March 22, 2024
Chia, granola and berries. This can be a breakfast, snack or even dessert. I use 1/4 cup chia to one cup oat or almond milk (homemade). Sweeten with a tablespoon of maple or agave syrup or just vanilla. Combine in a bowl and let sit, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to thicken. Pour into glasses, cover and refrigerate to set overnight. To serve spoon granola over and add berries.Serve chilled.
March 22, 2024
Overnight oats or muesli. Is there a difference between the two? First time I had muesli was at the fabulous Lake Ohara Lodge in the beautiful Alberta Rocky Mountains. We used to go hiking there with the kids when they were young. When I think about it today I wonder how they managed hiking the steep Alpine trails but I know it left them with a love for the mountains and outdoors to this day.... View Article
March 22, 2024
Onigiri – Japanese rice balls compressed into a triangle. I made them two ways, plain and fried. Onigiri is a classic Japanese snack that you see in almost every bento box. It can be shaped into a ball, a cylinder, a triangle or any creative shape that strikes your fancy. Onigiri can be plain, stuffed or just seasoned. Plain are partially wrapped with a strip of nori to keep the rice from sticking to your... View Article
May 31, 2021
Risotto is an all-year dish, you can make it hearty in the winter with root vegetables and light and fresh in the spring and summer with peas, asparagus and like here, with tomatoes. Inspiration for this risotto was a NYT recipe but I did my thing and we loved it. To make start with the oil, shallots, and rice, then add wine and cherry tomatoes and reduce. Then start adding the stock, a bit at... View Article
March 21, 2020
Mujadara is a classic middle eastern dish that I love and occasionally make. It consists of cooking rice and lentil together and topping with cruspy chopped onion. Simply delish. This is a version of the concept, made with leftover rice and lentils that I had and mixed with roasted ribbons of carrots and parsnips. This business of #stayhome, #flattenthecurve and #quarantinecooking is working well in my kitchen. I hope I am supporting the community by... View Article
October 6, 2019
For me breakfast is cereal but sometimes I like to switch things around, especially in the summer when a hot cereal may seem heavy. On those occasions I would soak oats overnight in plant based milk, orange juice or apple juice, and have it for breakfast cold with topping of seasonal fruits. This time I soaked the oats in cashew milk and decided to add a little matcha for colour, flavour and... View Article
June 5, 2018
Often when I cook rice I make extra and use the leftover rice in a pilaf a day or two later. It’s a good way to use up odds and ends of veggies that are lingering but are still beautiful, fresh and crisp. A classic pilaf is rice sautéed in oil with aromatics and then cooked in flavoured broth with vegetables or non-vegetarian proteins. My method here is different, sautéeing vegetables first and then adding... View Article
May 20, 2018
Israeli couscous is not really a couscous. Real couscous is made with crushed grains of durum wheat and what is known as Israeli couscous are tiny little toasted pasta balls developed in Israel in the 1950s to replace rice which was then unavailable. Israeli couscous is easy to cook and good on its own or combined with other vegetables in salads or warm dishes. I like to brown the couscous in a little olive... View Article
November 21, 2017
Sometimes I have food cravings and nothing but a risotto would do. It has been on my mind for a while now but with so much fresh stuff in my fridge I just did not get around to making it. Finally it had to happen today. I had a couple of golden beets I picked up the other day and I thought they would be good in the risotto. Cut in small cubes and cooked... View Article
November 4, 2017
I haven’t made this rice and lentils dish in a while but I consider it one of my favourite Middle Eastern dishes. It’s just that there are so many things to cook and what I repeat other than vegetables tends to be pasta, pasta and more pasta. Basta pasta? I don’t think so. I have seen many recipes for making mujadara and even a few different spellings of the word (mejadra, Mejadara etc.). My preference... View Article
June 26, 2017
So I had the pickled beets from another recipe and wanted to use them with the rest of the Quinoa that I had cooked the day before. Since I sliced the beets very thin I thought they would be good as carpaccio layer under the quinoa, and then topped it with roasted asparagus and beautiful green Onion I got at the market the other day. I wasn’t quite sure how to plate it so tried... View Article
June 22, 2017
Just to vary the theme a bit from pasta and potato salads I thought I’d pull out the quinoa from the pantry and see what I can do with it. I had the Bob’s red Mill tri-coloured quinoa variety, meaning red, white and black little grains (seeds, actually) and I thought they’d make a nice background for roasted cauliflower. Since the weather improved here (not by much), lighter dishes are appropriate and this salad-like plate... View Article
