Planning our spring of salads

The main reason I wanted to do this challenge was to incorporate more veggies into my diet. I’m by no means a salad dodger, but I do default to the same veggies (hello, spinach and spring onions). But a baby spinach side salad at dinner is not enough. Not only is it important to get a good variety, but adding more plants to your diet is also really good for your gut. I am in my thirties now and must think of these things. For Matty, who loves salads and veggies, this challenge was an opportunity to get out of her comfort zone and into a more creative place with her eating.

ALSO READ: Make these changes to improve your long-term gut health

Fortunately, both Matty and I are planners. My new appreciation of meal prep and bulk cooking has turned me into a proper planner and Matty loves a good spreadsheet. A shared Google doc was created and the spring of salads began. We looked at everything from the weather to what’s in season. There was plenty of inspo from social media and TASTE’s top-notch salad recipe collection.

Matty focused on salads and I did the accompanying proteins. I did panic a little at the start, because I thought that our meals would only consist of salad – but fortunately, this was not the case. We aimed to have exciting, varied salads that were inspiring and satisfying, and for the most part, we succeeded. But there were a few hiccups on the way.

Proof of our meticulous planning:

Note that the lists were much longer than shown below, and Matty added notes to the different salads we had.

CHECK OUT: Our salad recipe collection 

How it started

As with any new project, we were very enthusiastic at the beginning (I’m sure you can tell from our spreadsheet!). We made big salads for dinner and had leftovers for lunch the next day. We selected salads that were as different as possible so we wouldn’t get bored. We tried recipes we never would have considered if it weren’t for the challenge. We had leafy salads on warm days and roasted salads on chilly days (spring is not all sunshine, after all).

At dinner, we’d have spirited discussions about our meals. What worked, what isn’t that great, how we would make things differently. I discovered that I really like French-style potato salad. Matty’s favourite herb – rocket – betrayed her in a rocket salad we found on NYT Cooking (I think she got all rocket while I got a nice balance). Rocket will not be entering our house for a while. Both of us loved the dressing in Khanya Mzongwana’s Bloody Mary salad. In fact, when I opened my Blood Mary salad jar in the office, more than one person commented on how good it smelled. This process helped us add new veggie regulars to our weekly shopping list.

Bloody Mary salad in a jar recipe.

Learning to improvise

Needless to say, we were buying a lot of veggies during this challenge. But we didn’t use up all the ingredients in the recipes. This resulted in many half-empty bags of veggies and herbs. Since we were doing this challenge in September, we hadn’t yet seen Khanya’s fridge clean-up videos that were posted in October. She made a herby roast chicken complete with herb oil and her fridge-dive giardiniera. But a fridge clean-up was our strategy. We did it by improving salads with whatever ingredients were left in the fridge at the end of the week. One of these meals was a yummy bacon-and-broccoli pasta, which technically counts as a salad because we ate it cold… #PastaSalad!

Another area where we had to get creative was with ingredients. As much as we checked what was in season, we couldn’t find some key ingredients. We used our collective knowledge of food and flavours (and Google) to come up with good substitutes. Sadly there were some salads we had to scrap completely. I was determined to try Kate Wilson’s cheat’s burrata and blood orange salad. But we couldn’t find burrata anywhere and we missed blood orange season by two days! Fortunately, there were salads we loved so much, we didn’t mind having them twice.

Cheat’s burrata and blood orange salad recipe

The flu that almost veered us off track

After two weeks of going strong, Matty was struck down with a cold. Part of us wanted to power through and keep on the salad train. Veggies are healthy after all, and since the weather was colder we’d be in our roasted salad era. But no matter how motivated you are, when you’re sick, you need comfort food. So I made soup. I did load it with veggies since the whole point of this challenge was to eat more of them. I also think that soups and salads are in the same WhatsApp group, so I didn’t feel too bad going in this direction. But there were one or two nights where takeaways were bought  . Like I said, you need comfort food when you’re sick!

ALSO READ: How making tomato chutney for a year taught me to cook

This break in our challenge had the potential to derail us completely. We just weren’t as excited to make the salads anymore. Fortunately, Woolies was there to save the day. They have such a great range of salads, which we leaned on when we were lazy. Khanya’s Caesar chicken schnitzel recipe is the perfect crossover of convenience and at-home prep. Almost every part of this recipe, down to the dressing, made use of convenience products. But putting it together still feels like you achieved something. And it’s delicious!

Caesar chicken schnitzel recipe

Another thing that got us back on track was social media recipes – and (healthy!) fads. At the time, everyone was eating a whole cucumber, so we had to eat one too. Matty made the viral spiral Asian cucumber salad that was popular a few years ago and it was so good. We also made the viral dumpling salad, which wasn’t bad. But I prefer my dumplings the old-fashioned way. Now I know.

ALSO READ: Social media made me do it: how “FoodTok” influenced my cooking

How it ended

While we set out for 28 days of salads, in the end, we only managed 20 days. But that is still impressive, so IMO, the spring of salads was a success! This is especially true because two months later, we’re still buying more veggies than before. These days, we’re adding them to smoothies in addition to making good salads. Now there’s more than just spinach and spring onions in my fridge, and I’ve learnt to appreciate salads more.

Broccoli and sugar snap salad recipe 

The post How my spring of salads helped me eat more vegetables appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.

ALSO READ: 6 inspired lunch recipes recommended by our deputy food editor

Sometimes, I would be alerted by the odour of a decomposing banana that was doomed from the moment it ripely entered the back compartment of my already overworked book bag. Once I found it, usually days later, I’d hurriedly remove the bag from my back to examine the damage and rush to the cloakroom to clean it poorly with wads of wet toilet paper.

Food was always the centre of everything I did and felt thought.

Knowing what my lunchbox was going to consist of the night before determined what kind of posture I’d take that day, the attitude with which I was going to get out of bed that morning, what kind of student I would be in the classroom. Sometimes it would even determine how my friends treated me – cut us some slack, we were kids, friendships were highly transactional back then. Leftover lasagne or bacon-and-cheese Snackwiches had me feeling like I had a fighting chance at becoming a prefect. Snacks were my currency on the playground, and I sometimes traded my Friday lunches (amagwinya with polony and cheese, hotdogs or last night’s fried chicken) with The Tuck Shop People, also known as The Break-time Royalty.

ALSO READ: 6 simple, speedy lunches for every situation

Don’t get it twisted, I’ve had umngqusho in my lunchbox before. It was delicious, but not my finest lunch hour. Once, I sneakily opened my lunchbox in the classroom. It was egg salad. Immediately, someone yelled “Who farted?” “NguKhanya!” someone loudly declared. It was my lunchbox that had, in fact, farted.

Find the recipe for amagwinya with atchar here

I entered the workforce early in life – a few months before my 16th birthday I got a weekend job at one of Gqeberha’s oldest hotel as a commis chef who wasn’t legally allowed to be there yet. I earned R5 an hour and each hour represented a hot sausage roll, or a blue Energade from the tuck shop, which I could now afford! My brother Zibu worked at the Woolworths in Greenacres, which entitled him to discounts on some of my favourite foods – going forward, my lunchbox was packed with ripe strawberries and nectarines, blueberry muffins and chips. I invested in a cooler in which to pack my now sophisticated meals. They were called meals now.

ALSO READ: 3 recipes that make great leftovers for lunch boxes

We really walked (more like trudged through the mud) so that today’s children could run. I see kids at sushi bars slurping sashimi and handling chopsticks with the utmost grace. Their palates are so cosmopolitan and worldly, and I believe kids have a lot more agency around what they eat now. For crying out loud, I saw a green salad on the kids’ menu that they didn’t even incentivize with strips of fried chicken! The only time I ever saw a green salad was when it was being ignored at braais.

Find the recipe for sumac-white chocolate trail mix here.

Talking to the TASTE team about what they grew up eating at school was illuminating; the conversation kicked off with issues of tuck shop money: I found out that a lot of us never received any until high school and were stuck with our soggy-by-breaktime cheese-and-tomato sandwiches. Our folks had obviously never heard of sandwich glue, a.k.a. mayonnaise. A lot of us also froze our cooldrink bottles overnight to keep them cold the whole day, which only bent them out of shape and made the contents leak through our school bags. We tried to remedy this with pieces of clingwrap – the only real guarantee being the promise of a rogue piece of wet plastic to do with whatever you chose. Lesego Madisa, our content producer, was seemingly the smartest person on our team. “I worked at the tuck shop for two years, so I got free lunch as payment.” I would’ve been fired – maybe for eating the crispy edges of cheese bubbling on the hot sandwich press, but probably for my ineptness at counting money at that pace. Our art director Katherine Botes can no longer eat apricot jam after years of having it crammed down her throat at boarding school. And all food director Abigail Donnelly wanted was a polony sandwich, and our chief copy editor Lynda Ingham-Brown wanted a sandwich on white bread (not the home-made brown loaf her mom baked). These days, our senior designer Rugshaana Abrahams orders her kids’ lunches on an app, which delivers their lunches to their classes. Huh.

Find the recipe for ooBompie here. 

I complain a lot, but in all fairness, lunchboxes of bygone eras weren’t without their golden moments. We weren’t allowed to chew gum, but Bubbaloo was different. We would risk our lives for that liquid centre. We smuggled it like we were on Border Patrol.

There were also these boiled sweets, Big Time, which were 10 cents each, so if you had R1, you had ten terrible sweets. Funny Faces were 20 cents each, the Rockefeller sweet. And there was always a container filled with bars of peanut brittle, which I think must’ve been aimed at teachers, because eating one of those was like eating peanuts preserved in resin.

ALSO READ: 5 ways to turn peanut butter into a satisfying lunch

I remember Champion toffees, particularly the black ones, which inexplicably had a solid fanbase. I tried so hard to like them in my futile pursuit to be normal, but it felt like I was just asking to excavate a filling. I hated them so much, all that work, no reward whatsoever.

Then there were the pricier lunchbox specialties like Dirkie, which was literally just flavoured condensed milk in a tube, or alien spray, which was concentrated cordial with heaps of citric acid – the acidic taste was the alien part. Speaking of strange candy, who in the world conceptualised Push Pops? They were dangerous in the way that all things too good to be true were. Save some for later? More like “inadvertently fashion a shiv with which to stab my enemies”. Nik-Naks were my favourite savoury snack, even though they left my fingertips smelling like old shoes and left the roof of my mouth in shreds.

I love my dad and all, but he wasn’t very involved or present for lunchtimes. He once came to visit me at school and left me with some tuck shop money – R50. This sudden flush taught me three things: I learned what privilege was that day. And I gleefully learned what guilty parenting looked like. I also learned what happens when you treat your stomach like a trash compactor for sugary snacks. I had four caramel-stuffed doughnuts that day, and two of those short cans of Coke you used to get – my teeth were vibrating from all the sugar. I kept the change in my blazer pocket, which I spent on slap chips at Steers later. I look back now and realised I could’ve put that money towards world travel or my retirement.

CHECK OUT: Our lunchbox recipe collection 

Today, in this office-less age where many of us work from home, there is no justice. No audience. No solace in knowing you now earn enough to make a lunch the whole office will envy. In the words of George Michael, “maybe it’s better this way”. Our options at lunch time have broadened along with our wallets, waistlines and woes. I never used to look like this. I’ve been so busy reclaiming the lunchbox that I forgot it also needs to be good for you too, and not just four servings of chicken pot pie. But no matter. With all my begrudged mutterings, I realise what a lucky little kid I was. I had someone dutifully cutting sandwiches into small triangles and ironing the pleats of my school uniform every single day. I may not have always had Iced Zoo biscuits like Caitlyn or Baby-Bel cheese like Anelisa, but I had something to look forward to – two lunches, two breaktimes and the type of after-school shenanigans you had to ride the bus home to be a part of.

Find the recipe for nuke-it noodle bowl.

The post Crushed naartjies and polony amagwinya: a lunchbox memory appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.

ALSO READ: A Sicilian snack using sorghum for a South African twist

To my pleasant surprise, the interior of the restaurant was not as I’d imagined, and I was immediately captivated by the open- fire kitchen and its tattooed chefs. This get- together with my sisters promised to be an afternoon filled with good food, good wine, laughter and joy. I’m happy to say that the six-course tasting menu with wine pairing was filled with some of the most interesting vegetable morsels I’ve ever had. The Cape Malay influence was evident in how the chef had played with spices, pickles and flavour combinations, making each dish a delicious exploration. The wine server also took us on a journey of discovering local, handmade and unfiltered wines, which worked perfectly with the flavourful dishes.

Find Mokgadi’s fried cabbage with tomato curry recipe here. 

From the delicious roosterkoek bread course to the risotto and the coconut koeksister dessert, every dish was perfectly executed, but my absolute highlight was the fried cabbage. The humble veg, encased in a light, crispy batter, was served with a sweet-and-sour tomato curry sauce, basmati rice foam, tomato-and-onion salsa, and topped with crispy onions and curry leaves. I’d never eaten cabbage like that before. It was so incredibly good that I dreamed of it often, to the point where I simply had to try to replicate it.

ALSO READ: Morogo magic: the budget-friendly indigenous ingredient

My version of the tomato curry sauce has tamarind in it and is based on my granny’s tamarind fish curry recipe (without the fish). I make a tempura-style batter for the cabbage, which lightly coats it and keeps it moist and soft inside the crispy coating. The crispy cabbage works well with the curry sauce and the creamy basmati rice foam, creating the perfect balance of flavour and texture. Crispy onions and sliced deep-fried curry leaves add extra flavour and crunch.

When I eat this dish, it reminds me of the love and respect the chefs at Belly of The Best have for their produce, which can be tasted in every bite on the menu. And I feel happy, inspired, and excited about the local food industry

The post Taming the beast: My take on a dish from Belly of the Beast appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.

ALSO READ: Bowl in one: this bean-and-chorizo stew has everything I love about food

I still like to end off the day with delight, not denial, so my choice of solo supper needs to be a bit more indulgent, but also no more time-consuming to make than a cheese toastie. Enter the omelette. Nourishing and comforting but able to hold its own in any surroundings, the omelette will always get my vote. It’s smarter than a casual scrambled egg, more dressed up than a fried one, and far more impressive than a boiled egg. An omelette feels special; as if you’ve gone to a bit of trouble to make something nice out of, well, an egg.

The soufflé-like omelette I’m currently obsessed with is apparently an English invention and I owe much gratitude to Mrs Beeton, who left the world careful instructions in Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management. Much as I love the French omelette as served in fancy French restaurants, I am intimidated by the thought of Larousse Gastronomique’s precise dictates of using only eggs, butter, salt and a frying pan. This requires a level of expertise of which I’m simply not capable.

ALSO READ: Mad capers: This sauce is the best way to enjoy capers

Find the recipe for Sam’s cheese soufflé omelette here. 

But I have managed the art of the fluffy omelette served alongside a large glass of good wine and a small leafy salad. Perfect for the rare occasions when I’m alone while Jacques and Seb go camping. Some may argue that omelettes, even the truly great ones, should only be served for breakfast. Once I may even have agreed with them. But no more. Because I have had two spectacular, sensational in their simplicity, French-style omelettes for dinner in two rather wonderful restaurants. The first was at Prune in New York, the iconic East Village Restaurant owned by Gabrielle Hamilton, which is now no more. (Sadly, a Covid casualty but her words live on; her memoir Blood, Bones, and Butter is a must-read, and do search for her old New York Times columns online.) On her dinner menu was, surprisingly, an omelette, served with a sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano and cracked salt. It was perfection. We ordered it for Seb because he was only five and we thought it would be a good kid’s meal. It was. But we grown-ups wanted it too. Because omelettes are for everyone.

ALSO READ: Ginger’s up: Sam Woulidge gives a Christmas twist to blondies

The other was on a girls’ trip to Paris with my friend Jocelyn. We had dinner at the swanky Hotel Costes, where the DJ, the playlist, the gloriously scented candles and the gorgeous interiors surpassed anything we could find to eat on the eye wateringly expensive menu. But amid the foie gras and snails was the reassuring presence of une omelette. We ordered it with an enormous side order of thin fries and an excellent assortment of wine. Now that, my friends, is a true girl dinner.

The post Why omelettes are the perfect dinner for one appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.

The crookie

What sparked this trend? I took one for the team and scrolled all the way back to January to find out when jammy eggs, crispy tofu, deep-fried lion’s mane mushrooms and smashed avocados were replaced by brownies, blondies, cheesecake and croissants. My investigation led to one viral trend: the crookie.

Like the cruffin and cronut, the crookie is a mash-up of croissants and an existing dessert, in this case, the cookie. Created by Maison Louvard bakery in Paris, this decadent recipe is a flaky croissant stuffed with chocolate-chip cookie dough and baked to gooey, rich golden perfection. Soon everyone was sprinting to their local grocers to get their hands on croissants and cookie dough to make this. Trust me, it’s totally worth the hype.

Get the recipe for The Crookie here.

Almond croissants

The crookie opened up the dessert floodgates, and soon your favourite foodfluencers were exploring more desserts to mesh up. Croissants seemed to be a favourite starting point for many, and soon, the almond croissant mania was all over my feed. Almond croissant cookies, almond croissant baked oats, almond croissant blondies, it seemed like frangipane and flaked almonds were everywhere!

Not wanting to be left out, I decided to put the flavours of almond croissants into a babka. The base is a soft, brioche-like dough enriched with butter and eggs. The frangipane filling is spread evenly onto the rolled-out dough, then the dough is rolled up, cut lengthways, the strands are crossed over each other, then topped with flaked almonds and baked before being dusted with icing sugar.

Get the recipe for almond croissant babka here.

Citrus overload

If almond croissants aren’t your thing, then the citrus explosion may be up your street. Sparked by the influence of LemonTok in 2023, slices of lemons, tangerines, blood oranges, and ginormous pomelos were everywhere (I hate to admit that I watched a whole video of Emily Mariko silently and meticulously peeling a pomelo). The citrus trend is easiest to attempt – we bet you have a few lemons right now. Revamp your favourite desserts with a squeeze and zest of your favourite citrus to hop onto the trend.

Get the recipe for ricotta flapjacks here.

Tiramisu everything

It’s no secret that everyone seems to be taking their coffee seriously. Whether it’s the trending home cafe brunches or the laundry-list order hacks for ordering iced coffee ventis at a popular Seattle-founded coffee shop chain – liking coffee has become somewhere of a personality (refer to the cringeworthy but first, coffee memes spawned by the Tumblr generation). Naturally, the most famous coffee dessert would be the next target in the dessert mash-up trend. But what soon started as coffee, chocolate and mascarpone recipes soon turned into lemon tiramisu, matchamisu and, our very own deputy food editor, Khanya Mzongwana, gave us the ClemenGold tiramisu. The trend is simple: layer finger biscuits with a creamy component and then pick your flavour.

Get the recipe ClemenGold tiramisu here. 

It’s all about pistachio

Don’t get me wrong, almonds are still leading the dessert wars of Instagram and TikTok but pistachios are not far behind. The Fix Chocolatiers in Dubai released their pistachio kunefe chocolate bars. Soon, everyone wanted to sample the dark chocolate bars stuffed with bright green pistachio paste mixed with kunefe pastry. A barrage of pistachio recipes on social media followed.

Food director Abi Donnelly’s no-bake chocolate tarts make the perfect recipe to try the trend.

Get the recipe for no-bake chocolate tarts here. 

This trend is far from slowing down and, while I await the next dessert that will get a 2024 social-media upgrade, I noticed that the theme was clear: have fun and give in to your sweet tooth. This trend isn’t about spending less time in the kitchen or finding healthy swaps, but rather being a bit like Willy Wonka. Get creative with your favourite flavours and desserts – there are no rules.

The post Trend tracker: the desserts taking over TikTok and Instagram in 2024 appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.

Baby steps with breakfast meal prep

In my youth, I couldn’t batch-cook and freeze food even if I wanted to. All I had was a bar fridge, plus I had to share it with roommates. When I lived with my best friend, Matty, life was great. We had a similar philosophy about home cooking. We took turns making meals, so the burden wasn’t always on one person and we made sure to eat all the food, so there was no waste. This all changed when I moved out to live on my own. The cooking habits I had acquired over the years had to be modified. Everything changed from shopping (no more bulk sales on fresh produce) to portion size (so hard to cook for one). Many people told me to cook a big meal and eat it over a few days, but I didn’t want to. I can eat the same meal twice, but having it three times or more in a row is not for me. I want to eat different things daily. I may be stubborn about this, but it brings me joy and I don’t want to compromise for convenience.

ALSO READ: I got an air-fryer and it did not change my life

Find the recipe for overnight oats with brûléed bananas here. 

One thing I’m not so uppity about is breakfast. It’s what started my meal-prep journey – carrot cake overnight oats in particular. I saw the recipe on “FoodTok” and had to try it.  You add carrots, nuts, cinnamon and nutmeg to your oats and let it set overnight. It’s so good! The thing is, one grated carrot is enough for two or three portions for me. To avoid having awkward half-cut carrots in the fridge, I started meal prepping my oats. I prepped a variety of flavours so I wouldn’t get bored. Peanut butter and jam, fruit, tiramisu (add coffee to the oats and top with yoghurt dusted in cocoa in the morning). Having a variety ready in the fridge made my mornings so much easier.

To keep my easy mornings going, I started prepping more. I start each morning with lemon, ginger, turmeric and pepper in hot water. After seeing a content creator make this combo and freezing it in an ice tray, I started doing the same. Now I just put a block in my cup and top it with hot water. In summer, I like to have smoothies for breakfast. I measure the smoothie ingredients in my Nutribullet cup, put them into bags and freeze them so I have the exact amount ready. Then I simply grab a bag, dump it into the blender, add my liquids and powders and go. No cleaning, cutting or wasting fruit in the morning. Plus, it’s a great way to ensure my fruit doesn’t go off.

ALSO READ: I cooked with canned food for a month to save money – and here’s how it went

Find the recipe for get-up-and-go green smoothie here. 

Freezer bags for the win

Using freezer bags for my smoothies opened my eyes to their potential. They come in different sizes so you can portion nicely. They’re flat so they save space, too. But the best thing about them is they’re transparent. No more trickery from re-used ice cream, yoghurt or margarine containers (these go straight to the recycling in my house). I still don’t have a solution for the biscuit tins filled with sewing stuff though, sorry! Freezer bags made me more open to freezing leftovers, and once I started I was hooked. I could batch-cook my favourites! This may seem obvious, but I was resistant and stubborn for so long that this realisation was so great.

All the things I can’t really cook for one suddenly were open to me. Curries, Bolognese, dhal (I do like it – just not when it’s a Trojan horse!); I can cook all this and more. This allows me to spend more time cooking on the weekends, which I find very therapeutic. It also frees up my weeknights, which is amazing when work is tiring or overwhelming. It also ensures I always have good food available. This comes in handy on the days when money is tight, I’m lazy or I’m tempted to get takeaways when I shouldn’t. I can hear my mom’s voice in my head saying: “There’s food at home.” She’s right.

ALSO READ: The ultimate guide to freezing food

Find the recipe for dhal curry here.

Batch-cooking also lets me get in on some of the fresh produce bulk deals, and saving money is always a win. Speaking of saving, I’ve invested in reusable silicone bags to cut down on my plastic waste. This also saves money and I highly recommend it if you’re a regular batch-cooker. A pro tip from my parents is to batch-cook and freeze food to take on holiday if you’re self-catering. This way you’ll spend less time cooking on your holiday and still save money on food!

Just a note on rice. I do batch-cook, portion and freeze rice. It’s easier than making a small amount each time I need it. I know there’s concern about reheating rice on social media, so I did some research. It’s fine to do this as long as you store and reheat it correctly. Here’s a comprehensive guide with expert advice from Martha Stewart’s site.

ALSO READ: How cooking East Asian food (kind of) made my dreams come true

Find the recipe for golden fried rice with duck here. 

It’s not all about batch-cooking

On days I do want to cook a midweek meal, I opt for a freezer staple paired with a salad or veg. Schitnzels, Woolies’ braai range, fish and sausages are my go-to proteins. I pop them into the air-fryer and make my side while it cooks. But these meals can be a little uninspired. Enter Hajar Larbah and her platfrom Moribyan. I saw a video of her prepping five different marinades for chicken and just had to try it.

 

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She uses roughly 5 kg of chicken for 5 meals. This made 10 portions for my household of one. She did a follow-up with steak, plus gave suggestions on what to make with it. It’s brilliant! Now I have more delicious options that are still speedy. Rice bowls, quesadillas and sosaties entered the chat. I also keep a stash of rolls and wraps in my freezer to use for sandwiches and wraps. I still have the freezer staples, but it’s nice to have more home-made options.

ALSO READ: Social media made me do it: how “FoodTok” influenced my cooking

I also meal-prep treats. I’m still stuck on the chocolate-covered stuffed dates that went viral a few years back. They really help with sweet cravings. Choc-chip oat biscuits are a great snack. And if I’m in the mood, I may even freeze cake or pancake batter, so I can have a freshly baked treat when I want. But my number one freezer treat is the Woolworths’ Frozen Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake. I may not prep it, but it’s so nice to grab a slice when I want. Plus, it’s cheaper than buying the single cake slices in the long run.

Find the recipe for spiced dates here. 

Meal prep forever!

I’m not going to lie. It’s a mission to meal prep and batch-cook. Planning, shopping, prepping, cooking, dishes – it takes a lot of time, effort and energy. But for me, the results are worth it. I feel so accomplished on my meal prep days. I cook and prep a lot of food, feed my love of cooking and I’m taking care of future me, who will really appreciate all the meals, drinks and treats.

I get to shop more bulk deals for my household of one, without fear of waste or food going off. The best part is the flexibility it gives me once it’s done. I cook when I want to. I don’t when I’m not in the mood. And I have a variety of meals on hand so I don’t have to eat the same pot of pasta for three days in a row. It’s awesome.

The post Big-batch energy: how meal prep feeds my love of cooking appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.

Fast-forward to 26 years later – whenever I have a punnet of peaches or a bag of apples I can’t help but see potential for jams, syrup, pickles and curds. The books, blogs and experts list a ton of special equipment and exotic fruits, but I’m here to tell you that all those things aren’t necessary. All you need is fruit, sugar, a large pot, sterilised jars and a little patience. Here’s how to get started:

Stick to seasonal fruit

It’s best to preserve fruit at its peak. That way you’re less likely to add heaps of sugar and the natural sweetness of the fruit will shine.

Sterilise your jars

The last thing you want after making your jam is for it to spoil. Your jars must be sterilised before you start the preserving process. Prepare a water bath in a pot and place the empty jars in the water sideways so that they fill up before turning them right-side up. Add the lids and leave on the stove over a low heat. You can also add a dash of vinegar to keep things sterile.

Using a clean set of tongs, remove the jars from the water bath making sure to pour out the water inside the jars. Set aside your clean jars on a clean tea towel.

The pot does matter

When making jams and marmalades, the pot you use can make or break your recipe. The key to cooking down fruit is to do it as quickly as possible so the ingredients taste fresh and the sugars don’t caramelise or burn. Use a heavy-based pot to avoid scorching, and make sure to not fill it to the brim with fruit and sugar because the jam will likely expand as it cooks. If it’s too full, it’ll overflow and, trust me, the last thing you want is to scrub burnt sugar off your stovetop.

The canning process

Once your recipe is complete, remove the pot from the heat and carefully fill the jars with your jam. Make sure every utensil you use is clean and sterilised. I usually spray my utensils with hot water mixed with vinegar before getting started. Leave about an inch of space at the top – when you place the jars back into the hot water bath, the contents of your jar will expand so you want to make sure there’s ample room and to cause a vacuum seal inside the jar.

You have to jar the jam while it’s still warm; if it cools down place it back on the heat to warm it up again. Carefully wipe the rim of the jar if there’s any mess – hot water and a clean tea towel will do. Screw the jars closed until you’re met with some resistance. You don’t want to seal it tight – the water bath will do that for you. This step is to ensure that when placing the filled jars back inside your water bath, air escapes (you’ll see the bubbles coming out of the lids) and a vacuum seal is created that will prolong the shelf life of the jam.

Almost done…

Once you’ve filled and sealed your jars, carefully place them in a clean pot filled with boiling water. The water should cover the lids of the jars to maintain good circulation and even temperature. Double-check that the jars are upright and if a jar does tip over, use a long wooden spoon to set it back upright. Once the water reaches the boil, carefully remove the jars right away. It will be hard to resist tipping the water off the tops of the lids, but try to keep them upright as you remove them. I usually put on gloves for this process but if you have a steady hand, a pair of tongs will do the trick too. Tighten any loose lids.

A little tip from grandma:

Fun fact: both my grandmothers are big on preserving! My father’s mom had a small business selling canned fruit. Her useful tip is to wrap the hot jars in a warm towel or blanket and leave them overnight to cool. The blanket helps to cool down the jam evenly and prevent any explosions, which can happen if the jars cool down rapidly.

Once sealed and cooled, you can keep your home-made preserves in a cool, dark, dry place for up to a year. Your kitchen cupboard will do just fine.

The best part

Now that you have the basics, here are some great recipes to get you started:

1. Blood orange marmalade

Capture the bright citrus flavour and colour of this gorgeous fruit! Blood oranges are in season at the peak of winter, the cold temperatures are responsible for their bright crimson colour. Since they’re only available for a limited time, preserving blood oranges is the best way to eat them all year round. Spoon the marmalade over pavlova or just spread on toast.

Get the recipe for blood orange marmalade here. 

2. Stovetop spiced strawberry jam

Nowadays strawberries are on shelf throughout the year, but in South Africa they’re at their peak between August and December. This spiced strawberry jam is flavoured with warm spices of cloves, star anise, cinnamon and cardamom. These flavours lend themselves well to the winter months. This jam will be great in a bread-and-butter pudding or warm scones when guests come knocking. Get the recipe for stovetop spiced strawberry jam here. 

3. Tomato tamarind jam

If you doubt that tomatoes are fruit, Khanya’s tomato tamarind jam will convince you otherwise. I’ve made this recipe countless times and I can confirm that it’s worth it. Spread it on bread and top with sharp cheese to make the ultimate grilled cheese toastie.

Get the recipe for tomato tamarind jam here.

4. Biltong jam

This biltong jam deserves a spot on your cheeseboard. Biltong is an unlikely ingredient to turn into a jam, but think of caramelised onion chutney – this is similar. The salty-sweet flavour makes it an excellent jam to use in savoury dishes. Add it to burgers, boerie rolls, or be adventurous and add a spoonful to savoury oats. Get the recipe for biltong jam here. 

5. Grilled raspberry-and-chia tray jam

Not all jams are made on the stovetop. The oven is a great way to deepen the flavour of the fruit as it slowly caramelises the sugars. Doing it on the stovetop may result in burning the sugars, but this way you have more control. The addition of chia seeds adds some texture to the jam. If the other recipes in this round seem too intimidating, this three-ingredient recipe is the perfect staring point. Get the recipe for grilled raspberry-and-chia tray jam here. 

Want more jam recipes? Browse our collection of jams and preserves here. 

The post Making jam 101 appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.

It shouldn’t be surprising that I want to go to Japan because I’m a huge anime fan. There are other motivations, but anime is the biggest one – particularly anime food. If you’ve watched anime, you know how amazing the food looks. Like seriously, it’s enchanting. Don’t believe me? Check out this video:

Cape Town has some amazing restaurants that serve East Asian food. Some of my faves include Downtown Ramen, Tjing Tjing, HeSheng KimChi and Tomo. I also find good options at Asian stores (so many great frozen dumplings!). When the anime food cravings hit, I frequent these places. But there was one dish I couldn’t find anywhere. So I decided to make it.

ALSO READ: I cooked with canned food for a month to save money – and here’s how it went

It started with a pork cutlet bowl

Whenever I’m feeling some type of way, I watch anime. So naturally, when my trip fell through, that’s what I did. But instead of being comforting, it became a constant reminder of all the food I wouldn’t get to eat. One anime in particular tormented me. Yuri!!! On Ice is about a competitive figure skater who loves pork cutlet bowls and uses them as motivation. As a result, they mention this dish in every single episode. I’ve spoken of my intense food envy before. Seeing pork cutlet bowls in Yuri!!! On Ice was one thing, but they kept popping up in other animes and that pushed me over the edge. I needed to eat one. But I couldn’t find them anywhere in Cape Town.

I am South African Indian, so my cooking fundamentals are rooted in this culture. Thus, the idea of cooking East Asian food was intimidating. I knew that all Asian cooking had similar principles – a set of basic ingredients that are commonly used in most dishes – but East Asian cooking uses 5 ingredients, while Indian cooking uses like 500. My best friend and former roommate Matty spent a year in Thailand and was my first teacher in this area. I watched as she cooked dishes she learned while she lived there, and she took me along to our local Asain market to stock up on ingredients. This, combined with my newly found confidence from cooking social media recipes, gave me the push I needed to make the highly anticipated pork cutlet bowl.

ALSO READ: The nostalgic, but slightly terrifying, task of setting up my first spice cupboard

I researched various recipes and watched many videos. I decided to follow both Marion Grasby’s YouTube video (her left-hand wet hand, right-hand dry hand method for crumbling food changed my life) and Just One Cookbook (which is now my Japanese cooking bible). A pork cutlet bowl (Katsudon), is a golden crumbed pork chop placed in egg, simmered in a sweet and savoury sauce, and served on rice. It’s glorious and I can’t describe how incredibly happy I was when I made it and finally got to eat it. This was the start of my dedication to learning more East Asian recipes.  P.S. Here’s a pic of my pork cutlet bowl next to one from Yuri!!! On Ice:

An exercise in restraint

When I first started trying my hand at East Asian cooking, the urge to add ingredients to the recipes was strong. As I mentioned, I learnt to cook South African Indian style. I was taught to add loads of different spices and to measure with my heart. I use Indian aromatics and spices in virtually everything – even Western dishes. Pasta sauces taste amazing with a little bit of masala thrown into the mix.

One of the reasons I prefer cooking to baking is because I can riff recipes without fear of disaster. But East Asian cooking demanded discipline *cue training montage music*. I’d never tasted the dishes I was making, so I had to follow the recipe to a T. It was the only reference I had to ensure I was making the dishes correctly. I did feel validated when I made onigiri (which I couldn’t find initially) and then tried some at How’s Your Oni (thanks Clem Pedro for putting me on!).  I was definitely on the mark.

While I’m confident enough to change up some dishes (I have made various types of onigiri and have “Indianfied” my version of Korean veggie pancakes with turmeric, chilli and garam masala), I’m still learning. So I still have to restrain myself when making certain dishes, and that discipline has helped shape how I cook now.

ALSO READ: How making tomato chutney for a year taught me to cook

The never-ending sources of inspiration

The reason I talk about East Asian food as a whole rather than just Japanese food is because I’ve started to cook more broadly. Anime is not the only thing that inspires me. K-dramas, social media and food experiences all drive me to learn more about this cuisine. The K-drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo had me obsessed with kimbap, and now it’s one of my favourite things to make. I’ve made both ham and tuna kimpap (from my Korean cooking bible My Korean Kitchen) and am gearing up to try my hand at bulgogi kimbap.

Social media turned me onto mayak eggs (marinated eggs), also known as Korean drug eggs. I can also try all the cool food trends using East Asian ingredients because I have a stocked pantry. Rice paper dumplings, nori sheet “wraps” and all the chilli oil noodles are whipped up almost immediately after seeing them online. Plus, my dipping sauce game is pretty good. My team at TASTE was also kind enough to gift me cookbooks (Bao Family by Céline Chung and Hong Kong Food City by Tony Tan) to help me on this journey.

ALSO READ: Social media made me do it: how “FoodTok” influenced my cooking

The dream continues

A few years ago I was doing a story on Prince Albert’s hot spots. Real Food Company (now Jeremy’s restaurant and wine bar) was on my list and I had the pleasure of interviewing owner Jeremy Freemantle, who told me something I will never forget. He told me that there are many ways to learn about countries and cultures. You can do it through language, history, geography or religion. He prefers to do it through food.

I know that cooking East Asian food is not the same as going to these countries. But by learning about the food, making it and eating it, I feel like I’m exploring these countries in my own way; a way that excites me and (let’s be honest) that I can afford. I’ve been lucky enough to go to Thailand and Hong Kong, and I’m still dreaming about Japan and Korea. But until that day comes, pork cutlet bowls, kimbap, onigiri and all the dishes I still have to learn will tide me over. And for now, that’s enough.

Find three recipes from Bao Family here. 

The post How cooking East Asian food (kind of) made my dreams come true appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.

I admit, I was nervous. I do like canned food, but I mostly stick to the bean, lentil, fish and tomato categories. I’m not a big fan of the pastas and meats; there’s way too much trauma from school aftercare when it comes to these. With my preferences and somewhat fussy tastes, I didn’t think I could make exciting, interesting meals all month long. Fortunately, I was wrong.

ALSO READ: I got an air-fryer and it did not change my life

Getting nostalgic

Like with most things, I started with what I know. And the thing I know most about is tomato chutney. I spent years making chutney with my dad when I was young. It was the beginning of my love affair with cooking (read all about that here). I used canned tomatoes to make a chutney base that I used for shakshuka, spicy pasta sauces and creamy chickpea curry with coconut milk. Pro tip: use leftover coconut milk in smoothies.

ALSO READ: The nostalgic, but slightly terrifying, task of setting up my first spice cupboard

I rediscovered how much I love sausages, baked beans and mash. It’s honestly one of my favourite meals, especially since I curry the baked beans, Indian-style. I hadn’t made this in ages, and it instantly transported me to my childhood.

The “poor man’s paella” I invented at university also holds up after all these years. It’s made with leftover rice, tuna, canned mussels and bacon. It’s more of a fishy fried rice than paella, but I didn’t know better when I named it. And it tastes good, which is all that matters.

Find the recipe for 20-minute chickpea curry here. 

I contacted my parents for some recipes I loved but never made for myself. Sardines braised with onion and chilli on toast. Fish cakes made with pilchards. I even got the recipe for my mom’s canned-fish biryani, which is always a hit. I haven’t made it yet, but I can’t wait to try. All these nostalgic dishes got me excited to follow through on my challenge and gave me the confidence to try new recipes.

Thank goodness for TASTE

TASTE has an excellent canned food recipe collection, which was perfect for moving out of my nostalgic bubble. One recipe I had to try was Hannah Lewry’s one-pan pork chops. Since I manage the TASTE website and social media, I have a good sense of what recipes you all love. This one is very popular – and for good reason. Quick, easy and delicious, it’s the perfect midweek meal.

Find the recipe for one-pan pork chops here. 

Hannah’s chicken frikkadels with creamy beans and spinach is also perfection. I couldn’t find chicken frikkadels, so I used Woolies’ smoked paprika and coriander chicken steaks, and the marinade made the beans deliciously spicy. Another Woolies product that made my canned food challenge easier was the Easy To Bake Mexican Style Cornbread Kit. Made with canned sweetcorn, it was great for lapping up creamy beans, or enjoying on its own, with butter melting into it. Plus, it freezes well, which is great in a household of one.

Find the canned food recipe collection here. 

I was already a fan of Abigail Donnelly’s 3-ingredient mussel pasta and it was a lifesaver on days when I did not want to cook. Instead of ordering food, I whipped this up. Trust me, you need to save this recipe – it’s ready in under 10 minutes, and it’s a great loadshedding recipe. Abi’s sardine pasta is also amazing. It’s a reminder of how simple dishes can be the most satisfying.

Find the recipe for sardine pasta here. 

I’ve also become obsessed with Abi’s butter-bean mash. I knew about it in theory, but I’d never tried it before because of my deep love for potatoes. Now my life is forever changed. Not only is it delicious, it’s the perfect serving size for just me, and it tastes great cold or warm. This will definitely be made on repeat.

ALSO READ: How my quest to make the perfect masala chai reconnected me to my heritage

Social media continues to serve

It’s no secret that I am fully hooked by “foodtok”. Luckily for me, there were plenty of recipes on social media that made this month exciting. The viral rice bowl of 2020 is still a fave, and I make it with canned tuna or canned salmon. Pro tip: keep single portions of rice in the freezer so you can make rice bowls faster. This is also great for loadshedding.

ALSO READ: Social media made me do it: how “FoodTok” influenced my cooking

One of my favourite food creators, Carolina Gelen, did a video making three meals with versatile tuna fishcakes. I made small versions of the fishcakes for breakfast and rice bowls, and a slightly bigger version to make tuna burgers. They were so good! I will always make my own tuna burger patties from now on.

 

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While this challenge was mostly for meals, social media showed me I was limiting myself. Crispy air-fried chickpeas and butter beans are top-notch snacks. Three-ingredient lemon ice cream made with lemons, coconut milk and maple syrup helped with my dessert cravings, so I bought fewer treats. This is just the tip of the iceberg of epic canned food recipes. There is so much more to make.

Verdict

I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had making these recipes over the month. Getting creative, reminiscing about my younger days and trying new things – it really was lovely, and I will take the lessons I learnt and apply them in my life going forward.

Another bonus was spending less time actually cooking. I know this is obvious, since canned food requires little to no cooking, but I didn’t think about it at the start, so it was a pleasant realisation. I know now that I can add more canned food recipes to my midweek rotation in a way that fits my tastes and lifestyle and will help me save money.

I shaved between R1500 – R2000 off my food costs in total. This was done by bulk-buying canned food and checking out specials for non-perishables to save even more. Plus, there were plenty of items in my pantry already, like pasta and rice. And I cut down on the takeaways by a lot. This was an all-round win.

The post I cooked with canned food for a month to save money – and here’s how it went appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.

It all starts with the chosen protein – we decide in our family WhatsApp group chat what we will slaughter. But not all Christmases are created equal. The Christmases of my grandfather’s tombstone unveiling and my aunt’s retirement and 60th birthday celebrations featured a whole cow to feed more than 100 guests. The Christmas of a baby’s baptism or a graduation, still a big deal, will get a sheep because the number of guests will be significantly less. By that I mean there are only 60 or so mouths to feed.

ALSO READ: Loaves and fishes: my family’s favoruite Easter recipe

Then, when it’s just me, my parents, their siblings and their children, a few roast chickens will do, although we always include a second option such as fish, pork, or sometimes even a goat from one of my uncles’ herds. As you can tell, we are a truly South African bunch – we love our meat. Otherwise, our Christmas menu doesn’t change much. Everyone has their trusted side that only they can make. My dad’s potato salad, my cousin’s baked cabbage, my sister’s beetroot-and-fig salad, my mom’s curry, my uncle’s braaied snoek and my aunt’s mango atchar that she makes from scratch. (In true Come Dine With Me fashion, my family will judge anyone who chooses a store-bought version instead of making it themselves.)

Find the recipe for pulled lamb lasagne here. 

The same goes for the dessert station. My younger cousins make two different ice creams, I make my lemon-and-thyme cake that everyone loves, my aunt provides her famous trifle with custard, my mom her malva pudding and fruit loaf, my uncle his berry tart, and my dad a chocolate tart.

ALSO READ: Sum of all parts: the dish that reminds me of special family gatherings

This year, it will all start when we arrive at my late Koko’s home in Ga-Mphahlele, Limpopo. Even though she has passed,
we always try to spend Christmas there. My uncles will start preparing to slaughter the lamb the next day, most likely on Christmas Eve, which officially marks the beginning of the festivities. The first meal from that lamb will be a tripe stew served with pap and morogo. The legs and shanks will be reserved for Christmas Day, and the rest will go into making tshohlo, a kind of pulled meat, cooked low and slow on the fire for a delicious, melt-in-your-mouth result. It also becomes the saving grace for much of the remainder of our stay. Want to talk repurposing leftovers? Come talk to us!

The pulled lamb will be added to sautéed onion with cumin, coriander, garlic and ginger, then placed in ramekins
and covered with puff pastry for some wholesome pot pies to eat with salad. Or we could put it on toasted bread with rocket, tomato and cheese for the most delicious sandwich, which the teens are tasked with making. But perhaps my best loved way to enjoy these leftovers is in lasagne. All we have to do is make the white sauce and assemble the dish as we sit in the kitchen enjoying ginger beer and scones. About half an hour later, it’s ready, piping hot and begging for us to devour it. Afterwards comes a phenomenon called the itis – a kind of food coma that requires you to undo the first button of whatever bottoms you have on and find the nearest couch or mat and doze off for a bit. The best Christmases are that simple – and so memorable.

ALSO READ: Bred in the bone: the broth that takes me back to my childhood

The post The Lazy Makoti’s pulled lamb lasagne is the gift that keeps on giving appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.

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Because, yes, at Christmas time this rhizome and I tend to overdo it. Christmas is not complete without my smoked gammon cooked in ginger beer. The sweet, salty, smoky, delicious fattiness of the meat owes a lot to the ginger flavouring of the bottled cooldrink. And shop-bought cooldrink it has to be, because I live in mortal fear of exploding glass bottles of home-made ginger beer filled with swollen raisins. I will never attempt to make it in our home, no matter how great the taste. I am, however, fearless with the raw ginger root and will grate
it into the accompanying Asian slaw of cabbage and peanuts with abandon. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. And Christmas baking is all about the ginger. But because I am not at all artistic, I find absolutely no joy in the making of Christmas gingerbread houses and icing little gingerbread families.

Find the recipe for ginger fudge blondies here.

Instead, I buy packets of gingery German lebküchen from speciality delis and hope we are gifted some gingerbread men that we can eat by biting their heads off, and dipping their bodies into our morning tea. But ginger fudge blondies I can do. And I make a great batch of these. Laden with sweet fudge and bits of crystallised ginger, they’re not decorative, nor are they meant to be, so I serve them without shame, to lend some sweetness to the occasion. With a bit of a bite. Because, for many, the festive season can be a little fraught; not always as sweet as one would hope, and we need a little something to hang onto. Ginger can also be seen as medicinal, because it is good for nausea and indigestion, both of which can be induced by festive feasts – and families.

ALSO READ: Bowl in one: this bean-and-chorizo stew has everything I love about food

Seb absolutely loves these, and he is a child who will otherwise look in abject horror at the gifted boxes of chocolate- dipped glacé ginger or the preserved ginger in syrup that I serve with strong cheese. Yet he devours these chewy blondies, even going as far as to say he likes them more with ginger than without. You see, this is the thing with ginger: it evokes strong feelings, often complex and conflicting. But as is learnt in many hours of therapy, two things can be true at the same time. Like the root (see what I did there?) word “ginger”, which when used as the adverb “gingerly”, means to do something in a cautious or delicate manner. Yet the old English expression “ginger up” means to excite or enthuse. Both meanings are true at once, which also holds for how many of us are feeling around this time of year. Cautiously excited. Delicately enthusiastic. Go on, ginger. It’s your time.

ALSO READ: Why I love to make generous platters

The post Ginger’s up: Sam Woulidge gives a Christmas twist to blondies appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.

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After three days of eating only pasta with lots of olive oil, lemon, herbs and Parmesan, which was specially prepared for me by the hotel chef, I was finally able to eat more veggies. And so began my deep love affair with the Mediterranean diet, inspired by the eating habits and traditional food of the areas around the Mediterranean sea. I fell in love with the city, its narrow alleys, sidewalk cafés and, of course, the street food. Arancini, cartocciata and panelle were just some of the delights I enjoyed.

Find the recipe for sorghum balls here. 

I discovered that Sicilian arancini is nothing like the arancini I had eaten before. It is large, stuffed to the brim with ragù, and served crispy hot. I ate so much during my visit that I learned that every street vendor had their own way of making it.

ALSO READ: Morogo magic: the budget-friendly indigenous ingredient

I ate arancini stuffed with cheese, mushrooms and all sorts of meats, but my absolute favourite was the mushroom ragù filling that inspired this recipe for sorghum balls. I shape the balls from fermented or plain sorghum pap, stuff them with sautéed mushrooms, then coat them with more sorghum and deep-fry or bake to perfection. Served with a spicy dip or a simple mayo-and-chilli sauce, they are so good that even staunch meat-eaters love them.

The post A Sicilian snack using sorghum for a South African twist appeared first on Woolworths TASTE.