Greek Yellow Split Pea Soup with Turmeric and Lemon

I love any recipe that starts with a couple of generous handfuls of dried legumes. When cooked, I can literally feel their nutritional benefit with every spoonful and that’s not some fanciful imagining, these cute little morsels are packed with calcium, folate, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin, thiamine, vitamin B6 and zinc not to mention protein and…

Jaffa Orange Blossom-infused Labneh

In his book, 88 Short Stories, the writer Guy de Maupassant wrote, ‘Did you ever sleep in a field of orange trees in bloom? The air which one inhales deliciously is a quintessence of perfumes. This powerful and sweet smell, as savoury as a sweetmeat, seems to penetrate one, to impregnate, to intoxicate, to induce languor, to bring…

Turkish Biber Salçası and Yoghurt Dip

Whenever we are in Istanbul, I make a point of buying several hundred grams of biber salçası, a beautiful red pepper paste available in both hot (aci) and sweet (tatli) versions which is sold in giant wooden barrels in traditional spice shops. When we get home, I transfer it to a sealed container and keep…