🇬🇧 ☕ Chai Break #2 - Natasha Tourabi, content creator and vegan food writer
April 2025
Note : pour l’article en français, cliquez ici.
For over a decade, content creator Natasha Tourabi has been exploring the connexions between food, ecology and cultural transmission through a variety of formats — blog, webzine, cookbook… Born in Grenoble (France) to a Gujarati family, she teaches Anthropology and creates content rooted in her values. In 2013, she launched Echos Verts blog to share her eco-conscious lifestyle. What started with veganism and zero-waste way of life gradually evolved into stories about Indian cooking, told with a deep, personal, and thoughtful approach. In 2024, she published Vegan Indian Cooking: Recipes from a Gujarati Family (Solar).
This month’s Chai Break is a chance to hear more about her journey, her creative formats, and what writing about niche food topics means to her today — from blogs and zines to Gujarati vegan food.
Masala Trends: Natasha, To start, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Natasha: I'm Natasha, I’m 41, and I was born in Grenoble (France) to a family originally from Gujarat. My mum’s side grew up in Madagascar. My background is pretty hybrid — I teach Anthropology in an International school, but I’m also a content creator. I launched Echos Verts back in 2013, while I was living in Canada and teaching French at an international high school. At the time, I felt a big disconnect between the school's values and how we actually lived day to day. So I created a space to explore more hands-on ways to take action.
MT: How did veganism and food become part of your journey?
N: It all started with wanting to reduce my environmental impact. First I got into seasonal, local, organic food — then vegetarian, and eventually vegan cooking. I went vegetarian while in Canada, then became fully vegan in 2014, shortly after moving to Freiburg in Germany. Germany really made it easier — vegan options everywhere, a more open market. I started sharing plant-based recipes on the blog a few years in. It wasn’t the vegan community that pushed me to do it — it came from me. I’ve always loved cooking, but I felt pretty intimidated by the world of food blogging. Eventually, I just wanted to offer accessible, everyday plant-based recipes using local, seasonal ingredients.