East
Sweet Potato Cakes with Kimchi Mayo, Brussels Sprouts Nasi Goreng, Winter Pilaf, Sodha Family Masala Omelet
If you ever look at The Guardian online, or if you’re in the UK, you’ve probably seen the name Meera Sodha and read at least one or two of her recipes. She is well-known for publishing vegetarian & vegan versions of fairly well-known dishes from all East Asian cultures. Sodha is English-born to Ugandan Indian parents. East is her third cookbook and it is full of beautiful vegetarian and vegan-friendly recipes.
I have made several recipes from the book before turning to it this week for this project, and all have been truly incredible. The way flavors are layered in each dish are so perfect, you can taste every herb and spice! I was excited to try several new (to me) recipes from this book and they did not disappoint!
The first recipe I chose this time around were the Sweet Potato Cakes with Kimchi Mayo, easily made into a vegan dish if you use a vegan mayonnaise. The recipe was fairly easy to follow. You start by roasting the sweet potatoes until they are tender & mashing them with the other ingredients. I mis-read the recipe and accidentally put a bit too much oil in the pan when frying my first batch of cakes, and you’ll see the results in the gallery below, but my second batch was much more successful with the right amount of oil in the pan (very little as it turns out). The cakes were delicious, a little bit sweet from the corn & a little bit spicy from the green chiles. The Kimchi mayo was a really nice addition to the bite, and it was all a really perfect combo!
There are several rice recipes in this cookbook, including one Pilau/Pilaf for each season, so I decided I had to make at least one rice recipe (I ended up making two). The first rice recipe I chose was the Winter Pilau with Beets, Cauliflower, and Cilantro Chutney. All of the seasonal pilau recipes sound fantastic, but I am a lover of beets and also rice, so I couldn’t wait to try a dish with the two together! The veggies are roasted in the oven, and separately the rice is cooked in a mixture of water with a sumptuous coconut milk & herb sauce. At the end, you fold the vegetables into the rice and top it all of with a lemon-y cilantro chutney & some pomegranate seeds (I had some left over from the previous week’s recipes). The dish was everything you want it to be: colorful, flavorful, multiple textures that complemented one another, and very filling. We ate it for a couple of days and it held up really well!
The second rice dish I made was the Brussels Sprout Nasi Goreng. I really like Nasi Goreng & had just purchased a fresh bottle of Kecap Manis which the recipe calls for. We enjoy brussels sprouts but they are far and away one of my least favorite veggies to prepare, so I was excited to just have to shred them up instead of painstakingly clean them up individually as I normally would. The interesting thing about this recipe is you sauté some of the Brussels sprouts with the rice, and the rest of the sprouts are marinated in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil. Then you toss the marinated sprouts with the cooked rice & sprouts for a finished dish! I made this when I was having some company over, so I did not get as many process photographs as I normally do, but the dish was excellent and we even had a tiny bit left over for breakfast the next morning (which we topped with some poached eggs).
Speaking of eggs, the final dish I made for this time around was the Sodha Family Masala Omelet. We decided to have this Omelet as breakfast for dinner one evening, with a couple of portions left over for breakfast the next morning. It was absolutely delicious! I am really into mushrooms right now, so having them as the main vegetable in the omelet was lovely. The chilies and garlic added a nice punch, and the chopped cilantro brought everything together. We served the Omelets with some Roti we bought at our local Indian grocery store, and it was the perfect combination.
I am thrilled this book is a part of my collection, and her first two books are definitely on my wish list! I have also cooked many of her recipes published in The Guardian, and you can definitely try some there as well!
Love & Happy Spatulas,
Alyssa