No one is born a great cook, one learns by doing and teaching others” ~ Julia Child

Growing up as a child my mother and I always watched Julia Child cooking shows on PBS.  She would always say, “Safura how can we modify that recipe to make it more Indian”.  We would sit for hours in the kitchen talking, cooking and coming up with authentic indian dishes.  Miss my mom and her zest for cooking and entertaining. Because of her encouragement and motivation I love to cook and entertain as well and now love teaching others how to make dishes in  a much healthier version than what the restaurants serve.

When I first met Terri, owner of Jax Cooking Studio I was so excited.  I got a tour of her beautiful kitchen and studio and we sat down and started talking about an Indian Cooking Class she had on the calendar and would I be interested in teaching it?

Of course I said yes, this is something I had always wanted to do!

Doing what I LOVE best! Teaching an Indian Cooking Class in Jacksonville at JAX Cooking Studio.

Terri and I decided on a vegan menu to keep it simple and healthy and what people love to eat at Indian restaurants but find it difficult to make at home.  So we picked daal-lentils, palak paneer – spinach tofu, cauliflower curry and a veggie rice pilaf all dishes made without oil.

Here’s a fun video recap from the evening! We would appreciate it if you subscribe to our YouTube channel after viewing.

Terri and I decided it would be fun to wear authentic indian outfits for the class. We even had Bollywood music playing during the class.

We had a packed house and everyone had an amazingly FuN time ~ with indian music  playing, delish tastings of papadums, mango pickles, lentils, and naan.  Teaching the class more about the Indian culture and the customs of the different dishes was so enlightening. We talked about the Indian Spices I like to use in my cooking at home. Click on link to see list of my favorite spices.

I showed them how to make the Veggie Rice Palau with using diced carrots and green peas for the veggies, some curry leaves, star anise, cinnamon and basmati rice with no oil and everyone else made other scrumptious vegan Indian dishes, linked to recipes below.

For the first dish, they made Spinach palak tofu, drizzled it with cashew sauce.  The tofu was organic and homemade at House of Leaf and Bean in Jacksonville.  We sat together and ate the palak paneer with naan that Terri picked up from Patel Brothers and Indian grocery store on Baymeadows Rd. in Jacksonville. If you haven’t been there yet, you must go!

Recipes
Spinach – Palak Paneer with Tofu

Daal – Lentil Soup

Cauliflower Tikka Masala Curry

Ended the evening with Masala chai, Mango Icecream and after dinner fennel mints.

Recipe – Mango Icecream

Fennel seeds, called saunf in India, are served after a meal, sometimes coated in peppermint of different colors.  Occasionally, they are in packets with rose petals and star anise seed and fenugreek. The fennel settles your stomach, gives your mouth a fresh taste.  People commonly chew fennel seeds after a meal in India, as it helps to digest food and prevents the formation of gas in stomach. It is an aromatic herb, which is also used as a mouth freshener.

Read about our recent trip to India and all the details about the wonderful food we ate, people we met, and places we visited. India Blog Post

The group also tried mango pickle as the custom in India – each meal is served with pickled achaar, made in so many varieties such as mango, lime, lemon, garlic.  This is pickled from certain varieties of vegetables and fruits – finely chopped and marinated in Indian spices.

Recipe – Indian Masala Chai

A special thanks to Wen of  House of Leaf & Bean for providing us with their homemade organic tofu for the Spinach Tofu dish and Lisa Owens for taking all the photos and videos for us!

It was such a fun night, everyone took lots of pics with this thali tray with yummy food that we cooked.   Loved meeting some amazing friends can’t wait to teach the next class.

Stay tuned and check the Jax Cooking Studio website for a variety of classes that are being taught and stay tune for the next Indian Cooking Class! If you haven’t been to the Cooking Studio yet you must take a class there, it’s an amazing set up.  Love the studio it has 4 large prepping and cooking stations where people can work together with friends or their spouse and learn how to cook.

Please comment below and let us know if you try our recipes and tag and follow us on social media:  Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter @jaxvegancouple and subscribe to our blog.