Food for Brains: In the kitchen with health food blogger, Mira Manek

We caught up with Mira Manek, health food blogger and author whose approach to food has inspired us here at Cubex to be more mindful about the food that we put in our bodies. Her recipes are easy to prepare, colourful, full of flavour, highly nutritious and definitely one for our Food For Brains recipe collection.

Indian food is often seen as being a very heavy and oily cuisine, yet in its essence, it is enriching, nutritious and light. And this is the perception I want to change.My passion for healthy food began many years ago, and wherever I travelled, I would be searching for the healthiest spots. But I didn’t always know what healthy meant or that low fat wasn’t necessarily healthy. As a teenager, when my body started to change, I thought the answer was to ditch ‘oily Indian food’. It took me some time to realise that feeding my body with processed foods that are low in fat and in fact high in sugar was not the answer.Yoga played a key role in taking me back to my own home cooked food, the food that my mother, my grandmother and aunts have always made. Coming from a large family where my cousins and I grew up together as siblings, food has always been an integral part of our lives. So, starting with my family’s trousseau of recipes, I began to tweak ingredients here and there and in doing so, realised the endless possibilities using the wealth of ingredients in my home kitchen.My products, Spice Bites, Coco Fudge and Chai Chia, came about by experimenting with Indian spices and sweets, wanting to create delicious treats that weren’t full of sugar and butter. I’ve also recently introduced a Chai Spice, a blend of seven spices with coconut sugar, now served as Chai latte at various cafes, but also being used in different ways – at the Holborn Dining Rooms, it’s used in making and has inspired Chai French Toast on the brunch menu; Raw Press are introducing the Cappuchaino and there’s more in store!It is my love for yoga that has inspired me to also venture into organising events that bring together yoga and food. I collaborate with various yoga teachers on these yoga and brunch or yoga and supper events – a fun way to bring together different people of all ages who have an interest in yoga and healthy food, or just want to try something new.With my expanding range of products, menu collaborations with restaurants, cafes and Cubex, my wellness events and supperclubs, I want to continue to experiment with grains, lentils and the incredible spices, and bring about a new concept of Indian food, healthy, not heavy, and retaining all the richness of flavour and spice.