All posts filed under: Appetizers

Peach Picking: Summer’s Delightful Fruits & A Recipe Or Two

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Summer’s are just about the perfect time to head out to the Niagara region. While wine sipping and patio hopping are pretty much amongst fun activities to do, one of my favorite ways to spend time around this region is fruit picking. Fruit picking and vegetable farms are open through the summer across Ontario and are a great source of locally grown produce. We were out and about last weekend and whilst it was a scorching hot day here in Toronto, we arrived fairly early in the morning at The Parkway Orchards located in the Niagara region. As luck would have it, we did manage to pick some wonderful peaches that morning. They are located on 15000 Niagara Parkway on the way to Niagara on The Lake. Ideally it would be best to call them a day in advance to check on timings and availability of fruit for picking. The farm charges a small entry fee of $4 per head and a minimum $6 deposit per basket which is deducted from the fruit purchase. I …

Hello Summer

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Sometimes Simplicity Is The Ultimate Sophistication- Clare Boothe Luce Summer is the perfect time to pack in some fresh flavours and ingredients into your cooking. I love the flavours in these recipes as they are a great way to move over to lighter and brighter meals. It’s most certainly time for quick and easy cooking and these recipes here will get done in less than 30 minutes from start to table. Also a great way to use wonderful seasonal produce and locally grown vegetables and fruits. These recipes lend a sense of vibrancy to the palate and ignite one’s taste buds. From fresh Asparagus, Beets, Cilantro, Eggplants, Zucchini, Oyster Mushrooms and Watermelons, here are some of my absolute fav recipes that I often toss together. Now you could serve these up as sides or they work great as mains and appetizers too. Either way’s they make a meal complete. The roundup of recipes here celebrate summer and are primarily vegetarian , some vegan and mostly gluten free. They are easy to put together and accompany …

Roasted Hasselback Butternut Squash

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Our weekdays are fairly hectic with all of us working from home. Most mornings turn out to be busy with either my workshops or recipe trials for future ones. Yes busy is good, but then the family has to eat too! Easy lunch ideas are what I aim for most days without the monotonous repertoire of soup and sandwiches. I had been browsing for some quick and easy recipes,when I stumbled upon this one for a Hasselback Butternut Squash.I have made hasselback potatoes often which are essentially a swedish tradition. The squash on the other hand has taken various avatars, in soups and salads, but never really quite in this form. I have adapted this slightly from Nourishing Amy. To be quite honest I was totally blown away by her images and the wonderful presentation. Now when I went through Amy’s blog post I got really excited as I had a medium butternut squash that was calling to be made just this way. This recipe is just so quick and easy. The important tip for …

Quinoa Burgers

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Meatless Mondays just got even better with these ridiculously easy and delicious Quinoa Burgers. Yes I get it, I’m probably giving way too much importance to Quinoa of late. The fact is, I now substitute Quinoa for rice most often, and now hooked and a diehard Quinoa fan. As a result, I almost always have leftover Quinoa in the refrigerator and looking for creative ways of using it before it heads to the bin. Leftovers always make for interesting innovations in my kitchen and the Quinoa quite often gets turned into a spicy Curried Quinoa or Potato Quinoa Patties. The burgers worked out very flavourful and packed with clean  and wholesome ingredients. Last week I gave the Quinoa Burgers a try and they sure turned out great. Best part is they freeze well too for the weeks ahead when you need a vegetarian fix. Of late I seem to be going Vegan almost three to four times a week and quite enjoying it. Well, I do cook Meat and chicken for the family, however quite …

Potato & Quinoa Patties

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  This fabulous vegetarian dish could be served as an appetizer, a side or even part of a main meal accompanied with a  garden fresh salad or roasted vegetables.Do bring it to your dinner table the next time around and I’m sure it will please even a staunch carnivorous dinner guest. Quinoa has come a long way in the last couple of years when it became quite the rage around one’s kitchens. It has slowly moved up from being stocked in the health food isles to the regular shelves in most supermarkets. I recently hosted a virtual cooking class and called it ” Quinoa Goes To Hollywood”. It was a fun session where the participants used simple cooked quinoa and twisted up two traditional Indian recipes, one  into a Curried Quinoa (the original recipe being Poha, which is curried flattened rice) and Potato Quinoa Patties which is the Aloo Tikki (classic Potato patty that got a makeover) I for one quite enjoy cooking with Quinoa and while the obsession continues, I’d been looking at something …