Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 3, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● C3 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2025 Plan ahead and keep things simple in back-to-school lunch boxes TORONTO — There’s everyday meal prep, and then there’s back-to-school lunch prep for a fickle child whose fa- vourite foods become their most hated overnight. Packing a lunch box can be among the most stressful back-to-school tasks for parents of kids with evolving appe- tites and classmate allergies. Even the best-laid plans can be up- ended by a sudden growth spurt or new school policy, but coming up with at least a rough game plan can save time, money and food battles down the road, say experts including Toronto dietitian Andrea Carpenter. Carpenter’s main advice to frazzled parents is to accept that circumstanc- es will change and to keep things as streamlined as possible. “What I’ve learned as a parent is that nothing ever stays the same, so don’t ever get too comfortable at any phase,” said Carpenter, whose service NutriKidz provides nutrition advice to families. “I do think we need to give ourselves a bit of a break, and I also feel that we don’t need to go crazy killing ourselves planning so much.” She’s a fan of cooking enough food to generate two or three meals at once: tonight’s barbecue chicken dinner and salad can be transformed into a Caesar wrap for lunch the next day. Cookbook author and blogger Aleyda Batarse employs the same strategy, but also urges parents to scale back if they want to see an empty lunch box at the end of the day. “Don’t do more than four things. Sometimes parents pack six things and kids don’t need six things,” says Batarse, who suggests colourful finger food for toddlers and younger kids. The single mom of three meal-preps at the start of the week to stock the fridge with hearty salads and sides that can be warmed up for quick dinners. She’ll also make oatmeal bars, cookies and energy bites for ready-to- grab nutrient-dense snacks, as well as dips and spreads such as hummus, labneh and chia-spiked jam to jazz up school lunches. The two biggest challenges she hears most from parents are the cost of gro - ceries and lack of time. “The one thing that saves my life is the meal prep on Sundays or Monday nights. I don’t always get to it on Sun- days, to be honest. The weekends are busier than the weekdays for me,” says Batarse, who created her blog, The Dish On Healthy, nearly a decade ago. “I’ll have three types of grains in my fridge at all times — a quinoa, a rice or a brown rice, and some sort of pasta salad or something that’s cooked.” Batarse’s recent cookbook, De- liciously Nourishing Eats: Aller- gy-Friendly Recipes for Quick, Satisfying Whole Food Meals includes lunch box tips and customizable rec- ipes for diets that avoid gluten, dairy and refined sugar. She says her older kids — ages 12 and nearly 14 — demand heartier fare such as homemade sushi, ramen, pin- wheels and sandwiches. Her six-year- old likes bento box-style lunches with cut-up salami and cheese or a grilled cheese with apple slices or leftover chicken Milanese cut into nugget-like squares. After years spent honing her lunch box chops for two daughters, cookbook author and mom Aviva Wittenberg admits to feeling some relief that this will likely be her last school year making lunch, since her youngest is entering her final year of high school. “It definitely carries a weight, and when my kids were little, it felt like really a lot of work,” says Wittenberg, author of 2022’s Lunchbox: 75+ Easy and Delicious Recipes for Lunch On the Go. One of her cook once/eat twice tricks is to repurpose a bolognese dinner into a handpie for lunch, aided by store- bought puff pastry. “Dump some sauce on it, close it up, brush some egg and bake it,” she says. While kids’ tastes are notoriously changeable, she remembers fickle teachers too, like the one who didn’t like bento boxes because they made a big mess if tipped over. She’s a big fan of stainless steel boxes, noting her daughter’s is still intact, unlike a plastic one bought for kindergarten. Wittenberg likes to meal plan three- to-four days’ worth of dinner and have a rough idea for lunch, which always involves a discussion with the kids. “Especially when they were little, it was like offering them the feeling of control over what they were eating, which mattered, but also options that felt like good options from my perspec - tive.” School lunches are not the time to introduce new flavours or ingredients, but sometimes all it takes is a small tweak to jazz up a staple your child has grown tired of, she says. “I had one of those little crinkle cutters that I used to use with carrots,” she chuckles, recalling how they made carrots “delicious.” “If it took me 30 more seconds but it meant lunch was eaten, then that was what mattered to me.” — The Canadian Press CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI PEXELS School lunches are not the time to introduce new flavours. Stick to what your kid knows. ’It’s the slow-cooked sweet onions, plus the sweet spices and creamy nuts’ Currying flavour with korma T OWARD the end of last August, when the melons and peaches at the market mingled with gigantic heads of broc- coli and plump plums, friends and family came to visit. Among them was Granny Kathy. I thought about how I could make her feel welcome. “What can I cook for you while you’re here?” I texted. “Vegetable korma,” she wrote back. I love when people know what they feel like eating, and, when I ask, don’t hesitate to tell me. It’s so much easier than guessing or prodding. It also gives me more time to plan and experiment. In my experiences eating korma at restaurants and in the homes of cooks from the Indian subcontinent, the dish can look a lot like other central or southeast Asian stews, with a rich sauce enrobing meat and/or vegeta- bles. In my mind, kormas were nutty and creamy. I couldn’t remember making it before, so I started flipping through my cookbooks. But the more I read about korma — also spelled kurma, qorma or qurma — the more befuddled I got. All of them had a mix of spices, but I couldn’t tell whether there was one flavour, texture or ingredient that was essential to a korma. Feeling overwhelmed, I decided to cook. The first korma recipe I made was Meera Sodha’s, with roasted cau- liflower and blackened raisins, from her second book, Fresh India. I fell in love with the velvety consistency of the sauce, which was the result of puree- ing cashews that had been soaked in boiling water. Sodha wrote that, until she tasted a particularly good korma at an East London restaurant when she was 18, she had dismissed the dish as “the curry for people who were scared of curries.” I decided to ask her what makes a korma a korma. “I’m not a purist, but if you break down what really makes a curry-house korma taste like a korma, it’s the slow- cooked sweet onions, plus the sweet spices and creamy nuts,” she said. That was the kind of gentle guidance I needed to begin tinkering. I started by dicing a sweet Vidalia onion. As it browned in a Dutch oven, I turned to my spice cabinet, and I pulled out a jar of garam masala that was heavy on the cardamom and black pepper. I added chopped garlic and fresh ginger to the onions while I considered what else to include. It was a Sunday, and I’d just returned from the farmers market with so much produce in tow: sturdy ears of corn, hefty zucchini, colourful string beans, ripe tomatoes and shiny sweet peppers. I decided to chop a colourful variety of summer’s best to add, along with a can of chickpeas. Then there was the question of the nutty base, and I didn’t have any cashews or almonds on hand. What I did have — what I always have — was a jar of cashew butter. Sometimes I make a sort of cheater cashew milk by blending water and cashew butter, and I thought maybe I could do something like that here. As I stirred cashew butter into the aromatics in the pot, I added a can of light coconut milk. Its looser consistency helped the cashew butter melt into the vegetables, form - ing a creamy, sweet-smelling sauce. Later, I asked Sodha whether she’d ever used cashew butter in her korma. “I haven’t, but I think it’s a clever idea, and would add instant body and creaminess, and remove a lot of the faff of soaking and blending your own cashews,” she said. Indeed, it does streamline the process. After a taste, I added more ground pepper and a touch of maple syrup, to pull out the sweetness in the onions and peppers. This was a fine dish on its own, but I decided to add a garnish of Sodha’s almond and blackened raisin topping. The colour- ful, softened vegetables in the nutty, creamy sauce beneath the crunch and pop of toasted almonds and sweet raisins were marvellous. And when I cooked it for Granny Kathy, it felt like a fitting and proper feast. After eating a bowlful, she pro- nounced it “great!” and served herself seconds before washing all the dishes with her signature, dazzling smile. — The Washington Post G. DANIELA GALARZA Summer Vegetable Korma JUSTIN TSUCALAS / WASHINGTON POST Many kormas call for yogurt and homemade cashew broth, but cashew butter and coconut milk make for a quicker dairy-free option. JUSTIN TSUCALAS / WASHINGTON POST Summer vegetable korma calls for any and all veggies, making it perfect for fall harvest season. SAUCY and rich, this korma is packed with summer vegetables. You can use whatever vegetables you have on hand — fresh or frozen — but a colourful variety is ideal, and preparing them so that they cook evenly is essential. Chickpeas add protein and texture, though other beans or cubed firm tofu can be used in their place. Yogurt and homemade cashew broth are common additions to kormas, but this streamlined dairy-free version uses light coconut milk and cashew butter. It’s inspired by a recipe from cookbook author Meera Sodha, whose korma is sweet and spicy. 4 servings Total time: 45 minutes Storage note: Refrigerate for up to four days. 30 ml (2 tbsp) olive oil 1 medium yellow onion, diced 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped One thumb-size piece fresh ginger, minced or finely grated 12 ml (2 1/2 tsp) garam masala, store- bought or homemade (see related recipe) 1 litre (4 cups) vegetables, such as bell peppers, summer squash, dark leafy greens, tomatoes, carrots, corn or peas, chopped or otherwise prepared as needed (see Notes) 2 ml (1/2 tsp) fine salt, plus more to taste 30 ml (2 tbsp) unsalted cashew or almond butter One (15-ounce) can light coconut milk Water, as needed One 445-ml (15-oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 15 ml (1 tbsp) maple syrup, plus more as needed Freshly ground black pepper Flatbreads, for serving Optional topping 5 ml (1 tsp) olive oil 80 ml (1/3 cup) sliced almonds, pref- erably blanched 80 ml (1/3 cup) golden raisins Flaky sea salt (optional) IN a large Dutch oven or 5-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until just starting to brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and stir in the garlic, ginger and garam masala, letting the aromatics warm up for just a few seconds. Add any hardy vegetables (see notes) and the salt, and stir, scraping up any browned bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan. Stir in the cashew butter and coconut milk, swirling the nut butter into the vegetables so it melts into the sauce. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a lively simmer, cover (see notes) and cook, stirring occasionally and adjusting the heat as needed, until the vegetables are fork-tender and the broth thickens, 8 to 10 minutes. Adjust the heat to medium. If the korma seems dry, add water, 60 ml (1/4 cup) at a time, until it is as saucy as you’d like. Stir in any frozen or tender vegetables (see notes), plus the chickpeas and maple syrup. Simmer until all of the vegetables are warmed through and coated in the sauce, 2 to 4 minutes. Taste, and season with black pepper and more salt and maple syrup, if desired. Remove from the heat. To make the optional topping, heat the oil to shimmering in a small (8-inch) skillet over medium heat. Add the almonds and raisins, and cook, stirring occasionally, until a few of the raisins blacken and puff up and the almonds are golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt, if desired, and remove from the heat. Serve family-style, topped with the almond-raisin mixture, if desired, and with flatbreads on the side. Notes: In general, when using fresh vegetables for this recipe, the hardier the vegetable, the smaller it should be cut. Dice vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, bell peppers, summer squash, string beans or broccoli. Strip leafy greens such as kale, chard and cabbage off of their thick stems, and thinly slice. Tomatoes, spinach and other tender vegetables can be roughly chopped. (Eggplant is not recommended unless it’s diced, salted and briefly pan-fried first.) Cut fresh corn kernels off the cob. Cherry tomatoes can be left whole, or halved if large. If using frozen vegetables, there is no need to defrost. Keep in mind that frozen peas and corn take almost no time to cook, and should be added near the end of simmering to avoid overcooking. If you use mostly dense vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots and cauliflower, you may need to add water to thin the sauce. If you use primarily watery or frozen vegetables, including summer squash, spinach and tomatoes, you may wish to simmer the korma uncovered to allow excess moisture to evaporate. ARTS ● LIFE I FOOD ;