Cooked oats, curry and all the cozy things 🧡

Welcome

If you’re reading this then welcome to my first newsletter! I’ll be using this space to share recipes from my socials, as well as bonus content, like what I’ve eaten throughout the week, food thoughts and more.

How has your week been? We’re in the thick of fall here in Toronto (bordering on winter temps) and the colours are STUNNING! It’s the time of year where I’m craving warming foods and funnily enough, I recently stopped drinking cold water and switched over to warm. My friend has been telling me to drink warm water for years based on Traditional Chinese Medicine principles, and I’m honestly noticing a difference in my overall body temp as a girl who generally runs cold, especially this time of year. So that’s a tip for anyone who can relate.

Let’s talk food! I mentioned I’m craving warming things and that includes cooked oats. I’m usually a cold overnight oats kind of gal but I’ve been having these cravings for warm bowls in the morning, especially if some sort of stewed fruit is involved. Enter: Stewed Pear Oats with Tahini. I’m not sure how common this combo of ingredients is but it’s the first time I’ve tried it and WOW it’s perfection. There’s something about the nutty, earthiness of the tahini that pears perfectly (heheh) with spiced stewed pears and a splash of good quality vanilla.

Stewed Pear Oatmeal with Tahini

Stewed Pears:

• 1 pear, chopped (any variety will do, I used bosc)

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• small pinch of salt

• 1/2 tbsp honey or maple syrup

• 2-3 tbsps water

Oats:

• 2/3 cup oats

• small pinch of salt

• dash nutmeg

• 1 tbsp chia

• 1 cup water

• 1/2 cup oat milk

• 1 tbsp honey or maple syrup

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Toppings:

• Tahini

• Stewed pears

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine pears, cinnamon, salt, honey and water. Stir and cook for 3-5 minutes or until pears are tender and most of the water has evaporated.

Remove half of the pears and set aside for later. Add oats, salt, nutmeg, chia seeds, water, oat milk and honey. Stir and simmer for 5-7 minutes until oats are cooked through. Stir often to prevent sticking.

Once cooked, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Serve and top with the extra stewed pears and as much tahini as your heart desires. Enjoy!

Tofu Veggie Curry

Speaking of warm bowls, I’ve got another one for you: my highly requested Tofu Veggie Curry. Watch out for the Reel/TikTok dropping next week. Now, I will not at all claim that this is authentic but I will say it’s based on a Tikka Masala sauce I had from a local vendor that BLEW ME AWAY. I decided to make my own from scratch after sharing a photo on TikTok and getting a bunch of requests for the recipe. This version hit (and maybe surpassed??) the mark. It’s so flavourful.

Curry Sauce:

• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped

• Thumb size piece of ginger, minced (about 1.5 tbsps)

• 4-6 cloves garlic, minced 

• 1.5 tsps cumin seeds

• 1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves

• 1 tsp turmeric

• 2 tsps garam masala

• 1/2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder

• 700g fresh tomatoes (any variety except cherry), quartered (or 1 28oz can diced tomatoes)

• 2 tsps salt

• 1/2 cup raw cashews 

• 3 cups water (reduce by 1/2 cup if using canned tomatoes)

Cumin Crusted Tofu:

• 1 block tofu, cubed (454g)

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tsp salt

• Pepper to taste

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

• 1 tbsp cornstarch 

Veggies:

• 1 head of broccoli, cut into florets

• 1 orange bell pepper, chopped into bite size pieces

To serve:

• Handful of fresh cilantro/coriander, finely chopped

• Steamed jasmine or basmati rice

To make the curry sauce, heat coconut oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add ginger, garlic, cumin, fenugreek, turmeric, garam masala, and chilli powder. Toast for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Add tomatoes, salt, cashews and water. Stir and bring to a simmer. Then lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes or until the tomatoes are tender and almost falling apart. 

While the sauce is simmering, make the tofu. If you don’t have an air fryer, preheat oven to 400F. In a mixing bowl, combine tofu, olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin, nutritional yeast and cornstarch. Stir with a spatula to coat each tofu cube. Add to your air fryer basket and air fry on 400F for 25 minutes, shaking your basket twice throughout the cooking time. Alternatively, place each tofu cube on a silicone or parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, flipping halfway through. 

Once the sauce ingredients are cooked place everything in a high speed blender and blend until smooth or use an immersion blender to blend until smooth. Pour back into the pan over medium-low heat. Add the broccoli and bell pepper and simmer until the veggies are tender, about 3 minutes, constantly stirring to prevent scorching the bottom. Add the tofu along with cilantro and stir to combine. Serve with steamed rice and an extra garnish of cilantro. Enjoy!

Back on Sourdough

In other news, this week I finally decided to pull out my ancient, very neglected sourdough starter and make a loaf of bread. I wasn’t sure if the starter would live—I swear it looked like black sludge when I pulled it out of the fridge—but nature prevailed and after a few feeds it was good as new. Here are the results:

I used this beginner recipe to ease back into the whole bread making thing and I’m so impressed with the rise and crumb (sorry I forgot to take a crumb shot. Next time!) Now that I have some momentum, I’ll definitely be trying and documenting different sourdough variations (i.e. different flours, fillings, toppings, etc.). I have my eye on a few sourdough focaccia recipes too ;)

That’s all for me, thanks for reading and supporting and wishing you a cozy week ahead, filled with good food.

-Raquel 🧡