Welcome to Spicella
Hi, welcome to my recipe blog, Spicella. I’m Simmi, a Digital Marketer, Mum of 2 and someone who loves cooking. As if my family, work and exercise don’t keep me busy enough, I’ve set up a recipe blog to share my passion and knowledge of cooking Indian food.
We love a good old fashion curry in our household and look forward to it most weekends. But there’s so much more to Indian food than your typical ‘well-known’ favourites. I’ll be sharing my tried and tested Indian recipes, extending my knowledge of North Indian cooking to further South. Look out for all varying dishes from throughout India.
My Inspiration
My inspiration to cook varied meals has stemmed from all the fabulous, home-cooked food made by my mum. She’s always cooked tasty Indian food, delicately flavoured with simple, yet unique cooking techniques. Growing up my diet was predominantly vegetarian. Raised in a Gujarati household, vegetable and lentils were the standard staple, it’s all we knew! Whilst most of it was relatively healthy, apart from the fried stuff like Samosas, Bhajia (Pakoras) and Kachori (delicious though, I might add), as a child I got bored of my veggies.
My mum started experimenting with meats, and started to cook non-vegetarian curries which tasted devine! These recipes have stuck with me to this day. To be honest, the whole family, including the in-laws are inspiring food snobs in their own ways. Regardless of cuisine, we all love a home-cooked meal from scratch and often share, or show-off rather, our creations on our WatsAapp group chat. Coronavirus lockdown was the perfect opportunity to make something a little out of our comfort zone. I mean, my husband is now a bread expert…who would’ve thought?!?
Experimenting with Food
The love for experimenting with food started young whilst at my parents and now I’m keen to make tasty meals for my family. As the kids have grown older, they’ve started to appreciate different types of foods, their textures and nutritional benefits therefore meat, veg and ‘carbs’ is on the menu most mealtimes. Oh and with the hubby turning Pescatarian, it’s been a challenge cooking meat-replacement dishes (worried-look emoji).
With that challenge in mind, it brought me to think of all those meals I used to have as a child; quick, healthy, vegetarian meals that we could all have. That’s when the penny dropped, the exploration of cooking Indian food from different parts of India as well as going back to my roots. So much of Gujarati food and that from other Indian states is unheard of, I mean India is massive. It’s not just about the Vindaloo and Korma dishes, there’s so much more to explore. There are so many different meat replacement products and under-used vegetables, I’m looking forward to cooking with and sharing my recipes with you.
Read my Spicella Blog
Take a look at some of the tasty meals on my blog. Feedback is really important to me and so any comments on the recipes themselves or if you’d like to see a specific dish, get in contact and email me at [email protected]. Happy Cooking!
Spicella
Love food, make it simple.