New Year New Eats

January 2021 Horoscope: What is Your Guilty Pleasure

Find out which guilty pleasure dish based on your horoscope!

New Eats: Yakisoba

Make this easy and delicious yakisoba that is filled with the basic refrigerator ingredients.

Heartwarming Comforting Lontong

Creamy,spicy and light, this lontong recipe is a must to start the year!

Beef Tapa - The Perfect Filipino All-Day Dish

We can eat this all day long and yes, we meant supper as well!

2021: Start The Year Healthy

We know how it is: festive feasting, lots of sinful, delicious desserts & big hearty meals for days. Delicious, gloriously calorific meals to pair with happy holiday moods. But it's time for a new diet cleanse, & to start afresh on a clean diet slate.

Start off your 2021 right with our low-carb, low-calorie recipes, deliciously easy to recreate for easy back to work lunches & stay home dinners.

Cheese

Vegan Spaghetti Meatballs

We all love the classic Italian-style spaghetti meatballs and here, it's made vegan with the addition of vegan meat and cheese. This Vegan Spaghetti Meatballs is a hundred percent healthy and better for the environment, without compromising on taste and satisfaction level. With the moist juiciness of the omnipork meatballs and the slurp-worthy spaghetti topped with tasty tomato sauce and gooey cheese, it’s hard to guess that this delicious dish is totally meat free!

Teriyaki Salmon

Salmon is probably one of the easiest and best ways to get your Omega-3 and protein fix without too much fuss. This classic and much-loved Japanese dish is made low carb with a tasty pak choy and bean sprouts stir-fry, and can be easily whipped up with fresh or frozen salmon fillets. Sesame oil and soy sauce gives the Teriyaki Salmon an umami twist that enhances its oceanic flavors, making it a go-to weeknight dish you can have over and over again!

Vegetarian Tofu Egg Burger

Of all the meatless mains out there, this meat-free burger surely stands out with punchy Thai flavours of sweet chilli sauce, herby coriander and crunchy butterhead lettuce leaves. The “meat” is a clean-tasting square of tofu, mushed with all bits of chillies and sweet shallots, before sizzled in a pan and topped with a fried egg. You see, sometimes healthy and hella-good does go together.

Tamarind Fish Curry with Broccoli Biryani

Missing biryani while on a low carb or keto diet? Fret not! This modern, low carb take on Tamarind Fish Curry with Broccoli Biryani looks great on the plate and tastes delicious too with Indian-inspired flavors. Shredded or riced broccoli has a nice bite to it and holds its shape well in high heat, providing a soft crunchy contrasting texture to the flaky fish and smooth curry. Out of broccoli? You can easily substitute it with riced cauliflower as well.

Zucchini

Cheddar Jalapeno Chicken Meatballs

Festive feasting doesn’t have to be all greasy and unhealthy. Brighten up the party with these Cheddar Jalapeno Chicken Meatballs that make for an excellent low carb option for your dinner table! Moist and succulent, these cheesy spiced meatballs are balanced with sweet sauteed vegetables for guilt-free party snacking that your health-conscious guests and loved ones will greatly appreciate.

Under 30 mins

Spiced Tuna Fish Cakes with Thai Basil Stir Fry

Spicy, tangy and fragrant with Asian herbs, these fish cakes are easy to make and are the perfect holiday party nibbles. Unlike traditional fish cakes that are made with flour, these Spiced Tuna Fishcakes with Thai Basil Stir Fry have a refreshing mix of water chestnuts and flaky canned tuna that makes them healthy low carb alternatives for the snack table. Pair them with tropical cocktails or mocktails for the festive season!

Live It Up Sweet in 2021

Get ready for a sweet, sweet year with AFN! Sweeten up 2021 with Ili's satisfying, easy to make gluten free, dairy free Sweet Potao Cake with Coconut Drizzle, or try your hand at making easy traditional kuehs that are guaranteed to impress bibik.

Impress your kids with our easy gula melaka bandung cupcakes, or treat yourself to Anton's sweet & delicious caramelised banana turon.

Flour

Sweet Potato Cake with Coconut Drizzle

Since going gluten free and dairy free, I keep finding new ways to curb my sugar cravings without missing out on delicious desserts, especially during festivities. This is one of my favorite cakes to bake because it checks all the right boxes and at the same time, super easy to make. A moist and fluffy sweet potato loaf cake drizzled with a sticky sweet coconut syrup, it’s topped with a sprinkle of crushed walnuts for an added crunch and some raisins for a pop of color. The perfect dessert to go with any holiday feast!

Gula Melaka & Bandung Cupcakes

Move over rainbow sprinkles, there’s a lot more to like in these cupcakes. Here, you’ve got blushing sugared bandung bunnies, and great caramelised gula melaka lions! Well, it’s quite a lot to do, so pick a Saturday morning for a project with the kids. You could focus on making the moist cupcake batter, which is the easiest part of this recipe, while they play with the animal shapes and streaking colours. Whatever you do, be sure to have a bit more of the decorative ingredients on hand for any lets-try-again moments you might have together.

Anton’s Banana Turon 2 Ways

It’s like a spring roll, but sweet. The famous afternoon snack is traditionally stuffed with plantain (banana) and dusted with brown sugar here in the Philippines. I learned about this food because of a street vendor who consistently passes by our house to sell just that. I love its simplicity, and how it is well-loved by almost all Filipinos. This crunchy snack can be made in two ways –original style with plantain or a crunchy chocolate one, drizzled with caramel. Both are equally addictive! P.S. A famous shopping mall in the Philippines turned the humble turon into a million peso enterprise!Ingredients

Es-Teler

This refreshing icy cocktail of avocado, jackfruit and coconut is the perfect Indonesian dessert to have on a hot day.

Under 60 mins

Delightful Chewy Rose Sago Kuih

There’s no flour needed for an eye-popping delight. The ruby red Rose Sago Kuih is simply made with caster sugar, sago, floral rose essence and a few other common ingredients to make for a soft, chewy delight during your afternoon tea or post-dinner indulgence. If you’re a fan of fresh grated coconut, take delight in flipping your kuihs in a tangle of the refreshing fruit, until you get a perfect coat of juicy coconut shreds.

Fluffy Banana Cake

Not just for frying, use your air-fryer to bake a Fluffy Ugly Banana Cake too. The best part about this snack is that no one will fight you over it at first glance –and you can horde that sweet-tasting goodness to yourself. If your banana is really ripe, you can omit the sugar, as the natural sugars will be more than enough. For even more protein and a nice crunch, crush a handful of almonds or walnuts and fold it into the mixture before baking.

Ube Macapuno Pandesal

Pandesal or Pan de sal (bread roll) is the most popular bread in the Philippines, and almost everyone grew up eating it. While good on its own, infusing it with other flavors just makes it even more amazing! This is my own iteration on the famous marriage between Ube (purple yam) and Macapuno (soft coconut meat). It’s so easy to make and when you bite into this fluffy bread, all the naturally sweet Macapuno oozes out.

2021 Cooking & Eating Resolutions Guides

If you've yet to set your new year's resolutions, how about trying your hand at a healthier year? Learn our best tips on healthier food choices, or healthier, new cooking styles this year & be prepared for a foodie new year. Some say our body's like a temple, it's time to treat it right by eating right - and what better way to start than with the new year?

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5 Cooking Tips For A Healthy New Year

Start the new year right with these easy-to-follow tips for healthier home-cooked meals.

In partnership with

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These one-wok wonders are a wicked way to cook, especially if you’re making Asian food

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Reducing Food Waste, One Plate at a Time

A group of food waste experts help top hotels reduce food waste and save big money

2020 Roundup: Trending Top 10 Recipes

As we move into the new year, we can't forget our finger licking, eat until shiok recipes from 2020. We bring you AFN's Top 10s, from chicken recipes, the fieriest recipes, the best mala recipes & more. Get inspired to revisit old time classics, & maybe try it with your own new twist too!

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10 Ultimate Finger-Licking Chicken Recipes

Search no more- this is the definitive list of 10 ultimate chicken recipes that you should memorise because they.are.all.finger.licking.good. From the stickiest sweet and spicy Korean fried chicken, to fiery sambal fried chicken pops, and an invigorating ginger lemongrass chicken, it's chicken done right, each time. What's your favourite?

10 Addictive Asian Desserts

Desserts in Asia don't just use white sugar for sweetness. There's caramel gold of gula melaka in many Southeast Asian desserts, to creamy milky coconut milk in a bubbling bowl of warm Thai bananas. And we're not forgetting the endless list of sweet tropical fruits, especially the year-round favourite dessert, mango sago pomelo.

10 Easy Asian Pasta Recipes

From a soupy salted cabbage and beef macaroni, to a creamy kimchi spaghetti - make every pasta with these amazing Asian flavors

10 Extraordinary Easy Egg-Tastic Recipes

Make it poached, scrambled, fried, or soft-boiled, whether in dishes and desserts- here's 10 ways to love the extraordinary egg

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10 Mad-About-Mala Recipes For All Spice Levels

Ah, the pleasure of the burn! Is there is anything quite as spicy as the devilish Sichuan peppercorn?

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10 Super Shiok Spicy Recipes

Doesn't heat just make everything taste just a little better? We traversed the spicy landscape of Asia, testing out palette-friendly snacks like the Otak-Otak from Southeast Asia to devilishly tongue-numbing dishes like the Ma La Xiang Guo from Northern China, to bring to you a list that will appeal to the most amateur and advanced spicy eater. Here are 10 Super Shiok Spicy Recipes, yum!

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