Recipes

All recipes

Vegetarian, or something you can't eat? Set your diet once and we'll hide recipes that don't fit.

Filters (8)

522 recipes

پشاوری آئس کریم (Peshawari ice cream)Cardamom pistachio ice cream

In the Qissa Khwani bazaar of Peshawar, ice-cream sellers spin a tall metal drum inside a tub of crushed ice and salt, scraping the freezing milk off the walls with a long paddle until it turns thick, stretchy and pale. It is a summer evening treat, eaten from small bowls after dinner or late at night when the streets cool down, and often topped with a spoonful of falooda vermicelli or more chopped pistachio. The flavour is simple: slowly reduced milk, green cardamom and a little rose. This version has no eggs and no custard: a cornflour slurry cooked into the milk thickens it the way yolks would, and the starch holds on to water so ice crystals stay small and the texture stays smooth, while milk powder adds body without extra fat. You can churn it in a machine or still-freeze it in a tray and stir it every 45 minutes. Chef's tip: the common mistake is churning a warm base; chill it until it is fridge-cold right through, or it will turn icy instead of silky.

300 min

Pakistani Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bông bí xào tỏiGarlic stir-fried pumpkin flowers

From the Mekong Delta to the market gardens outside Hanoi, pumpkin vines are picked for their flowers and tender shoots, and bông bí xào tỏi is the everyday way to cook them: a few minutes in a hot wok with lots of garlic, served beside rice and a bowl of soup at family dinners. The flowers are soft and sweet and the shoots slightly crunchy. Some cooks add a splash of fish sauce; this version is seasoned with salt and a little soy, so it is vegan. It is a light side with about 3 g of protein per portion. The common mistake is leaving the stamens and the stringy skin on the shoots: both make the dish bitter and tough. Courgette flowers work well instead. Chef's tip: put the shoots in first and the flowers only for the last 30 seconds, so the delicate petals don't collapse into mush.

20 min

Vietnamese Sides

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Aguadito de polloCoriander chicken rice soup

Aguadito is the soup Lima serves in the small hours: at the end of a wedding, after New Year's Eve and at weekend family lunches, it is ladled out thick and steaming to revive everyone. Rice simmers in chicken broth coloured deep green with blended coriander and warmed with yellow ají amarillo, along with peas, carrot, pepper, sweetcorn and potato. A portion gives about 24 g of protein, from the chicken with a little from the rice and peas, for around 480 kcal. The common mistake is adding the coriander purée too early: cooked for long it turns khaki and loses its fresh taste, so stir it in for the last 10 minutes. The chicken must reach 74 °C at the bone. Chef's tip: blend a handful of spinach with the coriander; it keeps the colour vivid green without changing the flavour.

75 min

Peruvian Soups

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kem xôi (Hanoi coconut ice cream on sticky rice)

In the Old Quarter of Hanoi, kem xôi shops on Hàng Bài and around Hoàn Kiếm lake serve it from late morning to late at night through the hot season: a bed of warm, salty sticky rice, a scoop of coconut ice cream melting into it, then crisp toasted coconut and crushed peanuts. The contrast of warm and cold, chewy and creamy, is the whole point. This is a no-churn ice cream with no eggs and no custard. Sweetened condensed milk is the base: its sugar and milk solids lower the freezing point and keep crystals tiny, while whipped cream folded through traps air so it freezes soft without stirring, and coconut milk gives the flavour. Make the ice cream the day before and steam the rice just before serving. Chef's tip: whip the cream only to soft peaks; the common mistake is overwhipping it until stiff, which turns grainy and buttery once it freezes.

420 min

Vietnamese Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Canh rau ngot with tofuKatuk leaf and tofu soup

Canh rau ngot is one of the plainest and most loved soups on a Vietnamese family table, served at dinner in Hanoi and the Mekong Delta alike, in a shared bowl beside rice, a braised dish and a dipping sauce. The leaves of the katuk shrub are bruised and simmered briefly until soft and sweet. It is usually made with minced pork or dried shrimp; this vegetarian version uses cubes of tofu and a little fried shallot for savouriness. Each bowl has about 110 kcal and roughly 10 g of protein, from the tofu, so it is a light side soup. Katuk can be found frozen in Asian shops; young spinach is the nearest stand-in. The common mistake is overcooking the leaves, which turn khaki and slimy. Chef's tip: rub the leaves between your palms before cooking; bruising them lets them release their sweetness in just a few minutes.

20 min

Vietnamese Soups

by KrazyBadal 0 views

ParihuelaSpicy seafood soup

Parihuela is the big weekend seafood soup of Callao and the Peruvian coast, eaten at long Sunday lunches in cevicherías and praised as a cure for tiredness and late nights. A deep red broth of ají panca, ají amarillo, tomato and fish stock is loaded with chunks of fish, prawns, squid and mussels. A portion gives about 30 g of protein, from the fish and shellfish, for roughly 300 kcal. Some cooks add chicha de jora or beer; this version has none. The common mistake is adding all the seafood at once: squid and prawns turn rubbery while the fish cooks, so they go in last. Before cooking, discard any mussels that stay open when tapped, and after cooking discard any that stay shut. Chef's tip: fry the chilli pastes in the oil until they darken and smell sweet; that toasted ají is what gives parihuela its depth.

70 min

Peruvian Fish

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Hoa quả dầm (Hanoi fruit cup with yoghurt and condensed milk)

On sticky summer afternoons, Hanoi's young people pack the little stools along streets near Hoàn Kiếm Lake for hoa quả dầm, a cup of diced fruit buried in crushed ice, plain yoghurt and condensed milk. The fruit follows the season, usually mango, papaya, jackfruit, dragon fruit and avocado, and the whole thing is stirred together before eating, so it turns cold, creamy, tangy and sweet at once. Serve it immediately, with a long spoon and toasted coconut on top if you like. No cooking and no egg here: condensed milk and yoghurt dress and bind the fruit, and the crushed ice chills it, so there is nothing to set. Chef's tip: dice everything to the same small size, about 1.5 cm, so each spoonful gets a mix; the common mistake is adding the ice too early, which melts and floods the cup before it reaches the table.

15 min

Vietnamese Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pheni (layered fried vermicelli nests in sweet milk)

In Lahore and Karachi during Ramadan, sweet shops stack golden nests of pheni in towers, and families buy them to eat at sehri, the meal before dawn. The fine, brittle strands are crumbled into a bowl and drenched with hot sweetened milk, which softens them in a minute into something like a silky vermicelli pudding; it keeps you full through the fasting day. Shop pheni is pulled into hair-thin threads by skilled hands, so at home this recipe uses the layered method: thin sheets of dough are brushed with a ghee and rice-flour paste, rolled and sliced, and the paste makes the layers fan out into fine flaky rings when fried. They are crisp, buttery and delicate. It is naturally egg-free: the dough is just flour, ghee and water, and the rice-flour paste keeps the layers separate. Chef's tip: fry the nests in oil that is only moderately hot, about 160°C; oil that is too hot is the common mistake that browns the outside while the inner layers stay soft and doughy.

90 min

Pakistani Indian Sweets

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kem chuối (Vietnamese frozen coconut banana)

Kem chuối is the frozen treat of Saigon's alleys and the Mekong towns, sold from home freezers and school gates through the long hot season. Small, very ripe bananas are pressed flat, coated in thick sweet coconut cream, rolled in roasted peanuts and frozen on a stick; you can also wrap them and slice them into coins. The banana freezes dense and chewy rather than icy, and the coconut coating stays soft and rich. It is naturally egg-free and dairy-free: the coconut cream is cooked with a spoonful of tapioca starch, which thickens it so it clings and holds a thin layer around the fruit, and the banana's own sugar keeps the middle from freezing rock-hard. Kids love making these. Chef's tip: use bananas with plenty of brown freckles; the common mistake is using firm yellow ones, which freeze bland and starchy.

260 min

Vietnamese Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Dau hu non hapSteamed silken tofu

Steamed silken tofu is a fast, gentle dish cooked in homes from Hanoi to Saigon, especially on vegetarian days at the start and middle of the lunar month, when many families eat chay. A whole block of silken tofu is steamed until wobbling and hot, then topped with sizzling spring onion oil, a light soy dressing, chilli and crisp fried shallots. It is soft and savoury, and goes with rice and a stir-fried green. Each portion has about 150 kcal and roughly 10 g of protein, from the silken tofu, so it is a light dish rather than a high-protein one. The common mistake is turning the block out roughly so it cracks; slide it gently onto the plate. Chef's tip: pour off the water that gathers on the plate after steaming, or it thins the sauce.

15 min

Vietnamese Vegetarian

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bánh phu thê (Đình Bảng 'husband and wife' cakes)Mung bean tapioca cakes

Bánh phu thê, also called bánh xu xê, comes from Đình Bảng in Bắc Ninh, and it is still part of the gifts a groom's family brings to a Vietnamese wedding, with its paired leaf boxes standing for husband and wife. The dough is tapioca starch cooked with sugar and fresh coconut shreds and tinted golden with gardenia seeds; it steams clear and chewy, almost like amber jelly, around a soft ball of mung bean paste, and the top is scattered with toasted sesame. Eat them the day they are made, with green tea. The cake is naturally egg-free: tapioca starch thickens and turns elastic when heated, so it wraps and holds the filling on its own. Small ramekins lined with banana leaf can stand in for folded leaf boxes. Chef's tip: the common mistake is not part-cooking the dough; stir it on the hob until half of it turns clear, or it runs out of the boxes in the steamer.

120 min

Vietnamese Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Chilcano de pescadoClear fish broth

In the fishermen's terminals of Chorrillos and Callao, chilcano is what you drink on a Sunday morning after a long night: a clear, gingery broth made from the heads and bones left over from cleaning fish for ceviche, with chunks of fish, red onion, chilli and a squeeze of lime in the bowl. It is light and warming, around 160 kcal a bowl, and still gives about 24 g of protein from the fish fillet and the broth. The common mistake is squeezing the lime into the pot while it boils, which turns it bitter; add it to each bowl at the table. Don't boil the bones for more than 30 minutes either, or the broth turns cloudy and harsh. Chef's tip: ask the fishmonger for heads and frames from mild white fish like sea bass or cod, and leave out oily fish such as mackerel, which makes the broth strong and fishy.

55 min

Peruvian Soups

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bánh tro (bánh gio, amber glutinous rice cakes in leaves)Lye water glutinous rice cakes

On Tết Đoan Ngọ, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, families in northern and central Vietnam eat bánh tro first thing in the morning, believing it cools the body as summer heat arrives. Glutinous rice is soaked in alkaline water, which was once made by steeping plant ash, then wrapped in leaves and boiled for hours. It turns amber, translucent and jelly-soft with a clean, faintly mineral flavour, and is eaten cold, dipped in sugarcane molasses or palm-sugar syrup. Bánh tro is naturally egg-free: the alkali softens the rice grains so their own starch melts together into a firm, sliceable cake. We use food-grade lye water (an alkaline solution of potassium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate sold in Asian shops for noodles and mooncakes). Handle it with care: wear gloves, keep it away from children, never use drain cleaner or caustic soda, and always dilute it as written. Chef's tip: the common mistake is skipping the rinse; wash the soaked rice twice so the cakes taste clean, not soapy.

600 min

Vietnamese Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Cá hấp gừngGinger steamed whole fish

Cá hấp gừng is a family dish across Vietnam, from Hanoi to the Mekong Delta, put in the middle of the table for a weekend lunch or a Tết dinner and shared with rice and greens. A whole fish is steamed over ginger, then heaped with ginger and spring onion shreds and dressed with sizzling oil and a light soy and fish sauce. The flesh comes out silky and delicate. A portion has about 25 g of protein from the fish. The common mistake is oversteaming: thin parts go dry and woolly. Take it off as soon as the flesh at the thickest point pulls cleanly from the bone. Chef's tip: score the fish to the bone on both sides so it cooks evenly and the sauce gets in.

30 min

Vietnamese Fish

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bánh cốm (Hanoi green rice-flake cake with mung bean filling)

When the new crop of young glutinous rice comes in, in early autumn, Hanoi smells of cốm: green, flattened rice flakes from the village of Vòng. The shops on Hàng Than street press them into bánh cốm, square cakes that are still carried as betrothal gifts in their paper wrappers. The outside is soft, chewy and jade green, tasting faintly of grass and pandan; the inside is a mellow paste of mung bean and coconut. Serve them at room temperature with green or lotus tea. Bánh cốm is naturally egg-free: a hot sugar syrup and a spoonful of tapioca starch turn the rice flakes into a sticky mass that binds itself, and the mung bean paste is bound by its own starch. Use frozen or dried cốm from an Asian grocer; soak dried flakes briefly first. Chef's tip: the common mistake is cooking the cốm too hard; stop as soon as it pulls together into a sticky ball, or the cakes go rubbery when cool.

120 min

Vietnamese Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Shimla mirch alooPepper and potato stir-fry

Shimla mirch aloo is everyday Punjabi home cooking from both sides of the border, the sabzi that fills a lunchbox paratha or sits next to dal on a weeknight in Rawalpindi. Potato cubes go soft and golden first, then strips of green pepper are tossed in just long enough to soften while keeping a little bite, all held together by a dry tomato-chilli masala. The classic mistake is adding the peppers with the potatoes: they collapse, turn khaki and lose their fresh, slightly bitter flavour. Chef's tip: a pinch of amchur at the end lifts the whole pan without adding any extra liquid.

25 min

Pakistani Vegetarian

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bánh patê sôPork puff pastries

Bánh patê sô (from the French pâté chaud) are what Hanoi and Saigon bakeries pull out of the oven at dawn: round, flaky puff pastries with a juicy filling of seasoned pork mince, shallot, garlic, wood ear mushroom and plenty of black pepper. People eat them warm on the way to work with a glass of iced coffee, and boxes of them go to the family at Tết. The pastry shatters, the pork inside is savoury, slightly sweet and peppery. For a vegetarian version, swap the pork for crumbled firm tofu and chopped shiitake, seasoned with soy sauce instead of fish sauce. Warm pastry is the common mistake: it won't rise into layers, so keep the circles cold until they go in. Chef's tip: shape the filling into flattened balls a little smaller than you think, leaving a clear 1.5 cm rim to seal.

80 min

Vietnamese Snacks & Starters

by KrazyBadal 0 views

TopfengolatschenSweet quark puff pastry squares

A Topfengolatsche is what Viennese office workers grab from the bakery on the way in, and what grandparents order with a Melange in a coffee house on a Sunday afternoon. The corners of a puff pastry square are folded over a lemony, vanilla-scented filling of Topfen (Austrian quark) with plump raisins, and the top gets a thin white glaze. It is flaky, light and not too sweet. Raisins are sometimes soaked in rum; warm water or orange juice works just as well, and the recipe below is alcohol-free. Wet quark is the classic problem, because it turns the filling runny and it leaks out in the oven. Chef's tip: hang the quark in a sieve lined with a clean cloth for an hour, or squeeze it, until it is as thick as soft cream cheese.

57 min

Austrian Baking

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bò xào cần tây (beef and celery stir-fry)

Bò xào cần tây is a weeknight stir-fry found on family tables all over Vietnam: thin slices of beef, seasoned with fish sauce and pepper, flashed in a hot wok with crunchy celery, onion and plenty of garlic, then eaten with rice. The usual mistake is cooking the beef and celery together from the start, so the beef stews while the celery softens; sear the beef first, take it out, and add it back at the end. Chef's tip: slice the beef across the grain and as thin as you can, so it is tender after only a minute in the pan.

18 min

Vietnamese Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tôm rim (caramelised prawns)

Tôm rim is a homely dish cooked in kitchens from Hanoi to the Mekong Delta and eaten at the family rice tray with boiled greens and a clear soup: prawns simmered down in fish sauce, sugar and shallot until the liquid turns to a sticky, salty-sweet glaze. The mistake is walking away in the last few minutes, when the sauce goes from glaze to burnt very quickly. Chef's tip: leave the shells on if your prawns are small, as many Vietnamese cooks do; they turn crisp and caramelised and add flavour.

20 min

Vietnamese Fish

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bò lúc lắc (Vietnamese shaking beef)

Bò lúc lắc, shaking beef, is a Saigon dish from the French-influenced south, ordered at family dinners and celebrations: cubes of tender steak seared in a smoking pan and shaken with garlic and onion, then tipped over peppery watercress and tomato with a lime, salt and pepper dip. The mistake almost everyone makes is crowding the pan, which boils the meat grey instead of searing it; cook in two batches. Chef's tip: let the cubes sit untouched for a full minute before the first shake to build a dark crust.

25 min

Vietnamese Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mì xào rau (Vietnamese stir-fried noodles with vegetables)

Mì xào rau is what Hanoi and Saigon households cook when there is a packet of egg noodles in the cupboard and a few greens in the fridge: a fast, smoky plate for a weeknight dinner or a late lunch. The noodles turn slightly crisp at the edges, the cabbage stays sweet and crunchy, and a light soy glaze holds it all together. The most common mistake is dumping everything into a lukewarm pan at once, which steams the vegetables and leaves the noodles soggy and clumped. Serve it with a dish of sliced chilli in soy sauce and a fried egg if you want more protein. Chef's tip: loosen the cooked noodles with a teaspoon of oil while they drain, so they hit the wok as separate strands instead of a block.

20 min

Vietnamese Pasta & Noodles

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Aloo bainganPotato and aubergine

From Multan to Hyderabad in Sindh, aloo baingan is the humble pairing that makes a summer glut of aubergines go a long way: potatoes give body, aubergine melts into a jammy, smoky-sweet tomato masala. It is eaten with chapati at dinner, often next to a bowl of daal and some sliced onion. The most common mistake is stirring hard once the aubergine softens, which mashes everything into a grey purée; fold it gently and let the pan do the work. Chef's tip: give the aubergine a few minutes on its own in the hot oil before the masala goes in, so its edges catch and brown.

30 min

Pakistani Vegetarian

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Aloo palakPotato and spinach

In Lahore and the villages of Pakistani Punjab, aloo palak is the dish that turns up on a weekday when the spinach at the sabzi stall looks good and nobody has time for a long curry. Small cubes of potato cook in a garlicky cumin masala, then a mountain of chopped spinach wilts down over them into a soft, dark green coat. Eat it with hot chapati or plain rice and a spoon of yogurt on the side. The usual mistake is cutting the potatoes too big: they are still hard when the spinach is done, and by the time they soften the greens have gone grey. Chef's tip: keep the lid off once the spinach goes in, so the water cooks away and the leaves stay bright.

30 min

Pakistani Vegetarian

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Showing 24 of 522 recipes

Show more recipes

Page 1 of 22