-
Recipe: Roasted pumpkin and sweet potato soup
This roasted pumpkin and sweet potato soup is an easy meal packed with Southeast Asian flavours. If you roast the vegetables in advance, you can put it together in no time on a busy weekday. Both pumpkin and sweet potato are a good source of beta-carotene (a precursor of vitamin A) and also contain potassium, dietary fibre, among other micronutrients. This soup is gluten-free and dairy-free. It can be made vegetarian/vegan by substituting the fish sauce for salt or soy sauce. As always, make sure you are adding some protein to make it a more satisfying meal.
-
Recipe: Coconut affogato
Who doesn’t like affogato? Besides people who don’t like coffee. Or ice cream. Or cold coffee. Well, you get my point. Because I have no desire of consuming regular ice cream any time soon (the dairy and sugar combo just kill me), I’ve been making my affogato with frozen coconut cream. I haven’t added any extra flavourings yet but I suspect it would be equally delicious with a dash of vanilla or almond essence, or a sprinkle of cinnamon.
-
Recipe: Dairy-free crema volteada
Another dairy-free version of another Peruvian classic dessert: crema volteada (our take on crème caramel). This is my mother-in-law’s and my sister Gloria’s favourite dessert. The original version uses evaporated and condensed milk, and is served with caramelised sugar on top. Yes, it is very sweet. I used coconut milk and cream and just enough honey to make it slightly sweet. The texture was very similar to the original version but was paler in colour because there were less protein and sugar to react with the heat.
-
Recipe: Simple mussel curry
I’ve always loved mussels, and while I prefer the taste of fresh mussels, it’s more convenient to buy them shelled and frozen (for time, effort, and karmic reasons). Mussels are not only yummy but, according to Wikipedia, an excellent source of selenium and vitamin B12, and a good source of zinc and folate.
-
Recipe: Lúcuma coconut mousse
The three Fs I miss from home are family, friends and food. And to be more specific about the third F, I’d say fruit is what I find myself craving more often. Not only standard stuff like bananas, avocados and papayas are way tastier on the other side of the world, but there are some fruits you just can’t get here. Among them: lúcuma. Lúcuma is a fruit native to Perú, although it’s now grown in other South American countries (don’t let the Chileans fool you about its origin!) It’s a medium-sized round fruit with a dryish thin green skin that cracks when the fruit is ripe, soft fibrous orange…
