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Recipe Description:

A beloved delicacy from Hanoi, was brought to the world stage by Anthony Bourdain and Barack Obama in Bourdain’s food travel series. Designed to heighten all of your senses, bun cha is a cold noodle salad made with slippery vermicelli noodles, crunchy raw vegetables, crispy fried onions, fiery red chillies and a nuoc cham dressing jam-packed with sweet, sour and salty flavours. A satisfyingly versatile dish, our vegan version uses pan fried, perfectly charred tofu. You’ll often find this dish served with other proteins too, like minced pork. Mix everything together at the end to experience those beautifully balanced flavours melt away in your mouth.

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

Pho (pronounced ‘fuh’) emerged from the cultural flux of Vietnam a century ago, when Chinese and Vietnamese street vendors, influenced by French eating habits, began adding beef to their rice noodle broths. Our pho is inspired by the pure, savoury broth found in Hanoi in Northern Vietnam, where they flash-fry the beef with garlic and pepper; this is widely respected as the original pho recipe. Pho is all about clear, deceptively meaty broth— very different to the darker beef stocks of Western cuisine— as well as undertones of spice, tender meat, joyously slurpable rice noodles and a bright sprinkling of herbs and lime.

Takes 20 mins

Recipe Description:

There are at least as many versions of channa masala as there are Indian cooks in the world, its adaptability to all dietary preferences and requirements making it perhaps the most essential dish in all Indian cuisine. The challenge is not to take this modest, everyday favourite for granted, keeping it special without compromising its hearty simplicity. Enter the tomato-complementing sugariness of sweet potato and the unique nuttiness of kala channa (‘black chickpea’), a smaller, more flavourful variety with a distinctive ebony-mahogany hue.

Takes 30 mins

Recipe Description:

Ssam (leafy vegetable wraps) are a real celebration of great ingredients, involving everyone in a shared ritual of assembling and curating their every bite at the table. While ‘Korean barbecue’ restaurants usually offer meaty fillings, vegetables are just as worthy of the attention, especially when slathered in intensely flavourful gochujang and roasted. It’s considered polite to only load each ssam with enough rice and filling to eat it in one single bite. Taking a big, hamster cheeks-sized mouthful is a socially acceptable way around this limitation, but please be careful not to overdo it...

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

Domoda is the national dish of Gambia and a crowd favourite among tourists who chose to holiday in the restorative winter sun. The peanut or groundnut was first introduced in the 16th century by Portuguese traders from the Americas, and from that humble beginning the peanut (now a major crop within the country) is the driving flavour of their national food institution. The stewing sauce consisting of peanuts, onions, garlic, tomatoes and scotch bonnet peppers lends a rich and creamy backdrop to this simple, hearty Gambian chicken and sweet potato stew.

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description:

When you look at tomato ketchup, maybe you see the slather-on-everything sauce of your childhood. When chefs at Hong Kong’s cha chaan teng (greasy spoon cafés) looked at ketchup, they saw a miracle fountain of sticky-sweet umami flavour. During the colonial era, when many Hong Kongers couldn’t afford the local restaurants, it was cha chaan teng that came to the rescue with ‘soy sauce western food’, a cheeky cuisine that’s all about creating huge, slap-in-the-face flavour within limited means. Now, no longer constrained by lack of resources, dishes like this tomato pork are free to be as tasty as possible.

Takes 30 mins

Recipe Description:

Don’t let their English name fool you: these are no fluffy, carb-heavy croquettes laced with a few scraps of fish. The ‘fishcake’ is a Thai national treasure, available in almost every restaurant and street food market in bagfuls, typically served with a refreshing cucumber relish and fruity chilli dip. With copious amounts of finely minced fish and red curry paste, they’re a ‘snack’ food so addictively moreish that you might as well make a full meal of them. Called ‘tod man pla’ in Thai, literally ‘deep fried fish’, we find that shallow frying is just as good for creating a crispy coating that conceals the sticky, spicy goodness within.

Takes 40 mins

Recipe Description:

Named for the dairy-enriched tomato sauce at its heart, you’ve surely seen this Punjabi curry in one of its disguises— as tikka masala or ‘butter paneer’, perhaps. It’s all linked by North Indian cuisine’s traditional use of spices, milk and acidic tomatoes to moisten and preserve cooked meats, but according to some, makhani itself was invented in a flash of inspiration by a single chef at Delhi’s iconic Moti Mahal restaurant, stirring butter and tomatoes with leftover tandoori chicken. What’s certain is that during the 1960s, Moti Mahal’s creations took Punjabi food worldwide, with everyone from Indira Gandhi to John F. Kennedy dining there.

Takes 35 mins

Recipe Description:

East Asian Buddhist monasteries have a distinct and well-documented culinary tradition, often based around catering to visiting meat-eaters by cleverly imitating the flavours, textures and even appearances of various meat dishes while using entirely vegetarian ingredients like tofu and seitan. Jackfruit was only introduced from India into China relatively recently, but perhaps it will catch on in vegetarian restaurants and monasteries— its stringy, tender texture and savoury flavour is perfect for these ‘duck’ pancakes, absorbing our rich sauces and spices while harmonising with the clean, light garnishes and sweet, sticky plum sauce.

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Burma’s northern Kachin region is a densely forested, mountainous area bordering Tibet, China and India. Though often caught in the middle of national disputes, Kachin’s people have developed their own proud and idiosyncratic traditions, not least when it comes to food. ‘Curry’ doesn’t do justice to this traditional Kachin chicken, the unusual steaming approach resulting in succulent chicken bathing in its own concentrated, spice-infused juices, without a whisper of greasiness or heaviness. The process is so low-maintenance that you can cook a crispy-crunchy-fluffy Burmese fried rice while you wait— and that’s exactly what you’ll do.

Takes 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Massaman is an unusual Thai curry, full of dried spices that aren’t typically found in the region’s cuisine, like cinnamon, cloves and star anise. It’s thought that traders from the Middle East and India, bringing luxury ingredients to the cosmopolitan Ayutthaya Kingdom on Thailand’s west coast, are responsible for the curry that literally translates as ‘Muslim curry’. By the 18th century, Massaman was so popular that the then-king of Thailand wrote a poem praising its ‘exciting allure’ that would ‘arouse any man’. We’re not sure about that, but its combination of intricate Thai technique and soothing, aromatic flavour is hard to beat.

Takes 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Jerk is one of the enduring legacies of the fusion of African and Taino cultures in Jamaica. We can thank The Maroons for the creation of Jerk Chicken. They brought African meat cooking techniques to Jamaica and combined native Jamaican ingredients used by the Taino people to form Jerk Chicken. Today, jerk refers to both the way in which meat is prepared (slow-cooked over a closed fire or grilled over burning coals) and the seasoning used on the meat; both things adding to the evocative smokey flavour of the dish. Our jerk chicken gets its fiery kick from allspice, ginger, garlic, thyme and scotch bonnet peppers. We’ve served it with our crispy plantain and creamy slaw.

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description: 

Tacos are one of Mexico’s most beloved exports - widely enjoyed by Americans and Brits alike. However, who exactly invented the famed taco still remains a bit of a mystery. We like the theory that tacos were the product of silver miners in the 18th century. What we do know is that tacos became popular throughout Mexico and were introduced to the US by Mexican immigrants in the 19th century. Our inspired, cauliflower-heavy tacos are similarly served in a soft corn tortilla for the perfect handheld bite. This easy, 45 minute recipe with smoky paprika and cumin roasted cauliflower is accompanied by a charred onion salsa and zesty guacamole, guaranteed to get those taste buds tingling!

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Indian food tends to get neatly categorised on restaurant menus, but its essence is truly kaleidoscopic, revealing surprising new facets each time you look. Street food, especially, is stunningly diverse, creating a bonanza of contrasting textures out of a mix of cooked and raw ingredients, resulting in a complex symphony of independent flavours that is almost the opposite of most curries’ layered, coherent wholeness. We’ve let a tangy-fresh chickpea salad compete with lip-smacking, savoury tandoori fish for your attention— roll them up into a roti, slather on some garnishes and watch them fight. The winner? You, of course.

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

The Italians don’t have a monopoly on delicious flatbreads with tomato-based toppings. Lahmacun was described as early as the 13th century in a Syrian cookbook, and today it’s beloved all over the Middle East and (especially) between Eastern Turkey and Armenia. Like pizza, lahmacun stretches simple ingredients as far as possible, serving up herby meals to crowds on-the-go at minimum expense, with maximum baking artistry. Unlike pizza, minced lamb is the star, with more spices helping to develop the roasty flavours. Don’t slice it into triangles: take an entire flatbread, dollop over some cucumber yoghurt dip and wrap it up!

Takes 60 mins

Takes 40 mins

Recipe Description:

Cantonese dishes tend to have a light touch when it comes to spices, which is why the level of black pepper used in this dish might seem surprising. But cooked in this intense stir-fry, the pepper is soothed somewhat and takes on a lingering, umami quality that draws out all the flavours of the beef. The origin of the dish is unknown— it may be a Hong Kong creation inspired by Western-style peppercorn sauces, or it may be a twist on a slightly milder pork dish from neighbouring Fujian province. Wherever it comes from, this iconic stir-fry favourite is now popular the world over.

Takes 20 mins

Recipe Description: 

Chicken Tinga, or Tinga de Pollo, is a traditional Mexican dish that originates from the state of Puebla, home to the battle of Cinco de Mayo, and also considered a Mecca of the many delicious Mexican classics we know and love. During the colonial period, cooks in Puebla invented tinga, a true marriage between Spain and Mexico, using a mixture of Mexican foods with a European cooking method. Chicken Tinga is essentially a stew made with shredded chicken in a sauce of tomatoes, chipotle chiles in adobo, and onions. It’s great no matter what you put with it, but to make things extra fun, we decided to put our Chicken Tinga in tacos, garnished with red onions, avocado, coriander, feta and lots of lime!

Takes 30 mins

Recipe Description:

First, the Arabs brought their samosa-like pastries to medieval Spain when they invaded. In Spain these became empanadas (meaning ‘wrapped in bread’), and the conquistador Cortés is said to have feasted on ones filled with live rabbits and birds in Mexico City. Since then, empanadas have become a little more down to earth— smaller in size, with a buttery, pastry-style coating, and filled with actual, edible ingredients! We love the flavour of dried & smoked chipotle chilli inside ours, an ingenious and centuries-old native preservation technique used only on the deepest red sun-ripened jalapeño chillies.

Takes 50 mins

Recipe Description:

Yoshoku (‘western-style’) restaurants had been around for over half a century before (legend has it) baseball star Shigeru Chiba walked into one in 1948 and asked for his two favourite dishes on one plate— kare, a silky-sweet gravy spiced with imported British curry powder, and katsu, a crispy panko-coated cutlet. Yoshoku food soon thrived amidst Japan’s post-war economic boom, with katsukare its deserving figurehead. In recent years, Japanese curry houses have offered endless customisation, with katsu curry on udon becoming a popular and playful twist on the classic dish.

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description:

In Cantonese restaurants, chicken usually gets the stir-fry treatment, with chefs who are adept at both knife & wok handling cooking it quickly enough to serve all comers. Steaming isn’t as rapid, and takes up valuable kitchen space, which is why this particular delicacy is usually reserved for home kitchens rather than restaurants. Steaming draws out a small amount of extremely intense, ginger-infused broth from the chicken, which the slippery umami of the shiitake mushrooms enhances even further. It may not look like much, but every element of this tender, subtle dish is actually a precision strike of concentrated flavour.

Takes 40 mins

Recipe Description:

As Edo (modern-day Tokyo) transformed itself from a small fishing village into one of the world’s most bustling cities, its food culture transformed as well. Starting in the 17th century, cafés sprang up all over to provide the growing metropolis with quick lunches of soba— a nutritious, protein-rich noodle made partly or wholly from buckwheat flour. Fragrantly nutty soba are still one of Japan’s favourite fast foods. They’re typically enjoyed cold in the summer months, dressed lightly to avoid overpowering their subtle flavour. Don’t be polite— it’s believed that soba can only be fully savoured by noisily slurping each noodle! 

Takes 15 mins

Recipe Description:

This traditional village-style dish is one every Cypriot grandma knows how to make. Comforting pasta is cooked in chicken stock, tossed with grated halloumi and chopped mint, and topped with crispy skinned roast chicken thighs. Lemon and oregano add to the mediterranian flavours at play here, demonstrating the diverse influences on the cuisine of this island nation. 

Takes 30 mins

Recipe Description:

Tamil is the language that gave the world the word Kari, and therefore the entire concept of curry. But you might not recognise many of the kari dishes from this part of South India, and these days kari actually refers to 'flesh' (whether animal or vegetable) rather than sauce. This dish, also known as kottu kari kuzhambu ('minced meat in sauce') is a typical example. It's dryer and less creamy that a typical curry, with all of the spices freshly toasted and then crushed to provide a darker, more intense aroma— incidentally, coffee drinking is an important part of Tamil culture!

Takes 40 mins

Recipe Description:

There are many variations on Chinese ‘hong shao’, or the ‘red (hot) cooking’ technique, but most involve frying or grilling an ingredient, braising it in soy sauce, rice wine and aromatics, then reducing and thickening the sauce to a deep, dark red glaze. It’s a technique possibly as ancient as soy sauce itself, and still often cooked the old way, in small clay pots that help to seal in the evolving flavours of the simmering sauce. Tofu’s neutral, absorbent tenderness is perfect for ‘hong shao’, while mushroom sauce, often called ‘vegan oyster sauce’, adds an extra layer of indulgent umami joy to our Cantonese home-style recipe. 

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

Deeply aromatic and subtly smoky as well as sour, the black lime might just be the king of dried fruits. It owes its sweet, earthy depth of flavour to a long process where it is salt-cured and then left to dry in the sun under carefully controlled conditions. A crucial ingredient in Persian cuisine, they’re used in everything from drinks to powdered spice rubs. There’s no better way to draw out their indescribable flavour than in a hearty khoresh (stew), like this nutty chickpea & spinach dish. 

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

While the ingredients for rendang might look familiar to anyone well-versed in Indian or Thai food, their use in this dish has no precedent anywhere else. Rendang is unique to the Minangkabau people of Indonesia, who have been preparing it for hundreds of years. Beef is coated in a spice paste and simmered slowly in coconut milk until richly dark. Before refrigeration, it was the ideal food-on-the-go for merchants and travellers braving the tropical heat, but today it’s the highlight of Minang restaurants worldwide, where its intense, concentrated flavours and rich sauce have made it an international favourite.

Takes 40 mins

Takes 40 mins

Recipe Description:

Going vegan even for a day can be scary. No wonder Instagram-friendly vegan ‘Buddha bowls’ are trending— from above, they look like neatly divided educational charts of the major food groups, a reassuring way of getting all the protein and vitamins you need. Mixed rice bowls are iconic to East Asian cuisine, from Japanese donburi to Korean bibimbap, so we’re honouring that with fresh vegetables, protein-rich Japanese miso tofu and earthy shiitake mushrooms, all sharing a tangy chilli, sesame oil and soy dressing

Takes 50 mins

Recipe Description:

In the hybrid culture of India’s Mughal Empire, elaborately adorned cookbooks were as much of a status symbol as any work of science or literature, helping to popularise a rich, spiced-up Indian version of Persian cuisine. Korma is perhaps the most prestigious recipe in this tradition, said to have been served to the emperor to celebrate the construction of the Taj Mahal. Great korma is a balancing act, using spices for their heady fragrance while remaining mild and creamy in flavour.

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

Hailing from Kerala in Southern India, ‘Thoran’ is a Coconut-based vegetable curry; a simple yet versatile dry side dish bursting with spice and elegance. It is usually eaten in conjunction with a number of other dishes at the time of festivals like Vishu, Onam and weddings. Our cabbage and kidney bean thoran, thanks to the flavours of ginger and fenugreek seeds, and the sweet fragrance from fresh coconut, is an effortless way to make cabbage and beans taste good.

Takes 40 mins

Recipe Description:

From a Persian word meaning ‘to taste’, but popular all over, mezze consists of numerous small dishes arranged for sharing. While alcohols like raki and ouzo are a common fixture, it’s a flexible enough meal to be enjoyed even during times of abstinence such as Ramadan— at its heart, mezze is about unity and communal dining, no matter who, when or where. Good mezze is a real magic trick— a course of ‘starters’ that never seem to end, not until every diner has had a satisfying, full meal. We’ve curated a mostly Lebanese-inspired mezze including hummus, Lebanese ‘batata hara’ (spicy potatoes) and fried halloumi.

Takes 40 mins

Recipe Description:

Some dishes are so tasty, there are songs written about them. But of all foods, only Sri Lankan kottu can claim to be its own musical genre. All over the country, markets ring with the sounds of kottu cooks clanging their knives rhythmically against their large, flat griddles as they simultaneously chop and stir-fry slivers of cabbage, tossed with sliced-up bread, chilli and whatever else is in the cook’s personal recipe. It’s a beat you could dance to— if you can resist the smell of this fragrant, uniquely bouncy stir fry for long enough. Often made with simpler roti bread, we like flaky paratha for its textural harmony with the grated paneer.

Takes 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Burmese food is often described as a combination of neighbouring Indian, Chinese and Thai cuisines, but perhaps this is just a matter of familiarity— if Burmese food had taken off in Britain first, we’d all be describing lemongrass and turmeric as our favourite Burmese ingredients. Burmese cooks make it all seem effortless, foregoing complicated curry pastes or spice layering techniques in favour of a simple yet carefully balanced approach: decent handfuls of good ingredients thrown into the same pot, as with this deliciously sweet-creamy-fragrant curry and its combined tomato and coconut gravy.

Takes 20 mins

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Hailing from the Northern countries of Africa - Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, Chermoula or charmoula is an aromatic sauce which doubles as a versatile relish and marinade. Although principally used to flavour seafood, chermoula can also be used with vegetables and meat. Its trademark bright-green appearance effortlessly transmutes any dish it comes into contact with, owing to its vibrancy, earthiness and brightness. We’ve packed ours with zesty lemon, fresh parsley, coriander and ground cumin and paired it alongside oven roasted aubergine and a mint infused couscous for the ultimate flavour experience.

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Mafé is a deeply comforting, rich tomato & peanut stew. Peanuts are Senegal’s primary crop; once brought over from South America, they soon eclipsed the region’s native ‘Bambara groundnut’ as a national staple food. The Bambara groundnut is now a rare and somewhat neglected crop, but its memory lives on in this traditional favourite, popular all over West Africa and further afield. Sometimes featuring chicken or fish, we’ve gone for the beef mafé that is often cooked for special occasions in Senegal, the deep nuttiness of the sauce not proving too overpowering for the beef’s assertively meaty flavour.

Takes 40 mins

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

The salted and dried-out soybeans known as ‘black beans’ have been prepared for over two millennia in China, predating the invention of soy sauce by hundreds of years. Used carefully, they offer a hit of seasoning as well as a piquant, wine-like flavour to sauces. There’s no fixed recipe for ‘black bean sauce’ in China, and pre-prepared mixtures simply don’t compare to the versatility and flavour that comes from using whole black beans. Our Cantonese-style sauce is imbued with garlic and ginger aromas that provide a clean, refreshing aura to balance the savoury depth of the black beans and stir-fried chicken.

Takes 20 mins

Recipe Description:

The practice of cooking leftover rice in a very hot wok doesn’t stop at the Chinese border. In many Thai homes, fried rice is the perfect all-day meal, whipped up on demand just as quickly as a decent sandwich. But it’s also an increasingly popular street food, and even finds its way into beautifully presented dishes in upmarket restaurants, sometimes stuffed inside of a pineapple. While less elaborate than that, our fried rice also adds a touch of celebratory, fruity flavour, with the tangy raw mango salad adding both depth and brightness to a satisfyingly straightforward stir-fry of fresh prawns.

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Brassica Oleracea goes by many aliases worldwide: broccoli, kale and cabbage, to name a few. Cauliflower is the slyest chameleon of them all, able to act grainy, floury or meaty, as in this trendy plant ‘steak’. Trendy, yes, but Indian vegetarians have been cooking with similarly ingenious meat substitutes for centuries. This tender centerpiece, lightly marinated and roasted to perfection, is no second-stringer, though, ably supported by the equally world class combo of a spicy chickpea curry and a refreshing salad.

Takes 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Of the Indonesian islands, perhaps Sulawesi doesn’t hold as romantic a place in the Western imagination as Java, Bali, Borneo or Sumatra. As a culinary destination, it’s also somewhat underrated, but that’s about to change, partly thanks to the peaceful coastal city of Manado on the north of the island. Known for generous seasoning and especially hot sauces, Manado cuisine has many hidden gems. One of our favourites is rica-rica, a pounded spice paste usually found coating the best cuts of meat— tender, juicy and rich duck breast is the perfect pairing for its spicy yet beguilingly deep flavour.

Takes 30 mins

Recipe Description:

It’s difficult to find a common thread uniting all of Caribbean cuisine, with each island practicing its own special blend of Latin American, European, Amerindian, West Indian, Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern cuisines. But one ingredient unites the entire region— the Scotch bonnet chilli pepper. While on the spicier side, it’s also an unmistakably fruity variety, almost always used fresh to impart its almost refreshing tropical flavour. Despite all the cultures that have brought their foods and traditions to the Caribbean, the Scotch bonnet is an enduring reminder of the islands’ original inhabitants.

Takes 30 mins

Recipe Description:

Teriyaki is almost as ubiquitous as ketchup, its acidic smack of salty-sweet, caramel-dark flavour making it a versatile seasoning, condiment or dipping sauce. But teriyaki properly refers to two things: the soy, mirin and sugar thickened and reduced to a shiny glaze, and the technique of grilling skewered meat— arguably a recent Korean and American import into what is traditionally a seafood-focused, predominantly Buddhist culture. In a sense is Japanese barbecue, making our refreshing pak choy the perfect accompaniment to the star of the show: our teriyaki glazed salmon.

Takes 20 mins

Recipe Description:

Aubergine is sometimes called the ‘Iranian potato’, not only because of its comforting, reliable deliciousness but also the countless ways it can be prepared. Often mixed in with stews, the visual splendor and variety of a full Iranian meal has inspired us to keep them separate, crowning an adasi (lentil stew) with a roast aubergine steak. We’re particularly proud of the way the aubergine’s simple sumac tang meets the lentils’ more complex ‘advieh’ spices, a blend similar to Indian garam masala in its cultural importance.

Takes 40 mins

Recipe Description:

Unlike ‘drunken’ dishes in Chinese cuisine, there’s no alcohol in pad kee mao, or ‘drunken noodles’. The name probably refers to the diner’s tipsiness, rather than the food’s. Thai people typically prefer to do their drinking at the table. In fact, ‘drinking food’ could be considered almost its own subset of Thai cuisine, with a focus on satisfying textures, nutty and intense flavours, and lots of fiery chilli to shock those dulled senses. Scorching the lime for this dish is a classic ‘drunken’ technique, ‘waking up’ the citrus fragrance and intensifying the lime’s sweetness. This is Thai cooking at its rapid, reckless and remorseless best.

Takes 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Sweet & sour isn’t so much a recipe as an entire flavour balance philosophy, rumoured to have originated in the form of a lightly sugared vinegar dipping sauce from Hunan province, China. But the recipe we all know and love, where the sauce is reduced to a sticky glaze in the wok, is Cantonese. Ketchup might seem like an unusual addition, but Hong Kong chefs have been using its tangy umami kick for decades; ‘ketchup’ is in fact a Chinese word. The competition between vinegar’s tang and a more fruity sourness is the heart of the dish, with ketchup uniting both flavours.

Takes 20 mins

Recipe Description:

In Japan they’re known as udon, while in China they’re ‘cu mian’, or ‘thick noodles’, and are especially popular in the area around Shanghai. By either name, this flour and water-based pasta is a real marvel. Slurpable and bouncy, udon are a joy to wrestle with as they wriggle around your chopsticks, whether seasoned by a soup broth, salad dressing or stir-fry sauce. For this recipe, we were inspired by the glossy soy sauce fries served up by Shanghai street food vendors, who deftly sear the super-heated flavours onto the mischievous noodles.

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

Paneer is an unaged cheese made from curdling milk with an acid, often citrus juice, before pressing it into solid form. Its unique texture means that it stands up to high temperatures without melting, allowing it to be cooked even in the hottest tandoor ovens. Despite the fame of the tandoor method worldwide, even in India tandoor ovens are rarely seen outside of restaurants and communal cooking grounds; for home use, smaller grills not unlike those in the West are more practical. It’s that kind of barbecue-esque Indian home cooking that has inspired this fiery roasted paneer and peppers, set off with a lip-smacking herby dip.

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description: 

Undeniably the quintessential German dish, the humble schnitzel is the pride of Vienna. Take a stroll in Berlin and you’ll quickly discover that Germans and tourists alike can’t get enough of them. Whilst the more commonly recognized ‘Wienerschnitzel’ is made with Veal, the German schnitzel is made with Pork, (our preference). Any restaurant worth its breadcrumbs will serve the pan-fried veal cutlet alongside French fries or potato salad. We’ve gone for a deliciously tangy, potato salad offset by peppery parsley and sweet onion to complement our tender golden brown, schnitzel. Having been breaded to panko perfection - there’s everything to love and even more to savour.

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

Baba Ganoush means ‘pampered daddy’, which frankly raises more questions than it answers— not that people haven’t tried to solve this particular riddle. Some say this lucky father was a sultan, used to having rich & luxurious food cooked for him; others speculate that a toothless father’s doting daughter came up with this soft and silky dish. Whatever the reason, the result speaks for itself. Softening and smoking the aubergine inside a parcel of its own charred skin is a devilishly delicious technique, while layering tender, fragrant lamb and tomato sauce on top makes for a feast worthy of the dish.

Takes 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Aged just 29, Alfred Prasad became head chef of Tamarind in London, achieving a Michelin star that he maintained for 13 years. His light, seasonal cooking is inspired by childhood memories of exploring India with his parents, tasting the varied delights of India’s regional cuisines. His food philosophy of ‘health, heritage and happiness’ merges creativity and scientific precision, enhancing the essential flavours of fresh ingredients with characteristic subtlety. Here, Alfred makes chicken thigh sing with the same eclectic flavours that wealthy ‘Chettiar’ spice traders first brought to their rural corner of South India centuries ago.

Takes 40 mins

Recipe Description: 

Three cup chicken, or san bei ji (三杯鸡), is considered an iconic Taiwanese speciality yet it is believed to have originated in the Jiangxi province of China, over 700 years ago. Now onto the burning question, why is it called Three Cup Chicken? ‘Three cup’ refers to the equal usage of three key condiments: sesame oil, soy sauce and Shaoxing wine, used to create an aromatic, sticky-sweet glaze that absorbs right into the succulent chicken. An authentic Three Cup Chicken calls for garlic, ginger and basil leaves which amplifies the dish, and lends an exotic aroma and spicy nuance. 

Takes 20 mins

Recipe Description:

Massaman is an unusual Thai curry, full of dried spices that aren’t typically found in the region’s cuisine, like cinnamon, cloves and star anise. It’s thought that traders from the Middle East and India, bringing luxury ingredients to the cosmopolitan Ayutthaya Kingdom on Thailand’s west coast, are responsible for the curry that literally translates as ‘Muslim curry’. By the 18th century, Massaman was so popular that the then-king of Thailand wrote a poem praising its ‘exciting allure’ that would ‘arouse any man’. We’re not sure about that, but its combination of intricate Thai technique and soothing, aromatic flavour is hard to beat.

Takes 40 mins

Recipe Description:

Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine is so dizzyingly diverse that a casual meal can start to feel like peeling back layers of history and colonisation, encountering Thai flavours, Chinese techniques, Indian aromas, and traces of both Western and Middle Eastern influence among the fragrancy and punch of local Malay cuisine. This succulent lamb is an example of how southern Chinese-style cooking has become richer and spicier in its Malaysian incarnation— sweeter, darker kecap manis takes soy sauce’s place, while a garnish of toasted coconut, crispy onions and smoky chilli oil offers an unforgettable first impression before the first bite.

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Despite not being edible in their own right, banana leaves are widely used in the Indonesian kitchen. Sturdy, flexible, waterproof and biodegradable, they are folded or laid out as anything from takeaway containers to plates, serving trays and bowls. Their most delicious function, though, is as a container for steamed or grilled foods, offering total protection from boiling or burning, sealing spices and juices inside while infusing the food with the leaf’s delicate, sweet aroma. This pepes ikan, leaf-steamed fish, is often paired with rice and raw vegetables, in this case chayote, a yielding, fruity squash popular in Indonesian cuisine.

Takes 50 mins

Recipe Description: 

Literally meaning “cheesy little thing”, what you see is precisely what you get. Originating in the northern and central parts of Mexico in the 16th century, quesadillas have a rich history, spreading to all regions of the country in a number of exciting variations. For our take on this essential Mexican delight, we’ve opted for a fiery tomato salsa comprised of red chillies, coriander and zesty lime to complement our irresistibly cheesy beef quesadillas. With its crispy golden brown exterior and liberally seasoned beef mince, we’re sure our quesadillas will be a household staple in your home for years to come!

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Traditional Korean cuisine is so full of tasty vegetable dishes, and so easily adapted for vegetarians, that it’s rare to find more modern Korean cooking, like Korean fried chicken, adapted for those on a plant-based diet. Which is a pity, because tofu is the perfect companion for the red yangnyeom (‘seasoning’) glaze that popularly covers the country’s iconic fried chicken— unlike chicken, tofu only needs a quick pan-frying to develop a flavoursome golden crust, and its tender, refreshing insides are a great contrast to the sticky, spicy coating.

Takes 25 mins

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Cooks in the Hunan region of China were some of the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of the chilli pepper, but this famous recipe is said to date back as far as a thousand years earlier— perhaps that’s why the heat of its fresh chilli slivers tends to be eclipsed by the pleasant tang and succulent savouriness. The sharp, clear vinegar together with the citrus aroma of Sichuan pepper gives the dish its refreshing, bright quality. You might find stir-frying it fast-paced and even chaotic, but the end result is a deceptively tranquil and elegant looking dish! 

• Preparation time

  For 2 - 20 mins For 4 - 25 mins

• Cooking time

  For 2 - 25 mins For 4 - 30 mins

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

Admittedly ‘shawarma’ usually refers to thin slices of meat shaved from a cone-shaped vertical rotisserie— but this spiced and roasted cauliflower, with its aromatic, charred outside and deep, savoury centre, deserves the comparison. To bolster this tribute to Levantine cuisine, we’ve paired it with another Middle Eastern icon. Mujadara means ‘pockmarked’, named after the lentils dotted among the rice. The caramelised onions make an irresistible garnish for this moreish rice dish.

Takes 45 mins

Recipe Description:

A tortilla with a dollop of filling, folded over and eaten quickly— the taco could not be simpler, but its variations are endlessly diverse. Only a culinary tour across Mexico could show you the full variety, but the next best option would be a trip to Mexico City, where market stall owners from every region compete to show off their antojitos (‘liittle cravings’, a local nickname for street food). The dish probably dates back millenia, but we like the theory that Mexican miners named it after their small, lightly packed explosives (also called ‘tacos’). True to fashion, our black bean & avocado taco packs a spicy, smoky chipotle kick.

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

Sometimes avoiding food waste is the best way to make a delicious discovery— that’s how cooks from the Middle East must have felt when they first came up with the concept of fattet, a type of dish that uses yesterday’s flatbread, often toasted, as the flavour base for today’s delicacies. Some fattet are little more than jazzed-up salads, but Fattet djaj is perhaps the most full-on fattet of all, a Syrian favourite that involves slathering the toasted pita in layers of rice, chicken, and a yoghurt-tahini sauce. When brought to the table, it’s an impressive cornucopia of ingredients— no-one will suspect just how simple it was to make!

Takes 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Much of Indian cuisine was forever changed during the imperial reign of the culturally Persian Mughals. But in Hyderabad, the ‘City of Pearls’, a hybrid Indian-Turkish-Middle Eastern culture had already existed for centuries, and its hugely wealthy and partially independent monarchy, the ‘Nizams’, kept the grand traditions alive after the empire’s fall. Inspired by the city’s cultural melting pot, chefs in palatial kitchens developed a unique synthesis of South Indian ingredients, Persian influences and North Indian spice layering, all of which, from tahini to tamarind, is loaded into these hearty yet sophisticated aubergines.

Takes 30 mins

Recipe Description:

Yoshoku (‘western-style’) restaurants had been around for over half a century before (legend has it) baseball star Shigeru Chiba walked into one in 1948 and asked for his two favourite dishes on one plate— kare, a silky-sweet gravy spiced with imported British curry powder, and katsu, a crispy panko coated cutlet. Yoshoku food soon thrived amidst Japan’s post-war economic boom, with katsukare its deserving figurehead. Our pork katsu curry consists of a crispy pork cutlet which has been breaded to panko perfection; staying light and crispy even when slathered in our full-bodied curry sauce.

Takes 30

Recipe Description:

Hailing from the Northern countries of Africa - Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, Chermoula or charmoula is an aromatic sauce which doubles as a versatile relish and marinade. Although principally used to flavour seafood, chermoula can also be used with vegetables and meat. Its trademark bright-green appearance effortlessly transmutes any dish it comes into contact with, owing to its vibrancy, earthiness and brightness. We’ve packed ours with zesty lemon, fresh parsley, coriander and ground cumin and paired it alongside oven roasted salmon and a mint infused couscous for the ultimate flavour experience.

Takes 25 mins

Recipe Description:

While Japan's food culture is largely rooted in traditional and classical technique, ramen is Japanese cuisine's jazz, pop and punk— a 20th century canvas for improvising and innovating, with Chinese-style noodle soup as its original inspiration. In Japan, where duck is rarely farmed but is often found in the wild, duck-based ramen is more of a seasonal treat than a popular staple. Our Tokyo-inspired shoyu (soy sauce-seasoned) ramen mingles meaty duck flavour with dashi, a traditional seaweed and smoked fish broth famously full of unami. Together with springy, chewy noodles, it's a hearty bowlful of simple, joyful luxuries.

Takes 30 mins

Recipe Description:

Cauliflower probably originated in Cyprus, but it was Arab sailors who introduced it all over the world during the Middle Ages. It’s a mystery, then, why whole roasted cauliflower has taken so long to become a global trend. But once Israeli chef Eyal Shani served it at his fast-casual pita sandwich chain Miznon, the world caught on to its charred, meaty appeal. Inspired as much by traditional Middle Eastern cuisine as modern Israeli vegan dining, our sophisticated version is scattered bountifully with pomegranate and almond and slathered with lemon and tahini for a dish that is as impressive-looking as it is genuinely tasty.

Takes 40 mins