Kumar Menon started ’Leela’s Kitchen’, a locally-based cookery school holding workshops on how to create healthy Indian recipes, in 2011.

He also supplies his own brand of award-winning spices, rubs and marinades, along with his own jars of sauces and accompaniments, available in biodegradeable packaging.

Throughout the enforced lockdown period, Kumar has been sharing many ideas for meals and snacks through the ’Leela’s Kitchen’ Facebook page.

Here, he shares two of his favourite, easy recipes which you can make using his own-brand spices, which are available online from leelaskitchen.co.uk or from Robinson’s, Close Leece Farm, Tynwald Mills, Mostly Manx, Ye Olde Bakery and Mother Nature.

The first is a spicy and fragrant parsnip soup, which is a perfect midday meal no matter what the weather.

You will need only these five ingredients to make this yummy and highly-satisfying velvety spiced soup.

You will need a good-sized parsnip, a sweet potato, one white onion, Leela’s kitchen mild curry powder and some stock of your choice.

You can either use chicken or vegetable stock for this recipe.

Kumar uses a home-made stock for this recipe but if you haven’t any fresh stock or are in a hurry, a stock cube is fine too.

Firstly, chop the onion and fry it for two or three minutes, adding a little salt along the way to stop it caramelising.

Then peel and chop both the parsnip and sweet potato and add to the same pan.

Fry gently with the onion for a few more minutes until everything begins to soften a little.

Add a teaspoon of the mild curry powder and a little more salt and pepper and stir in to make sure all the vegetables are given a good coating.

Add your stock and bring to the boil. Then turn the heat down and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes, until your vegetables are soft.

Once the soup is cooked, give it a thorough blitzing with a stick blender until the soup has a wonderful smooth and velvety consistency.

You can adjust the seasoning if necessary.

The tiniest squeeze of lemon juice or drop of white wine vinegar will really bring all the flavours of this delicious soup alive.

Alternatively you can cook the soup in a pressure cooker. This will really speed the process up and you will need just four minutes cooking time on full pressure once you add the stock.

You will need to leave the cooker to depressurise before blitzing.

Enjoy!

Next we have a recipe for a fresh and vibrant artichoke hummus.

This is another very quick and easy recipe and is an interesting and very tasty take on the classic hummus recipe, which is usually made with chick peas.

This is one of the first recipes Kumar shared on his Facebook page in 2015.

Artichokes are one of those ingredients that you can struggle to find a use for.

It works best if you can get hold of fresh artichokes. However, they can be hard to find. If you can’t find any, the recipe is just as delicious using canned artichokes.

To make the hummus, you will need:

340 grams or one can of artichoke hearts.

Half a cup, or around 65 grams of tahini.

One quarter of a cup of lemon juice.

Three to five cloves of garlic, roughly chopped.

One teaspoon fine sea salt.

Three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Some Leela’s Kitchen Kashmiri chili powder or Peri Peri spice blend to garnish and to give it a little bit of a kick.

It is very easy to make this recipe.

Firstly, you need to place the artichoke hearts on a baking sheet, give them a nice drizzle with olive oil and bake them at 175°C for 25 minutes.

Once cooked, take them from the oven and put the artichokes along with the rest of the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.

Then sprinkle with Peri Peri spice or chilli powder and a little drizzle of olive oil.

This dip works well as for a wonderful dip and accompaniment to salads and grilled meats, fish or vegetables.