Picture of the dairy-free apple cinnamon loaf and dairy-free blueberry loaf I baked in my kitchen. A regular in my household, these are cafe-like treats without the cafe-like prices
I was in my late 20s when I started to learn how to cook. It was a challenge – burnt foods and blaring smoke and carbon monoxide detectors yelling “Fire! Fire!” kind of challenge. But I eventually learned to cook – graduated from scrambled eggs and white rice to curries and two-tiered dairy-free cakes! No small feat. Then I had my first child and learned that he was allergic to dairy that would result in anaphylactic shock if consumed. So I had to re-learn how to cook to make sure I made sweets and savories that were dairy free without compromise to flavor. A challenge I wholeheartedly took on to make sure that my son was never deprived of all the eats and treats his heart desired. Now, as my kids get older, the foods I cook are an opportunity to both feed their bodies and nourish their souls with stories of my younger self. My hope is to share a piece of my childhood by highlighting dairy-free versions of the foods I grew up on, the new dairy-free foods I have been introduced to, and the stories that bring the food and the heart all together.
Now that my kids are getting older, they are more vocal about the foods they do not want to see on the weekly dinner menu. One of the veggies they wanted booted off the menu was spinach. With little success - I tried spinach salads mixed with their favorite protein and veggies; I tried serving it in sandwiches and burgers; even tried sautéing the spinach. No matter how I served the kids spinach they could not get past the earthy flavors often found in the veggie.
Mom was a great vegetarian cook, with minimal ingredients mom would turn boring veggies into flavorful meals. Preparing a vegetarian meal was her prime. Her non-veg meals were always tales. She would add oregano and call it Italian, or she would add soy sauce and call it Chinese - we would joke that she was making the same dish just adding a different herb or sauce to call it something else.
Growing up my mom would make a variation of this Indian carrot dish or a regular basis. I remember coming back from school and cringing when I realized that this carrot meal was on the menu for the evening. I grew to despise this carrot meal, so much so that I stopped eating carrots for a while.
As a working mom I am always looking for quick, easy, and tasty meal ideas. Cooking a meal at the end of the work day is near impossible. Between wrapping up work and taking the kids to their after school activities, the end is usually over before it begin. So I generally do my meal prep in the mornings before the sun its out.
I did not grow up eating a lot of sweet potatoes in Hong Kong. Occasionally sweet potatoes would be included in curry. During the wintertime, there would be the occasional street hawker selling warm roasted sweet potatoes - absolutely fantastic for those cold days spent walking around the city. But that is really the extent of my recollection of sweet potatoes as a child.
I grew up watching my parents and extended family have their morning chai - warm black tea boiled and then steeped with spices (like cardamom, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and star anise) and milk . I always loved the smell but never appreciated a good cup of chai until I was much older.
The HK restaurants and night markets I grew up around served tofu galore – sauteed tofu, steamed tofu, stinky tofu, and so much more. While I enjoyed a tofu meal, I was always intimidated to cook it. I was concerned about maintaining the integrity of the tofu chunks while still incorporating flavor.
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I grew up on lentils – red, yellow, green, black… you name the color I grew up on it! Lentils are a staple in India and Sri Lanka with each region of having its own variation of how the legume is cooked. My mom cooked legumes several times a week. I have always enjoyed the dish, but I did not really start appreciating lentil-based meals until I was an adult.
This soy baked fish, made with a thicker white fish like cod or halibut, is a simple flavorful meal that melts in your mouth and leaves your wanting more. For me this meal allows me to travel back in time to my childhood when my mom would cook up new recipes using soy.
