ST201903

Kalpna Woolf, founder
of 91 Ways
to Build to a Global City. This
initiative helps bring together the
many nationalities living in Bristol
and encourage them to connect
through the food they cook in their
homes and communities. She is also
a TV producer and author.
“This isn’t an everyday daal, my mum
would make it when all the family
were getting together. Chana daal
look like dried peas and are the inside
of black chickpeas. This recipe has
two hits of turmeric – one when you’re
boiling the daal and then again in the
tomato base. It’s full of goodness and
flavour and I can see my mum now
stirring it and telling us what was in it
and why it was so good for us.
I cooked this for my son when he
was small – he’s 25 now and living in
Toronto and he recently called me
asking for the recipe so he could cook
it for his girlfriend. That made me smile.
I was born in India and we moved to
south London when I was six. I was
working at the BBC and we relocated
to Bristol 20 years ago. The food
scene has come on a lot since then
and I particularly like how Bristol
thinks a lot about food and its impact

• people here want to know where
  their food has come from. We
  launched 91 Ways in recognition of
  the 91 languages spoken in the city
  and to bring people out of their
  communities to connect with others

while sharing their food and stories.

Food is a great calling card, it

brings people together and that’s

what I love most about it. There’s

nothing better than that feeling of

talking and laughing over a shared

plate of home-cooked food. We’ve

enjoyed food from all over the world.

This year, because of Brexit, we want

to make the European community

feel part of the city. Food helps you get

back to the beginning and connect

again on a basic human level.”

Mum’s turmeric

loaded chana daal

Serves 4

200g dried chana daal

(chickpea lentils)

1 tsp turmeric powder

FOR THE SAUCE

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

5cm thumb of ginger, grated

1 medium onion, finely chopped

28g pack fresh coriander, leaves

picked and stems chopped

(separately)

1 green chilli, finely chopped

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp red chilli powder

“Food is a great calling

card, it brings people

together and that’s what

I love most about it”

“It’s not everyday daal,” says

Kalpna, whose mum used to

make it for her, and whose

grown-up son recently

requested the recipe