French tabbouleh

You may already be familiar with tabbouleh, the Middle Eastern lemony herb, and bulgur salad. This is what I was familiar with when going to Lebanese/Syrian restaurants in Montreal and the one I found when living in Dubai. It contains very little grain, lots of parsley, some onion, and from time to time, you’d also […]

Summer Solstice Strawberry cake

This recipe is from my Spring & Summer e-book and the only one that I have actually posted on the website because I couldn’t not post it for the Summer solstice. It’s the PERFECT dessert to celebrate the first day of summer. **************** If you like a good old-fashioned buttered toast with homemade strawberry jam, […]

French cod brandade

Cod brandade is a lovely traditional dish from the Nimes region in southern France. Like many traditional recipes, it has humble beginnings. Back in the 16th century, fishermen from the Brittany region in France would come to Nimes, a region known for its salt culture. They would use it to salt their fish (most often […]

Swedish blueberry soup

Many years ago, on one summer solstice, I went to Sweden with some work colleagues to do a bike race around a lake in a small town called Mottala. The race was 300 km long and our departure time was during the few hours of darkness, at around 2am (in that time of year, the […]

Stone fruit polenta cobbler

Cobblers usually have a lot more fruit than cake batter – in this case, it’s 40/60 because that’s how my kids like it. Also, this particular recipe uses a genius polenta-based topping, which I hijacked from one of my favorite contemporary cookbook writers – Julia Turshen. Throw in whichever stonefruit you’ve got – I like […]

Strawberry rhubarb fool

I love a good fruit fool recipe. It’s summery, fresh, and bursting with seasonal fruit flavor – in this case with super fragrant local strawberries and rhubarb. Instead of the traditional whipped cream, I prefer using Greek yogurt, and to give it a bit of dessert feel, I crumbled some speculoos – one of my […]

Rye banana bread

Rye banana bread is a must-have in your little black book of quick bread recipes. I love that rye flour is making a comeback in recent years. And what’s interesting is that we now see it in things other than regular bread: rye chocolate chip cookies, brownies, waffles, wonderful-tasting pie crust made of rye flour, […]

Mast o Khiar

“Mast o Khiar” (literal translation is Yogurt and Cucumber) is an Iranian side dish that is somewhere between a dip and a proper salad. As a kid, my mom used to serve it in a big dish alongside perfectly cooked Basmati rice, salad and grilled meat. I remember taking ladles of it and smothering this […]

Warm spring vegetable bowl

I love this sort of recipe because it is really versatile. It works perfectly as a main on days where I need something light and nourishing without having to take the salad route (because the veggies are mostly blanched or sauteed, they are super easy to digest and extra tasty!). It is also a glorious […]

Orange chocolate ricotta coffee cake

This cake is inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s wonderful cannoli pound cake, which I discovered thanks to the Dinner Sisters podcast (one of my favorite US foodie mom podcasts). When I first heard the girls talking about this one-bowl recipe on their pod, the idea of it stuck in my head for weeks, to a point […]