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LEMON and COURGETTE CAKE great way to disguise courgette

This lemon and courgette cake is so easy and quick to make AND a great way to disguise courgette!

It’s VERSATILE too as you can mix up the types of flour you have in your store cupboard or to suit your dietary preferences.

If you’re observing Ramadan then this is a super option to have for iftar or suhoor.

Just 3 EASY STEPS that require: weighing the ingredients, mixing the ingredients and then baking.

Made even easier using a THERMOMIX but you can use a food processor too. Don’t know what a thermomix is? Then listen to this podcast.

No one is going to guess you used courgette in this lemon and courgette cake.

EASY LEMON & COURGETTE CAKE

Ingredients

  • 200g courgette roughly chopped up
  • 90g of any sugar – I used coconut blossom sugar but you can use any sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
  • 110ml oil – I used olive oil
  • 1 medium egg brought to room temperature
  • 1 large lemon – zest and juice
  • 200g flour – used plain/all purpose or try your own combination of ground foods: see note below.
cut the courgette into rough chunks use zester for the lemon peel

The 200g flour mix I prefer to use

  • 100g ground almonds
  • 50g spelt flour
  • 50g plain flour – I try to minimise the use of ‘white refined flour’.
  • YOUR “FLOURS” NEED TO ADD UP TO 200 GRAMS.

How to Make

  • Weigh out all the ingredients so they are ready for you to simply add to your mixer bowl
  • Roughly chop the courgette
  • Put everything into your food processor bowl
  • Mix the ingredients until you have a cake mixture that resembles a thick but pourable batter
  • Pour the mixture into a buttered oven proof serving dish
  • Bake 180 deg C for 30 mins checking on it from time to time
Lemon and Courgette Cake DoinDubai Monica Kapila with a lemon
bake your cake in an oven proof dish so no faffing about with lining cake tins

ย Eat as it is or try it with some lemon zest and a little sugar mixed into some creme fraiche or Greek yoghurt if youโ€™re serving as a dessert.

I have also served it with a spoon of natural keffir, also delicious.

This recipe was adapted from one I saw first on Mix Fix Cook.

This is how you can HALF the sugar used in the recipe

I have also tried replacing 100 of courgette with 1 banana, so still total of 200g combined, but then I am able to REDUCE THE SUGAR by almost half as banana is quite sweet.

Try replacing almost HALF THE OIL WITH NATURAL KEFFIR yoghurt.

I like the one from The Collective UK I can buy it at my local Waitrose in Dubai too.

See our instagram reel connected to this cake.

Lemon and courgette cake serving idea monica kapila doindubai

MORE GOOD RECIPES HERE

This one is also great for Ramadan or a quick dessert for anytime that can be made in advance.

Chocolate mousse with coffee Click for the recipe.

easy chocolate mousse doindubai pink plate
EASY CHOCOLATE COFFEE MOUSSE

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Cooking Lessons in London Sauce by the Langham Monica Kapila
MONICA KAPILA YOUR CHEF COOKING AT THE LANGHAM COOKERY SCHOOL LONDON

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LEFTOVER TURKEY PIE – One Dish meal for Boxing Day

UPDATED DECEMBER 2022

We’ve all likely got some leftover turkey so here’s my slightly spicy idea for an easy and versatile leftover turkey pie.

Perfect to have as a meal in itself or add your favourite vegetables, leave off potatoes if you’re watching carbs the pastry will provide those! BUT you can also make this with any cooked shredded meat like chicken at any time of the year.

Leftover Turkey Pie one dish meal

You can simply make this dish as a “bake” with a white sauce if you’d rather avoid the pastry all together.

3 stages to making your leftover turkey pie

Stage 1 Flavouring up the shredded turkey meat

Stage 2 Making your white sauce

Stage 3 The Pastry

No set quantities for this leftover turkey pie

I’ve left off quantities for this recipe as you know how much turkey you have left and I assume you or someone you know has some understanding of what I’m recommending. Basically you’re doing a type of “STIR FRY” with your shredded turkey meat using the ingredients below:

Fry some chopped onions and minced garlic

then add some

chilli oil

Soya sauce

Oyster sauce

Little parsley if you have like and fry a little more

Mix your left over shredded turkey into the above mixture so you’re kind of stir frying it.

Stir fry your leftover shredded turkey meat

The Pastry for the Leftover Turkey Pie or any savoury pie!

You can simply BUY READY ROLLED short crust pastry or my tips to MAKING YOUR OWN are below:

Half cold butter in pieces to flour (always spelt)

with some cold water to make this into dough

A little turmeric for some a nicer colour and a bit of salt

I roughly used 150 grams of spelt flour

75 grams of butter

50 grams of water

plus a little salt to make the pastry for the pie shown in the picture. It’s really easy making pastry in a few seconds in a thermomix if you have one. You can listen to a podcast on what a thermomix is here if you want to find out more.

brush the pastry with a little milk and egg wash if you like

The Magic Sauce

I used a basic cheese sauce so that’s using a little flour, butter, making a roux ball, then adding milk and water, BUT with preosaked cashew nuts vs cheese later on. Again no quantities given here as there are plenty of recipes for a white sauce. Again very easy in a thermomix.

LIGHTEN It up by using a combination of water and milk, not just milk.

FLAVOUR it well using generous amounts of DIJON mustard, chilli and salt and fresh black pepper. I like adding a little turmeric for interest.

Whiz up the presoaked cashews first then use these in place of cheese

Plenty of dijon mustard

Little chilli oil and salt n pepper

Use spelt flour not plain flour

Lighter milk and water combination not just milk

Little turmeric for some interest

Use presoaked and whizzed up cashew nuts if you’re avoiding cheese

ASSEMBLING THE DISH

Lay the prepared, stir fried turkey meat in your baking dish

Pour over your sauce

Arrange your pastry on top

THEN BAKE till the pastry looks golden brown and “done”

Eat with any vegetables you like or freeze for a cold night!

Leftover Turkey Pie Finished Dish

MORE GOOD RECIPES HERE. Need to shop for those Chinese Ingredients AND make an outing of your trip with a good meal? Then read this Chinese Supermarket in Dubai post! Another great place to take visitors is the The Waterfront Market in Deira.

Waterfront-Market-Deira-Do-In-Dubai-What-to-do-in-Dubai-Monica-Kapila-Shiraz-Iranian-restaurant
IRANIAN WATERSIDE RESTUARANT WATERFRONT MARKET

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JAPANESE SESAME DRESSING easy, tasty, versatile recipe

You’ve probably tried this Japanese sesame dressing while dining out at Japanese restaurants. It’s called JAPANESE GOMA DRESSING easy, tasty, versatile recipe.

Japanese-Sesame-style-dressing-on-a-salad-Monica-Kapila-DOinDUbai-
Try this sesame goma dressing on salad

INGREDIENTS NEEDED

  1. About 3 to 4 tbsp white sesame seeds
  2. 2 tbsp soya sauce
  3. 2 tbsp sesame oil
  4. 1 tbsp brown sugar or bit less if you like
  5. 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  6. water and lemon juiceย to your taste and consistency
  7. chill oil optional to your taste

HOW TO MAKE THE JAPANESE SESAME DRESSING

  1. dry roast the sesame seeds till lightly golden in a wok and shake the pan to prevent burning
  2. whizz to a powder when the seeds are cool – easy in a thermomix
  3. add remaining ingredients and whizz up till you get to your desired consistency adding a little more or less water as you like. Do taste as you go along.

TOP TIP

Once you’ve whizzed up your toasted sesame seeds, keep them in an air tight jar and make up little amounts of this dressing to use as you need it just adding teaspoons of the other ingredients. Mix in a small jar of a nutri bullet.

HOW TO USE IT

  1. Try as a salad dressing on fresh spinach or salad leaves as we have above
  2. We’ve used it as a marinade for roast chicken if you add smoked paprika, chilli and garlic to your dressing
  3. As a sauce as Akira Back has done below
USE THE JAPANESE SESAME GOMA DRESSING AS A MARINADE FOR CHICKEN

We loved how Akira Back at the W on the Palm Jumeirah used it for their vegetarian spinach rolls dish.

Japanese-sesame-goma-dressingโ -DoinDubai-Monica-Kapila-

Fancy a STAYCATION AT THE W PALM JUMEIRAH? Then see our instagram video on our visit to the W Palm Jumeirah for a short break.

The Akira Back is a great place for fine dining vegetarian food. It has a large terrace too.

Check out more healthy, tasty recipes in our recipe gallery link here.

We have recipes for the thermomix, air fryer, recipes that are gluten free and carb free too.

If you’re on a KETO diet then listen to our podcast on our sister site MonicMoments Podcasts called We Must Talk About KETO.

Cooking Lessons in London Sauce by the Langham Monica Kapila

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AIR FRIED LOTUS ROOT CRISPS fresh tasty vegetarian and vegan snack easy to spice up

You’ve probably eaten these as part of a South East Asian meal. They’re often served as a starter and very addictive! Better than deep fried potato crisps! Try these easy to make fresh Air Fried Lotus Root Crisps at your next dinner party and impress your friends!

Air Fried Lotus Root Crisps DoinDubai Monica Kapila
DELICIOUS HEALTHY LOTUS ROOT CRISPS

Ingredients for the easy air fried lotus root crisps

1. fresh lotus root thinly slicedโ  – we got our lotus root from WeMart the big Chinese supermarket in Deira Check the link for details on that. Or you could go to 1004 Gourmet in The Greens. We bought the ingredients for our rice paper rolls there.
2. marinade of salt, smoked paprika powder, olive oilโ 
3. air fry in single layer till doneโ , have patience! I suggest warming your air fryer up for 3 mins first then air frying at about 180 degrees for 4 to 5 mins then check and turn over the slices if need be and repeat till like our picture above or they look how you like to eat them!
4. enjoy with Japanese sesame goma dressingโ !โ  Recipe coming up in next post.

HELPS TO USE A MANDOLIN TO SLICE YOUR OTUS ROOT WITH

TOP TIP

Don’t slice your lotus root too thinly, we suggest number 2 on this standard IKEA mandolin.

You could try tinned lotus root, probably easier to source but I suggest you slice and then thoroughly dry as much as possible before adding your marinade and frying.

All air fryers work a bit differently, but I use the Ninja Air Fryer, I have one in Dubai and one in our home in London where my grown up kids live, they love it too! See the link below to find out more. 

Ninja Air Fryer AF100, Roast, Reheat, Dehydrate, 3.8 Litres, 1550 Watts, Grey and Black

Want more easy, tasty AIR FRYER recipes like this one?

Then click our AIR FRYER SIMPLE PAGE here

and follow along on our AIR FRYER SIMPLE instagram for quick ideas to turn your everyday cooking into something special.

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