On October 5, I launched the Daal Project podcast in person in Kingston, Ontario. Here is an excerpt of my conversation with the dynamic Joshna Maharaj about daal, the complexity of South Asian cuisine, connections with other food cultures and more. Shobhana Xavier introduces the launch.

Recipes referenced in this episode include this coconut daal, toor daal with peanuts, and my own masoor moong daal.

Joshna Maharaj is a chef, speaker & activist who believes strongly in the power of chefs & social gastronomy to bring values of hospitality, sustainability & social justice to the table. Joshna’s first book Take Back the Tray captures the lessons & experience from her work in creating a movement to reconnect food with health, wellness, education, and rehabilitation in public institutions. Joshna is an award-winning, two-time TEDx speaker and just completed a Master’s in Gastronomy at TU Dublin in Ireland.

Shobhana Xavier is professor of religion and diaspora at Queen’s University’s School of Religion (in, Kingston, Canada). She works on Islam, Sufism, and popular spirituality, especially in the United States, Canada, and Sri Lanka (North America and South Asia). She explores developments and practices of contemporary Sufism through the lens of migration, diaspora, gender, popular culture, rituals, spaces, food, and institutions. She is also a co-host of the New Books in Islamic Studies and Just Eats podcasts.

Intro and exit music: Creep by Lal @lalforest

Follow @daalproject on instagram and access additional recipes at daalproject.org

Nazma Rahman moved to Kingston, Ontario in 1970. In this episode she teaches me a Bangladeshi masoor daal with panch phoran. You will hear a mostly long kitchen soundscape followed by a conversation I had with Nazma Aunty and her husband, Hafizur Uncle, about what it was like to be Muslim here back in the day, and how they established the Islamic Society of Kingston.

Nazma Rahman is from Nilphamari, Bangladesh. She has lived in Kingston, Ontario, since 1970, where she is a founding member of the Islamic Society of Kingston. Access her daal recipe here.

Intro and exit music: Creep by Lal @lalforest

Follow @daalproject on instagram and access additional recipes at daalproject.org

In this episode, Sheetal Aunty teaches me a her take on a traditional Gujarati toor daal with jaggery – that’s right, it has sugar in it! As we cook, Sheetal Aunty and I connect over our shared Gujarati heritage and love of cooking and eating Indian cuisine.

Sheetal Purohit is from Porbandar, Gujarat, India, and she loves Kingston, her home for the last 24 years.

Intro and exit music: Creep by Lal @lalforest

Follow @daalproject on instagram or visit our website at daalproject.org