Nourishing and delicious suhoor ideas Guest: Chef Sameera Ismail

0:00And welcome back. This is the daily reset. You have 29 minutes until 4 p.m. on this beautiful Friday. The 9th fast of Ramadan 1447, already subhanallah. So you know Ramadan mornings have a very particular feeling. It's quiet, it's dark. Sometimes we half awake standing in the kitchen wondering what to eat, what are we going to make for the family that is actually going to carry us through the day. You know, so who isn't just an oatmeal? It's our fuel. It's our intention our preparation before the long fast. But I think, you know, for many of us, it becomes rushed, repetitive or whatever is as quick as let's just grab that and carry on. So today, we're speaking to someone who understands food, not just flavor, but has nourishment, creativity and empowerment. Joining us is none other than Chef Samira Ismail, who is a professional's chef with over 10 years of experience. And she is breaking barriers in luxury hospitality spaces in, is no small feat. And she has done so with excellence and confidence. Beyond the kitchen

1:05which works, she's the founder of Sotadev by Chef Samira with thousands, follow her vibrant, bold, joyful cooking content. Her energy in the kitchen is infectious, colourful, fearless, and of course, deeply rooted in the culture. And with that, Chef Samira, Assalamu alaikum, and thank you so much for making the time for us on this Friday afternoon. Pleasure, it's happened to be here. And in such a lovely Mubarakman, so yeah, everything food just just gets my excitement levels skyrocketed. My too, I'm just brazing myself that I don't get too hungry without conversation. I'm going to say one thing, hashtag sorry, not sorry on this point. Definitely, you know, so work and feel repetitive, right? Because we just feel like we're just going to grab whatever we can, whatever is easiest. But if you can share what is one quick balance to our recipe that we can prepare in under 15 minutes, what would it be?

2:06Okay, so it's very important that we include things like protein as well as our probiotics. So when you're having protein, that's to do with your eggs. If it's a probiotic, it's a dairy item, so it's your yoghurt. More often than not, we tend to move away from that healthier stuff, and then we move on to the greasier stuff. And I know people are having their curries, rotis, and what not in the morning. I don't come at me, but it's also quite healthy to have in some fruits of vegetables. And again, the protein and probiotics. So what's really quick and easy is, if you have things like avocado or bananas at home, it's nice to make a toast. So that's basically you just making a simple scrambled egg. Do not put excessive spice in it. You do not want your tummy to be upset during the day. You want it to be settled. So your normal salt and pepper, if you have healthier salts, then please do add that in. And you make a very quick scrambled eggs. If you are gymming and you need that extra protein, then you can have maybe two toast instead

3:10of one. Depends on your eating habits at the same time. So make sure that the toast, the bread, rather, the choice of bread is whole wheat and not your heavy white and brown bread, because that also doesn't help with kind of like keeping you full of a longer. You want your stomach to be settled. So you're going to have either one or two slices of whole wheat toast, some mashed or sliced avocados, one soft boiled or scrambled egg, or if you want a fried egg, that's even better. And then basically you just sprinkle some salt, some coarse black pepper, some chili flakes if you like, some heat, or you can even add some garlic flakes. But again, not too much preservatives because we know what happens there. And you basically just kind of layer this up. You add in some toast, sorry, you add your bread, you can add some cream cheese if you'd like. You can put your fried egg and you can put your mashed avocado or swap it around. It's all up to you. And at the end to add in a nice crunchy vegetable, or we say it's also fruit,

4:10it's some sliced cherry tomatoes with a crackle of salt and pepper, very healthy, very good. And then if you want to make a smoothie, add in some avocados, bananas, honey, and you can add in some cocoa powder with either low fat milk, or you can add in some sweetened almond milk or coconut milk. But no whole milk, because again, it's heavier on you. Something simple, quick and easy, and yeah, it's quite fun and tasty. Yeah, that sounds delicious. So I think I'm nearly there as well. I do have eggs in the morning, but I think I need to include in some avocado and some now cherry tomatoes. Yeah, and it's just, you know, it's, and you know, if we know what we have, and you can prepare in advance, it makes life easier. So if you know you're having a egg, you can make it out, you can make sure you have your avocados prepped and ready, and yeah, it's easy to go, right? Absolutely. So, you know, we've covered about the speed, something that we can make in under 15 minutes. Let's talk a little bit about the stamina, right? Many people struggle

5:12with energy crashes during the day. So what kind of sewer meals help sustain the energy longer? Okay, so these are items that prevent your energy crashes, and there is like, I'm one of them, I love fasting. It's so much fun. I don't feel the hunger, but it's just the energy and the tiredness that just like kills me throughout the day. So lack of sleep, especially with our hours now, we have like 45 hours until so hot after that, and then, you know, you come home from work, and it's crunch time, and it's almost iftar, so you can't really get in your power naps if you are wanting to do that. Also, between acid and mercury, we shouldn't be sleeping, but nevertheless, so it's very important. These are nice meals that you can prep in advance, so you've got your oats. You can have a special type of nut butter, if you'd like, or just plain homework, like a not homework, almond milk. So it's again, it's lighter on your tummy. You can make a chia seed pudding, so it's your oats, it's your bananas, it's your honey. So again, you are including foods that

6:15are similar foods, so it's your honey as well. chia seeds as well. If you want to add in some cream, if you want, I would suggest you just a tad, but because it tastes better. And then you can cut up some apple slices in here and kind of give it a nice mix with your almond milk, and it mustn't be like thick. It must be a little bit runny so that when it sits overnight, it absorbs your liquid, and basically you get your pudding. If you want to add in more liquid in the morning, to make it a little bit looser, if you want, then you're more than welcome to do that. What we've just covered is eggs and whole grain toast with your avocado and other fruit items, so like cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers are very good because it hydrates you at the same time. Next is your Greek yogurt, some seeds, and some fruit. So pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, add that in. If you want to add in some nuts at the same time, more than happy to do that. And if you really, really want to go the desi root, then you can have in very light lentils with brown roti. If you want, I'm going to be nice

7:20on this one. So those are very nice light things to settle your stomach. So you need to avoid like sugary cereals and white bread and pastries and donuts and stuff. They spike your insulin level, which means your energy levels are actually dropping really hard because remember there's no balance, there's no carbohydrates, there's no starch, you're just adding a whole bunch of sugar into your system. So even if you're doing granola, make sure that it does not have a high sugar content, it has more like a high fiber and protein content. And you do get a lot of that in the stores, you will see it. They're more veg items, vegetarian vegan stuff. Try and get that during Ramadan, it helps very lightly. On you as a person and like a stomach and you just don't feel like about object during the day. It's just an important point, you know what you've said is that we need to prioritise those slow releasing carbs, the protein, the healthy fats. You know, it's about preventing that 11 a.m. slump that we tend to feel because you had the sugary stuff in the morning. Exactly.

8:23And it does make you lethargic, believe it or not. And then that's why some people are like, it's like, oh, I need to go for a for a drop or something and I'm just so tired. It's because there's too much of sugar into the system. So yeah, let's try and prevent that. Yeah, they just don't know you shouldn't, you know, themselves properly for Ramadan, which is really important to me. But this year we're fasting a lot longer compared to previous years. Yeah, I also have to. We got ourselves covered. But, you know, chef Samira, not everybody feels hungry at Suhur. So for someone who doesn't feel hungry, what are some light but nourishing options that you can recommend? Okay, so I'm those people. I cannot eat at Suhur, no matter how much I try. Today was like the first actual day where I had some whole wheat with cheese inside my little toast. I couldn't, I just normally don't eat. I just have my water and I have my date and surprisingly enough, it sustains me. And even at Iftar, it's just a fry. It's sometimes halem and obviously

9:24the Nabi's water. So that's I'm one of these people. Yeah. So I notice that when you eat things like birch, I'm usually I've mentioned it before in the oats combination, chia seeds, honey, banana combination. That is also known as birch, I'm usually if we're going to get into culinary times, it's basically the rolled oats soaked overnight. But in this, you're putting in your apples, chia seeds, you can put in some cocoa powder or cacao, people said like that, honey, those kind of stuff and just mix it up. It adds very good fullness because you've got oats in there and you've got your dairy item, your probiotic, which is either you can add in Greek yogurt or milk or just cream. It's up to you. So you can add in some dates and tahini overnight oats. So if you don't want to add in the birch, I'm usually vibe, you can add in some date and tahini overnight oats. So basically that is half a cup of rolled oats, a tablespoon of chia seeds, one tablespoon of tahini, which is which is also very light on the palate. It's it's a bit bitter,

10:27so you're not going to add in an excessive amount, one chopped date, three quarter cup of milk, quarter teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Now this you mix in a jar because you're going to have it sealed up or you can put it into a little cute casserole dish. You're going to refriger this for a minimum of four hours. So you can even do this when you come back from Theravi, which I highly doubt, but you can try and do that. So it's a minimum of four hours. And in the morning, you top it up with nuts or a sliced banana or you can even add some dried fruits. So healthier stuff is like cranberries, those kind of dried fruits, not the heavier stuff like dried mango. So very important of what we choose in that as well, even dried apple slices. And basically the reason why more often than not, people say to add in oats into meals that will help keep you fuller is because it's very slow carbs. It's not the heavier, impactful carbs. It's slow, it's digestive, it expands

11:31and explodes in, not explode. It expands in your stomach a lot slower, which allows you to be fuller for longer because it's kind of like happening over time if that's the better way of me explaining it. When it comes to your chia seeds, it's fiber and it's your omega-3s. Tahini is a healthy fat, which is why it's lighter on the palate, even when you swallow it out. Dates, it's got obviously it's a cinnamon for it and it's natural sweetness. So there's your power packed overnight oats that will keep you fuller for longer. So by the time you come to iftar time, you're ready to have your next meal, but in a healthy way. So there we go. Yeah, I absolutely love it. I was gosh, you can ask you to share a great recipe for overnight oats, but I think you've actually covered that for us. And you know, the thing is, you can actually get creative, right? There's so many, like the toppings are endless. My sister once made like a tiramisu version. It was so delicious. Wow. That sounds great, actually. I think I kind of want to go into the recipe,

12:33but it's like fermented with coffee and you know, obviously topping it up with yogurt and then some cocoa on the top and yeah, really that. So chop chop so you can even add in for that sweet tooth if you're feeling for it. So there you have it. Some great ways. Exactly. Why wouldn't anyone want to have so cool? If you're having a fancy like that and very tasteful and very different, then why wouldn't anyone want to actually indulge in so cool? Absolutely. I love that idea. Kudos to her. It's actually, you know, they say oats is like the queen of so word because it keeps you busy. That is definitely something. I know you share a great recipe for us to have our exit, but if you can share maybe something another recipe for flavorful egg-based dish because we know that eggs are a so word staple. Okay, so eggs are actually my favorite. So this is like a Turkish style eggs kind of thing. So you basically chop half an onion, half chop of any

13:38red color, green color, yellow color pepper, whichever one you use. So it's half a chopped onion. So it's what either you can use white onion or red onion. So like with your red onion, share it with a very unrated onion, tourism onion. It adds a very natinous to your food and it's got a it's got like a slight sweetness to it. The white onion has more sweetness to it when it's cooked properly, really nicely. That's why we use that for caramelized onions. But if you want like a nice natinous in your food, then you can add in red onion or black basically half the ratio of it. So half a white onion, chopped, half a any color pepper. Each pepper has a different flavor profile to it. So you can do a little bit of research on that and then you can choose which one you want for whichever meal you'd like. We generally like to use all. And then one grated tomato or if you like me, I like to use some cherry tomatoes and just like kind of smash it up. It's just it adds great sweetness to it. I love it. And some chili flakes or some chili powder for some heat

14:45and obviously some salt. So you simmer all of this for five minutes, kind of like cook it, cook off your onions first with a little bit of oil. Then you add in some of your pepper and then you can add in your cherry tomatoes at this point. And then it's just like allowed to kind of like soften and then you smash it down. Or if you quick now you want it to be like super quick in the morning, then you add in your grated tomato and obviously your spices. Once you done, you add in two eggs and gently like stir until it's like a little bit set. So basically it's like a scrambled version but you're making it almost like a healthier version of egg chutney if you could say so. Or you can have it like Turkish style eggs where it's just cracked and you basically eat it like like a shakshuka or you can make it with yoghurt. It's tastier, it's a probiotic and yeah, it looks pretty. And you basically finish this off with some danya and it was a lot of olive oil. You serve it with your whole wheat. If it's really saucy, then it's a winner because then

15:50obviously it's not dry bread going down with your eggs. So if you want it saucy, you can add in a little extra of your grated tomato and just like live that kind of cook off. So yeah, that's quick and easy. I love it. I love how you elevate the eggs. It's just, you know, it's the ingredients that we have at home which is making it something so so delicious. But you know, in many homes in Ramadan, there's the little ones that are attempting their first fast and the little ones are so excited about fasting. So for families that have the children that are fasting, what are some kid-friendly so-who recipes that's both appealing to them but filling too. Okay, so this is my going to be my favorite question because I know some moms are going to be like, oh my goodness, I must make this early in the morning. So it's banana out pancakes. Now this has no sugar in it. So it's great for the kidneys. So the insulin levels are not skyrocketing, okay? Again, we're including oats. So it's one mashed banana, obviously, please make sure it's

16:50ripe. One egg, a quarter cup of oats, make sure that your oats are rolled oats, blend, and pan fry the small pancakes. You're done. You serve this with some yogurt and some, you can add some frozen berries if you'd like or you can add some fresh berries and you basically drizzle some honey. You're done. Quick and easy. So it adds a cute little addition to your sohorn table. But at the same time, every kid that I know likes pancakes. So they're not going to deny you and say, oh, I don't feel for this. Trust me, they're going to eat it, especially when you've got like cute little condiments on the side. So you've got your little round or different kind of shaped pancakes. In a bowl, you've got your honey or you've got your yogurt and you've got your berries and you place it like that on the table. It looks cute. It's colorful and they're going to want to make up their own pancakes. So that's a cute little thing in the morning, especially if the kids are not like rowdy or destructing anything, they can actually sit at the table and have

17:52the pancakes and you can allow them to bowl their own pancakes to a system we're necessary. And there we go. They've had the sohorn meal without even realizing what you've added into those pancakes. Right, I love it because it's kind of cool. It's fun. It's nourishing. And we know that kids eat with the eyes first. So this is going to be so nice to them. I was thinking of me and I can even have because I made doesn't have sugar, which is great. And it has banana and oats, which is perfect. So thank you for sharing that recipe. I'm definitely going to give that a try for my family. Inshallah. But let's talk a little bit about it. Right. Because many of us would dramatically reach out for the tea or the coffee and we rely on that in the morning, what link would you suggest instead to prevent dehydration? Excellent question. So I personally like to have nabis every morning. And I soak like a lot of dates. So my water is literally the color of the dates. And trust me, I have that in the morning,

18:52many mornings. I mean, for until yesterday, I've been having that in the morning with like one savoury because like, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm savouries on my weakness. So I look at that in the morning and one savoury. And that's it. And that nourishes me like you cannot believe because the sweetness is natural sweetness. There's no preservatives in there. So that's going to top my list. Nabi's water basically you spoke about, I like it really like, I want to taste the date and I want to taste the sweetness. So for like a 250 ml of like a normal glass of water, I soak a span amount of dates like six to eight dates. And basically, I strain it in the morning and then I drink that. So it's overnight and I eat the dates after that because it's so like, it's soft and it tastes really good. Surprisingly, the taste and the sweetness is still in there even after it's soaked. So that's the first thing. The second thing is having a flavored water. So you're going to add in some chia slices of lemon and cucumber to your water. You can put that into the fridge overnight or you can

19:55leave it out but make sure like it doesn't get too cloudy. So make sure you're not also having like cold ice cold water in the morning because it does mess up your throat as you can hear with my throat because yeah. Anyways, so that's just one tablespoon of chia seeds, one full glass of water, a squeeze of lemon or sliced lemon. And when you when you like ready to have your water and you don't really want it plain, you can add in a tablespoon of honey or you can just like kind of just leave it. But if you are adding in some honey, just let it set for 10 minutes before you drink it so that the honey kind of dissolves. And basically that is the second very good, very, very nourishing and very hydrating. And if you're not adding anything, you just want a plain like nourishing and hydrating water, coconut water is excellent for hydration. It is brilliant. It tastes good. It's so refreshing, especially if you want to like just drink it chilled from the fridge. I know

20:58it's not I'm not advising. You should have pour water, but it tastes the best when it's chilled. And obviously if you want to have some almond milk with a little bit of honey in it or sweet and almond milk, again, it's very light. It will settle your tummy at the same time. And my favorite is a date and almond smoothie with a touch of banana or peanut butter to it. Absolutely delicious. This is great because you can literally add in how much of each item you want in there. And it depends on the thickness of the smoothie that you actually want. So yeah, though are my best. But just for those people who are listening and saying, oh, but you know what, I like my tea and I like my coffee, but they're also getting tired during the day. This is the reason why caffeine tea also has caffeine in it. Just by the way, for those who didn't know, caffeine, which is your coffees, your teas and all of that, they increase your dehydration levels, which means you're going to be so lethargic during the day. You're going to want to sleep.

22:00Your mind, your thoughts are not getting stimulated. The brain is not getting any stimulation at all, which means you're not going to be focusing very well at work. So if you are already low on sleep and you're having your coffee in the morning, please note, it is not going to wake you up. It is going to dehydrate you more because you're not putting anything into your system. To all my coffee and tea lovers, don't worry, I feel I'm a tea girl as well. But trust me, when it comes to things like this, away from the tea coffees and whatever other caffeine drinks you have in your coax and stuff in the morning, it is not going to help you. I plead with you, please have something healthier. It's just my PSA for the day. Yeah, thanks for sharing that because I think a lot of us feel like let me just have that coffee or tea because I can't have it the whole day and how am I going to survive without my coffee? Yeah, you're going to feel it if you're going to do that. So you'd rather be safe than sorry and share some, share some great recipes with us,

23:04which I'm sure we can all give a try. But can you perhaps share a recipe that we can prep for maybe two or three days in advance, like a make a head sehu recipe? Okay, cool. So this obviously, as we've now, how can I say, concluded that oats is very good. So you're going to do a quick baked sehuur oat squares. So this is cute because it's already pre-prepped and you're done and you can have it as like a snack in the morning. So it's two cups of oats, two mashed bananas, two eggs, you use it whole eggs over here, one and a half cups of milk, two tablespoons of peanut butter and one teaspoon of cinnamon. You're going to mix this all together, bake it at 180 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, cool it, slice it, refrigerate it, and it's a grab and go for about three days. Also, depends on how many people are eating it. So maybe it might just not last like two days. So you might need to make more. So you can reheat this or you can eat it cold. Again, it's very good, keeps you full of a longer. The second thing is you can make your scrambled eggs

24:09in advance. So you can make it a day before or the night before or you can do something called a frittata. So that is basically, it's a very long recipe. So if you want, you can pop on the internet and there's many lovely, quick and easy recipes you can make. And the second thing is a quiche, very quick and easy recipe for quiche. You're going to make a nice, flavorful filling with often onion cubed, some baby spinach. I prefer to use the whole spinach, the aged spinach because it adds more flavor. You basically put that in a small part of a little bit of oil, some gira seeds, onions. And then you cook that off until it becomes translucent. You add in some cherry tomatoes, allow that to sort of get softened, smash it up a little bit, add in some masalas or any flavor you like. Put it in your spinach, let that sort of release the moisture. You can add in some sliced mushrooms at the same time that you're adding in your cherry tomatoes so that the moisture releases. Cook that off really nicely. Allow that to cool. Add in a little

25:12bit of feta cheese and basically you make an egg custard mixture for your quiche. Pop that in your quiche molds and you bake it and you can store it for up to two to three days even longer. But it's a minimum of three days and you're done. It's so filling, it's so tasty and you can have that with your water or your smoothie if you like. I love it. I think it's great. This is gold for busy households. You know, it's just one thing that we can prep in advance, have it ready and you know that you're not going to reach for something unhealthy because you have the healthy stuff done, ready and you know, made. In conclusion, the last question that I have for you today, because we are running out of time is if we were holding guests staying over in Ramadan, what would your simple, impressive Zuhur menu look like? Okay, so definitely you're going to include your Turkish eggs or your shakshuka. Very important. It looks pretty and it's tasty and it's lovely. You're going to add in into that menu. You're

26:12going to have in some of your overnight oats. We gave lovely recipes and definitely we have to include our banana oat pancakes. The next is a fresh fruit platter, exceptionally important that we have hydration through different fruits into our system and again, some natal sweetness at the same time. So make sure in your fruit platter you are including dates or you can do cute little peanut butter dates or cucumber and dates. Really nice to make little whole wheat toast with your egg in it or you can do savory fold croissants with your eggs and spinach and your whole cute little quiche mixture that we did. Some quiche at the same time, some yogurt with some olive oil and then you can have that as a dipping for any, you know, like some cucumbers, whatever you want. If you do not want some hummus, if you're not a hummus fan and of course we need to include our waters and our smoothies. Quick and easy and that's your table.

27:14Perfect. Shikram is so much sounds so incredible, elegant but comforting and that's exactly what the whore should feel like. Shif Samira, Shikram so much for your time this afternoon. It's been such a pleasure chatting with you about these two whore ideas, nourishing and delicious as well. Well, that's Allah bless you and reward you and we look forward to chatting with you next Friday again in ShAllah. I mean, it's such a pleasure and I hope that by next Friday, all our listeners have tried at least one thing from our cute little conversation that we had today and I hope that you're also going to try something I'll expect a message from you but just ask Allah for having me. I hope everyone has a lovely iftar tonight and enjoy the rest of Ramadan in ShAllah. Salamu alaykum.