Growing up in Toledo, Ohio, Iman Sediqe’s kitchen often smelled of onions. As a kid, she’d peel dozens of them for family meals while learning the ins and outs of Afghan cooking from her mother.
Though they were oceans away from Afghanistan — having fled the Soviet invasion of the country in the 1980s — Sediqe’s family kept their cultural heritage alive in their Midwestern home. Cardamom, turmeric and curry powder lined their kitchen cabinets. Sediqe ’14 MA, ’19 PhD learned how to make “Afghanified” American dishes — lasagna stacked with ricotta, green onions and lentils, for example — along with traditional Afghan recipes, like borani banjan, a fried eggplant dish with a delicate balance of spices.
“Everyone would think that was my mom’s borani banjan when they’d come to eat at our house, and they’d rave about it, and I’m like, ‘No, I made it!,’” Sediqe recalls.
Now a full-time content creator, Sediqe shares her family’s rich culinary history with about 20,000 followers via her food blog, website and social media platforms — which she collectively calls Imanistan. Some of her most popular videos include instructions on how to deseed pomegranates and recipes for chapli kababs and Swahili biryani.
“Food is an opportunity for people to explore cultures and parts of the world they would never get to otherwise,” says Sediqe, whose recipe videos began going viral during the COVID-19 pandemic. Afghan recipes have been passed down largely through oral tradition, and only a few published cookbooks exist, she adds. “So when you tap into that curiosity and make it accessible that really captures an audience.”
Before Imanistan, Sediqe was an academic, pursuing a master’s degree in education at Harvard University and a master’s degree and doctorate in sociology at Northwestern. In such high-stakes environments, cooking became her stress relief. So when the pandemic caused hiring freezes that affected Sediqe’s job prospects, she “found joy in cooking.”
Sediqe’s community of foodies has continued to expand following her TV debut on Season 16 of Fox’s hit show MasterChef. After a rigorous audition process, Sediqe beat out nearly 10,000 other applicants, securing one of 40 spots on the show. For the season’s “Global Gauntlet” theme (a reference to the World Cup), contestants were asked to represent their respective cultures in their cooking. Sediqe made Afghanistan’s national dish, kabuli pulao, a sweet and savory lamb and basmati rice with honey-glazed carrots and herb chutney.
“If the king of England were coming to my house, I would serve him kabuli pulao,” Sediqe says. “So why would I make anything else for Gordon Ramsay?”
Although she didn’t move forward in the show, she still credits MasterChef as a meaningful experience.
“It was surreal,” she says. “It takes me back to being a little girl in small-town Ohio. We were the only Afghan family. Thinking today about what it would have been like to see myself represented on TV — it just gives me chills.”
Going forward, Sediqe hopes to put her research background to use and contribute to the limited written tradition of Afghan recipes by creating a cookbook.
“I feel a need to create something that can last forever,” she says.
Sediqe shares a glimpse of Imanistan in this recipe for one of her favorite sauces, Afghan chutney.
Afghan Chutney 
Ingredients
1 small bunch of fresh mint
1 bunch of cilantro
2 jalapeño peppers
4–5 cloves of garlic, peeled
8 walnuts (raw, unsalted)
2 tsp of salt
Juice from ½ a lemon
Instructions
1. Wash cilantro and mint and take the leaves off the stems.
2. Slice jalapeños in half and discard the seeds.
3. Add cilantro, jalapeños, mint, garlic, walnuts, lemon juice and salt to a food processor.
4. Blend until mixed well. If needed, open the food processor, scrape down the sides and blend once more to ensure the chutney is smooth.
5. Serve with any dish that needs a kick of flavor, or spread it on fresh bread.
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