• London_Mummy on October 16, 2025

  This book shows you how just a few changes in the spice blend can bring new charm & an exotic feel to the same old combination of vegetables, beans, lentils tofu or eggs, which you have cooked countless times before. If you already cook spicy food, you probably already have all the spices required, making each blend takes only a few minutes, & you always have enough left over for 2-3 more days.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Rolled egg wraps (Rolexs)

  • London_Mummy on January 17, 2026

    This came out looking quite messy but it was tasty & filling. I followed the lazy option suggested of using a readymade tortilla but I think a thicker chappati or flatbread would have been better. There are quite a lot of different vegetables to chop & different stages. Afterwards, I watched a few videos of how they really make it on the street in Uganda. The omelettes can be thick & messy because they roll it all up very skilfully. Atul Kochhar's method is laborious. The labour-saving way to make this would be first to fry all the onion, green cabbage & carrot filling; set it aside; mix the spicy egg mixture; divide omelette mixture into portions in cups ie one for each omelette; divide the filling & add it into each cup of egg mixture; set it aside; mix all salad ingredients together; fry one side of 1st flatbread; set it aside; make 1st omelette; just before it sets place cooked side of flatbread on to it; fry other side; remove from heat; add salad; roll it up.

• Chickpea salad (Channa chaat)

  • London_Mummy on November 22, 2025

    This is another variation on chaat. I varied it further by substituting toasted puffed rice for the potato (since I have a lot to use up), however, it was a bit too light without any potato. In the winter, the double carbs go down well!

• Sril Lankan egg curry (Muttai kulamba)

  • London_Mummy on March 03, 2026

    I made this recipe to use up the pandan leaves but it turned out tasty. I made the Sri Lankan toasted curry powder but only one-fifth, which was plenty. From, "A bad workman blames his tools," it must follow, "A bad cook blames her sous-chef," however, it was indeed a child who peeled & cut the eggs in the unattractive way you can see in my photo. Never mind, I think it is more important to give them a chance to learn than to produce a beautiful-looking dish & we enjoyed eating it!

• Leek-stuffed breads (Baloni)

  • London_Mummy on November 02, 2025

    Everyone liked these stuffed flatbreads. I made the filling the previous day & made 6 instead of 8, which saved time. The filling was delicious & it was much healthier than buying readymade potato-stuffed paratas. I will definitely make this again.

• Persian pumpkin & chickpea curry (Khoresh fesenjān)

  • Hellyloves2cook on October 28, 2022

    Easy to make. I only added 60mls of pomegranate instead of 75mls because it seemed too much. I added around 400 mls of water to give it a nice consistency. It is quite sour and fruity due to the pomegranate & Orange rind but I really liked it. My adult son wasn’t too keen as it was too ‘fruity and fragrant’ for his palate. A Persian friend tried a little and said it was nice! It’s different - But may not appeal to everyone.

• Potato stew with libeh & zhoug (Saltah)

  • London_Mummy on January 08, 2026

    This was a very unusual dish to me. In particular, the hilbeh sauce, made from fenugreek soaked overnight, was not to my taste, although I ate it. Maybe it is an acquired taste, because we felt the same about Georgina Hayden's Hilbeh Cake recipe, which I made last year. The soaked fenugreek tastes different from when you fry the fenugreek as part of a spice mix, as in Indian dishes. Without the sauces, however, the potato stew is too bland. I used Waitrose readymade zhoug, which is very tasty. If I made this again, I would not bother making the hilbeh sauce, now that my curiosity about it has been satisfied.

• Stewed okra & potatoes (Tabeekh)

  • London_Mummy on October 16, 2025

    This was a tasty Yemeni okra & potato curry, an interesting change to previous spice blends, & a very warming recipe in the damp autumn weather, because of the cloves. The Yemeni spice blend is easy to make, & if you cook Indian food, you will probably already have the spices you need.

• Aubergine & split pea stew (Hisaan man biadhinjan walbazala)

  • London_Mummy on October 22, 2025

    This was tasty & the combination of baharat, nutmeg & pomegranate molasses, which I do not use very often, gave it an exotic flavour. I changed around the recipe to use fewer pots & pans & to save time by using my pressure cooker: fried onions in pan, added spices, put that mixture into pressure cooker with the lentils, then fried aubergines & then tofu in same pan, before adding then to pressure cooker.

• Sri Lankan toasted curry powder

  • London_Mummy on March 03, 2026

    His recipe would produce a vast quantity, so I made only one-fifth & that was plenty for the recipe & I have enough left over for one or two more recipes. (Apart from the pandan leaf in the curry recipe), it uses typical Indian spices, however this spice blend is quite different & interesting.