This isn’t an attempt to be an authoritative voice on Asian food: to undertake such a survey would take years. This is food I’ve created in my kitchen based on a very personal journey and an adventure. And this is now how I like to cook for my family and friends, and for myself. It is the food I’ve come to love—and I hope you love it too. This could and should be a cheap meal, especially if you buy the ingredients from an Asian supermarket (or one online). If you buy more curry leaves and lemongrass than you need, keep them wrapped up in the freezer for next time. Serve with paratha (you can buy these from the freezer section of many Asian supermarkets) or steamed rice. An excellent way to get your protein. This dish is traditionally eaten out and about with other street food such as samosas, chaats and dosas, but at home I eat it by itself or with spinach, non-dairy yoghurt and chapatis to create a meal. Serves four.

The dish itself is easy to make – it’s a one-pot recipe that predominantly requires stirring and simmering – and the ingredients are ones you’re likely to already have at home. The result was a coconut-y, spiced, mildly-hot curry punctured with wedges of fried paneer and, as you can imagine, tasted rather good. Although the kale is blitzed in a food processor and wilts to nothing, I expect you could swap it for spinach if you prefer. The same goes for the cheese: if you’re vegan, leave it out. To serve, divide your noodles between four bowls and ladle the broth and greens over the noodles. If you’re serving the eggs, halve and pop on top, along with some chilli oil if you like. To make the overnight soy eggs, first, set up somewhere to leave your eggs to marinate. I like to use a Kilner jar, but you could also use a deep plastic box. The biggest limitation of all was not being able to travel to the countries whose food I wanted to explore further. When writing my Indian cookbooks, I had traveled for months at a time, taking sharp turns when someone recommended a new dish, or a cook I had to meet. But Arya was still so young and dependent on me, and I didn’t want to leave her. This time, I traveled by reading: I followed Fuchsia Dunlop around the streets of Chengdu and saw 1990s Jakarta through Madhur Jaffrey’s eyes. I was excited to enter this brave new world in which I found myself. Huge numbers of people, growing by the day, were choosing to eat a more plant-based diet, whether for political, environmental, ethical, or economic reasons. Although a relatively small number were actually becoming vegan, a larger number were looking to reduce the amount of meat and dairy in their diet. This felt like a big and important discussion—I wanted a chance to be a part of it and help move the conversation forward.As I finish writing this book, Arya is a toddler and starting to piece her first words together. I’ve felt so much guilt along the way and I am sure this tension between work, life, and motherhood will always be present. But if there’s one lesson that I wanted to teach my daughter from the moment I met her, it is this: she should dream. Sometimes what she dares to dream won’t be easy to achieve, but it’ll be worth it in the end. Next, take a bowl that will fit all the eggs and put a couple of handfuls of ice in it. Add cold water to the bowl so it’s three-quarters full, and leave to one side.

Enticing, inviting and delicious. Vegan and vegetarian dishes that are hard to resist (and why should you?).” I found that I could travel to Asia without traveling very far at all. I spoke to my accountant, Ben, who is from Borneo, where Sarawak laksa is prized. I begged Wichet, the owner-chef of the Thai restaurant Supawan, to show me how to make a tom kha ghai soup, and Shuko Oda, the Japanese chef, to teach me how to make her walnut miso. I accosted home cooks on social media who had innocently posted photos of their breakfast to ask them more about what they ate and how they made it.

To cook the eggs, take a saucepan just big enough to hold the eggs snugly (so they can’t rattle around too much), fill it half full of water and bring to the boil over a medium-high heat. When the water is at a rolling boil, gently lower the eggs into the water using a large spoon. There are seasonal specialities, warming noodles and curries, tofu and rice dishes as well as salads, sides and sweets - all practical and surprisingly easy to make - and bursting with exciting flavours.