A very ordinary Saturday morning that couldn't be more beautiful. Rain was predicted again for the afternoon so I harvested ingredients for tonight's dinner (recipe below) in time and picked fresh flowers. Absolute beauty in the backyard.

If you've ever travelled to East Africa, you've most probably tried mandazi (fried donuts) with bharazi often found in smaller restaurants or sold by street vendors. We loved it! Traditionally bharazi is made with pigeon peas.

We have a huge harvest of leeks. Great, of course, but how do you process all these members of the Allium family? At that moment in autumn, I always open the book 'De Geur van Witte Rijst' (‘the fragrance of white rice’) , and cook my aunt Bep's 'sambal goreng leek'.

UGANDA ~ Ever since we visited Uganda, we enjoy making mandazi now and then: light fluffy doughnuts. They are a great snack on their own but we love them paired with bharazi, an East African dish of pigeon peas simmered in coconut milk.

Did I ever tell you my favorite color is green? I often use the color in my designs, my most worn sweater is green, I like to wander for hours in the woods among trees in all shades of green, I prepare a lot of this color on my daily plate and it will not surprise you that I am not very disappointed if not all my tomatoes turn red or orange. Because yes, then I just make .... Indian green tomato chutney!

This bok choy (paksoi) dish can be prepared in less than 10 minutes and is among the easiest, most tasty preparations of cruciferous greens imaginable. It pairs beautifully with almost any Asian dish, but I prefer it on its own, with a bowl of rice.

This bok choy (paksoi) dish can be prepared in less than 10 minutes and is among the easiest, most tasty preparations of cruciferous greens imaginable. It pairs beautifully with almost any Asian dish, but I prefer it on its own, with a bowl of rice.

Tuscans are known as mangiafagioli (‘bean-eaters)’) and this filling soup has a long history in rural Tuscany where big pots were cooked in farmers’ families so that this delicacy could be enjoyed for days on end by re-heating the soup prepared in advance.

You may want to include more cruciferous vegetables in your diet, both for their health benefits as well as their ability to grow fast in almost all places. I will add a recipe every Monday.