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

This is probably the best dal I've ever made and possibly even tasted? (that could be a lie, I could be high on dal right now). This is just the perfect thickness, it's creamy, healthy, rich and because it uses red lentils it cooks up in 15 minutes. So you can definitely have this on the table within 30 minutes of walking through the door. I buy frozen paratha (not healthy but surprisingly dairy-free) for a real treat or serve it with brown rice and a salad. We chucked some b

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

Now, this isn't exactly the healthiest kale you could ever eat; the healthiest way to eat kale is to steam it for 5 mins. This is almost there, you do steam it for 5 minutes, but after you've fried garlic in some olive oil and you kinda want to keep that oil in with the kale when it's steaming because that's what makes it SO yummy! But being a healthy vegan is not always always about doing everything in it's healthiest form, you have to feel indulgent and a bit naughty in or

I'm under the impression that it's a very British thing to have baked beans on toast, we have it all the time, I mean it's the perfect breakfast/lunch/dinner go to I remember requesting it for dinner everyday when I was young (much to my mother's delight). In a rush this could be on the plate and heading towards your mouth in 3 minutes: Bread in the toaster, beans in a bowl and into the microwave for 2 minutes. Then it was just a quick spread of butter on the toast, a hasty p

This is one of my absolute faves (it's not quite galiat bandura Arab friends hence the name). The longest part is chopping the tomatoes and if we're really honest you don't have to cook them to pile them on to whole grain toast and have a super yummy breakfast/lunch/starter/snack. NUTRITIONAL OVERVIEW TOMATOES are mostly known for their antioxidant properties; they are an excellent source of vitamin C promoting a healthy immune system, biotin (key roles in fat and sugar metab

Now, I'm married to a man with a Palestinian father and an Egyptian mother who have spent the best parts of their adult lives in Lebanon, Saudi and Jordan. To say they know the best of Arabic food is an understatement. I vow to provide you with the best of their home-cooked, dairy-free and vegetarian dishes but today I'm giving you my sesame humous. It's my husband's favourite because it has a strong toasted sesame flavour. This recipe came about by accident when I realised I

This was the standard salad dressing in our house for three reasons: it's delicious, it's easy, it's quick. It's been replaced more recently with a slightly more fiddly one (Asian salad dressing) as my husband found out that mustard is something his tummy disagrees with (much to my dismay!). Sometimes I just omit the mustard which is fine. But I'd like you to enjoy a bit more than fine on your salad today. Recipe CREAMY BALSAMIC DRESSING MAKES 1 CUP/250ml TOTAL TIME 5 MINS IN