Nigella Lawson says she was misunderstood in avocado toast controversy

In this Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012 file photo, English food writer, journalist and broadcaster, Nigella Lawson poses during the 28th MIPCOM (International Film and Programme Market for TV, Video,Cable and Satellite) in Cannes, southeastern France. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File)

TORONTO -- It's the simple pleasures in life that satisfy Nigella Lawson, like eating her favourite mashed avocado on toast for breakfast.

Little did she realize that sharing that quick dish on an episode of her new BBC Two show "Simply Nigella" would spawn a torrent of snarky tweets and headlines around the world.

In an episode devoted to "quick and calm" recipes, Lawson demonstrates how she spreads mashed avocado on some bread and sprinkles sliced radishes on top.

The recipe is more elaborate in her new cookbook, "Simply Nigella: Feel Good Food" (Appetite by Random House), which involves pickling the radishes overnight and adding ginger to the avocado.

During an interview in Toronto to promote the new book, the domestic goddess said she was flummoxed by the controversy back home about the simple snack.

"Had I said, 'Here's a recipe that's quite hard...' -- but I didn't," said Lawson, adding that the episode also featured many other recipes.

"I was just chatting about what I have for breakfast a lot of days. I prefaced it with a remark that 'this isn't a recipe,"' she continued.

"To be charitable, I think I was being wilfully misunderstood. But it doesn't really matter to me.

"All I ever ... put on my Instagram and Twitter accounts are pictures of avocado on toast in various guises."

Canadians will be able to judge for themselves when the show begins airing on Food Network Canada on Jan. 9. A holiday special, "Simply Nigella: Nigella Christmas Special," will be shown on Dec. 21.

Lawson, 55, said she increasingly favours preparing and eating food that makes her feel good.

"I suppose a lot of it is as you get older you want food to make you feel as well and as vital as you can," she said.

"But at the same time, I also feel that I've had more meals than I'm going to have. I don't want to waste one eating something that I don't like or isn't pleasurable and that's important to me."

Her new book, which contains 125 recipes, is divided into chapters like "Quick and Calm," with easy work-day suppers like crunchy chicken cutlets, a riff on a caesar salad, and cauliflower and cashew nut curry. "Breathe," with a focus on slow-cooked, make-ahead dishes, includes Italian veal shank stew, beef chili, and Asian-flavoured short ribs. There are also sides, sweets, breakfasts and starters.

Lawson said she dislikes the term "clean eating."

"What I feel is that when people talk about clean eating often it's for smugness. It also seems to suggest -- which many people do feel -- that other forms of eating are dirty or shameful and I think that sort of food shame thing is so pernicious," she said.

"Of course, if all clean eating means is not having processed food I am all for it. But I think often it is a way of restricting a diet.... A restricted diet is not a healthy diet. Variation is important."

Lawson finds herself with "new enthusiasms" for fresh ginger, lime, chilies and sweet potatoes -- "food that made me feel bolstered but not weighed down" -- and sprinkles the ingredients throughout the book.

"I wanted the zing of the ginger and lime. There's something about a sweet potato that sort of makes you feel set up. There's a lot to it. I don't like things that are too sweet so I do need to counter it with the chili or lime or ginger; otherwise, it's too cloyingly sweet."

Her latest love is "quick pickling," and she includes several recipes that indulge her taste for "that slightly sprightly sourness."

"My next step, I fear, is going to be fermenting. I have already bought a fermenting pot ... so next year when I'm less busy I feel like I'm going to be fermenting all over the place."