I believe the heart of the family beats in the kitchen. Food fuels our body and nourishes our soul.
I share here real food made using whole ingredients with big flavour, fresh herbs and health-boosting spices, all influenced by my roots in India and my travels. That’s what you will find here. But I’m also not one to spend hours in the kitchen, as you can tell from my healthy shortcuts and tips in every post. My kitchen is a little complicated — we have a number of food sensitivities in the family — so I tend to make food that is gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free and tomato-free. Often but not always.
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Good Food, Healthy Planet
Your Kitchen Companion to Simple, Practical, Sustainable Cooking
Barley Pulao
Barley is an awkward food, right? I never know how to "sell" it to my kids. But once I started cooking with it there has been no turning back. If this whole grain is as new to you as it was for me then start with this pot barley recipe. Barley pilaf (or as I call it barley pulao) is cooked simply and then tossed with spices and veggies. Yum! What does barley taste like? Slightly chewy and grainy. Like a more robust rice which makes sense because rice is a processed version of brown rice. You can find out...
Simple Tuna Salad
Canned tuna has been a pantry staple for as long as I can remember but in the beginning, it took me a while to get used to this humble ingredient. What did help was how my kids took to it, and this simple tuna salad became one of their favourite lunches. Canned fish comes in many forms. There's tuna, salmon, sardines, even oysters and octopus, all packaged together in an easy to open, long-life container. What’s not to love, right? A few reasons for starters. For one I was unfamiliar with most canned fish. I didn't really know what to...
Homemade Baked Beans {Instant Pot Beans}
Baked Beans make for a delicious quick meal or an even better side dish. Here is my version of traditional, English Baked Beans, made somewhat speedily, in an Instant Pot. My Dad loved Baked Beans on toast. It might have been his English boarding school upbringing or perhaps because the beans straight out of a can made an easy and portable dinner and fit right in with his military habits. Whatever the reason, Baked Beans was one of his favourite dishes. Growing up I can barely remember a time when there wasn't a can of baked beans in the kitchen...
Golden Salmon Patties with Oats
Canned Fish is a pantry staple in our home for a number of reasons. Tuna, sardines and of course salmon, the options are endless. These salmon patties are imho the most delicious and easy way to use canned fish. It is my version of a traditional shami kebab made with canned salmon instead of meat. With oats, turmeric and veggies this dish makes for a well-balanced weeknight dinner. Why Canned Fish?Canned fish makes for a healthy, sustainable and delicious meal. It is great for so many reasons. The cans have a long shelf life, and when grocery visits are occasional...
Lentils: What’s the Deal with Dal?
Millions of us grew up eating dal or lentils on the Indian subcontinent. Lentils are such a huge part of the staple Indian diet that no meal is complete without them. But when you eat something everyday, how do you make it interesting? I wondered aloud while writing this post. And pat came the reply, "By making it with love...and adding some ghee." And that is dal in a nutshell. This most humble of ingredients is the bowl full of goodness I turn to when I want home-cooked food. There are no frills to dal, no pretensions. This is simple food,...
What’s the Deal with Canned Fish
Canned fish is one of those polarizing ingredients — people either love it or hate it! There are so many negative connotations associated with the word "canned", right? If at all possible, most of us prefer the fresh variety of food anyway. So why should fish be any different? But this is one food group that might actually benefit from being canned. Here's the case for canned fish. Always Choose Fresh, Right? Depending on the type, fresh fish ranges from mildly expensive to wildly exorbitant. And you wouldn't mind indulging in this nutrient-rich food every once in a while. The...
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