Nature & Spice

Tara. Cambridge student. Celiac. Food, lifestyle and travel blog.

[natureandspice]

Happy 2018! 

Pictured above is this year’s annual first of January lunch spread. While the rest of the world starts dieting, my family and I always start off the new year by indulging in a selection of the foods we love - cheeses and cold cuts! 

This year, the centrepieces were two baked camemberts. For the first, I used Jamie Olivier’s classic rosemary & garlic recipe, which I then paired with fresh Egyptian strawberries! For the second, we decided to experiment with Thai flavours. It’s infused with lemongrass, topped with basil from our garden, and paired with prawns. Not the most conventional of combinations, but it worked a charm!

Other highlights included the honey roasted ham and the pepper salami - both from Spinney’s, and both delicious!

[natureandspice]

One of my favourite things about being home is the availability of fresh fruit! Winter in the UK means that the produce section can get a little boring (there are only so many apples, oranges, and bananas a girl can eat). Dubai, on the other hand, imports fresh fruit + veg from around the world, so you can get literally anything you want all year round! Pictured are fresh strawberries from Egypt and delicious blueberries from South Africa - yum! 

[natureandspice]

Eating Out: PHO, Cambridge

Pho is one of my favourite restaurants in Cambridge. I’ve loved Vietnamese food ever since my dad brought back a Vietnamese cookbook from a work trip to Vietnam when I was 15. It’s definitely one of my favourite cuisines - the food is light, healthy, delicious, and (best of all) mostly gluten-free! Vietnamese food is heavily rice-based and as a result, there are very few dishes that include wheat.

One of the most annoying things about being celiac is being restricted when going out to eat. I usually only have a couple of menu items to choose from, and while it does make it easier to decide, it’s a bit depressing to keep having the same things over and over (i.e. there was a week during my internship in London over the summer where I literally only ate salad, and as much as I love salad, there’s only so much of it you can eat). At Pho, however, I’m spoiled for choice! 

Today, I had the Pho chay - rice noodles, button mushrooms and tofu in veggie broth. It comes with bean sprouts, chillies and herbs on the side, so you can pick and choose what you want. I put everything in - the more flavour, the better! It was super tasty, and actually managed to rejuvenate me after a very tiring morning (four contact hours in a row - not fun!) 

[natureandspice]

HOW TO MAKE YELLOW DAL

a very simple guide to my favourite indian side-dish

Now that the days are getting shorter and the temperatures are dropping, I often find myself craving something warm, flavourful and easy to make. I’ve also not been particularly well over the last couple of weeks (nothing serious - just a cold and a cough). When I was little, my mum used to give me yellow dal and rice whenever I was sick, and as a result, it’s become a bit of a comfort food for me (think the Indian equivalent of chicken noodle soup). 

So, when it came time to decide what to make for dinner yesterday, I knew exactly what I wanted. 

As you probably already know, dal is an Indian lentil dish that’s usually served as a side. What you might not know, however, is just how fabulous each individual ingredient that goes into dal actually is. Lentils have a variety of health benefits – they’re fab vegan sources of protein, dietary fibre, folate and magnesium, which helps them improve the blood flow, oxygen and nutrients in your body. Turmeric, or haldi as it’s known in Hindi, has become quite trendy lately, but has been used in Indian cooking for thousands of years! It’s anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and may even be able to boost brain function! 

In short, we should all be eating dal. 

Here’s the recipe I use to make simple yellow dal: 

You’ll need:

½ cup of uncooked red lentils

1 ½ cups of water

Dash of asofoetida (if you’re gluten intolerant, make sure that the brand you’re using doesn’t have wheat flour in it!)

1 tsp turmeric

Salt to taste - Indian food generally uses quite a bit of salt, and I never measure mine out, but I imagine I use around 2-3 tsp 

How to: 

Wash dal. Pour into a small saucepan with water. Add the turmeric, asofoetida and salt. Bring to boil on a high heat.

Once boiling, turn down the heat and let simmer for approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the lentils are cooked (they’ll be super soft to eat).

If you prefer your dal to be a little bit soupy, you can add extra water. If you prefer it drier (like me!), you may want let it cook for a little longer to let the water absorb. 

When the lentils reach your desired consistency, remove from the heat. Transfer to a bowl and enjoy as a side dish (I had mine with coconut curried chickpeas, but it can literally go with anything) or over rice!  

[natureandspice]

Working my way through lots of reading with the help of Hotel Chocolat’s Cacao Breakfast Tea!  

Cacao tea might seem like an oddity, but it’s delicious. I’ll admit that I’m not a tea connoisseur and will pick coffee over tea any day (*gasp* can you tell I’m not from England?), but this has to be one of the best novelty teas out there. It has a light, chocolate-y flavor and has a rich cacao aroma – perfect for an afternoon or evening pick-me-up!

[natureandspice]

Week 5 Comfort Food

In Cambridge, we have something known as the ‘Week 5 blues’. Our terms are eight weeks long and intense – we do more work than other unis do in their ten week terms, which makes for an experience that is simultaneously stressful and exhilarating. I spend my time running from lectures to the library, from society meetings to talks at the Union, from supervisions to lunch appointments with friends and… well, you get the picture. While I do like being busy, there comes a point where the adrenaline runs out and I’m left gasping for air. And like many other Cambridge students out there, that point generally arrives in Week 5, halfway through the term.

Although the desire to curl up in bed with a box of chocolates can and is incredibly strong, I wanted to maintain some semblance of healthy eating. So instead of making a trip to Hotel Chocolat and stocking up on my favourite pecan pralines (highly recommend fyi, even if you don’t like pecans – they’re amazing, but sadly not vegan), I instead decided to treat myself with one of my favourite dishes.

I first discovered the RECIPE for this lentil stew a year ago while reading @aspoonfuloflissi​, and it quickly became one of my favourite things to make. It’s super easy – it’s made up of simple ingredients (lentils, spices, tomato passata, courgette and kale) and you literally just throw everything in a pot and wait for it to cook. It’s exactly the kind of thing that I love to eat at this time of year, when the temperatures are beginning to drop and I feel chilled to the bone – it’s warming, and incredibly filling. If you’re looking for a nutritious, yet comforting lunch, this is definitely a dish you should try!

[natureandspice]

Tonight’s dinner consists of oven roasted courgette and squash (tossed in garlic, salt and chilli powder), avocado and hummus, quinoa, and black beans sautéed with chili powder, cumin powder, salt, and garlic. So unbelievably tasty and so unbelievably filling!

[natureandspice]

I ran out of peanut and almond butter from home (where I grind it fresh at the store), so I’m giving a new brand a try! I usually like Pip & Nut, but these caught my eye. Both are all-natural (just nuts and a bit of salt), and completely delicious! The almond butter is a little more runny than I usually like, but the taste more than makes up for the texture. 

10/10 would buy again.

[natureandspice]

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Need to Know About Me

Given the proliferation of food blogs out there, writing about food is harder than it seems.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve started this post, only to give up after a few sentences and close Word. This time, I’m determined to succeed.

So without ado:

Hi, I’m Tara. I’m a third-year psychology student at the University of Cambridge (making this possibly the worst possible time to start blogging, but hey, you only live once, right?).

When I’m not in Cambridge, I live in Dubai with my parents and my dog, Coco. She’s an eight and a half year old whippet/saluki/etc. mix, and is quite possibly the love of my life.

BUT, to complicate things further, I’m ethnically Indian and was born and brought up in New Zealand. The plus side of all this geographic confusion? I’ve gotten to eat some pretty amazing, diverse food and developed very curious tastebuds.

I’m celiac, and found out about it last year, which was quite a shock to the system. I spend most of my life hiding from gluten.  

I’m also kind of sort of but not really plant-based.  I don’t like eating meat or dairy, but I don’t call myself a vegan/follow veganism religiously because I feel like the gluten-free thing restricts my diet enough. I also love sushi a bit too much.

My favourite foods include chocolate (particularly if it’s from Hotel Chocolat – a store you will undoubtedly hear a lot about on this blog), nut butters, sushi and lentils.

My favourite drink is coffee – I drink it black every morning, but am incredibly partial to coconut milk flat whites.

My mother is the best cook I know.

I love Asian cuisines – Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Indian … I don’t care, I’ll eat them all.

I hate most forms of exercise, but I love yoga and figure skating (when I can – there are no ice rinks in Cambridge).