About Spice Girl Kitchen

Shubhra Ramineni is a first generation Indian American raised in Houston, TX. Shubhra grew up enjoying healthy, traditional Indian food and she learned to cook from her mother, an excellent home cook and a professional dietitian. Determined to eat well despite her busy schedule as a chemical engineer with an MBA, Shubhra set out to adapt traditional Indian recipes for the lifestyles of today's professionals and busy moms like her, creating dozens of delicious, easy-to-prepare Indian recipes  with both English and metric measurements in her award- winning cookbooks, Entice with Spice, Easy and Quick Indian Recipes for Beginners, and Healthy Indian Vegetarian Cooking.  Her no-fuss cooking methods and time saving tips will remove any intimidation of cooking Indian food. Shubhra teaches Indian cooking classes at Williams-Sonoma, Sur La Table, Whole Foods Market, and Central Market. Shubhra lives in Houston, TX with her husband and three children who love to bake (look for her easy baking recipes here as well).  Follow Shubhra as 'Spice Girl Kitchen' on Instagram to see what she is cooking next in her kitchen!

After entering corporate America, I found myself eating out a lot and doing frequent takeout. I decided to learn the healthy, delicious Indian meals my mother prepared for us, so I called her and asked how to make a few dishes. This turned out to be quite frustrating for us both, since she does not cook with measurements, and my handwriting can be a bit sloppy, which made it hard to make sense of my notes!  So I would call my mom back again, and she would say we already went over the recipe! This discouraging cycle repeated itself for each Indian dish I tried to make.

I then thought maybe I would simply buy an Indian cookbook, but I realized there was not any cookbook available that had simple, basic, everyday Indian home cooking dishes written by an Indian American who knows how busy our lifestyle are, and what is available in our grocery stores.

It was then I came upon the idea of writing my own cookbook, Entice with Spice. After securing a book deal with a publisher who knew the importance of helpful photographs for each recipe, I bought a set of measuring tools for my mom, but she still didn’t use them! I had to figure out which measuring spoon her pinch of spices fit into! It was a challenging, yet loving process I worked on with my mom. And I did it all over again for my second book, Healthy Indian Vegetarian Cooking.  I recall my mom saying "Oh gosh!" before she said "Congratulations!" when I told her about my second book deal because she knew the hard work that lay ahead!

I am very thrilled with my cookbooks, the awards they have won,  and so happy they have been useful to so many.   With a friendly, reassuring voice, I show busy home cooks how simple it is to prepare a homemade Indian meal that tastes authentic!  I truly enjoy hearing from my readers and seeing what they cook, so drop me a message and join me as 'Spice Girl Kitchen' on Instagram! Enjoy!