Tadka, which goes by many other names, is one of the most spectacular flavor-building techniques used in Indian cooking. In the tadka method, whole or ground spices and other aromatic ingredients such as garlic or curry leaves are dropped into a small quantity of hot fat with a high smoke point. The heat and the oil help draw out the aromatic molecules from the spices to create a flavorful concoction, which is then poured, warm, to finish your dish. Serve it with warm bread.

“A recipe the family has come to love. It’s creamy from coconut milk and spiced similarly to an Indian butter chicken with garam masala, turmeric, and a bit of cayenne. The lentils keep the dish filling and hearty without meat, and then the roasted squash on top is an extra-special topping that makes this simple soup a bit more exciting than your average bowl.”

Holidays mean pie. Holidays mean sweet potatoes. And this holiday sweet potato pie is not the one you’re thinking of. We were initially inspired by samosas—the delightful triangle-shaped fried pastries stuffed with potatoes, peas, and spices in South Asian cuisine. We opted for a large potpie that can serve a crowd instead of individual pastries, swapped the regular potatoes for sweet potatoes for maximum holiday vibes, and, for extra veg, added in some cauliflower à la aloo gobi (another favorite dish from Indian cuisine). It was a fun food puzzle to put together, but it’s even more fun to eat.

The last meal of detox week: You’re tuckered out, so you want it to be simple, and you’ve got random odds and ends left over that you need to use. A fritter, then. We took inspiration from our favorite fritters all over the world, including Jewish latkes, Japanese okonomiyaki, and Indian pakora. All of these include shredded veggies that are bound together and then fried until crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. We served ours with a creamy avocado cilantro sauce, because a dip always makes it way more fun.

From the skin-replenishing magic of her beautiful organic oils to easy ways to shift your energy with food or movement, UMA founder Shrankhla Holecek manages to make practices based in Ayurveda—the ancient Indian system of medicine—both simple and approachable. Her offhanded mix of glamour and down-to-earth-iness couldn’t be more charming, even when she’s giving us tips on how to use navel oil (!) on the latest episode of The Beauty Closet.

“The Northern Cheyenne people have a saying: A nation is not defeated until the hearts of its women are on the ground,” says Lucy Rain Simpson, executive director of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. “And that was a primary tactic. If you want to break a nation down, you purposefully try to make women no longer respected.” In her role, Simpson works to safeguard Native women and children. Today, she unpacks much of what is misunderstood about the rampant sexual violence on Native land, including that over 90 percent of the perpetrators are non-Indian. She explains the impact of federal mismanagement and complacency around these crimes and why assaults against women are particularly corrosive in Native culture. And she shares ways that we can begin to break the cycle of violence, as well as a vision of what justice would look like. “If we can come back to a place where women are sacred, that gives us the foundation for building everything else up,” she says.

Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer Prize–winning, number one New York Times–bestselling author. Her most recent book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, links the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany. She examines how a caste system has shaped American history and the ways our lives are still defined by man-made hierarchies. In this conversation with host Elise Loehnen, Wilkerson explains the essential difference between racism and casteism and why these hierarchies negatively affect all groups. “We are, as a society, harmed by the inequities that may seem to be trained primarily on one group,” says Wilkerson. “But then these inequities spread and leach out beyond the boundaries of that seat.” The ripple effects, Wilkerson explains, include misguided policies that often impact everyone. And she shares what it takes to move beyond these artificial divisions. The first step is having a deep understanding of the history that shapes us: “If you don’t know the history, if you don’t know where you’ve been, then it’s hard to know how you got to where you are and how you can move forward.”

While looking for help managing migraine pain, neurologist and neuroscientist Kulreet Chaudhary, MD, decided to take a detour from a conventional path in medicine to explore sound healing. She now incorporates ancient practices, like sound medicine, at her wellness center in rural India, and wrote a book called Sound Medicine. Chaudhary says that sound medicine is simply a recognition that sound affects us—and an attempt to use the technology of sound deliberately to uplift the mind and body. In this episode, she takes us through sound baths, mantra-based meditations, how certain frequencies of sound might have the potential to restore health, and the simple daily practices she recommends to help center yourself.

For a fully immersive trip to Rajasthan, we collaborated with Black Tomato for an itinerary that includes exploring Jodhpur's textile markets, the lake palaces of Udaipur, and the wildlife in Jawai.

In many ways, Seattle is a study in contrasts: It's the place where grunge, Amazon, and Starbucks were born—and it still has great music (although it's different now), indie bookstores, coffee shops, microbreweries, and the like.

By definition, a shaman is "a priest or priestess who uses magic for the purpose of curing the sick, divining the hidden, and controlling events"—powerful, indeed, particularly when you encounter a shaman who believes that part of their mandate is to teach us all how to fish for ourselves. Shaman Durek, who was born in Northern California to an African-Haitian father and an East Indian/Norwegian mother, began his shamanic studies at the age of 12—as the spiritual heir to his great-grandmother Mamal. But as he explains below, being a shaman isn't just about bloodlines: It's a calling, which requires extreme and prolonged rites of passage—in Shaman Durek's case, he had to actually die, and then physically put himself back together.

This lunch is super filling. Black lentils are so beautiful—they remind me of caviar, little jewels on top of the bright-orange sweet potato flesh. Both sweet potatoes and lentils have fiber that will keep you full through the afternoon, and the lentils, inspired by traditional Indian dal, are flavored with a plethora of spices that are rich with flavor. Turmeric is helpful for quelling inflammation, and you get maximum benefits when you eat it with fat (such as the coconut milk in this recipe) and black pepper (which can make it more bioavailable). You’ll also let the minced garlic sit for 20 minutes to activate its healing enzymes and add it at the very end so that it’s cooked long enough for its potent bite is dulled but for the health benefits to remain entirely intact.

In WeHo, you'll find the city's historic gay neighborhood sidled up next to a world class interior design district. Drive just a few blocks east, and you'll land in the middle of 3rd Street, which is peppered with indie coffee shops, restaurants, and shops. While sections of Hollywood Boulevard can skew a tad touristy, Hollywood proper is a neighborhood with major culture pockets, including some excellent galleries, picturesque Beachwood Canyon, and countless restaurants.

Beverly Hills is home to iconic stretches of upscale shops and restaurants, not to mention a handful of storied hotels and world-class spas. Culver City is home to a burgeoning restaurant scene and enough indie coffee shops to make an east-sider jealous.

It may look like scrambled eggs, but this unique sautéed Indian cheese dish is so much more versatile. With fresh cilantro, squeaky cheese, earthy cumin seeds and spicy chili, this Makai Paneer is our new favorite dish for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

There's something singularly compelling about a great coffee shop—particularly when you're trying to pound out a long overdue novel/screenplay/thesis/power point presentation/business plan and are desperate for inspiration, company, and distraction. Merely being in the presence of other procrastinators helps, as does a bottomless supply of really good coffee. Below, the best spots in 10 major cities for spending an afternoon (or stopping by to tap into their WiFi). We've noted when they don't offer internet, a blessing for those who can't get off email.

<p>Sigh. Jamie Oliver. I love Jamie Oliver. I love his food, I love his books, I love his app, I love the mission he is on. Jamie Oliver is trying to change the way we eat, and by doing so, he plans to deal a massive blow to the likes of obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. He is trying to encourage us to get back into the kitchen and cook for ourselves and our families, thereby cutting out the fast and overly processed foods that are making us sick. And fat. And depressed. We are getting this information from so many sources at this point that it's hard to deny the link between bad nutrition and the host of bad effects it is having on our wellbeing. Even PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, according to last week’s Economist, sees what is at stake and is reducing salt and sugar in Pepsi products, promising to rid schools of all their sugar packed sodas by 2012 (what a gal!) So Jamie is having an effect. He recently won the TED prize for his efforts to change our diets, as chronicled on his new TV show, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on ABC Friday nights at 9 pm. Check him out in any of the aforementioned ways. He is pretty great.</p>