This week I had the pleasure of meeting Leila, the founder of Bake2Explore. This sunny, optimistic, beautiful and vibrant woman bounced into my life and introduced me to all the fabulous features of flatbread. Did you know it’s often gluten free, vegan, organic and can be eaten with just about everything? Well, that’s just the start of the story as Leila’s first product is flatbread, both in subscription status and as a gift box but this trailblazer plans to expand into so much more!
Of course, I had to try the flatbread making kits and it became a family affair. Percy, Poppy, Mitch and I got to grips with Taboon flour and all made our own flatbread to eat with the night’s meal. Percy turned hers into a mini pizza, while I used mine to scoop up the teriyaki salmon and jasmine rice I’d prepared earlier. I was worried that the flatbread would be too filling, adding to an already complete dish however it became the perfect accompaniment and now we’re a flatbread family. No longer do we sit with chips and dips, we’ve made the healthier choice of flatbread and dips, and we now make the dips ourselves. One of our favourite dips is simply turmeric, a little sugar and lemon juice steeped in a small pool of hot water before adding yogurt and mint sauce. It’s delicious. It’s also very moreish if made with coconut yogurt too!
The long and the short of it is these flatbread making kits are about much more than the food they result in. They’re an entire experience, you feel as if Leila is there in the kitchen, taking you through her family’s Persian history as the step by step guide and high quality tools facilitate the flatbread process. They’re so simple that any age of child can become involved and as there’s no eggs it doesn’t matter if a toddler sucks at the dough. Once created they bring more inspiration as they can then be eaten fresh from the oven with a little butter, dipped, turned into pizzas or eaten sweet like a pancake. The possibilities are endless and you can make each one your own. No two flatbreads are the same.
We now have Flatbread Fridays. We look forward to coming together to create our own flatbreads and we try to outdo each other with our ideas. It extends family mealtimes and encourages conversations about our days, while inadvertently giving Leila a little seat at our table too.
I highly recommend you meet Leila, she offers one on one cooking classes where you can absorb that luminescent personality, be inspired by her journey from migrant to female founder, and make a new talented friend. If you don’t have time for that, do treat yourself or someone else to a gift box or subscription, as there’s nothing quite like fresh flatbread straight from the oven!
For more food ideas see our Best Subscription Boxes and Food Companies Delivering During Lockdown. You’ll find heaps of inspiration and tasty treats.
