YouAsk Kim
Hands slicing tomatoes on a worn wooden board beside lemons, herbs and a bowl of white beans

Kitchen · 45 min

Cook one dish from another kitchen

Choose one simple dish from a cuisine you rarely cook, find the few ingredients, and make it once. The world on a weeknight.

45 minutesFrom the library, free to readFour steps
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Most of us cook the same handful of meals, which is fine on a busy week and a little flat after a while. Cooking one dish from a different kitchen, a dal, a stir fry, a bean stew, a frittata, brings new flavours, new vegetables and something to talk about at the table.

The steps

Four small steps,in your own time.

  1. Choose one cuisine you enjoy eating but rarely cook. Pick one simple dish from it with fewer than ten ingredients.

  2. Find a trusted recipe from a cookbook, a library or a friend who grew up with the dish. Read it all the way through before you shop.

  3. Buy what you do not have. The spices or sauces that make the dish are often worth keeping, as they will open up more meals.

  4. Cook it once, without hurry. Eat it at the table and decide what you would change next time.

The reason

Why it helps

Variety on the plate usually means a wider range of vegetables, beans, grains and spices, which is good for eating well over time. Learning a new dish also keeps cooking interesting, and food from other places is often naturally built around vegetables and pulses. Many simple dishes from around the world are inexpensive and easy to make in bulk.

A gentle variation

If a full recipe feels like too much, add one new spice or sauce to a meal you already make. Or buy one ready-made element, like a flatbread, and make just the rest.

Neighbours setting a long table in a green garden

WE · TRIBE

Try itwith someone.

Ask someone who grew up with the dish to teach you, or cook it with a child and look up where it comes from on a map. If you care for someone, ask what food from other places they have loved, or which dishes they remember from travels.

Make it a plan in HIVELIVE, with WE

Try it today

This week, choose one simple dish from a cuisine you rarely cook, buy what it needs, and make it once.

Add it to your day

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