A common refrain my husband hears from me, whatever the season and wherever in the world we are, is: ‘I need vegetables.’ Growing up, our table was never without at least one salad – and always multiple vegetable dishes. British and American cuisine share the same notion that a vegetable side dish is more of…
Cauliflower has replaced kale as the new ‘it’ vegetable, apparently. With the popularity of the keto diet this vegetable that was usually either steamed and unseasoned or covered in cheese sauce. My mother, on the other hand, has been roasting cauliflower since probably the 80s, and it has long been my favourite way to eat…
I am a chili head – I am known to put hot sauce on everything. Our dinner table is never without hot sauce, or some homemade chili sauce of some sort – regardless of the cuisine we’re eating. I see spiciness warnings on restaurant menus as a dare, and order my Thai food ‘Thai hot’…
Tahini sauce (or what we call tahina in our house) goes with nearly everything, in my opinion. It’s perfect for roasted vegetables, for grilled meats, for sandwiches, spread on bread and topped with za’atar, as a base for hummus or mutabbal, or over a fresh salad. I’m going to show you how to make tahini…
As a kid growing up in the north of England, I remember coming home after school many days and making myself a sandwich consisting of buttered bread, sharp farmhouse cheddar cheese, and sliced roasted beetroot. Beetroot (or beets, as they’re called in America), is one of my favourite root vegetables, and while beet season runs…
If you’ve read my recipe for mutabbal then you’re aware of the debate as to what baba ghanouj / ganoush is supposed to be. I was always told that aubergine (eggplant) with tahini is mutabbal, and aubergine without tahini (and with tomatoes, pomegranate molasses, and walnuts mixed in) is baba ghanouj. I don’t mind what…
Laban (yogurt) based dips and sauces are found across the Middle East and Indian subcontinent (for example, raita or pachadi) or the popular Greek ‘tzatziki’, and are an accompaniment to many dishes – such as kibbeh, fritters, or just as a stand-alone dip for bread or vegetables. Kh’yar (or Khiyar, or Khyar) bi Laban is…
My husband does not cook. I am actually unsure of how he managed to survive for so many years on boxed macaroni and cheese and frozen pizza, but somehow he did. And believe it or not, some days I don’t want to cook (but I don’t want to eat pizza or macaroni and cheese, either),…
Aubergine (or eggplant, if you’re American) is probably one of my favourite vegetables. Ever since I was a small kid I can remember being excited to see it on my plate, unlike my daughter who I still can’t convince to touch the stuff… Unless it’s ‘hidden’ in mutabbal. Mutabbal is probably what many people would…
Admittedly, I am not a big cheese person. Part of this stems from being lactose intolerant, so I didn’t grow up eating a lot of it as I always felt it made my stomach hurt. Cultured dairy, like yogurt, seems to be a bit easier on my stomach and so labneh, being made from yogurt,…
