• London_Mummy on November 30, 2025

  I don't use this book enough because I don't like the chatty style in the middle of the recipe, which means I have to reread the recipe a few times, but I should use it more, because the dishes are tasty.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Tunisian egg and herb 'tagine' (Tajin sibnekh)

  • London_Mummy on January 27, 2026

    Once again, this book provided a lovely recipe, which was surprisingly delicious & more than the sum of its parts; but once again, the chatty style of the book was unhelpful, eg very casual on quantities of vegetables then suddenly specifying 150 ml of water, which was too little & had to be supplemented by eye.

• Rice with spinach (Spanakorizo)

  • Ganga108 on February 13, 2022

    Rice with Spinach is a very simple recipe, and truth be told, it morphed into a slightly different dish once I got into the kitchen to make it. There are lots of leafy greens in the garden atm, and also purslane, long eggplants and cherry tomatoes. The sliced eggplant was sauteed with the onions. I added the stems of the greens (chopped) with the turmeric (and a little Indian spice) and sauteed them a little before adding the rice (which also had a quick saute). Greens, purslane and cherry tomatoes were added as instructed, they steamed on the rice for some minutes. I didn't need much lemon juice due to the purslane. YUM.

• Broad bean and samphire zeytinyali

  • London_Mummy on January 31, 2026

    I tried another samphire recipe but could not get broad beans anywhere so I had to substitute butter beans. It is a nice side dish, or it could be a light lunch with flatbread.

• Afghan turnip soup with gashneetch

  • London_Mummy on November 30, 2025

    This is a great winter soup, particularly if you have the seasonal cough & cold. The kind of turnip which I can buy is swede. I substituted Greek yogurt for kaymak. The white wine vinegar is quite strong in the gashneetch: I bet she had a massive bunch of coriander.

• Quick coriander relish (Gashneetch)

  • London_Mummy on November 30, 2025

    This recipe is clearly for a massive bunch of coriander. Using my supermarket packet of coriander, I had to reduce the quantity of vinegar but still needed to add more walnuts to adjust the flavour. I'd suggest avoiding adding all the ingredients at once & adding them gradually & whilst tasting, in this order: coriander, walnuts, garlic, chillies, vinegar. I also added some salt.

• Aubergine with lentils (Halim-e-bademjun / Hareeseh)

  • London_Mummy on April 29, 2026

    This was OK but rather bland & the recipe is too vague, eg after frying the thick aubergine slices in a "glug" of oil & adding "some" water it became clear they were taking too long to cook for a weeknight dinner; I had to cut them up to achieve the mashy consistency in time. I still don't know if the recipe was meant to be confit-like or simply to have chunky slices boiled for longer. I made the topping by lightly frying the mint & garlic with readymade Fudco fried onion pieces, which worked well.

• Chip stew (Khoresht-e-gheimeh sibzamini)

  • London_Mummy on January 21, 2026

    This was a quick, filling recipe for a cold, damp, wintery evening, with the interesting sour Persian flavour, but I'm not sure I'd make it again. The double carbohydrates (chip stew with a suggestion to serve it over rice) are a bit over the top. The houseguest who was supposed to buy chana dal lovingly presented me with two cans of chickpeas, & I decided it was more important to accept their offering than strictly to follow the recipe; so I had to add some flour to thicken the stew. Instead of homemade or chip shop chips, I used frozen oven chips. Instead of the suggested traditional accompaniments of raw onion & garlic, I used fried onions, which are much milder.

• Afghan quince and split pea hotpot (Qorma-e-behi)

  • Ganga108 on March 03, 2024

    This dish is a vegetarian version of a quince stew from Afghanistan. It uses lentils in place of the non-vegetarian items. It is a perfect Winter dish, fragrant from the quinces, and comforting and warming. Deeply, deeply warming.

• Somalian greens with peanuts and coffee

  • LFL on December 01, 2020

    3.5 stars. I added added too much water (probably because I used a pot rather than a pan, and still covered with water). The recipe came out soupy rather than saucy, as it is in the cookbook photo. I coudn't really taste the peanut or coffee flavors much--the predominant flavor was tomato. We liked it, but it was not a standout. I give it points for originality. The flavor was unusual and it was a good way to make greens taste good.