This Is TASTE 752: Asha Loupy Is Here to Save Your Spice Drawer
Mar 30, 2026
Asha Loupy, Oakland-based food writer and recipe developer who coauthored The Diaspora Spice Co. Cookbook, chats about traveling across South Asia to document farm and home cooking. She recounts tasting single-origin spices, adapting farm techniques for U.S. kitchens, perfecting dosa and idli, and prepping a solo cookbook focused on weekly, vegetable-forward dinners.
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Spices Aren't Limited To South Asian Food
- Diaspora Spice Co. recipes for the website purposefully show spices used beyond South Asian contexts to prevent pigeonholing spices as only 'Indian' ingredients.
- Asha emphasizes that spices like cumin work equally well in tacos, dumplings, and saag paneer, broadening home cooks' applications.
Four Months Cooking On Spice Farms
- Asha Loupy traveled with Sana Javeri Kadri to 11 states across India and Sri Lanka over two trips to document farm kitchens and heirloom recipes.
- They spent days in each region, cooking with women on farms, taking notes, photos, and tasting local variations to inform recipe development back in the U.S.
Translate Hand Gestures Into Measurements
- When capturing recipes from non-measuring cooks, guesstimate by using gestures like asking them to hold out a hand, then translate those volumes into standardized measurements later.
- Asha carried a small notebook and transcribed rough measures after visits to preserve recipes.
