Baked Pakoras: The Perfect Food-Spectator Food to Stop Food-Spectating.

I love dinner parties.

It’s not the dinner part specifically, I just love sharing meals with others regardless of the time of day, but I don’t know how many people would be in to joining me for a breakfast party at 6 am. Although, that really does sounds fun to me.I used to host dinner parties often until I realized I was spreading myself too thin socially, academically, personally, etc., but I’d love to get back to doing them again soon.

Not too soon, of course, given that our sweet babe is so little and making certain my oldest and I have at least one composed meal a day is enough of a struggle. We eat, but it's more of a survival game some days.I hosted a dinner party last May for a group of women who were wanting to learn more about plant-based cooking or just learning to cook in general. This is right in my wheel-house. I absolutely love attending these parties, so I was so happy to finally host my own. I do envision one day bringing clients together in plant-based cooking workshops and this was good practice.

That phrase, "plant-based," is everywhere right now. As a quick exercise, let's unpack that together, shall we? There's nothing I hate more than labels. For those of you that have been reading along since the beginning, you may recall that my first post had some guidelines I would be following on my blog and one of them was that I am not here to be political about food choices and labels, but I feel as though this phrase demands explanation as it's become more of marketing term than any real definite thing.We can start by looking at the words themselves for a simple explanation: plant-based equals "based on plants." So, simply, when anything is labeled "plant-based," its parts are based on plants, whether it be a product, a food, or a diet.And that's it. That's all it means.

However, marketers have now commandeered that term to create connotations of health and wellness in their products, hoping you'll buy their products as the "healthy" option.For example, let's look at that unholy mess of a new invention, The Beyond Meat Burger. All last summer, that's all anyone talked about. We were blasted with it on the news as different fast food restaurants and grocery stores started carrying it. At first, people were loving it, and then wait-- the cries of glee turned to horror as outrage was shouted from every corner upon the discovery that this meat substitute was not healthy!

"But it said it's plant-based! Doesn't that means it's healthy?"

Abso-fricken-lutely not.

Potato chips could be labeled (and some are!) as plant-based. Because they are made from plants.When someone eats vegan, vegetarian, keto, paleo, label label label, etc. it does not necessarily mean they eat healthily. Just because something in a box is labelled as "organic" does not make it healthy. Sure, you may avoid extra pesticides or additives that may be in a conventional box of the same product, but if it's full of fibre-less refined flours, refined sugars, or high amounts of salt, you're not really any better off.

All of these labels could be healthy, but that label does not necessitate that they are. Neither does plant-based. What I'm getting at is that you need to read package labels, identify ingredients in a product or a diet, and make decisions for your health that way, not from a marketing label.

I consider my cooking to be plant-based, if I must label it. Yes, I use dairy and eggs. Yes, I do occasionally eat meat. Yes, I use sweeteners like maple syrup or coconut sugar. I'm still plant-based. My recipes are based on plant foods. The healthiness of each recipe can be judged by each ingredient. And the deliciousness can be judged once you make them ;)

And so ends my *non*-political-unfortunately-political-just-by-mere-mention-of-the-topic breakdown. But I hope it made you think about the phrases you commonly come across and what they mean to you.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming:

At the dinner, one woman commented that she would like to actually learn to cook but for as much as she didn't know, she really enjoyed just watching it happen. The other ladies quickly agreed. Shortly after that night, I heard an interview on CBC's Q, in which a chef said that cooking shows are now like a type of sporting event: people watch but they don't know how to do it themselves. When I was trying to find this interview online to quote properly, I found an article from 1989, published in the NY Times, titled: "A New Spectator Sport: Looking, not Cooking." The same things that we are discussing now was already happening thirty years ago. It's really not a new phenomenon.

I'll totally admit to loving cooking shows. My oldest now loves them as well. I'm not certain how many of you are familiar with "The Pioneer Woman" show on Food Network, but it's my daughter's favourite. My husband had walked in while we were watching it one day and he asked, "What's her name again?" and our exasperated child sighed and snootily answered, "It's Ree Drummand, daaaaddy." Eye roll without breaking her gaze from the screen.

But I love to make the things I see on cooking shows, or at least be inspired by them.Like these pakoras!Can I challenge each of you reading this to take a chance and cook something new from what you see on a show, read in a book, or see a picture or video on social media? I'd love to see what you create. Seriously, if you make something, post it to my Facebook page. I'm always fascinated to see what makes another person's tummy rumble.

Which is why for my cook night, I chose two recipes to make based on other food cultures because it's an experience to taste the flavours that other people's taste buds enjoy. The first was this recipe for Korean Mung Bean Pancakes (nokdu bindaetteok) which are delicious. Especially if you make them at 11 at night while pretty tipsy after a lovely date night. You shouldn't just take my word for it, you need to try these.

The second recipe was my own for baked pakoras. I looove pakoras. Of course, eating fried food often really isn't what I like to do, so I figured out a way to make these irresistible treats a little healthier.

We frequently eat these as a lazy dinner. They really are fast to whip up and are jammed full of veggies.

And my daughter eats them so quickly she doesn't pause to chatter or mess around. They are one of my go-to's when she's having a particularly picky week to break her cycle of fighting with every meal.

I may have raised her on eating everything, but fights at meal times still happen. Because independence and choice-making still want to happen. "I don't want this, I wanted that..." Cry cry scream. If your meal time sounds like mine, try to include your kids in the meal-planning and/or prepping process. By taking the time to do that, I cut fights down to maybe once a week now. It really makes all the difference.

These pakoras are a wonderful recipe to get the kids involved with: they can either practice their knife skills by helping cut all the veggies into tiny tiny pieces, or they can measure all the spices and prepare the batter. It's not a technical recipe, so there's no chance anyone can mess it up. Let loose and have fun.

They also make a fabulous lunch addition.

Pakoras Makes about 30 depending on size

4-5 cups of mixed, finely chopped vegetables*
1 tsp oil
2 cups chickpea flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp red pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 450 F.
1. Quickly sauté the veg in a frying pan to remove the "rawness" of them. To cook them completely through is not necessary as they will still bake in the oven.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together then slowly add 1-1.5 cups of water, stirring constantly, to make a pancake-like batter. (See photo below.)
3. Prep your cookie sheets. Place 1/8 of a cup of coconut oil on each sheet and place them in the oven to melt the oil and heat the pan. You want the pan and oil to be piping hot when you add the pakoras to them.
4. Add in the veggies to the batter and stir until everything is completely covered.
5. Once the pans are hot, spoon the mixture in tablespoon-sized portions onto the pan, working quickly so they don't cool off.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes on one side, flip and cook for another 5 minutes.

Enjoy these with a mango chutney. I really don't have a recipe for mine to share as every time it's different depending on how I'm feeling. Essentially, I defrost a cup of frozen mango in a pot with a quarter cup of water, add in some red onion, coriander, cumin, and red pepper flakes, along with a splash of apple cider vinegar, and once it's bubbling, I blend it all up into a smooth sauce. World's worst "chutney," but it's delicious.

Pancake-batter consistency:

*I use a variety of different veg every time I make these. Red onions, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, green beans, peas, beets (it made them pretty!), kale, etc. Experiment! There's really no wrong way to make these.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we do! Keep your eyes open for some exciting things coming rapidly down the line!