ROASTED BEETS WITH GARLICKY YOGURT

I love a good beet number. Especially a good roasted beet number. Other than a few traditional South Indian preparations where they are sautéed in a pan (poriyal), or blended into a chutney, this is actually the only way I cook them. Beets get gloriously sweet and concentrated in flavour when roasted. A far cry… Read more »

ONE-POT RASAM RICE

Rasam rice is one of my favourite things to eat, and considering how it’s always described as ‘comfort food’, I’d wager this is the case for a lot of us. (After 10+ years of eating Kimchi Jiggae—Korean kimchi soup—I think at this point it comes a close second.) Rasam rice is simple enough to make… Read more »

VIETNAMESE RICE PAPER ROLLS

As Chennai goes through another sweltering summer, dishes like these offer a brief respite from both the cooking and eating perspectives. Other than the tofu which gets a quick fry in the pan, there’s no other cooking involved. Admittedly, they’re a bit fiddly to assemble and here—do as I say, not as I do—don’t overstuff… Read more »

CARROT, TOFU & EGG FRIED RICE

Whenever I develop recipes and throw them into our weekly rotation, they have to check a couple of boxes. In no particular order but all equally important: it should take less than 45 minutes from start to finish, all the ingredients must be easily available, and it has to include a good amount of fibre… Read more »

PUNCHY CHICKPEA SALAD WITH PICKLES AND FETA

Chickpeas are versatile, inexpensive, and an excellent source of protein and fibre. We should all be eating more of them, and here’s one way to add them to your rotation when you can’t think beyond hummus. I love a salad that can be bulked up with a bean or lentil, to the point where it… Read more »

MUHAMMARA (WITH TAMARIND)

We do a Mediterranean-inspired lunch almost every week. It usually involves chapatis (predictably, with some vegetable kneaded into the dough), hummus, a vegetable-and-paneer/potato cutlet, pickled onions, and a simple salad. Hummus is my sure-shot way of getting chickpeas into our weekly rotation. It goes down a treat with my preschooler, so I try not to… Read more »

BAKED FETA WITH MUSHROOMS, TOMATOES & PESTO

Remember the time during Covid, when the internet lost its collective mind over the baked feta trend? The original recipe came from Finnish food blogger Jenni Häyrinen, whose “uunifetapasta” (oven feta pasta) went viral in 2019 and made its way into kitchens everywhere. It was a genius move: Jenni nestled a block of feta among… Read more »

CANDIED WALNUTS WITH JAGGERY

My son and I often make these as part of birthday gifts to give out. They’re quick to pull together, fun to make, and always appreciated. Pile them into a glass jar, tie on a bit of ribbon or twine, and you’ve got a simple, thoughtful gift that feels personal without any of the fuss…. Read more »

SWEET & SPICY TOFU

There are a few tofu dishes that I go back to on repeat, and this sweet and spicy version is one of them. It pretends to be complicated, but it’s really just me, a frying pan, and a couple of bottles from the fridge door. Twenty minutes and you’ve got crisp, golden cubes in a sauce… Read more »

PUMPKIN, FIG & KALE SALAD

There are salads that feel like afterthoughts – a little something green pushed to the side of the plate. And then there are salads that demand attention, the kind that get eaten first and remembered last. This one is firmly in the latter camp. Sweet roasted pumpkin, jammy figs, and salty little nuggets of feta,… Read more »

Latest
  • ASIAN BEEF BURGERS

    Sweet and spicy Asian beef burgers? Spicy, sticky Asian beef burgers? Asian beef burgers with a sticky sauce? I basically considered all the possible permutations before settling on ‘Asian beef burgers’. This minimalism thing works for me in completely disjointed ways. I have a confession. I don’t post recipes on here that I haven’t tried… Read more »

  • COCONUT AND MANGO CHIA PUDDING

    We eat eggs for breakfast every single day of the week, which as much as I like, is a bit of a shame because breakfast foods are the most fun to cook in my opinion (albeit not on a busy weekday morning). To get around this, a slightly more elaborate Sunday breakfast tradition has arisen:… Read more »

  • GRANOLA BARS

    I know. The world doesn’t need another recipe for granola bars. But I’m here to throw out some ideas and variations to the ones that you normally make, maybe change things up a bit? Specifically this part: dates. Dates are a common enough addition to granola bars for sweetness, but I find that unless you… Read more »

  • VEGETABLE STOCK FROM KITCHEN SCRAPS

    I don’t know if you can tell that I’m quite big on this nose-to-tail / root-to-shoot (?) concept of cooking. Not only is it a great way to reduce waste in the kitchen (and save money), but it also forces me to be creative; think outside the box and utilize as much as I can…. Read more »

  • PRESERVED LEMON MARINADE

    I try to refrain from using words like ‘best’ and ‘favourite’ to describe recipes. But that’s exactly what happened here, and I’ve had to delete two entire paragraphs lest I sound like a used-car salesman. Not a good place to start. Preserved lemons have been making an appearance in a lot of dishes in my… Read more »

  • OVEN-ROASTED TARO

    Taro/taro root or colocasia as it’s sometimes called is a starchy vegetable of the taro plant. Native to India and South-East Asia, taro also forms a staple in diets in Hawaii, the Caribbean and Africa. Taro ‘root’ is actually the corm—swollen underground stem—of the plant, so technically not a root. Just some casual food semantics… Read more »

  • VEGAN PESTO

    I’m not one for veganizing foods unless I’m cooking for someone who’s lactose intolerant or doesn’t like dairy (happy to report that I haven’t met anyone that falls in the latter category). Having said that, I do however try and reduce my dairy intake for a couple of reasons. One, most cheeses that are available… Read more »

  • BRUSSELS SPROUTS PORIYAL

    Brussels sprouts in a South-Indian style recipe might sound terribly inauthentic. It is, and it’s probably why it comes as a surprise to most people when I tell them about this poriyal (as well as ones using oyster mushrooms, broccoli and lettuce). Growing up though, this was pretty normal. When I was at boarding school… Read more »

  • BASIC CHINESE CHICKEN STOCK

       When it comes to stock-making, there are no real rules. (I would argue that there are no real rules to cooking in general, but I’ll hold off on that one for now). Depending on whether you’re making a Western style of stock or an Asian one, the ingredients will vary widely. Western stocks usually… Read more »

  • HOMEMADE RASPBERRY FLAVOURED YOGURT WITH CHIA SEEDS

       Until three years ago, I didn’t know how to make yogurt at home. What seems like a basic enough task now evaded me for a long time. I pulled out all the tricks and hacks I found on the internet from measuring exact temperatures using a food thermometer to setting it in ceramic, stainless… Read more »

  • CHICKEN TERIYAKI

       This might be the most requested recipe from my Instagram story (and also the most ad-libbed recipe on there, making the measuring process ridiculously hard). Disclaimer: I’ve written the measurements to the best of my ability and to what suits my palate, but you will still have to taste and adjust along the way… Read more »

  • EGG AND SILKEN TOFU FRIED RICE

       If sticky-rice fried rice is something you enjoy eating, then this might be the recipe for you (fyi, and achieved without using sticky rice). Silken tofu is broken up into small curds—resembling scrambled eggs—and when tossed with the rice, gives it the most desirable soft-set consistency. The tofu completely disintegrates into the rice and… Read more »

  • ROASTED BEET, CUMIN AND CHIA LASSI

       I started my previous post by saying that I don’t do many breakfast foods on here, and here I am now with another one. This is inadvertently becoming a new trend.  Lassi is strictly speaking not a breakfast food, but fruit lassi, yogurt-smoothie—really, what’s the difference? I make the mango and cardamom lassi and… Read more »

  • COCONUT QUINOA PORRIDGE WITH CARAMELIZED BANANAS

       I don’t do a lot of breakfast foods on here and that’s primarily because breakfast for me usually consists of scrambled eggs, a whey shake and a banana. I have however started incorporating more millets and whole grains into my diet, and the easiest way to do this I’ve found, is to add them… Read more »

  • PRESERVED LEMONS

       I’d been buying preserved lemons from a store that grows organic lemons on their property. I’m not someone that only buys organic produce, but the concept of using the entire fruit—peel, rind, juice and all—made me want to try and get my hands on some pesticide-free ones for preserving. So when my aunt called… Read more »