how I live my life. and I live my life, I hope, abundantly, colorfully, like with joy, with vibrancy. And so it just felt like a nice fit.
Yeah, yeah.
So you have a new book that's coming out next year, which we're not gonna talk about.
[22:48] Unless you want to, but I'd love to have you back on the show in a year.
Yes. So we can show that off.
But you also wrote a book several years ago that I do wanna talk about it. Yeah.
I think that there's great value, great value in the book that you wrote.
And how everybody's life can be improved by following a lot of the tenants that you subscribe to in this book.
And I'm gonna hold it up now because I've been teasing it a little bit.
And it's this, it's called the Vegan Instapot, right?
By Nisha Vora, Wholesome Indulgent Plant-Based Recipes. And this has been authorized by Instapot as well.
Yes.
The Vegan Instant Pot: A Wholesome Indulgent Cookbook
[23:32] And I want you to know that I have so many people that I know that rave about the Instapot.
Do you know who Chef AJ is?
I think you cut out for a second. Do I know who? Chef AJ?
Chef AJ is? I don't think so. Okay, well, anyway, she is a vegan chef.
[23:49] Whole food plant-based, and she just raves about it.
I actually have an Instapot sitting in my closet.
I hear that from a lot of people, sitting in the closet, sitting in the garage, sitting in the laundry room.
Yes, and so I want you to inspire me and the other 5,000 people that are listening right now that have Instapot and they're not using it to pull it out of that closet or garage or pantry and use it.
But first tell me, how did you become enamored with of all things the Instapot and then to do a whole book on it?
[24:25] Yeah, so I started using it because I was working as a busy lawyer, and I didn't have that much time to cook.
And what I'll say about the Instant Pot is that it doesn't necessarily save you that much time overall, but it does save you on active cooking, right?
So it still might take 45 minutes or an hour or whatever it is to complete the meal, but 30 of those minutes, let's say, you don't have to be in the kitchen, right?
Like, that's a huge time, like, I don't know, like getting time back, right?
Time is one of our most precious assets in this life. And so 30 minutes back in your everyday life, I feel like it's a big deal for a lot of people and it was for me. And so I started using it as like, oh, I can prep something on Sunday night in the Instant Pot, but I don't have to stick around the kitchen. Maybe I can sit on the couch and have a glass of wine with my partner.
Maybe I can do a quick workout. Maybe I can go down to the pharmacy and pick up all the things I need to for the week, you know, like little pockets of time. I felt like I was getting back, what do you think is really, really valuable? And so that's how I started using it. And I started sharing some instant pot recipes on my blog. And that was what, but did somebody introduce you to the instant pot or did you just, I mean, how did you first decide I'm going to actually purchase an Instapot.
[25:47] That's a good question. I don't think anyone was like, hey, I'm an Instant Pot fan, and I think you should really try it out. I think it was becoming very popular at a certain time.
And I was like, I like to cook.
Let's try it out. And I do think the first six months or so, it kind of sat unused because I wasn't sure where to begin.
And I think it was probably like I had a short break from work, and I was like, OK, let's open this up, see what it's all about.
Well, so let's start with, where do we begin? Where do you recommend that people that have an Instapot or actually wanna buy one, where do we begin on this Instapot journey?
[26:29] Okay, so what I will say is, don't think of it as this like crazy complex machine.
It's actually very simple.
And there's one function you will use more than anything. So even if it's like nine and one, you're probably mostly gonna use the pressure cook function.
And so don't let the fact that you could be using nine different functions intimidate you.
If you know how to press buttons and close lids, it's actually very simple.
In the introduction of the book, I go through like all of the main buttons and what you might use them for.
And so there's like instructional stuff at the beginning if you feel like you want someone to walk you through that.
So I would say just like, don't be intimidated by it. It's not like a complex, confusing machine.
You just have to actually unpack it and be willing to be like, okay, let me finally use this.
And the first thing you can make can be very simple. It can be a pot of beans.
It can be a pot of lentils.
You don't feel like you need to make this complex Indian curry in the Instant Pot for your first time breaking it in. You can just add some lentils, water, salt, and call it a day.
And 10 minutes, 20 minutes later, whatever it is, you'll have cooked lentils.
Well, the reality is, I didn't, I mean, I thought you used an Instapot for.
[27:44] Rice, oats, beans, lentils, and that was it, right? And seeing your book and the fact that you can make casseroles, lasagnas, every dish that you could absolutely imagine you can make, or the Instapot is part of that process, to me is absolutely fascinating.
It's like you and me looking through this book and seeing what you've been able to do, It's opened up a whole new fantastical world for me that I didn't even know existed.
Exploring the Versatility of the Instant Pot
[28:17] Yeah. I mean, I think it is very useful to do things like beans and lentils, especially if you are someone who eats a wholesome plant-based diet, you probably eat a lot of beans, you probably eat a lot of lentils, you probably eat a lot of whole grains.
And so it's nice to be like, oh, I'm just gonna put my beans in the Instant Pot, walk away, you don't have to stir them, they're not gonna burn.
[28:37] And so it's a great use for those things. I definitely went through a period where I did a big pot of beans in my Instant Pot every Sunday religiously, and that was very helpful.
But it's also useful if you wanna make soups, stews, curries as well as other things like that we can chat about.
Oh, don't you even start. I'm gonna go through probably 16 to 18 recipes.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah, so hang on to your hats. I have some friends that have three Instapots and they have them all day long.
And one they've got like rice, one oats, one beans. And you can, at any point in time, if you're hungry you just open it up and ladle into a bowl whatever you're feeling like, it's really cool.
So I feel way left out, especially after looking at your book.
[29:34] So let me ask you this, with just the basics like the grains, oats, rice, beans.
To just like, do you have to follow a certain protocol? Like, okay, three cups of water with one cup of rice, close the lid, press the right button, and then you walk away?
Basically, yeah. In the intro, I also have some charts for cook times for certain grains and certain beans and lentils.
But basically, like you can zhuzh it up, you can jazz it up if you want, but if you really just wanna keep it basic, you can just do your grain or your bean and water.
You can add some salt, you can add bay leaf, You can add some spices and peppercorns. You can add things.
But as soon as you seal the machine, close the lid, you push a button, you set a timer for however many minutes you need, and then you do walk away.
It's very convenient.
So have you heard the phrase that it takes 10,000 hours to be completely, incredibly proficient at something?
Have you spent 10,000 hours with the Instant Pot? I don't know.
I don't think anyone needs to spend 10,000 hours the Instant Pot to like understand how it works.
It's pretty easy to use after the first three times, you know, the first couple of times you're like, ah, did I press the right button? Did I seal the machine properly?
But I think it gets easy very quickly.
So before I dive into some of these recipes, is there a certain approach to cooking that you'd like to share with our audience?
[31:03] Cause you know, we're for the most part, plant strong audience. We're not a fan of added oils. We want to keep refined sugars to a minimum.
We're a huge fan of whole grains.
[31:17] Things of that nature for the most part. Yeah. I mean, I do cook with oil, so I'll say that, but what I would say that I think is often missing and can be a huge asset to your cooking is our spices and herbs. So if you don't eat oil, what I would recommend is to buy whole spices and then grind them yourself with a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. And just adding freshly ground spices to your food can really just take your food to the next level in a way that I think a lot of people don't think about. And they're like, oh, it's another step, but I promise you it's one of those steps that's high impact. And then herbs.
Okay. Yes. Go ahead. Go ahead.
I was going to say, with spices and herbs, because you mentioned, are there five key spices that you recommend every kitchen should have?
That's such a hard question because it's like often cuisine dependent.
[32:13] But I will say definitely— What about you? What about you and your kitchen?
For sure cumin and coriander. I cook a lot of Indian food, but you can also use those spices in like Mediterranean cuisine and Mexican cuisine. So like definitely those two.
Turmeric is great because it's, you know, it's antioxidants.
It's got that beautiful color. But I would say one of the mistakes I see often is not, is using too much of it. You really don't need much.
Like I've seen people use like a tablespoon of it in a recipe and I'm like, it's just gonna taste like turmeric. Tastes like earth.
Yes, so go easy with it.
Exploring the World of Chili Flakes
[32:50] I love any sort of chili flakes. If you can handle a little bit of heat, I feel like it brings this complexity and character to your dishes in a way that I think is often missing.
Sometimes I'm like, this just needs a little punch or a little kick.
And oftentimes it can be just your standard red pepper flakes but there's like a whole other world of chili flakes that I love to experiment with.
[33:15] I mean, there's so many, I don't know if I can- Oh, no, that's good.
Listen, that's good stuff. You've done exceptional.
And then I would say fresh herbs are such an amazing addition to your diet, both from like a health perspective, they've got lots of nutrients and antioxidants, but they add so much like character and dimension and obviously freshness that I think is often missing.
And sometimes people are like, oh, can I just use dried herbs?
If you're making like a hearty stew where like, you're not gonna really notice the difference between let's say fresh oregano and dried oregano, sure.
But if you're making something that's on the fresher side, less of a really like cooked, slow cooked dish, like I think they do so much, especially like for instance, summer right now, if you get fresh basil from the farmer's market, like that alone can just make whatever you're eating.
If it's a salad, if it's a bowl of lentils, it can just make it taste so much more exciting.
And so I really encourage folks to experiment with fresh herbs and spices.
Yeah, are you a fan of cilantro?
Yes, I don't think I could be Indian and not like cilantro. I think that like genetic intolerance, like where it tastes like soap for some people, I think it just skips over Indian people.
Like I don't know anyone who's Indian who can't have cilantro. Yeah.
So you, in your book, you have like nine different tenets.
Sauteing and deglazing in the Instant Pot
[34:39] One of them is begin with aromatics. And so in an Instapot, you can actually, as you're going along, you can actually dry saute, right?
Yeah, yeah. So there's, you can basically treat the pot, the inner pot as like a pot, like a pan or a saute pan.
So you can saute your onions, you can add your carrots, you can add your spices, and then you can, whenever it's time to add, let's say your beans, your final ingredient, you then pressure cook it, but you can do a lot of sauteing before you get to the pressure cooking stage.
And so when you're sauteing, can you adjust the heat just like you could like a gas?
Yeah, it depends on your model.
It's not gonna be as like, as fine tuned, like you're not gonna have like 10, nine, eight, seven, six, but depending on the model you have, there will be like a low heat, a high heat, and like a normal heat.
There might be like five levels. It really varies depending on the model you have, but yeah, you can lower the heat or increase the heat as needed.
One of your pillars too is, or I don't know what you wanna call it.
Your nine approaches to cooking is to deglaze as you go. What does that mean exactly?
[35:53] So when you deglaze the pan, whether it's on the stove or in your Instant Pot, basically adding kind of like a thin flavorful liquid to scrape up all the brown bits. So when you saute, let's say an onion and some garlic, you'll notice there's like some little brown stuff stuck to the pot. That's where a lot of flavor lives from the onion and the garlic or whatever aromatics you're using. And so you want to scrape that up with your liquid because it's going to go back into the liquid and that's going to make the whole dish more flavorful.
So you're like, if you're not deglazing, you're missing out on some of that flavor, but also for the instant pot, it's super important to deglaze because if you have a lot of stuff stuck to the bottom of your pot and then you go to pressure cook it, it will probably, not always, but it will probably trigger the instant pots burn sensor.
And so it might, you might get that annoying notice that says burn and your food's not, necessarily all going to burn, but you won't be able to continue cooking it. You'll have have to open it and stir and then, you know.
[36:51] Yeah.
Do you have, so speaking of like aromatics and deglazing, what are your favorite aromatics that you'd like to have in the house?
[37:00] Well, so I think the most basic two, onions and garlic, I use so often.
And so I think those can start off a dish super flavorful.
I also really like shallots and leeks, which are part of the kind of onion family, but have a little bit different, milder flavor profiles, especially love leeks in winter when they're in season.
And then again, I do like to do a lot of Indian cooking. So in addition to garlic and onions, I also really like ginger and green chili peppers.
So that's what I kind of refer to as the holy quaternity of Indian cooking.
So many dishes start off with an onion, ginger, garlic, and some sort of green chili pepper.
You also say, don't forget the acid.
What do you mean by that? I'm talking about acidity, not drugs, so don't worry.
Well, you know, today, you know, acid doesn't come with such a bad label, but okay.
Right, right. It might be used for like mental health treatment, you know, who knows.
But I feel like oftentimes when a dish feels flat or a little bit underwhelming or just like there's something missing, some sort of acidity can like lift it up and give it that perk and that little zing that it needs. So the easiest thing would be like you made a pot of soup and it tastes a little flat, squeeze of lemon juice at the end, a little bit of red wine vinegar.
[38:26] Depending on the flavor profile, it might be balsamic vinegar or champagne vinegar. It might be lime juice. If you're doing a Mexican dish or an Indian dish or a Southeast Asian dish, lime juice might be better than lemon juice.
And oftentimes it's really just at the end that you need it.
Sometimes it's nice to layer it in the earlier stages. Like sometimes I might add a little bit of Dijon mustard to something while I'm cooking.
[38:53] But yeah, it's sometimes during cooking, but oftentimes just at the end.
And it's really just a small amount to just pick everything up, make it taste a little fresh for sure.
Yeah. All right, are you ready for me to dive into the book? Yes. Fantastic.
Importance of parental support and dedication in cooking
[39:09] But I do want to start by saying, I love your dedication, right?
You dedicated this to your mom and your dad for your unconditional love and believing in my dreams.
Isn't it fantastic when your parents, you know, they have your back?
Yeah, best feeling. Isn't it, isn't it? And I'm telling you with everything that I've been through and the unique path that I chose, They never shot me down.
They never tried to steal my dreams. And it was super, super important in the voyage that I've taken.
And so when I see, you know, your dedication and what you've been through and the path that you're on, It's, um...
[39:51] It's really exciting for me to see that. That's nice to hear.
Yeah. So let's start. This is under the sauces and dips, and it's 53, and it's your restaurant-style hummus in three varieties.
And the reason why I'm bringing up this one is, for vegans, hummus is such a fantastic condiment. Yes, it is. And I tell people, if you can learn to make your own hummus, you know exactly what's in it.
Try and stay away from all the oil and a lot of the process stuff.
But what I want you to talk about here is not only what part of the hummus are we making in the Instant Pot.
[40:31] But also you talk about the secret to achieving the creamy texture is the baking soda.
Yeah. And so, and something about the skin of the chickpeas.
So will you talk to me, tell us? Yeah, so the part that you do in the Instant Pot is you cook the chickpeas.
I've made hummus from scratch for many years, and you can definitely make it with canned chickpeas.
It's still gonna be better tasting than store-bought stuff, but if you want the best texture, smoothest hummus, and the best flavor, whole dried chickpeas that you cook from scratch is the way to go.
And obviously with the Instant Pot, you can just pop your chickpeas in the Instant Pot.
You don't have to stir them on the stove, check them for doneness.
So that's the nice part. And then you just add your cooked chickpeas and tahini and a couple other ingredients to your food processor or blender.
[41:22] And the baking soda you add to the chickpeas while they cook and it helps to soften the chickpeas more quickly and also helps to like remove more of the chickpea skins.
And so in an ideal world, you would peel every single chickpea skin off to get the smoothest, dreamiest hummus.
Most people aren't gonna do that. And the baking soda doesn't remove all the skins, but it removes a lot of them. So you do get a nice benefit from having a lot, a lot smoother chickpeas, basically. Yeah, yeah.
That's a really nice trick tip. All right, I'm gonna move on to breakfast right now. All right.
Basic steel cutouts. And the reason is because I, I could live on steel cutouts every morning.
I find it's just such a great foundational, plantstrong meal.
And this is your photo in the book that's absolutely gorgeous.
Did you do all these photos?
I did, yes. Wow, you say that so nonchalantly.
Well, just because now this book is four years old and I personally, you know, harsh critic of my own work online.
These are, this is not up to my standard at this point. But at the time, I was like.
[42:33] You know, very much proud of the work I did. But that's when you work in a field like this, like, the goal is to improve as you go on. So, you know.
Totally. Well, I can't believe how gorgeous they are. And you've got a peaches and cream, you've got a chocolate peanut butter banana. That's the one that I would try first.
Yeah. And obviously a spiced apple walnut oatmeal.
But anything you want to say about this recipe or like steel cutouts typically take, I don't know, 30, 40 minutes, is that what it is in the Instant Pot?
It's a 12 minute cook time, but you do have to wait for the, that's kind of what I was alluding to earlier is that you don't necessarily save time overall because it takes some time for the Instant Pot to come to pressure.
And then for most things, you have to wait a little bit for it to depressurize, maybe 10 minutes before you can open the pot.
But what you do gain is like the, you don't have to stand in the kitchen and stir.
You can like leave the kitchen if you would like while it's cooking, while it's coming to pressure, while it's depressurizing.
So I don't know if you would say that maybe five minutes, you might save 10 minutes at the most, but it's nice to, you know, if you're making it in the morning, you wanna get ready for work, you wanna squeeze in a quick workout, you wanna, you know, prepare for the day.
Like you can do all of that and not be in the kitchen while your breakfast cooks, which I think is pretty great.
Do you like your oatmeal thick or thin? I like it on the thicker side.
Breakfast Enchilada Casserole in the InstaPot
[44:01] Yeah, not too thin. Yeah, I do too. I like it, like, I like to walk.
It feels more substantial. Yeah, I like to walk on top of it if I could. Yeah.
[44:11] All right, so this next thing, it's like, you gotta be kidding me.
You got a breakfast enchilada casserole. And that's right on the next page, 77, right?
There it is. Look at that, bad boy.
Is gorgeous. And you actually make that in the InstaPot? Yes, you do need a, basically like a glass round Tupperware to put it in there.
But like, you don't have to buy a specific pot for that. It's like a, it's a seven cup glass round dish.
So like, I feel like a lot of people will have that at home, but basically you layer it in there and then it kind of does its thing.
It kind of steams and cooks in the Instant Pot.
I mean, I love enchilada casseroles. Oh, nice. Yeah. And so based upon what you know, like looking at that, how many people would that feed?
Says four to six, but you know, serving sizes are just suggestions.
You know, everyone has a different appetite, different set of circumstances, so.
All right.
[45:17] All right, I also, I used, I mean, I have been eating this way now since I was 23.
So a little over 35 years.
I used to love French toast, you know, and obviously French toast, you typically put what?
Like an egg glaze on top of it, right?
But you have on page 91, you have an overnight sweet potato French toast.
And so again, in the Instapot, I'm making French toast made from sweet potatoes?
Yeah, well, there is bread in there. I don't know if you eat bread.
I do, sure. You do, okay. Yes, got it.
But yeah, I'm just looking at it.
[45:59] It's kind of the same principle as the casserole is you put it inside of a dish and then it kind of, you add a little bit of water to the instant pot below.
And so it kind of, the water creates the steam necessary so then it cooks that way.
But this is a nice option if you, Like, let's say have a holiday get-together where oven space is a premium, but maybe you wanna do a holiday brunch and you're like, oh, well, I can make this, in the Instant Pot because maybe someone has something else in the oven, hopefully not a turkey, but you know, sometimes oven space is at a premium.
[46:35] Moving on. We're splitting out of breakfast. We're going to satisfying sides. Okay, we're gonna start with the lifeblood of India, which, which is doll according to you. Yes, I want you to know Nisha. I just got back from a seven day Alaskan cruise. Cool. And the vegetarian section, they had a doll that I gravitated towards every dinner. I loved it on top of jasmine rice.
Dal, the Comforting Indian Dish in the Instant Pot
[47:04] And it made me realize how one of my favorite dishes in the whole wide world is dal.
I think I could live with dal.
It's such a comforting dish that is also really easy and really wholesome.
And traditionally Indian families will make dal in a pressure cooker, not an instant pot, but in a traditional stove top pressure cooker.
So it's like very fitting that it would be in this book. And it's the dish that I ate for dinner so many nights growing up.
My mom made so many different variations of it, but usually there were some sort of dal along with rice and roti and some sort of vegetable.
And that was like a very, that's a very classic Gujarati dish.
Gujarati is a part of India that my parents are originally from.
And it's, you know, it's just all naturally vegetarian, naturally vegan.
[47:54] And so, yeah, I eat a lot of dal now as an adult too, just because it reminds me of home and it reminds me of like childhood.
Well, and I love the way you say here, it's not just the bean, but it's also the spices, the herbs, and the aromatics that transform it from the simple to the exquisite, from the humble to the extraordinary.
Yes.
And it's so true. Yeah.
[48:20] Love that one. And then I just wanna go to something, this is another really basic one, and it's just frijoles on page 129.
It's a Mexican style pinto beans.
Yep.
Here we go. You can see that there. Any special trick here?
I know you talk about some flavoring agents that you use here, like jalapenos, onions, garlic, chili powder, and cilantro.
I think what's great about these is that they're so versatile.
If you're a beans and rice kind of person, if that's a go-to meal for you, you can put these with rice.
If you want something a little more special, you could put these in tacos.
You could put them in a burrito.
You could make your own enchiladas with these. You could spoon these over tortilla chips and do the vegan cheese sauce in the book and have like nachos.
So I think it's like one of the great things about the Instant Pot, like I was mentioning, is you can whip up a pot of beans by spending 10 minutes in your kitchen, walk away, and then you can use those beans in like six different ways during the week.
Like if you're a busy person who likes to eat beans, that's a pretty great gift to have.
Are you a fan of asparagus?
[49:33] Yeah, when it's in season, when it's not in season, no. I think asparagus is officially in season right now.
Yeah, I mean, it's, I feel like it's probably at the tail end of its season, but if you've ever had asparagus in like October or something, it's not worth buying.
Right, here on page 149, we have your lemony asparagus dish.
And when you cook asparagus in the Instant Pot, are you putting it with water in there or how are you doing it?
Yeah, so you do, basically the Instant Pot comes with, it's called a trivet, it's like a little metal rack.
And so you can use that as a steamer or you can buy a steamer basket that fits in your Instant Pot.
And then for really quick cooking vegetables like asparagus, I actually use low pressure, which is most of the things you're gonna pressure cook will be at high pressure 99% of the time.
But occasionally if there's something delicate like this that you don't wanna overcook, I use low pressure. All right, I.
[50:42] I love grilling asparagus out on the grill, just in a couple of minutes.
Just got to, do you use a basket so they don't fall through the grates or?
I usually, believe it or not, I'll take out a skillet and I'll just put it.
Oh, okay, that's good. Yeah. Nice. For the most part.
All right, next, I want to go to page 165, which is your sweet and spicy braised red cabbage.
Sweet and Spicy Braised Red Cabbage, a Colorful Dish
[51:05] I do like this one a lot. I don't eat enough, I personally don't eat enough cabbage, especially red cabbage, but I'm really drawn to the colors and cabbage, because it's a cruciferous, green leafy, I think.
[51:21] I just wanna eat more and it's so affordable. So I think cabbage is one of the most underrated foods.
So affordable, like even in high inflation times, cabbage is still got your back, very obviously nutritious for you.
And it's so big too, and it doesn't go bad after a while. I often will find a cabbage half in my fridge from two, three weeks ago. And I'm like, I think this is still good. So most people aren't going to use an entire large head of cabbage in one day.
[51:49] But the nice thing is it's probably going to still be good in a couple of weeks.
This particular dish I think is so fun because I don't, well, one, it's very colorful and pretty.
But also I think when you eat it, it doesn't feel like you're eating something so healthy. Like, like, oh, I'm eating a huge head of cabbage. It's got a little bit of crunch, but it's soft.
It's got some tang and acidity. It's got a nice like juicy pop from the dried cherries.
It's got a tiny bit of heat from the red pepper flakes.
It's a very fun way to eat cabbage and very easy to make.
Your description of that was exquisite. You also say here, this dish is also incredibly beautiful, like an edible bowl of ruby toned jewels.
I stand by it. You're a good writer, very good writer. Well, something paid off at law school then, I guess.
Yes, indeed.
And you said that your cabbage might be good for two or three weeks.
I think I found some that have been good two or three months later.
Definitely possible. It's nice shelf life, budget-friendly, good for you.
It's got a lot going for it. So you can see I'm a huge fan of kale, right?
I'm wearing one of my kale shirts right now.
We recommend people eat three to six servings of some sort of green leafy a day.
And here on page 167, you've got citrus kale and carrots right here.
And I love that combination too.
[53:19] Anything you'd like to say about this dish? This one, I think will surprise you. It doesn't.
[53:27] I don't know, it feels, it doesn't feel like kale in a way that, I don't know, some people don't like.
Like I love kale, but I know it's not everyone's favorite. It's got this nice sweetness to it from the carrots because once the carrots are cooked, they get sweeter.
And also there's a little bit of orange zest and juice. And so I think like the unexpected slight sweetness just makes it feel like very fresh and fun and not so kale-like, if that makes sense.
And you're a fan of the dinosaur kale as opposed to the- I mean, I'll eat both, but if I'm just buying like regular kale from the grocery store, I will go for dino kale.
I think it's less chewing on my mouth. Well, yeah, it's a little bit less unwieldy or- Yeah.
Transition to Comfort Food Favorites
[54:11] A little bit less attitude. Let's go to comfort food favorites.
For those of you, because I don't think I said it, we just left vegetables.
So we're going to comfort food favorites right now. And I'm gonna start, and how many recipes do you have?
You know, in this book?
I think there's 91 in here. Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot.
And we're just hitting some high notes here.
But there's a dish that I love. I love a good risotto, right?
But I find it really difficult to nail it. And I have one in my first cookbook, The Engine 2 Diet.
And it's good, but it's not fantastic. And so that's why I'm drawn to this one. It looks fantastic.
[54:57] You I do. I do love the mushroom risotto. So I started making mushroom risotto when I was 19 in college.
I took an Italian cooking class.
And we did a new dish every week. And one of the ones we did a particular week was mushroom risotto.
And I was like, this is the best thing ever. This wasn't vegan.
It was just a standard Italian cooking class. But I remember being like, I'm going to be making mushroom risotto for the rest of my life.
Not every day, not even that often. But if I want a special meal and the person I'm making for, I know they like mushrooms, I'm gonna be making a mushroom risotto.
And I think one of the intimidating things for some people with risotto is that you have to stir it often for like 30 minutes on the stove with the Instant Pot.
You obviously don't do any stirring once it's pressure cooked, so that's nice.
And you still get quite a nice texture.
There might be a slight difference between a stove-top cooked risotto and a Instant Pot risotto, But I think for 99% of people, it's still going to be like, wow, I made risotto and it wasn't very challenging.
Well, and you say here, too, in your description that you learned that the secret to creamy risotto is not butter or cheese, but the starch in the rice. Yeah, yeah.
And the savory quality. Interesting.
[56:18] All right, so one of my favorite comfort dishes in the whole wide world is a shepherd's pie.
And you have a lentil shepherd's pie on page 191.
And you too say this is one of the ultimate comfort foods. And you also recommend in this dish, here everybody, look at this photo, that a little red wine goes a long way in this.
[56:44] Yeah, I find that red wine, especially with lentils for some reason, there's just this really symbiotic pairing.
And the lentils, like we talked about deglazing earlier, you deglaze after you've sauteed your onions, your garlic, whatever it is, add a little bit of red wine, deglaze the pan, cook it off until you no longer smell wines, three minutes, five minutes.
I find that once you add the lentils and you cook the lentils in that mixture, they just taste like almost meatier.
And for a lot of folks who are coming to a plant-based diet and maybe miss meat and miss the familiar flavors, Like a little step like that, if it's gonna make your lentils taste meatier and like help you to enjoy that experience of a shepherd's pie, like I think it's worth it.
It might not be worth it for everyone, but I'm always looking for little things I can do to bring back the familiar flavors and textures that people miss from animal-based foods.
Signature Dish: Raise the Roof Lasagna
[57:43] Next dish we're going to move on to under comfort foods. I think one of my signature dishes that I make is what's called raise the roof lasagna. Raise the roof lasagna because it's that good.
You have a vegetable lasagna with a basil ricotta that absolutely looks like it would raise any roof. There it is right there. And again, look at the shape of that. That is made in the Instapot.
I'm fascinated. You insist that you use no-boil lasagna noodles too, right?
[58:24] Yeah. I think that with this particular recipe and also with the Instapot, you want something that cooks quicker. You don't want the wavier noodles, Those probably wouldn't cook through here.
But I think what I love about this recipe is that the ricotta, it takes like five minutes to make.
You add a block of tofu to your food processor with five, seven other ingredients.
And it very, very much tastes quite cheesy.
It has those lovely, savory, umami, cheesy flavors that you expect in a cheese.
And again, it takes five, 10 minutes to make, and it's also really versatile.
So if you were like, oh, I don't know if I have time to make lasagna, you can use this ricotta and dollop it on your grain bowls. You can spread it on toast.
You know, it's very versatile. And so I think even if you don't end up making the lasagna because maybe you don't have the right pan to put it in your Instant Pot, the ricotta is definitely like a staple to keep in your fridge.
And what's my total, do you have it in here? Like what's my total cooking time on this, you think?
I don't have the cook times in this, let's say, so the ricotta will probably take you 10 minutes.
And then once you assemble it, it goes into the instant pot for 20 minutes.
Wow, that's it.
[59:46] Yeah, because I find my vegetable, the raise the roof is a labor of love.
I mean, lasagna is, you know, it is.
It is, it's work, right?
Yeah. But we figured out shortcuts by using just like all frozen, you know, pre-cut veggies.
And, you know, there's other short, nice shortcuts.
And there's no noodle that I don't use any longer that I never pre-boil anymore, right?
I just throw it in, make sure I get enough sauce that it can- Yeah, if your sauce is gonna cover it enough, yeah.
You should be good. Yeah, you hanging in there? Yeah, yeah. Awesome, awesome.
We're rounding the bend, rounding to the barn here.
So let's go to soups, stews, and curries.
Corn Chowder with Coconut Milk Substitute
[1:00:31] This time of year, I probably, In the month of July, I will probably eat.
Ears of corn. Yes. I love fresh corn, especially. It's so good in the summer. It's so good and it's so cheap. So cheap. I don't know butter. I just eat it like plain. But you have a best corn chowder on page 241. Should I make that? Is this worthy? I think it's worthy. I don't know if you...
Do you eat coconut milk? Cause it has coconut milk in there.
Well, we're not huge fans of coconut, but what we'll do instead is we'll take like oat milk with a coconut extract.
Oh, okay. Which kind of is a nice simulation. I think also you could do, I don't, you do cashew cream as a nice substitute.
I think for oat milk, cause it has like the creaminess, but it doesn't have the coconut milk.
But this is like, I personally love this one. It's so creamy and it has the flavors of corn with a little bit of heat from the jalapeno and it gets additional creaminess from some Yukon gold potatoes that get blended into that.
It has a little smoked paprika, so it's got just a slight smokiness.
[1:01:50] You know, I personally love it. And you recommend to get like an added burst of flavor to take the corn cob with the husk on and put it over an open flame, right?
To kind of give it a little bit more of a, that's under your tip.
Yes, you get that like slightly smoky charred flavor, which I think is obviously, I think it's delightful.
I know in almost any dish that I have where I'm using corn, I try and buy frozen roasted corn.
I find the flavor is phenomenal.
Yeah, I mean, frozen corn is great when you don't have access to fresh corn.
Like you can definitely use it in this recipe If it's November and you're like, oh, I could go for a corn chowder, but you can't find fresh corn, It's still quite good with frozen corn here.
Moving on to page 259, your butternut squash chickpea, is it, how do you pronounce it, tagine, tagine? Tagine? Yeah.
There she blows, right? Where is it? Oh, I somehow, there it is right there. There you go.
And that looks phenomenal to me. I want it right this second.
[1:03:00] And you say while you prefer using dry chickpeas for the best texture, you can make this dish with cooked chickpeas.
Yep. Yeah.
Anything about this dish that is impossible not to love? I think what's really fun is the spicy pickled raisins.
So they add like these little juicy pops of sweet tanginess that are so fun.
I also would say that this is a pretty customizable recipe. So if it's not, if you don't have a good butternut squash like really any winter squash should be fine. Sweet potatoes would be fine.
Pumpkin would be fine.
The recipe calls for kale, which I know you love, but for instance, if someone listening doesn't like kale, you could do baby spinach.
[1:03:45] There's like just different opportunities to kind of customize it to your taste, which is fun.
Versatile Desserts: Double Fudge Chocolate Cake and Thai Mango Sticky Rice
[1:03:50] We're gonna move on to desserts. And we're just gonna talk about two.
And these are two of my favorite desserts in the whole wide world.
And one is chocolate, but you have a double fudge chocolate cake on page 281. Yes.
That looks sensational.
Okay. And again, you made that in an Instapot? Yeah.
So the thing about that is you do need a smaller cake pan Like a standard eight or nine inch cake pan, won't fit in most Instant Pots unless you have a really big one.
So if you wanna do baking in the Instant Pot, you do kind of need to buy a separate cake pan.
They're not like expensive or anything, but that's just something to keep in mind.
Something interesting about this recipe is you'll notice it comes with a raspberry topping.
And the reason I came up with that, I love chocolate and raspberry, but I remember serving this cake to a friend when I was testing recipes and he had like a four-year-old child at the time And the child was, and I had served it just chocolate cake with the raspberries, like fresh raspberries.
And the child was like, I really like it but I want more raspberry.
And I was like, you know what, you're right. It could use more raspberry, like that nice tart balance to the rich fudgy chocolatey-ness.
And so that's fun fact on how they ended up with the raspberry.
Julia, cooking tip from a four-year-old, very useful.
And you say that this cake is one step removed from eating pure fudge. Yes.
[1:05:18] I can't remember the last time I had fudge, but I miss it. All right, this is it.
I just actually had this dessert, not out of an Instapot, but I had this the other night and that is Thai mango sticky rice, maybe my favorite all-time dessert.
Just- Same. Something about it that just hits every, every.
[1:05:42] Flavor profile that I could possibly want in my mouth. It's sweet, it's tangy, it's a little tart from the mango, it's salty, it's creamy, it's got chewiness, it's, you know, juiciness, it's really got it all.
It does. And do you have a favorite mango or that you recommend using here? You like the honey?
Yeah, the honey mangoes are probably the best option that you would get in a supermarket there in season, usually from February to August. so definitely in season now.
Personally, if you have an Indian grocery store, Alfonso mangoes, which are only available basically April to June, fantastic, phenomenal.
I generally, go ahead. No, you go ahead.
Oh, I generally avoid like those larger red and green ones.
I not even- Tommy Atkins. Tommy Atkins. They're fine, but I think they're probably the most basic variety of mango and they're a little bit more fibrous.
So, especially with a dessert, a smoother mango is nice.
Well, that's all for now, as far as me putting you under the gun with your recipes.
Praise for Nisha's Incredible Recipes
[1:06:54] Way to go, Nisha, with those recipes, incredible.
Finding Joy in Teaching Plant-Based Cooking
[1:06:59] So tell me, what is it today that you're really sinking your teeth in and you're super excited and passionate about and doing work that you, Nisha, love.
Yeah, so I spent a lot of time with my YouTube channel, basically teaching folks how to cook plant-based food, vegan food at home, and that gives me a lot of joy.
[1:07:23] I went vegan for ethical reasons, and so whenever I can get someone to eat fewer animals, even if it's not like they're going vegan overnight, that brings me a lot of joy.
And so I am super excited that my job is basically to teach people how to become better cooks so that they can feed themselves, they can feed their families, and in the process, you know, eat fewer animals. So that's super exciting to me, and I'm just really fortunate.
[1:07:48] I get to do that every day or not every day, but you know, as part of my regular work.
And you've got a new book coming out next year. I'm sure you've probably come close, to turning that in at this point. I submitted it on Tuesday.
Fantastic work. That is so great. Can you give us any kind of a little teaser as far as like what it's about or anything?
Yeah, it's definitely more comprehensive books than the first one. It's not an instant the Pot Cookbook, and it's more just like my approach to vegan cooking and like all the different things, techniques, flavor profiles that you can use to really build more flavor in your meals, build more exciting textures, and just like little things you can do to enjoy your food more.
Whether you are, you know, a lifelong vegan, not a lifelong, like most people aren't lifelong vegans, but whether you're a long-term vegan or someone who's just dabbling in plant-based cooking and wants to learn more and wants to eat more plant-based but not really sure how to make it taste as good as they would hope it would taste.
Yeah.
Are you a one woman team or do you have anybody that works with you?
Yeah, I have a few employees.
[1:08:59] I have a full-time recipe tester who actually her last day is today.
She's moving back to the East Coast, which is sad but she's been with me for two years and has helped test all the recipes that we've done over the last two years.
My partner, who I mentioned earlier, he works full-time on the business as well, doing more of the behind-the-scenes stuff, a lot of operations and strategy.
And then I have another assistant who does a lot of stuff online.
And then we have more independent contractors, my video editor or my writer, or things like that, where I might be doing some of the stuff, but they're focusing on specific niche.
Totally, totally get it.
So to have over a million followers on YouTube, you know, that's quite an accomplishment.
Do you have a certain structure?
As far as like how much content you're trying to put out on a weekly, monthly basis?
[1:09:59] I should, but for me, it's never been about the numbers. It's certainly cool to see, oh, I have a million followers on YouTube.
But for me, it's more like, how can I create the best content for my audience that's useful, that might be inspiring or engaging or entertaining?
And so I don't produce as much content as I would like, maybe in an ideal world, but that's because I try to focus more on like the quality and if something doesn't, I don't get it the right the first time, I'm gonna redo it.
And I'm gonna spend a lot of time planning out what do I want this video to sound like and feel like and like what information do I wanna deliver in that? So I don't have a, I don't have any like target.
So give me an idea though, for example, Like what your last YouTube video that you did, is that something that you thought up with a couple other people?
How long did it take? And yeah.
[1:10:57] The YouTube videos, my partner and I generally plan out in advance, sometimes a week in advance, sometimes a month in advance, sometimes a couple of days in advance, really kind of depends on what else is on our plates.
But we met in law school actually. And so we both have, I would say, fairly analytical approaches to a creative space. And so I think that can be both a good and bad thing. But in general, I think it's helpful for us to think about we'll plan out, okay, like, how do we want this intro to sound? And like, what's the what are the main talking points we want to convey? And like, how do we want this video to feel? Do you want it to feel more casual?
Do you want to feel more of like, you know, not too, movie, but like, do you want it to feel like there's a lot of different, you know, B-roll clips going on and people are like moving from scene to scene? Or do we want it just to feel like a live cooking with Nisha kind of thing. And so we'll think about those things and plan them out, then we'll film, then I'll get all the footage to my editor, the editor will send me first draft, we'll review it together, we'll look at a second draft and so forth.
Meeting Max and his career transition
[1:12:01] You mentioned your partner, what's his name? Max.
Max. And so you and Max, you guys knew each other, did you say in law school or at the law?
Yeah. We met in law school. It's a long time ago. Wow. And so did he go the lawyer route for a couple of years too? And then did you like drag him away from that or?
No, he left first. He only did it for two years and he was like, I'm out. Unlike me, he did not go to law school with this like grand ideal of helping people. It was like He graduated at the height of the financial crisis and was like, I think I should do something stable, like become a lawyer.
And then once he became a lawyer, he was like, this will not work.
So he started working at a tech startup just a couple of years after being a lawyer, and then eventually kind of moved, into working with me as my business started to take off.
And as the pandemic honestly started, I was like, you're home, help me do this, help me do that.
Soon enough you now work with me, work together. Yeah, it's a blessing and sometimes it can be a little tough, but yes. Yes, I would agree with that on both fronts. Yeah. How hard is the LSAT?
[1:13:12] Oh gosh, well it's been many, many years since I have taken it. In suits, which I'm watching, in suits. This guy would take tests for people that couldn't pass the LSAT. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Like any standardized test, like if you learn kind of the approach of the questions and the style of the reasoning that you need to get down, I think you can learn it and do well enough.
Enough. Standardized tests in general, I think, aren't a great indicator of how, you know, How good of a student you'll be how good like obviously I'm not a lawyer anymore and might have done well in my else that's the thing didn't make the best lawyer because I stopped being one whereas there are plenty of people who probably didn't do as well but are really hardworking and committed to you know what they're doing so like.
[1:14:02] I kind of well in suits you megan markel is she's like yes i do know that is that is even though i haven't watched the show she plays this paralegal that just can't take standardized tests for a right.
And then this guy that's so good at him basically teaches her, just like you said, there's an approach, there's a mentality, and I'm sure she's going to pass. Yeah.
I'm not far in the fall. We'll see. Who knows?
Exactly. All right. So Nisha, where – I know we've put up some of it, but I want you to say it. Where can people go to find you, learn more about you, get connected with you?
Yeah, so if you are the kind of person who likes to watch videos and learn from videos, I would check out my YouTube channel.
It's youtube.com slash rainbow plant life.
Or you can just go to the YouTube search bar and type in rainbow plant life because while.
[1:14:59] I'll do recipe videos, I always teach you other stuff in the video.
So like if I'm showing you how to make a stir fry, I'm also telling you why you should cut your tofu this way or why you should season your tofu this way or why you should cut your vegetables this way. I'm giving you like little tips along the way that I hope will help make you a better cook, even if you're not making that particular recipe. If you are just looking for recipes in a printable format, you can go to my blog, rainbowplantlife.com. All of my recipes live there. You can print them out using the print button. And then if you, like to use Instagram, you can find me on Instagram as well, rainbowplantlife.
Fantastic. Well, Nisha, I really appreciate your time today.
Congratulations on doing something, working with some of the, that you're passionate and that you love and finding that path.
It's so absolutely cool. Thank you.
It was great to be here. Thank you. Can you give me a plantstrong bump on the way out here?
What? Wrong. I'm going to the wrong. A little higher, a little higher. There.
Oh, there we are. Thanks. Nice to see you. Thank you so much. Next year. Next year.
Definitely. When the money drops. All right. Yes.
[1:16:15] Thanks. RainbowPlantLife.com is the home for all things Nisha Vora, including recipes, blogs, and links to her other social media channels.
It is so amazing to follow these up and coming Brock stars, and I can't wait to have her back on the show soon to talk about her latest and greatest book.
In the meantime, keep it colorful, keep it flavorful, and always keep a plantstrong.
Support the PlantStrong Podcast for a healthier lifestyle.
[1:16:48] Thank you for listening to the PlantStrong Podcast. You can support the show by taking a quick minute to follow us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
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The PlantStrong podcast team includes Carrie Barrett, Laurie Kortowich, Ami Mackey, Patrick Gavin, and Wade Clark.
This season is dedicated to all of those courageous truth seekers who weren't afraid to look through the lens with clear vision and hold firm to a higher truth.
Most notably, my parents, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. and Anne Crile Esselstyn.
Thanks for listening.
