Let's just agree that salads just aren't enough most of the time? Man cannot live on leaves alone (well, he probably could for a while) But salads can be absolutely delicious when made well and with a bit of creativity. We need to be thinking of adjectives like fresh, crunchy, tangy, wholesome, you get the idea. Get good veggies and get a good dressing and you can't really go wrong (or copy this recipe and get it right first time ;) This pumpkin and lentil salad would go dow

This months posts are dedicated to those fasting during the month of Ramadan. Therefore, the focus of each dish is to be nutritious, gentle on the stomach and reasonably easy/quick to make. Today's recipe also has the benefit of being quite traditional. In my mother-in-laws house, we often start iftar off with this soup, a beautifully silky soup (thanks to that little bit of potato) with a generous squeeze of lemon juice. You can have this on the table in under 30 mins from s

Sometimes my stomach hurts just reading the ingredients lists on the back of ready-made products. I mean, don't get me wrong, those products have a time and a place and I was reminded a couple of times when we were on our summer holidays just how liberating a jar of pasta sauce can be (dinner in 10 mins with almost NO MESS??!) but we really shouldn't get too comfortable with convenience food. It's a treat and often not that much of a tasty one. This sauce is so delicious and

This is one of my lazy day choices. It's one of my husband's favourites and the hardest part is chopping up the tomatoes the rest requires me crushing some garlic and taking the frozen pastry out of the freezer (yes, I'm cheating but this is a lazy day recipe and frozen puff pastry is often dairy-free). Tomatoes are looking particularly appealing at the moment so they must be in season here in the UAE. I bought a 2 kilo box yesterday on special offer so I'm going crazy on the

Summer is here! But unfortunately for us over here in Dubai, Summer is not something to be celebrated really. It means the beginning of 40°C+ and up to 100% humidity. But don't worry, it only lasts for, what? 5 months? Which brings us on to why I'm posting a recipe for my husbands all time favourite soup. Gazpacho. It's a cold soup (initially an odd sensation) and is in our opinion simply delicious. Plus, it's time to celebrate the tomato, they're delicious right now. A lot o

Crispy smashed garlic? Check. Crispy salty capers? Check. Crispy smokey butter-beans? Check. Ready in 10-15 minutes? Check. This is such a perfect, quick and easy side dish. It doesn't have any sauce so you need it to be accompanying something with a little moisture. i think it would be great on a baked sweet potato and just perfect on a table of mezzes. NUTRITIONAL OVERVIEW BUTTER BEANS (or LIMA BEANS) are and excellent source of molybdenum which is sort of an unknown nutrit

Every vegan needs a spread in the fridge and in our house it's usually sesame hummus, cashew boursin or this. This takes a little longer than hummus because you need to cook the aubergine but the steps thereafter are pretty similar and just as simple. The idea is to burn the aubergine so the skins are black and blistered but the inside is soft and mushy. The blackened skin gives that mouthwatering smokey flavour. Unfortunately in the photos below you don't see the black skins

This is one of my all time favourite Arabic dishes. I love love love it. I could probably eat it every week but can you believe I only just tried to make it myself for the first time last week?! Shock horror! I've always depended on my Egyptian mother-in-law to supply me with my fix. In my head it was far more complicated and time consuming than it really is. I am now kicking myself that this hasn't been on my go to list for a hassle free, CHEAP and nutritious dinner. M'jadar

I was introduced to thanksgiving last year by my American friends. It was mayhem. Beautiful beautiful mayhem. We did manage to give thanks but it wasn't one by one around a calm table full of food where we all listened to each other share the things we were grateful for. Nope, it was a crazed frenzy around two tables full to the brim of food (one meat and one vegan/gluten free). I actually found myself trying to protect the vegan/GF table from the meet-lovers as if it was und

Oh. My. Days. This is it. The ultimate vegan treat recipe that doesn't involve dates! Sorry dates, you're nice and all, but I don't want my treats to taste healthy, I want them to taste bad for me without actually being that bad for me. I have tasted and tasted and then tasted some more of these to get them to being blog-worthy. It's a hard life but I guess someone should really do it. Sigh. I'm not exaggerating when I say you can have these in the freezer in 10 minutes with