My wish for you is to Live Better, Strive Harder, Be Bolder, Dream Bigger, Climb Higher and Seek Greater.
My vision is to help people create food that is delicious, easy to make and high in nutrition, so that food once more becomes a vehicle to fuel your body, mind and soul.
‘In summer the song sings itself’ – William Carlos Williams
This is a beautiful amalgamation of summer delicacy’s that just burst to life on the plate. The peaches came courtesy of a friend from the New Jersey Orchards, the Heritage Tomatoes from the Union Square Farmers market and the basil from my father in laws garden. All my favourite elements in one; Food, Family and Friends.
This is really a complement to Mr. B’s heritage, a tricolour salad with some added American Peaches. I would have never thought of the combination of tomatoes and peaches, but it seems to be a southern classic. Normally with some charred corn added in, which I will definitely consider for another time.
‘Food is symbolic of love, when words are inadequate’
It was Mr. B and my anniversary this week and so I made him this pie and for the first time in seven years he cooked for me. Ahh, yes, Mr. B is allowed in the kitchen, but I think once every seven years may be the limit….
I made this pie as Mr. B used to love Reese’s Pieces and so I thought I would make him a giant version. Adding Tofu was the genius part as not only did it bring down the fat content and add in protein, but since it was frozen it tasted a lot like a peanut butter ice cream pie.
The recipe is pretty easy, with your trusty blender doing most of the hard work. Don’t be scared of the tofu/tofu cream cheese, it is plain and takes on any taste you’d like, just like plain cream cheese. It is lighter than the dairy version too, which is great as it offsets the denser, richer peanut butter and chocolate, but if you’d prefer to use dairy, then feel free to use cream cheese instead.
Ingredients
Crust
Gluten Free Graham Cracker Crust
Or 1 packet Gluten Free Graham Crackers and 4 tbsp. melted coconut oil
Filling
2 Cups or 250g Tofu Cream Cheese (or 1 block of drained and blended tofu)
1 cup Peanut Butter (Justin’s or a clean version)
¼ cup agave or light maple syrup
Topping
1 cup vegan chocolate chips
1/3 cup almond milk
Method
Lightly grease your pie pan with coconut oil
Add Gluten Free Graham Crackers to the blender with coconut oil and blender to combine
Press down into the pan
Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown
Leave to cool
Or use a pre-made crust
Add drained and blended tofu or tofu cream cheese to the blender with maple syrup and peanut butter
Blend and taste, add more sweetener or peanut butter, if needed
Pour the filling into the crust and place in the freezer to chill
Once a little frozen, prepare your chocolate topping
Melt the chocolate chips in a bowl (I do this by placing the bowl on a pot of boiling water, but you can also do it in the microwave)
Heat the almond milk to a low simmer and add slowly as you mix the chocolate
Once combined, it should still be relatively thick but thin enough to pour
Let cool slightly and then add to the top of the pie
Place back in the freezer to set, 20-30 minutes
Slice using a warm knife for a cleaner cut (I use the steam from a kettle to warm up the knife and then make a cup of tea to have with a slice)
‘One small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day’
I get up at 5am to commute to work and so am always looking for dishes that can be eaten on the go. I also buy a lot of fresh produce from the farmers market to prep at the weekend and so am also looking to use leftover produce to make room for the new. The combination of these two things gave birth to this dish.
I used the recipe for a cherry clafoutis, which is a French cherry flan and adapted it to take out the diary. What you get is a sweet savoury dish for which you can turn up the sweetness if you want more of a dessert or turn it down if you want more of a breakfast. If you make it as a dessert, add slivered almonds to the top and some icing sugar before serving (Mr B’s favourite), if as a breakfast halve the maple syrup/honey (my favourite).
Ingredients
1 cup Blueberries
4 large eggs
1 cup almond milk
½ cup almond flour
¼ cup tapioca starch (use 1.5 tbp. Cornstarch if needed)
¼ cup maple syrup or honey
2 tbsp. melted coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼. tsp. almond extract (optional)
¼ tsp. salt
Method
Preheat oven to 350F
Grease a 10’ baking dish or cast-iron pan with the coconut oil
Arrange blueberries at the bottom
Combine the rest of the ingredients and make sure the mixture is thoroughly blender (by hand or in a blender)
Pour the mixture over the blueberries
Bake for 45 minutes or until it is starting to brown on the top and you can take a toothpick out clean
‘A people’s relationship to their heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother’
Every fourth of July, now that am based in the USA, as a Brit, I feel strangely patriotic. It is a time were Americans celebrate their independence from the English. Whilst I fully understand this, having a mixed heritage, having only known England, but having a bloodline and lineage that tracks back to India, I still feel a loyalty to the home I was born in and grew up in.
The stereotype of tea and biscuits is on point. A cup of tea will sort anything out. It will wake you up in the morning, calm you down in the afternoon and is great as a soothing medicine if you’ve had a bad day.
Biscuits too normally come served with tea. English shortbread, digestives and chocolate are the favorites but anything sweet and buttery will do.
So here is my ode to my English roots, the place I call home and that calls to me.
This is an easy recipe and I have adapted it to be gluten free and vegan and it makes little difference to the taste in my perspective.
Have one with tea or for breakfast as my Italian husband enjoys. Just make sure while you do, you think of England!
Ingredients
2 cups gluten free flour
½ tsp. salt
½ cup organic cane sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup vegan butter
1 tsp water
Method
Add the flour, salt and sugar to a bowl
Chop up the butter and add in the vanilla
Use a wooden spoon and mix till it comes together as a dough
Bring together to form a ball, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes or until firm
When ready roll dough out onto a clean surface and cut into shapes
Or roll into a log and cut into disks
Arrange onto baking paper, 2 inches apart
Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, rotating the tray half way through
Once brown at the edges, remove from the oven and cool on a rack
‘My kitchen is a mystical place, a kind of temple for me. It is a place where the surfaces seem to have significance, where the sounds and odours carry meaning that transfers from the past and bridges to the future’.
Since I became a vegetarian my friends have been asking if I will miss sushi. I spent a long time in Japan and loved the different variations you could get of these delicate morsels of Nigiri. As I was thinking about it, an idea came about to make my own vegetarian version, adapting slightly and creating a crispy bottom and this sushi rice biscuits were born.
I topped them with lots of different flavours and served them as canapes with wine, but Mr B liked them on their own and noted they tasted like savoury rice-crispies.
When Mr. B and I were in Italy in May we ate Ricotta fresh from the farm next door every day. It was simple and unadulterated, and you could taste the floral tones of the land.
When we are at home in the USA, Mr. B and I try not to eat too much cheese for health reasons, so I decided to make a healthy vegan version, so as to evoke the memories of our holiday but without the diary. Of course, it is not a perfect substitute, but you do get the richness from the almonds and the texture is pretty similar too. It is also an easy blend and eat recipe, so takes less than 5 minutes to make.
You can flavour this with anything you like, like herbs and spices, which are best blended into the recipe, or lavender and honey, which are better on top.
Ingredients
2 cups blanched almonds (almonds without the skins)
This recipe is in loving memory of my grandmother, whose recipes are my guide to know she is always by my side.
I was very nervous about cooking this dish and have therefore been putting it off inadvertently. This was my grandmothers signature dish, you know, like when you battle on Beat Bobby Flay, you go up against the master with your signature dish. This dish was the dish my grandma was known for. She used them to barter for services, like hairdressing and dentistry, gave them as gifts for people’s birthdays and sold them at fetes to raise money for charity.
My grandma must have made tens thousands of samosas. My husband will say I exaggerate when trying to make a point and I have told him a million times, that that is not true. Okay, maybe he has a point…. I do not exaggerate about this however. I would see hundreds ready to sell for charity on a Saturday morning and we had them every Sunday for as long as I remember, so you do the maths Mr. B! 🙂
Most restaurants I have been to in the USA use a heavy pastry for samosas, like a puff pastry, making them more like a Cornish pasty or Empanada. When I went into the Indian supermarket and asked them for samosa chapati, they gave me won ton wrappers, which I tried and they still come out thicker and more puffed up then my grandma’s, making them heavier, like a spring roll.
My grandma of course made everything from scratch and there is a lot of time and skill involved in doing this. The samosa chapati she makes is much lighter done this way then anything store bought and in fact is the same recipe for phyllo pastry. It is tasty on its own and so if you want to practice you could make it and use it as a wrap for other food.
The dough is just plain flour and water and the filling is potatoes, peas and onions, so pretty simple and cheap. The method looks long, but it is just because I have broken it down into as many stages as possible to make it easy to follow.
Ingredients
Samosa chapati
2 cups flour, extra for dusting, kneading and glue
1 tsp. salt
¾ cup water, add extra if the dough is too dry
Samosa filling
200g oven chips (grandma time saving tip) or 2 cups mashed potatoes
½ cup cooked peas
½ tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. chilli powder
1 tsp. coriander powder
½ tsp. cumin powder
½ tsp. fennel seeds
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 tsp. garam masala
3 tbsp. cilantro, chopped
Salt
2 tsp. oil
Method
For the chapati
Place flour and salt in a bowl, make a well, then pour in the water
Mix until a soft dough is formed, adding more water if needed
On a floured surface, knead the dough until soft and no longer sticky
Lightly oil the dough and let it rest for about 10 minutes
Once the dough is rested, divide it into quarters
Roll out each quarter into a log and cut to form 3 equal balls
Repeat the above procedure to yield a total of 12 small balls
Keep the small balls covered to keep them from drying out
Take one of the small balls
Using a rolling pin, roll out the ball into a small disc
Repeat the process to form 3 small discs
Take one of the three small rolled out discs and brush and some vegetable oil
Dust the oiled disc with some flour
Take another rolled out disc and place on top of the oiled and floured one
Repeat the procedure, brush some oil on the second disc
Dust with some flour
Place the third disc on the two that have already been staked up
Dust the three layers with some flour and prepare to roll them out
Using a rolling pin, firmly toll out the stacked-up discs
Keep flipping over to ensure the discs roll out while still maintaining a circular shape
Heat a heavy bottomed pan, I used the one for making chapatis. No oil is needed
On a heated pan, place the rolled-out dough
The idea is the dough to partially cook, flip after air pockets starts to form on one side, then remove from the pan
Now the fun part, gently lift the top layer and gently pull away from the other two
Pull away gently to keep the sheets from tearing
Repeat for the second layer
Once all the sheets have been precooked, stack them together
Using a knife, cut the sheets in half
Samosa pockets ready for use
Before using the sheets, prepare the edible glue using flour and water
Take one of the sheets
Bring the end furthest from you to for a triangle
Using a brush or your finger, apply some of the edible glue of the piece that is left
Fold over to seal the pocket
This will form a cone with your preferred filling
Use your thumb to close up the cone
Apply more of the edible glue on the hanging flap
Then fold over to seal the samosa
Eat as is (all component parts are cooked already), bake with a little oil or fry
Filling
Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds, fennel seeds, cumin and coriander powder
When the seeds start to brown add ginger and stir for 10 seconds
Add the onions and cook until translucent
Add the peas, followed by turmeric, chili powder and salt. Add the potatoes, mix and sauté
This is one of those recipes that I imagined and just had to try out. I don’t know why I dreamed up pink tortillas, perhaps I have been eating too many foraged mushrooms.
Most people I know have never made their own tortilla’s, even if it’s part of their every day meal. I am here to tell you that it is very easy and you can colour them and flavour them with whatever you like. In this round I made pink tortillas and green tortillas with the last of my ramps, which tasted amazing and nicely garlic forward. It might actually be a good business idea. Flavoured tortilla’s, I have never seen them, have you?
Mr. B loves tortillas and will eat them anytime with anything on top. Even if they are pink! I hope you like them too. Give them a try, cook them with your kids and be as creative as you can.
Ingredients
1.5 cups water
2 tsp. pitaya powder (pink dragonfruit powder)
2 cups masa harina
Method
Combine all the ingredients and mix thoroughly until you form a soft dough
Divide the ball into 18 equal sized balls and then cover with a damp cloth
Working with one ball at a time, line a tortilla press with some parchment paper. Place the ball of masa in-between the two sheets and press until you have a tortilla that measures approximately 5-inches in diameter
Heat the skillet to a medium heat and cook for 30 seconds on each side, three times – 3 minutes each in total
Cover cooked tortillas with a cloth napkin to keep them soft and warm
‘When love is the base of something, it is a masterpiece’
This is an amazing recipe from David Bouley, it is a base recipe for any vegetarian soup you would like to make. It is silky, rich and delicious. The richness comes from the coconut and the tomato, garlic and shallots add the flavour profile. Once you have made the base you can eat the soup like that or add another blanched vegetable and blend. I added beautiful green ramp tops, which gave an additional boost to the garlic flavour.
As you can see from the picture, I used the coconut soup and ramp soup as a base for an asparagus appetizer. This was a light snack for Mr. B. Lucky man, I know right?!
You can also use this as a flavour booster to other dishes. I added it to mashed potatoes in another dish to give them a creamy texture and depth to the underlying flavor.
I learnt this dish at a mushroom class. It was a great class, but this was the lasting recipe I took away. This proves to me, a concept that I am realising more and more these days, that you need to follow your heart, but you won’t always know the outcome of where that will take you.
Ingredients
1 tbsp. oil
½ cup Garlic, peeled and chopped
½ cup Shallots, peeled and chopped
3 cups Coconut Milk
½ cup tomato water (the water from 4 Plum tomatoes, cut and drained) or a tsp. tomato paste diluted in hot water
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Method
Add oil, garlic and shallots and sauté for 10-15 minutes, stirring constantly
Add the coconut milk, tomato water, bring to the boil, add salt and pepper
Cool, blend and sieve
This is a base for many recipes and any green vegetable. I used 2 cups blanched ramp tops and made a ramp soup
My wish for you is to Live Better, Strive Harder, Be Bolder, Dream Bigger, Climb Higher and Seek Greater.
My vision is to help people create food that is delicious, easy to make and high in nutrition, so that food once more becomes a vehicle to fuel your body, mind and soul.
I have always known the linkages between food and disease and seen its power to heal and to hurt not only in my own life but those of my family and friends. In 2018 I decided to take my knowledge seeking one step further and formally study the correlation through Cornell’s Center for Nutrition Studies. In addition, I have been reading formidable texts such as, How Not to Die (scientific evidence on the top 15 diseases and how to use nutrition to prevent them) and Brain Maker (how your gut health is linked to your brain heath).
The evidence clearly points to one central diet to maximize health and reverse preventable disease. A whole food plant-based diet. More plants and whole grains, less animal-based protein and processed foods. This way of eating is the best way to boost nutritional density and support your immune system.
Your immune system has always been responsible for and done a great job of regulating and healing your body. Cut your finger and watch that miracle happen in less than a day. When did we start accepting the notion that our bodies were created to fight against us?
We need to start thinking about the root cause of health issues and our food as our primary healthcare system. After all, you are what you eat.
Medication, illness and side effects detract time and energy away from our central purpose. It is time to take back the responsibility for our health and to allow our bodies to do what they have always done, heal.
Thomas Edison (1903) ‘The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease’
Ancient ayurvedic text (BC) ‘When food is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need’.
Hippocrates (370BC) ‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food’
These are not new concepts but as we continue to see an increase in illness, disability and death from preventable diseases they are needed now more than ever.
Since you have been following Tasha.Kitchen you will have noticed that my recipes and diet have moved in this direction already. In moving the blog to Plant To Table this is a formal recognition of this, as well as a mission to share some of the research and knowledge I have gained.
It has been said ‘it is harder to change a man’s diet than his religion’ and I understand the ties we all have to food, the heritage, the comfort, the controllable in the midst of a less than controllable world. I will take on these challenges and create recipes that are healthy and comforting, delicious and nutritious. If you send me your favorite dishes, I’ll help you make a healthy version. I look forward to taking this journey with you.
