Notes about Recipes in this book

• Sweet potato cakes with kimchi mayo

  • Hellyloves2cook on June 16, 2020

    Husband made this and as the eater I can say these potato cakes were really very nice. Will definitely be making these again in our household.

• Celery and peanut wontons with chilli soy sauce

  • MADCH82 on July 02, 2020

    Quick, easy and delicious

• Asparagus and mangetout with chilli peanut crumbs

  • Hellyloves2cook on January 27, 2020

    Made this for Xmas dinner - too hot to make traditional roast here in NZ - and well it was easy to prepare and tasted very very nice. Liked by everyone and the favourite out of 3 dishes made from this book.

• Caramelized fennel and carrot salad with mung beans and herbs

  • purrviciouz on October 07, 2019

    Very delicious and felt like what I would imagine to be a French style grain salad. I added 1tsp fennel seeds to the roasting vegetables. I enjoyed that the couscous and mung beans were the same size. I served this with a small amount of baked chicken.

• Breakfast at Shuko's

  • joneshayley on August 31, 2020

    I didn't enjoy this at all. A confusion of flavours and overall sloppy texture even with the nori. I won't make it again

  • Lepa on October 12, 2019

    I wanted this to taste more like carbonara but it didn't have the same richness. The egg was a bit soupy instead of thick and creamy. I didn't have nori so I put furikake on top. I doubt I'll repeat this recipe.

• Swede laksa

  • MilduraSO on May 18, 2020

    Wow! I wouldn’t normally be drawn to a dish starring swede but the head note made me curious and was 100% accurate. The swede and shallots were the most perfect pairing ever and tempered the fiery hot soup so well. Aside from giving the swede an extra 5 minutes, I wouldn’t change a thing about this recipe. I’ll probably be eating this weekly in the winter.

  • MilduraSO on June 13, 2020

    Made this for the second time using the leftover soup from when I last made it (2 person household). Just needed to roast the swede and shallots, soak the noodles for 3 minutes and add a squeeze of lime when serving. All in all it was about 5 minutes in total spent in the kitchen and was delicious. I’ll probably make a larger batch of the laksa next time so I can freeze enough for several meals.

• Ben Ben noodles

  • grindabod on January 30, 2020

    Absolutely delicious. I added a little bit of fish sauce along with the vinegar as I'm not vegetarian, but honestly I think it would have been super tasty without as well. Gobbled this up in a matter of seconds!

• Peanut butter and purple sprouting broccoli pad Thai

  • Lepa on September 23, 2019

    We didn't like this very much. The introductory note says that it is a vegan version of Pad Thai but it didn't taste anything like any Pad Thai I have had. It had an odd taste from too much tamarind (or maybe I just don't like tamarind). I won't be repeating this recipe.

  • Hellyloves2cook on June 27, 2020

    My husband made this in May 2020. It was ok! I think he overcooked the noodles so that instantly made the dish gluggy. The sauce was quite strong and I’m not sure it really worked for me to be honest. I like all the ingredients in the recipe but I guess my brain was thinking Pad Thai and it certainly did not resemble any Pad Thai I’ve eaten, ever. I have eaten a fair few in my time too. I may repeat it and make it myself and see. Meanwhile there are too many other recipes in this book I have earmarked.

• White miso ramen with tofu and asparagus

  • christineakiyoshi on November 23, 2020

    This is another recipe that comes together easily. It is a very hearty soup and filling. I enjoyed it and will make it again.

  • cc7740 on May 25, 2020

    Blending the raw garlic made the paste bitter, would heat the aromatics before blending next time.

• Udon noodles with red cabbage and cauliflower

  • fscassim on July 01, 2020

    The combination of red cabbage and cauliflower does not meld well together, and the overall flavours are just off

  • Lepa on September 29, 2019

    This was pretty easy to throw together and I liked the fact that it was half vegetables. It needed a bit more salt and the ginger was essential (without it, this would be a bit bland).

• Spring onion and ginger noodles

  • christineakiyoshi on November 11, 2020

    Delicious and fresh tasting!

• Caramelized onion and chilli ramen

  • grindabod on February 24, 2020

    Another great recipe from a great book. I used a homemade stock based on bean cooking liquid, which had the added bonus of lending the broth that nice milky ramen hue.

  • christineakiyoshi on November 19, 2020

    Huge fan of this recipe. Delicious and easy to pull together. We omitted the egg, since we are vegan, I used three Thai bird chilis and put some chili oil on top. Yummy and the whole family loved it.

• Food court Singapore noodles

  • christineakiyoshi on November 18, 2020

    This is loaded with veg--liked it very much. May want to add a splash of lime the next time I make this. We added a bit of chili oil to the top.

  • sarahj22 on November 24, 2020

    Really yummy and so easy. Once the veg is chopped it all comes together very quickly. We didn't have beansprouts or green beans but subbed in mange tout and swapped the rice noodles for egg noodles. I was surprised at the previous note saying this is 'not the healthiest dish around' as I felt it hit the mark with being cosy and comforting while remaining fairly light and packed with veggies. A definite repeat for us.

  • ksg518 on January 11, 2021

    Very good! I used 8 ounces of noodles to use up a whole package and perhaps should have increased the veggies accordingly (although I was very generous with the sprouts). My only complaint was that the recipe calls for slicing the green beans lengthwise. Mine weren't very thick and I gave up when I realized there was a high likelihood of slicing off part of my finger. I don't think it makes a difference if the beans are fairly thin. This would be an easy weeknight dinner if you had the time to prep the veggies a few days ahead of time.

  • Yildiz100 on December 27, 2020

    Good! Added a scrambled egg for protein. Used extra bean sprouts instead of green beans. Looks like too much veg for the amount of noodles, but it was perfect.

  • VineTomato on December 17, 2019

    I only cooked this to use up a spare red and yellow pepper, and now it will be added into regular rotation. Not the healthiest dish around but could slip in nicely for a quick weeknight meal when the rest of the week has been virtuous. I don't love peppers and Mr VT hates a beansprout and yet we both loved it! Used Cape Malay curry powder and Mr VT said it was exactly like a dish he used to get in a food court in Cape Town. Love Meera's recipes.

• Leek, mushroom and kale subji

  • VineTomato on December 15, 2019

    A lovely way to eat a bowl of vegetables! I replaced the kale with rainbow chard, which worked well, it would not be a terrible idea to double the amount of chard. I like to chop the stems and added those at the beginning with the onions.

  • Hellyloves2cook on June 28, 2020

    My lovely husband made this ( well I did buy him this book for Xmas one year) As a taster I can say it was a blend of wonderful veggies and spices,stir fried together to create a deliciously tasty meal. One of those recipes you can tweak with and add whatever you have in the fridge.

• Aubergine katsu curry with pickled radishes

  • SugarFree_Vegan on August 09, 2020

    I used Gram / Chickpea Flour instead of the plain flour in the recipe because I find it works really well and also adds protein to the dish. I had a very big aubergine so sliced it in rounds which also works well. Really tasty sauce which compliments the crispy aubergine and tangy pickled radish.

  • MilduraSO on May 17, 2020

    The sauce was a huge success and makes enough to be frozen for at least a couple more meals. I found the aubergine a bit dry. In the future, I’ll finish it off by frying in oil.

• Pumpkin malai kari

  • Lepa on November 02, 2020

    I made this with kabocha. It was good and I will probably make it again. The sauce wasn't anything like the picture. It was an unappetizing pink color with purple onions floating in it - but the taste definitely made up for the ugly appearance.

• Tomato curry

  • Foodycat on May 06, 2020

    This is really delicious. It needs good tomatoes though! I served it with naan but rice would have been better. Maybe with some cashews in the rice for a bit of texture, because the curry is quite soft.

• Roasted paneer aloo gobi

  • lizbot2000 on October 13, 2019

    Easy & delicious. I used a container of mixed sweet cherry tomatoes and just halved them. The cauliflower and potatoes took a lot longer than listed, but that seems to always happen to me. I'm probably cutting them larger, or maybe I like everything more charred.

  • OnVaDeguster on May 17, 2020

    The whole family loves this recipe. I make my paneer using 3l of fresh full cream milk, 500gr fresh yoghurt and the juice of one lemon. The mix of spices is great and reminds me of my 10 years spent living in India. A regular on our table!

• Paneer, tomato and kale saag

  • Florafauna on September 16, 2020

    Very tasty, a keeper! We will have this whenever we have a glut of kale (veg box - autumn, most weeks!) We used chickpeas instead of paneer to make it vegan. Maple syrup substitute for the rice syrup. It went very well with the green chilli and mustard pickle in her fresh India book page 236!

  • lilham on July 06, 2020

    This is delicious. I substituted granulated sugar for the brown rice syrup. I love how it uses kale instead of the normal spinach. This will be in our regular rotation for curry night.

  • potatooryam on December 29, 2020

    So good. I was a little worried that it would be too sweet right after I added the rice syrup, but the flavors combined really nicely once it had cooked for a bit.

• Coconut rice with aubergines and pickled cucumber

  • Hellyloves2cook on April 27, 2020

    The aubergine element to the dish was rather nice. However the rice part didn't work and remained hard and nutty- I cooked it longer than suggested. Perhaps I should have used the carton version of coconut milk rather than the canned variety. I will try to do my own version of a coconut rice next time.

• Egg fried rice with peppers, peas and chilli

  • Lepa on November 14, 2019

    This was easy to throw together and really good. I omitted the chili because we have young children and my husband and I topped ours with siracha. Everyone in our family enjoyed this dish!

• Winter pilau with beetroot, cauliflower and coriander chutney

  • Hellyloves2cook on April 27, 2020

    My husband made this as one of our lockdown meals. It was nice and pretty to look at with the gem like pomegranate seeds.

• Honey, soy and ginger braised tofu

  • potatooryam on December 29, 2020

    Like Lepa my sauce looked nothing like the picture, I wonder if my pear was too large and not as ripe as it should have been. I ended up pureeing the sauce and adding it back to the pan. It was tasty enough but probably wouldn't repeat.

  • Lepa on September 12, 2019

    My sauce didn't look like the sauce in the picture. I suspect it was because my pear wasn't ripe and didn't cook down as much as it should have. The dish was still very good. I reduced the gochujang paste to 1 tsp so it wouldn't be too hot for my kids and it was just right.

• Chilli tofu

  • Lepa on October 11, 2019

    This dish is spicy and satisfying. I only had a pound of tofu and that was perfect. I have a hard time believing twice as much (as listed in the recipe) would work. Dusting the tofu on cornmeal was a great trick that gave it excellent texture and prevented the sticking that often drives me nuts. I added extra salt at the end but otherwise made this dish as listed. I will probably make this again- but only when the kids aren't eating!

  • sarahj22 on September 12, 2020

    My friend made this for me and it was truly delicious. When I made it myself it was still very tasty, but I must have let the tofu cook in the sauce too long after frying as it had lost its lovely crispiness. I halved the amount of tofu but kept the other quantities the same, which was enough for three not-overly-saucy portions. (As Lepa says, using more tofu seems odd as it would mess with the tofu-sauce ratio.) Unfortunately this dish didn't convert my tofu-hating husband - otherwise I'd consider this a repeat recipe.

  • Apollonia on September 18, 2020

    Loved this dish! Based on the other comments, I cut the amount of tofu in half, which resulted in 2 generous or 3 more slim servings (you could probably stretch to 4 servings with chapati or another accompaniment). I also pan fried the tofu, which worked nicely, though I'm sure a deep fry would get you closer to restaurant flavor. This is definitely a repeat in our house; next time I will just double the sauce.

  • Yildiz100 on December 28, 2020

    This dish was fine but not comparable to versions of this dish that include tamarind. Made a half recipe which was all that my largest skillet could handle. Not a repeat for us. Not because it is bad, we just have a version we like better.

  • christineakiyoshi on November 13, 2020

    Very tasty. We needed to add additional water, as recommended in the recipe. We did not have serrano on hand so used a mix of jalapeno and Anaheim peppers. Used the recommended amount of tofu since we are tofu fiends. Will make it again!

• Sun House chilli eggs

  • Lepa on October 11, 2019

    I love shakshuka so I expected to love these eggs but they were only okay. I missed the spices and complexity of shakshuka. I added some Brooklyn Delhi Tomato Achar and that improved the dish but going forward I'll probably make shakshuka.

• Egg tamago rolls with wasabi mayo

  • mzgourmand on November 17, 2020

    This cookbook looks gorgeous and I am eager to try other recipes from it. And I think this recipe highlights just how idiocyncratic taste is. I was expecting to love this recipe b/c I love traditional, Japanese restaurant tamago - this rendition is more salty and less sweet, which of course could be tweaked. I definitely did not enjoy the addition of sesame seeds to both the base recipe and the dipping sauce, and I like sesame seeds generally. But here I found that they disrupted the texture of the dish - others might enjoy that contrast. I usually like nori but found that a whole sheet of it was too strong a counter-point for each individual serving, and finally I actively disliked the wasabi mayonnaise dipping sauce, which I made with fresh wasabi powder. However, my wife - who spent several years working in Japan - tasted only the wasabi mayonnaise and thought it was delicious. It really is all a matter of taste.

• Bombay rolls

  • VineTomato on December 15, 2019

    Absolutely delicious! I forgot to add the oil to green paste and didn't miss it in the end. Very easy to make and the flavour is incredible. So good in fact we decided an extra one could be our dessert!

  • MilduraSO on May 17, 2020

    This was so unusual and I’m on the fence. My husband loved them and ate 3 (they are really filling or he would have eaten more!). I enjoyed one but found by the second one that the flavour was too much. Really quick and easy so perfect for a family spread with lots of other bits to balance it out.

• Leek and chard martabak

  • Astrid5555 on April 23, 2020

    We really enjoyed this savory veggie kind of strudel dish, great feedback from both kids. Not too much work for a weeknight dinner, will definitely make again!

• Amritsari pomegranate chickpeas

  • Yildiz100 on December 25, 2020

    This is really nice but misses the more complex spice profile that other Amritsari chole recipes usually have. I sprinkled it with some garam masala and that made it more like I expected. I really liked the pomegranate molasses as a substitute for dried pomegranate. The acidity was just right. I used canned tomatoes, so I reduced them to 150 grams since they usually contain less water. Also, chopped the green chili for more heat.

• Kung pao cauliflower

  • Hellyloves2cook on June 28, 2020

    This was very nice. Made as part of a meal. In fact this has been made a few times since- it’s that delicious!

  • christineakiyoshi on November 21, 2020

    Another quick to make recipe from this book. Very good!

• Blackened sweetcorn with miso butter

  • rodillagra on October 08, 2020

    The miso butter was very salty. But I would have put salt on corn on the cob anyway so it made a pleasant change. Use the lime wedges it is served with, a squeeze of lime makes all the difference.

• Banana bread with toasted coconut

  • rosyannposy on October 31, 2019

    This was delicious but the baking time is off. Baked it 20 minutes less at 400 then only 5 min more at the next temp. I started to smell burning. The crust was black but very good inside. Next time I will cook at 350.

• Salted miso brownies

  • Hellyloves2cook on June 28, 2020

    Hmm... My husband made this and used gf flour instead of plain flour. It wasn’t soft or moist like a traditional brownie. Now, I admit it could be that he overcooked them, but putting that aside, they were sickly sweet and inedible. No one in my family liked them. One bite and we all put them in the bin. Like to hear anyone else’s experience of making these.