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Greetings from our International Summer Seminar, from the Yoga in Daily Life retreat in Véb, Hungary. My name is Erna Buchinger, Annapūrṇā. I come from Austria, from Lower Austria—the most beautiful part—and I currently live in Krems on the Danube. We are having a wonderful time here in the middle of beautiful nature, with satsaṅg, cooking classes, bhajan singing, meditations, and everything you could want for a holiday. Today, we are going to have a cooking class. Sometimes I call it a craft class, because Falahārī nutrition does not involve much cooking; everything is already perfect as it grows. I have been nourishing myself with Falahārī—the vitality of vegetables, fruits, and herbs—since 2005, with my first experiments in 1999. We are here today for the Falahārī cooking class. It is very simple cooking, a very simple way of eating, because everything grown in nature is already perfect. I feel very good with this diet. I am much less tired, full of energy, and very healthy. I feel satisfied and happy with this nourishment. Today we will prepare a very healthy menu. Many here have been fasting, and with a few hundred participants at the seminar, I think everyone coming to eat will be happy about a larger menu. We will cook a soup with vegetables and a little mung bean, a cabbage vegetable, an olive herb pesto, and, of course, salad. Salad has become one of my main foods. When I started with Falahārī, I mainly ate cooked soups. Now, after several years, I mostly eat salad, sometimes twice a day. The olive herb pesto has a taste reminiscent of black olives. It comes from the Spain-Portugal area but also grows here in Austria. This specific one is from a wine district. My nourishment has changed a lot over time. In the beginning, I ate a lot of cooked soups. Now I eat mostly salads in all kinds of variations. It is very important to accept how you feel and how you want to eat, not to make too many rules, and to feel free in choosing. New ideas still come to me more and more, which makes me very interested in this healthy food. I am happy to discover new dishes, and this inspires me very much. I missed this for the first 40 years of my life. I am, of course, a vegetarian. The greatest gift for me is that I became a vegetarian. This is a very important point and a great improvement in my quality of life through Yoga in Daily Life, inspired by Swāmījī. I think one should also eat some sweets. When eating Falahārī, there is something for the sweet hunger. I am convinced that fruits like these berries, apples—sometimes I eat a kilo a day—or dates are already perfect. But today we will craft something special: an apple pie. In my opinion, everything is perfect as it grows, and the best is to eat it as it is. But for this special occasion with so many people, we will make an apple cake. Let's start with the soup. We will make it simply. We put in mung dal, which does not take long. We add different vegetables: normal soup greens, carrots, leeks, parsnips, celery, and later, zucchini. I like to add a couple of laurel leaves and these dried curry leaves from our āśram in Kailash, Rajasthan. It only needs to cook, and we can eat it like this or puree it. Now for the apple cake. We have grated almonds, five defrosted Medjool dates (which are very soft and sweet), and the juice of two oranges. With this, we make the dough. A Falahārī cake is not baked; we do not use flour, but dried fruits and nuts. We have prepared the apples for the filling. I grate them just before using so they don't turn brown. In principle, it is better to eat first what is more easily digested and later what is less easily digestible, like carbohydrates or protein. It would be best not to mix the apples with the almonds, but if you don't eat too much, you will digest it well. Everything we prepare today is actually enough for a whole meal by itself. But today, it will be something special. We add a little lemon juice to the apples. Now we prepare the dough. It is very simple. We can add the juice of the oranges. Before we put on the apple filling, we can cover the base with some strawberries and blueberries, especially the very small, sweet ones. In the meantime, we can prepare our sabjī. First, we put a little olive oil in the pan. Then we add the spices: first Boxhorn Glühsamen, then two or three pieces of chili, then mustard seeds. The important thing is not to use too much. Then comes Mutterkümmel (cumin), not too much. Then ginger, finely chopped. That is enough if you want it a little spicy. Now comes the cabbage, then finely chopped herbs. I like to use early herbs. Then we add yellow root powder—turmeric—which belongs in every kitchen; it is a real medicine. A little salt, always rock salt or sea salt because all minerals are contained there. Then a little cumin powder, and a bit of water so it doesn't stick. We will add carrots later, prepared with a cutter, at the end so they are not too soft. The carrot is not peeled because it is organic; I use as much of the vegetable as possible. In the soup, we can now add the zucchini and yellow pepper. Also, yellow powder (turmeric) and salt. Now we make the olive herb pesto. It doesn't take much time. We cut the herb as small as possible, then add nuts, green chili, salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. We can also add red chili to make it spicy. You can prepare this and keep it in the fridge for several days, having a different one each day. It tastes very good with spaghetti or with vegetables. We must not forget salt and pepper. Now we'll finish everything. I like to add the carrots to the cabbage; it looks more friendly. The soup is also more or less ready. You could puree it, but it's not necessary. Now for the salad, the easiest thing: just cut and mix. We have red and green paprika, walnuts, tomatoes if you like, and yellow paprika. One thing is very important: when you eat any kind of salad, especially now, we are lucky to have these areas where fireflies grow. This is really a kind of medicine, so rich in minerals. You should not miss it. The fireflies are freshly picked from here in Véb. They are very rich in minerals—magnesium, calcium, iron. You will not have problems if you regularly eat, for example, Brussels sprouts. We cut them very small so there is no problem when eating them raw. The best is to eat them raw. You can also cook them as spinach or soup. I first had them in Strilky, where everyone was supposed to pick Brussels sprouts. We had a thousand participants and ate Brussels soup. That was the first time I ate them, and it was great. Now I love them raw; they go on every salad. I have a secret: a good herb salt mixture of mountain bean, oregano, olive, ash, melissa, basil, rosemary, garlic powder, rock salt, and thyme. This is a mixture of 70% herbs and a little salt. I give it generously over every vegetable and salad, and it always tastes wonderful. So the salad is ready. Now we only need the vanilla sauce for the apple cake. For the sauce, we put a quarter liter of water, two dates (crushed), a little vanilla powder (not vanilla sugar), and two tablespoons of white almond flour. We mix it. I would like to send you the scent of this vanilla sauce through the camera. I hope those who get something from it will enjoy it. Now we're going to arrange everything. A little salad, then the herb vegetable, soup. Such a soup is the best thing you can eat after a long working day. Let us decorate it with some parsley. It would make me even happier if this became one of your favorite dishes. I am very happy that you were with us, and I will be happy if you also like to cook in this way. It is very healthy. After so many years of a vegetarian diet, I have so many favorite dishes that it was hard to choose what to cook with you today. I have so much love for this food. I hope you enjoyed it. I will be here a few more days at this beautiful area in Véb for the summer seminar retreat with Swāmījī. Thank you for joining this cooking class. I hope we will see each other again, or you will continue to watch our cooking courses. Thank you!