THE CLEARING WITH KATHERINE MAY
Yasmin Khan’s warm seas and verdant greens
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Hello,
Warm waters, humid, verdant jungle and the nighttime hum of insects are where we find ourselves this week as our guest, Yasmin Khan, transports us on a much-needed break to the tropics.
Yasmin is the bestselling author of travel cookbooks exploring the food, people and stories of the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean. In 2025 she found herself in the middle of a bizarre legal storm when she was threatened with legal action by a deli for calling her latest book ‘Sabzi’ - the word for veg or greens in multiple languages.
In this conversation, we discuss the controversy (the case was eventually dropped) and the issues it raises, including the ownership and commodification of food culture. Plus finding community when the chips are down, the ebb and flow of cooking for pleasure, snatched moments of rest with a small child and UK national treasure, Nigella Lawson. A wonderful, and important, conversation.
Links from the episode:
Yasmin’s Substack Risingup.substack.com
Yasmin’s Instagram
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
How to Eat by Nigella Lawson
Production Credits
Guest Booker and Admin Support - Meghan Hutchins
Substack Manager - Rebecca Armstrong
Producer - Alice Lloyd
Music - The Leaf Library theleaflibrary
Click here to listen in your favourite app, or paid subscribers can listen to an ad-free version here in this post.
Transcript:
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