Dear friends,
Rather than April showers, we had a good spell of sunny weather during the latter part of April to make up for the wind, rain, snow and hailstones earlier in the month. Indeed, we had the pleasure of experiencing all four seasons in one month, ha!
What’s been happening here at UVO headquarters? It’s been fairly quiet on the cooking/developing recipes front mainly due to works on the house. I’ve also been working on another project of mine, a Qigong Teacher Training course which I also started in January 2021. I had let the home study assignments slip so it was a mad rush to get them completed by the end of April. Phew, what a relief they are all out of the way, for now anyway!
However, I did manage a few dishes. For those with a sweet tooth I made the protein rich besan (chickpea flour) barfi as promised and vegan badam barfi, another protein rich source from nuts this time.
Besan and Badam Barfis
I added a couple of parantha variations to the Breads and Rice section. A very dear friend of mine inherited a house with a massive overgrown garden full of ground elder and offered me some to try in my recipes. I hadn’t investigated the health benefits of ground elder before but was pleased to learn that herbalists recommend it for the treatment of gout, sciatica, inflammatory diseases and water retention. What’s more it tastes delicious having almost a nutty flavour and it’s free. I incorporated it into my dishes and created both gluten-free and non-gluten-free versions of ground elder paranthas. I also used it in the pakoras recipe as an alternative to spinach. Happy to say the ground elder worked very well in both recipes.
Ground elder paranthas
Left-over toor dal was used to make toor dal paranthas again both gluten-free and non-gluten free versions, just what you need on a cold, damp day, perhaps with a hot cup of masala chai?
Plans for May? My mooli parantha recipe will be featured in the June edition of PlantBased Magazine out on 20th May. Vegan Life and the Vegan Trade Journal will be featuring UVO as their Vegan Entrepreneur of the month. It’s my first foray in National media, hoorah!
I’ll be adding new recipes, let me know if you have a favourite Indian vegetarian dish you would like help with.
Some feedback primarily from mobile phone users suggests it’s a bit tricky to keep going back and forth to links such as the ‘tarka’ making process when making a curry. I will be looking to merge the tarka making process into all the curry recipes so users will only have one recipe to follow. Let me know if you have any thoughts that might make your life easier when following my recipes.
Eurostar Foods are running a Gluten Free Bake-Off challenge during 9th – 15th May. I’m looking forward to putting my gluten-free creations forward. Would love your support. Wish me luck.
Finally, a quote from the late Luciano Pavarotti, an Italian operatic tenor and the late William Wright, an author:
Until next time, happy cooking and feasting! Enjoy the freedom from lockdown but please stay safe.
Please continue to share my Instagram, Facebook and site with others.
Love,