Last week's vegan chipotle sauce was the the first step of a larger project to learn how to make my favourite rice and bean burrito at home. Spanish rice is another essential ingredient of this magical burrito (which also includes black beans and lots of fresh veggies like purple onion, corn, red pepper, lettuce and tomato, along with a generous dollop of mashed avocado and some fresh cilantro). As I'm writing this, I've started craving this burrito of course, but getting all the ingredients together in the same place is a bit of a project. Having done it a couple of times, I have huge respect for the people doing it on a daily basis (conveniently located at the end of my street). Maybe I'll pay them a visit tonight. They're lovely. For now though, I'm going to focus on Spanish rice. More

The temptation to make maki sushi rolls at home springs mostly from the lack of food for vegetarians at most Japanese restaurants. Most have vegetarian bento boxes with some avocado rolls, but those usually leave me feeling a little ripped-off. When you're making everything yourself, you can skip the things you don't like (never been a fan of deep-fried tofu) and emphasize the things you love (e.g., broccoli tempura). This idea has led to lots of experimenting in my kitchen lately. Maki sushi is an absolute necessity for any of these imaginary Japanese feasts, so I thought I would nail it down first. More

One of the benefits of living in a big city is easy access to Chinatown. In my case there are two, and one of them is a fifteen-minute walk from my house, through a big park and a quiet neighbourhood. A couple of times each year... More