Plant-based recipes full of ‘Asian pride’: how Singaporean chef who cooked ‘horrible’ vegetables turned over a new leaf and wrote a vegetarian cookbook
- Pamelia Chia was apathetic towards vegetables – ‘it’s all about the protein, right?’ – until she moved to Australia and found ‘eye opening’ vegetarian dishes
- She changed focus and her new, collaborative cookbook plays up Asia’s ‘rich history’ of plant-based dishes. She tells us about her journey, and shares a recipe
Soon after she got married and moved to Australia, Singaporean food writer and former professional chef Pamelia Chia was forced to confront a gap in her repertoire.
By her own admission, she made very good meat or seafood dishes, but wouldn’t put the same heart into cooking vegetables. After one too many plates of joylessly blanched greens, however, her husband – who works for a vegetable-breeding company – protested.
“He was the one who said, ‘You know, I think you need to learn how to cook vegetables better because they’re horrible’,” she says, laughing.
The 31-year-old has come a long way since then: she is set to release her second cookbook, Plantasia: A Vegetarian Cookbook Through Asia, next month. The independently published volume features more than 60 of her own recipes as well as contributions from 24 cooks and food writers, representing cultures from across the continent.
The result is a kaleidoscope of flavours and influences, from Hong Kong-inspired typhoon shelter mushrooms to zucchini flower fritters with peanut podi.
Tying it all together is Chia’s vision for the project: celebrating Asia’s rich history of cooking with vegetables while challenging notions of what plant-based meals can look – and taste – like.