72 NOVEMBER 2020
THERE IS NO SEASON cookbook author and food blogger Hetal
Vasavada loves more than fall. There’s an energy that courses
through the crisp air, an excitement surrounding the upcoming
months that swirls as the leaves change colors and the tempera-
tures officially return to sweater weather. The oppressive heat
of summer is gone, the frozen days of winter are still far off in
the distance, and, most importantly, Diwali season is finally
here again. “I get butterflies in my stomach when it becomes
October!” Vasavada exclaims.
For many across the country, autumn marks the beginning
of a season filled with Thanksgiving turkeys and glazed hams,
but for Vasavada and her family, Diwali—often referred to as the
festival of lights—is the focal point. The holiday, which takes
place on November 14 this year (the date is based on the Hindu
lunar calendar), represents a triumph of good over evil in Hindu
mythology and is celebrated throughout South Asia and its global
diaspora. And though there are many customs surrounding
Diwali (such as creating rangoli, colorful art made with materials
like sand or rice powder, and setting off fireworks), for Vasavada,
it has always meant family and food—particularly sweets.
Vasavada grew up as part of a large, working-class Indian
American family in the suburbs of New Jersey, surrounded by
many cousins, aunts, and uncles. Diwali (which is also referredto as Deepavali) was the only occasion when her parents, immi-
grants from the Indian state of Gujarat, would let her take a
break from her rigorous academic endeavors. “It was the one
time my parents would let me and my sister skip school,” she
says with a laugh. Her mother, who sewed American flags for a
living when she first arrived in the United States, would insist
Vasavada and her sister wear a new pair of Indian clothes on
the day, often stitching the outfits herself from scrap fabric. (It’s
a tradition Vasavada continues today, now making outfits for
her 4-year-old daughter, Elara.) In these outfits she would join
her family to visit relatives and friends, eating her way through
an endless stream of sweets, mainly Indian cookies, and drink-
ing more cups of masala chai than a student cramming for
final exams.
All of this, however, was just a warm-up for the main event.
Diwali, for Vasavada, would always culminate in a large fam-
ily feast with enough food to feed a small town. “There were a
hundred-plus of us at my cousin’s house each year,” she
explains. The house would overflow with loud conversation,
and the kitchen would overflow with traditional Gujarati home-
style cooking: mountains of puri, a beloved deep-fried flatbread;
trays of undhiyu, a specialty of the region made from several
vegetables cooked down together with spices and lots of oil;
bowls of chana masala, or spiced chickpeas; so much rice; a
big jar of Indian pickles (“either a family member picked this
up in India or made it from scratch”); vats of piping-hot dal;
Indian-style fruit salad; and, perhaps the most important part of
the spread, an impressive assortment of sweets, made by family
members leading up to the day. Dinner was never eaten off the
best china, but instead from Styrofoam plates with separate
compartments for each dish.
“All the women would show up at the house a couple of hours
early,” Vasavada says. “They planned the menu over the phone
weeks in advance. Then they would get together and start cook-
ing, and all the kids would be in another room watching TV or
playing around.” In high school, Vasavada started to help out
with dinner prep, cutting vegetables and rolling out dough. “It
was a time to be in the kitchen, and that was the most fun for
me,” she recalls fondly.Vasavada likes to serve salty
snacks like a chaat made from
hash browns (left, recipe p. 78)
and crostini topped with
goat cheese and homemade
chhundo, a sweet-and-spicy
green mango marmalade
(opposite, recipe p. 100).growing up, for diwali,Vasavada would visitrelatives and friends, eatingher way through an endlessstream of sweets anddrinking masala chai. FOOD STYLING: HETAL VASAVADA; PROP STYLING: CLAIRE MACK (RECIPES), ROBYN MILLER (INTERIOR); HAIR AND MAKEUP: DOMINIQUE LERMA