Today we’d like to introduce you to Nisha Vora.
Hi Nisha, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to tell us a little bit about your journey. Not many people go from being a lawyer to a recipe developer, cookbook author, and YouTuber!
As a child of Indian immigrants, education was always the foremost priority for me. So, while I fell in love with cooking as a teenager and loved hosting family and friends for big feasts, food was never a realistic career path, just a hobby. When I graduated from Harvard Law School in 2012, I was excited to use the law as a tool to help people, but after a few years, I started to become disillusioned with practicing law and the legal system. I’d find myself waking up miserable and coming home anxious.
In 2016, I started posting photos of the food I was making at home on Instagram as a creative outlet, and it started to gain some traction. And the more I got back into my passion for cooking, the more I became curious about where my food was coming from and who was paying the cost for it. That led me down a path toward veganism.
As my new hobby started to take off, I used it as an opportunity to leave an unhappy career in law. I found a job at a vegan food startup in NYC, where I did recipe development and testing, food photography, social media marketing, and copywriting. In the mornings and evenings before work, on my subway commute, and on the weekends, I’d spend time building my fledgling business. First through Instagram, then through a blog, and finally through YouTube and a cookbook.
I side hustled for two and half years until it was no longer sustainable to do both, and I felt ready to turn Rainbow Plant Life into a full-time business. I just celebrated my three-year anniversary this month.
Today, you can find me on YouTube, Instagram, or my blog rainbowplantlife.com, where I share flavor-packed recipes and teach folks how to master vegan cooking at home.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced on your journey?
The general stuff of being a first-time business owner (e.g., how to incorporate, set up payroll, pay taxes, etc.). And work-life balance! Figuring out when to turn work off when you (1) run your own business, (2) love what you do, and (3) work from home can be very challenging.
Having to accept that I can’t do everything all at once. As a digital content creator, there are so many things I could be working on (and want to work on). But spreading myself thin and doing an okay job at 10 different things is not what excites me. So, I need to remind myself often that I need to focus on just a couple of things that I can do really well and ignore everything else.
You have over 300 recipes on your website. Which recipes do you tend to make on a regular basis?
My go-to breakfast is tofu scramble.
– It’s just as creamy as your standard scrambled eggs but higher in protein and with a distinctly eggy flavor.
If I have a busy morning coming up, I’ll bake:
– a batch of breakfast cookies Or
– blueberry muffins
For dinner time, I often make something quick like:
– 15-minute noodles with a spicy chili garlic sauce Or
– 20-minute chickpea tacos
But I often will prep a big batch of something on a Sunday to have a few times during the week. Favorites include:
– vegan curry with tofu
– white bean soup with kale
Most of the time, I serve these along with rice or some other grain, but if I’m having company over or have extra time, I’ll get a little more ambitious and make my vegan naan .To pair with a curry or vegan cornbread To go with the chili.
For holiday meals, my go-to is a lentil shepherd’s pie . It’s rich and delicious and perfect as a centerpiece on a holiday table.
When it comes to sweets, I have a serious chocolate addiction, so you’ll often find me baking vegan brownies or whipping up vegan fudge . Both of these are rich, decadent, and impossible to not love.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rainbowplantlife.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rainbowplantlife/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rainbowplantlife
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/rainbowplantlife
