All posts filed under: tips

Vegan Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry

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If any dish deserves to be called global, it is curry. From Newfoundland to the Antarctic, from Beijing to Warsaw, there is scarcely a place where curries are not enjoyed. Colleen Taylor Sen Jump to Recipe Curries are one of those things that are somewhat universal – I mean, different cultures in Asia have different types of curry: Thai Green or Red Curry, Japanese Katsu Curry and Curry Rice, both of which have been adapted into Korean culture, as well as of course Indian and Pakistani curries which I’m more familiar with. In Ireland, one of our favourite ways of having curry is on chips! It’s actually just a curry sauce but it’s amazing and will change your way of eating chips forever. Anyway, this recipe came about when my sister was having her baby. As a result, we made her and her husband some meals to tide them over and make their lives a little easier. I had made a version of this once or twice before that but it wasn’t this definitive version …

Carrot and Sultana Spiced Rice

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A single grain of rice can tip the scale. One man may be the difference between victory and defeat. The Emperor, Mulan (1998) JUMP TO RECIPE This simple dish is one of those things I’ve been making for years. I learnt how to do something similar at the Oriental Cooking class I took in 2008 with my sister, Smyles. It was an amazing class and I learnt so much about cooking different Asian dishes, techniques, and how to use spices I’d never even heard of at that point. Our teacher was from Malaysia and she taught us so much and so well that there are different things Smyles and I still make, to this day, that she taught us. The following recipe is kind of a mash up of different ones that she did with us, including a Saffron and Sultana rice that was incredibly tasty. I don’t have any saffron at the moment and I wanted to try something different in any case and this is the result. I personally think the fried onions …

Asparagus, Courgette and Sausage Pasta

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Let there be seasons so that our tongues will be rich in asparagus and limes.  – Anne Sexton JUMP TO RECIPE Happy Summer to you all. I have actually gone away on holidays – and it wasn’t for a wedding! That’s a miracle in and of itself as in last 6 years nearly every holiday I had taken was connected to a wedding of a dear friend or relative. In fact, when I went away last September, it was for my sister’s wedding. This time though, it wasn’t a trip abroad but a trip about an hour’s drive outside of Dublin to a town called Kells. It’s near a lot of important Irish cultural and religious sites including The Hills of Tara and Slane. We went to Tara, the Spire of Lloyd and a lake in nearby Cavan. We were about 5 minutes from a Holy Well which I think I went to about 3 times in the one week! The children liked to go and climb the hill and drink the waters. We stayed …

Self-Dressing Cottage Cheese Salad

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To remember a successful salad is generally to remember a successful dinner; at all events, the perfect dinner necessarily includes the perfect salad.

George Ellwanger

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While I don’t think Mr. Ellwanger is wrong when he refers to salad as being part of the perfect dinner, I think that is only true when you have a 3+ course meal. In fact, I’m a huge fan of just salad for dinner, or better yet, lunch.

Smyles’ 5 Ingredient Tomato Soup

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“I’m the first to admit I’m not much of a cook. But since soup mainly involves tossing everything in a pot and waiting, it’s one of my better dishes.” ~ Suzanne Collins ~ There is something about cold, wintery, blustery days that just calls for soup. We have had plenty of them in the last few weeks and soup is indeed my comfort food of choice at the moment. This soup is one of my sister’s. I don’t really deviate in any way from her recipe, until it comes to the toppings. When I did my vegan month, back in November, she suggested this as something that could work quite well during it. And, boy, was she right! In fact, I’d get up early once a week, and make the soup (minus the blending) before I went on my morning walk. At that time, like now, we were in the middle of a national lockdown (and just in case you are reading this in 100 years, it was Covid-19 times!), and I was working from …