August 25, 2018
Dal is my go-to dish when I want the flavours of India at home. It is a simple dish of red lentils (or other legumes) cooked with spices and water to a creamy consistency and served with rice and other dishes. Ingredients: 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (canola, sunflower) 1 teaspoon cumin seeds1/2 teaspoon cumin powder 1 onion, halved and sliced 1 1/2 cups red lentils, rinsed and drained 1 teaspoon turmeric 1... View Article
May 15, 2018
Beans require soaking before cooking so when I prepare them I usually soak and cook more than required for a particular dish and keep the rest for another recipe. The other day I made a lovely bean soup and only used half of the beans, keeping the rest in the fridge for a couple of days and today used them to make this warm bean salad. Beans are nice on their own with a splash... View Article
May 8, 2018
Always curious about unusual ingredients, I picked up black chickpeas on our travels and finally got around to using them. I think I brought these back from Italy, where they are known as ceci neri (black chickpeas) but I believe some variety also grows in India. When dried they look small, black and wrinkly but these littles legumes pack a lot of flavour, dare I say even stronger flavour than the regular chickpeas. I... View Article
April 17, 2018
So, we just returned from 4 months of travel, two of which were in South America. I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun, interesting and educational this experience was. I wrote about the trip as we went along but there is so much more to share and since I compile these posts and images into travel book for our family, I will continue to write and document our experience. It took me... View Article
November 15, 2017
Once fall arrives soup season begins in my kitchen. I make a soup in a large le Creuset pot and then store it in 2-3 mason jars in the fridge so it’s ready to warm up or play with as I wish. Lentil soups are regulars here and I usually mix 2-3 types of lentils together to make it more interesting. Soup for me is second nature and I don ‘t need a recipe to... 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
August 20, 2017
This is a very Italian dish and like most Italian food it is simple and delicious. “Simple” I mean in a sophisticated way. Viva Italia. I cook beans frequently and tend to have some on hand most of the time so it’s easy for me to make these crostini without having to cook them from scratch. The beans can be homemade, slow cooked with aromatics, or if you don’t cook beans from scratch then use good... View Article
July 19, 2017
Lentils are versatile and I use them all year, for soups and stews in the winter and salads in the summer. I often have cooked lentils in the fridge to pull out on the spur of the moment to make a lunch or dinner salad. In this salad I used leftover beets and carrots from my new sous vide experiment, more on that later, but you can make this without a sous vide by boiling... View Article
July 2, 2017
This spring was not a good season for artichokes locally. I barely saw an artichoke once or twice at the local grocery store and nothing at the markets. That’s unfortunate because I love cooking with them. On my last trip to the store though I found a few reasonable looking specimen and thought I’d take them. Instead of cooking the artichokes whole, I cut the outer leaves down almost to the heart and then into... View Article
June 7, 2017
Whether you cook vegetarian or not, well cooked beans from scratch are good to have in your cooking repertoire. This simple bean dish using fresh thyme from my garden is an easy way to cook them and yields a dish that has lot of flavour. True, beans are not a quick fix because they require soaking. To soak or not to soak, that is the question. I have heard and read that you can do... View Article
June 3, 2017
If you have a food processor you can whip these vegetarian burger patties in no time. Push the flavour up a notch with hot chilli sauce and add texture with crunchy vegetables and nuts. Serve as burgers with the usual trimmings, or simply as patties with the tahini sauce and a salad. Ingredients: 2 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 can organic chickpeas 2 scant cups oatmeal 1/2 an onion, chopped 1 teaspoon cumin 1 egg... View Article
May 15, 2017
When vegetables are fresh and tender in the spring I like to combine them with lentils to make different salads. The idea here is to build a few layers of flavours and textures so every bite has a surprise. This salad is good served warm or at room temperature. Today I had crisp white baby turnips fresh from the market and thick local spring asparagus from Osoyoos in the south Okanagan. For a tangy note I... View Article
