No recipes today!

Growing up in an Indian household where homemade healthy food is very important, I quickly learnt the value of homemade delicious food.  Not only is it nutritious but you can adapt it to your own tastes, by using different spices to enhance the flavours and nothing is ever wasted e.g. chapattis can be used to make a soup based on yogurt and chillies, or they can be fried or reheated as a snack.

Unfortunately, there are no recipes on this blog, mainly due to me having a killer migraine and my 3 year old daughter having a sickness bug so this weekend is going to be a day of bland and simple meals!

Soup is always a winner at home, as I try to use as many vegetables as possible to make it healthy!

My basic recipe would be cauliflower, fresh tomatoes, carrots and potatoes, which are all steamed and blended with a handheld blender until smooth and simmered over a low heat, salt and jaggery and a bit of black pepper is added and its done! we always have this with crusty buttered bread. Any vegetables can be added and its a good way of using up what's in your fridge!

I am assuming most people reading this blog may not have heard of jaggery, this is a an unrefined sugar made from sugar cane juice that is reduced and set into blocks. It has a wonderful, rich flavour, and it tastes somewhere between molasses and caramel.  This is used in a lot of Gujarati dishes and is a staple in our kitchen cupboard.

Instead of adding sugar, jaggery is used to balance spicy and sour food and it always gives dishes an aromatic and unique taste, it is also used widely in Thai dishes.

This is what jaggery looks like, it is widely available in specialist Indian shops and larger supermarkets.


That's it from me today! hopefully next week will be better and I will be able to add more recipes on.  If there are any Gujarati foods that you would like to see featured on my blog then please comment below.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend, I will be snuggling on the sofa watching X Factor!