Pav Bhaji- Spiced Vegetable Mash

This is an absolutely delicious, wholesome, nourishing, spiced bowl of comfort.

Yes, there are dishes, but it's worth it

I affectionately call it spiced veggie mush, but it’s so much more than that. This is apparently a common lunch in India, where it is served with a lovely soft bap on the side. I’m salivating just thinking about it, especially with my delicious brioche bun recipe.

The good thing is, all you need are a few vegetable cupboard staples and some spices and you’re good to go. The spice mix is the only tricky bit, made by toasting and grinding whole spices.

It feels like a lot of ingredients and I know that not everyone obsessively buys whole spices. You can sub in the ground version of the spices if you need, but the flavour won’t quite be the same.

For a mix made of pre-ground spices, I’d suggest:

• 1.5 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• pinch chili powder
• pinch ground cinnamon
• pinch ground cloves
• a good few twists of ground black pepper 

(the traditional recipe also calls for amchur powder which is hard to find. It is a dried mango powder and apparently is quite zesty, I just left it out because I find the chopped tomatoes zesty enough.)

I served mine with what I had to hand – wholemeal chapatti. I kind of wish I’d had a fresh brioche roll though.

Za'atar Lamb Meatballs with Spiced Lentils

You can make this in a smaller number of pots and pans than I did, but I’m not sure if my big pot is oven-proof so I transferred it to one of my lovely oven dishes to cook. I was just thinking how I never use my various mismatching Le Creuset stuff so I’m glad I was able to get some use out of them!

One of my favourite flavours that I tried in Lebanon was za’atar – traditionally a mixture of thyme, sesame, and sumac. It is earthy and nutty and sometimes almost tart. And it absolutely sings when spread on fresh hot bread and rolled up into a wrap. My mouth is actually watering thinking of this wrap I had.

And of course it’s cracking with a bit of lamb.

Serves 4, you get 3 meatballs per person

Spiced Festive Cupcakes

It’s the season where I add cinnamon and ginger and cloves to EVERYTHING. I have a little jar of spices I mixed together just for the wintery bakes (of course I do) and it comes in handy at times like this.

For the spice mix, I add together something roughly like 6 tbsp ground cinnamon, 2 tbsp ground cloves, 2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tbsp ground ginger, 2 bits of star anise, cinnamon bark and 6 cardamom pods into a small kilner jar. Then I mix it all together and use it throughout my Christmas bakes!

Whatever  you decide to use, these cupcakes are supremely delicious and you’re all welcome for this gorgeous recipe. I decided to ice them in a very festive way, with little wreaths and trees which are ridiculously simple to pipe (it’s just little splodges in shapes) and look (in my humble opinion) really cute!

Sweet & Spooky Gingerbread Skulls

Happy Hallowe’en everyone!

I re-use this gingerbread recipe every couple of weeks. It’s delicious, and it is so easy to work with. Just a dream come true in biscuit form. So I am using it here with just a few flavour tweaks.

I wasn't really going for "spooky"

You don’t have to use skull cutters. If you are more of a free-hand person, then you could cut out circles and then ice those without the “guidelines.” And even if you use cutters which come with cut out indents, you aren’t forced to copy those shapes, you can always get creative and add your own patterns over the top.

I have a slight obsession with holiday baking. And there is something hugely therapeutic about icing buns in an intricate and ridiculously detailed manner. This is how I spend my Sunday evenings and it’s so much fun. Edible hobbies are the best kind.

Spiced Chocolate Orange Polenta Cake

Are we ready for some more chocolate after the indulgences of Easter?

I am always looking for a way to use interesting or unusual ingredients. You don’t see polenta around too much, but I really like using it in baking. It is kind of coarse and I like the very subtle crunch that it gives to baked goods. I am a fan.

Now, real talk, I poured the batter for this into a cake tin that was way too small and it never would have cooked. So I removed some of the batter for cupcakes, and ended up with a smaller cake than was intended and 6 delicious cupcakes. Still delicious.

This is a good cake. AND it's gluten free! You will enjoy.

Cauliflower Rice

I am incredibly out of my comfort zone here. What has led me down to the dark valley of rice substitutes, avocado pudding, and ALMOND MILK EVERYWHERE?

Well, it started off with doing a detox for 14 days. And that meant no carbs. No rice, no bread, no noodles, no muffins, no cake, no biscuits, no brioche, no NOTHING. I’m not going to lie, I was really upset. And slightly dizzy. And INCREDIBLY HANGRY ALL THE TIME.

I made it 48 hours with no carbs. This was a part of it.

It’s no secret that I love rice. I could happily eat only rice with a bit of curry sauce or peri-peri mayo for the rest of my life. Dip a tortilla wrap in it and I would be in heaven.

What I’m trying to do is to is make better choices, and exposing myself to things that I otherwise wouldn’t even think about trying. I can then incorporate the healthy stuff that still tastes good into my everyday diet. Now, I’m only on day 2, and so far I know that cauliflower mash is pretty edible. And something that all the crazy health bloggers like is cauliflower rice. So, I’ve gone from buying one cauliflower EVER in my life, to buying two this week.

I won’t lie, I can taste a good deal of the cauliflower still, but eating it with a curry mitigates that somewhat. I didn’t love this. I hate posting stuff that I’m not in love with, but my Swedish boyfriend really liked it, so I’m going against my instincts and sharing it.

It is incredibly easy, which isn’t always the case with these “healthy” alternatives. Feel free to experiment with spices, or throw in some fresh garlic when you’re blitzing it. This thing can take on a lot of flavour.

Spiced Bean and Mince Pilaf

So, I have been super busy and vaguely stressed out recently. That, combined with the boyfriend nipping away for a teaching week, meant that I didn’t really have the need or time to cook much. So, I turned to my fridge and cupboards the other day and was GOBSMACKED to find that I had run out of pretty much all beans as well as garlic and spring onions. The cupboards were basically bare. It was a modern day fairytale-nightmare.

So, I went off on the mammoth task of acquiring groceries, which was highly successful.

However, I am kind of terrible at planning and if you combine that with just assuming that I have certain ingredients, it can make a recipe for disaster. So, I currently have NO tins of chickpeas (despite doing a massive grocery shop) but I have two full tubs of baking powder AND of bicarbonate of soda. And a ton of lentils.  And loads of coconut milk. None of which I need for this recipe, unfortunately.

So, this post is brought to you by the letter S. For “Sorry, I don’t have any chickpeas.” Borlotti beans are close enough. Not really. But still delicious.

I’m kind of newly obsessed with turkey mince. It’s really versatile, healthy, and quick to cook. And it goes really well here, though I’m thinking lamb mince would also have been killer. Other substitutions – you can always use white rice instead of brown, but I’m trying to make healthier choices at times when I’m not eating a Chinese takeout.