What You Are Doing Today Is Important

…because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.

Top to bottom: couscous salad similar to this, or this and date balls followed by pictures from my morning walks in the village.

I am not a glutton – I am an explorer of food

Come on guys! Look at Emma’s face! There’s enough proof there to last the entirety of my chef life.

Tonight we broke the fast like a BOSS. I prepared a simple rocket and pepita salad, cannellini bean dip, curried couscous, falafel, an antipasto plate of chargrilled eggplant, marinated artichokes, blue-cheese stuffed green olives and sundried tomatoes, and last but not least, pesto gnocchi with buffalo mozzarella. Oh and nonalcoholic sangria made with grape juice, passion fruit juice, earl grey tea, cinnamon, blood orange and strawberries.

For dessert, Kaori brought ice-cream and we also had my bliss balls.



Now they’ve gone home and again, it’s just me. Just me and my food baby.

Goodnight xx

Vegan curried couscous salad

My adaptation from The Daring Gourmet food blog.

Told ya I was gonna spice things up this New Year (literally). So, without further adieu I introduce you curried couscous.

2 cups uncooked wholewheat couscous
2-3 small wild carrots, finely shredded (I used one orange, one white and one yellow)
3 spring onions, sliced small
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup raw walnuts

Dressing:
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp black pepper

Cook couscous according to packet instructions then set aside – usually it’s just adding hot water, covering with a plate, waiting then fluffing with a fork.

Prepare dressing by whisking all dressing ingredients together until well combined.

Add carrots, spring onion, parsley, chickpeas, raisins and walnuts to cooked couscous and mix together with a wooden spoon.

To finish, add the  dressing, a little at a time, stirring to combine between additions. For best results, cover and refrigerate overnight so the flavours have time to meld.

an everything in the fridge couscous salad

Cooking for one is sooo difficult! I end up cooking for an entire family and accidently eating the whole thing myself. Or alternatively, to save myself from obesity, I let my food spoil which of course, I feel horrible about. This is where the humble couscous helps. Simply mix any combination of eatibles with couscous and 90% of the time you’re safe. Lunch today: wholewheat couscous, steamed brocolli, sweet orange cherry tomatoes, raw almonds, cucumber, green capsicum, and a boiled egg(not pictured) seasoned with salt and pepper and dressed with olive oil and lemon.

vegan chickpea, avocado and cashew salad

I think I’ve already mentioned that Japanese schools do “school lunch” which is actually pretty cool as everyone eats the same thing and it’s usually super healthy. However; it’s not easy when you’re vegetarian as almost always meat is involved and of all kinds! So recently, I sucked up the courage to cancel my school lunch which has left me having to make my own. Yippee! (no sarcasm intended, I love this shit).

Vegan, healthy and so filling!

3/4 cup wholemeal couscous
1 small carrot (diced, small)
1 small cucumber (diced, small)
1/2 avocado (diced, small)
handful of raw cashews
1/2 can of all-natural chickpeas
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Cook couscous as per packet instruction (usually just a matter of adding hot water and letting it sit).

Combine with the remaining ingredients and voila!

For best results, let cool before nomnom!

couscous is a naughty word in farsi

When my family and I first heard of couscous we were gobsmacked. Why? Because in our mother tongue of Persian or Farsi.. ‘cous’ is a bawdy title for the female genitalia. Yep, that escalated quickly. Anyways, as you can imagine, hearing the TV lady advertise a product called couscous (not one but two!) had my mother utterly astonished and giggling, hard. And to this day, she hasn’t gotten over it. Every single time couscous is mentioned we all fall into a laughing frenzy. ‘Moroccan couscous’? ‘Turkish-style couscous’? Ahahahah stahp!

Anywho, despite it’s silly title, couscous is one of my favourite health foods as not only is it tasty but also incredibly easy to prepare (follow your packet instructions but it’s usually just a matter of combining couscous with hot water in a bowl, covering it for a few minutes then fluffing it up with a fork).

Creating a filling and nutritious meal with couscous is so simple; all you need to do is combine it with a variety of chopped vegetables, nuts and or seeds then mix it all up with some olive oil and vinegar and ta da you’ve now yourself a quick and healthy meal. In fact, I’ll be taking a few packets of organic wholemeal couscous with me to Japan for those times (and I guarantee there’ll be many) I need to whip up something good, fast.

1 cup of organic wholemeal couscous, cooked
1 red capsicum, chopped
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes (mine were orange – so pretty), chopped
1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup Kalamata olives, chopped
1/2 large cucumber, chopped
1 can of organic no salt added chickpeas, drained
1 avocado, cored, chopped
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon paprika
salt and pepper (not too much salt as olives are already salty)

Mix and enjoy!