Adding some different fruits to a salad offers a variance of flavours, colours and textures to increase its appeal. The options and combinations are nearly limitless but here I went for sweetness with strawberries and pears alongside creaminess with avocado, cashew nuts and a simple vegan Caesar dressing. Altogether they create a filling and nutrient dense salad bursting with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, protein and healthy fats. Continue Reading →
Lemon Tarragon Chickpea Chicken
As much as I love cooking there are days when it is the last thing I feel like doing. In such scenarios there is one trick that revives my affection for toiling over the oven- getting weird and unusual ingredients. The moment I found these purple yams my creative juices started flowing and I was looking forward to preparing something new. Both yams and butternut are quite sweet and starchy, making them sweet and satisfying. Combined with fiber-rich chickpeas and light zucchini, they all make the chicken into an easy one-pot dish. Some fresh herbs and lemon add in lots of flavour and a bit of broth keeps the chicken moist. Continue Reading →
Blood Orange Chicken with Honey Rose Glaze and Almonds
Most of the restaurants I have been to this past week have been spreading some festive Valentine’s cheer with delicious cocktails featuring rose water. Since they were so enjoyable it got me thinking about how I could use it in savoury dishes. Chicken is an easy and healthy conduit that takes on most flavours well and since rose water is mainly used in Middle Eastern and North African cuisine I went Moroccan and added in some other typical ingredients for a simple dish with some exotic flair. Continue Reading →
Meyer Lemon Chicken
Baked chicken is a versatile meal that can be made year round in small or large batches. Adding in some bright citrusy flavours with meyer lemons, sumac and lemongrass along with some pungency from an onion and fragrant earthiness from thyme creates a fresh, light main dish with little effort. Simply layer the ingredients and let them do their magic while the chicken bakes. Continue Reading →
Honey Mustard Bacon Wrapped Chicken
Adding some bacon to a dish always betters the overall flavour and along with some fresh herbs and a glaze made simply from honey and mustard it makes an easy-one pot chicken meal with just a few ingredients. The extra fat from the bacon enhances the potatoes (or any desired vegetables) as they cook but everything crisps up better (and is healthier) if most of it is removed at the halfway point and then again near the end. Continue Reading →
Turkey Pumpkin Chili
Chili is a really versatile and easy one-pot meal to throw together. This version gets an extra dose of nutrients from added vegetables and chickpeas. It is the kind of thing I like to leave around for my brothers when their schedules get hectic and time gets tight. They can heat up in a minute then load up with sour cream, shredded cheese, avocado and/or tortilla chips- it is fast and easy enough that they will do it instead of stopping at a drive through on the way home for a different kind of fast food. It is heavy enough to be hearty and filling while also being really nutrient dense, an ideal lunch to get fuelled for a long day of studying. Continue Reading →Chicken Tomatillo Soup
Tomatillos are a staple ingredient in Mexican cuisine and were used as far back as 800 B.C. by the Aztecs. Their more authentic name is “tomato verde”, Spanish for “green tomato”, and they make up an essential part of the famous green Mexican sauce called salsa verde. They are similar to regular red tomatoes except that their taste is less sweet and more tart and their texture is firmer and meatier. Their seeds are really tiny and their skins are very thin so they neither need to be peeled nor de-seeded like regular tomatoes often do for soups and sauces. Continue Reading →
Blackberry Orange Mango Roast Chicken
After several years of strict veganism learning to cook meat again was very intimidating. Chicken especially has been my nemesis. Making it flavourful and moist but cooking it enough to avoid salmonella can be pretty tricky as it is a fine line between potential food poisoning and overcooked and dried out. I have found that roasting whole chickens with fresh herbs and fruits or vegetables is a consistent success and using ones that are butterflied/spatchcocked (the backbone is removed and the chicken is opened like a book) cuts down the prep and cooking times and makes them a bit easier to work with. Continue Reading →
Rainbow Roast Chicken Meal
Traditional meals with my family are centered around the meat, and there is always lots of it. Then, in keeping with a strict shades of white and beige theme, there are piles of white flour buns, ground meat stuffing and mashed potatoes with a very small side of rather lackluster vegetables that get drowned in gravy. I know better than to mess with this formula on special holidays, but when I am putting on a family meal otherwise I like to transfer the emphasis to a rainbow of fruits and vegetables, with the meat as more of a side dish, and include some nuts and/or seeds any maybe whole grains like brown rice or quinoa. Continue Reading →
Pirate Chicken
Jerk sauce is about as flavorful as you can get, it has lots of spice and warming herbs like allspice and mace, along with coconuts and rum it is a hallmark of the Caribbean. It hails from Jamaica and compliments any type of poultry or meat very well, my favorite brand is Auntie Bev’s because it is delicious and has only good quality and real ingredients. Plus it is made by a local Vancouverite and it’s widely available. For more embarassingly Caucasian palates like myself it is best to start with a little bit so that the spicyness isn’t too overwhelming. I like to add some coconut milk in because it makes a really creamy sauce and helps to cool down the spice a little. I also add in broth to the sauce and cook it for awhile so that it boils down and thickens up to a rich gravy. Continue Reading →