When you have a glut of leeks after making chicken stock for ramen, you know you have to use them up! I don't have a backup recipe so when I saw this recipe for Twice Cooked Leeks from New York Times' and UK Guardian's (from very quick research) foodie Alice Hart. I knew nothing about her, but grabbed a copy of her book Good Veg from the library.
I always need a side side to go with my mains, and naturally I want to increase my veg intake. If this works then I'll be putting it into the rotation.
Yay or Nay: Not sure
I can't make a decision either way as the recipe called for hazelnuts, also, mustard for the dressing. One, I was too lazy to go to the supermarket just to get hazelnuts. Two, I hate mustard, so that was out. It wouldn't be fair to judge it on that, so based on what I made, it was OK - just OK.
TIP: I don't usually cook with leeks so I'm not sure if you're supposed to cook the middle. I would get rid of it as it was a hard, chewy mess!
In an effort to eat more fish I had spotted magazine Real Simple's recipe for Kale, Lemon, Artichoke and Caper Fish Packet and immediately knew I'd make it. I have seen similar versions with spinach instead of kale but it's pretty much the same thing. Choose a fish you'd like to steam, add lemons, green leafy greens, artichokes, capers and wrap it up in parchment paper. The best thing, not a dirty dish in sight!
I paired this dish with crash potatoes which I have made from Pioneer Woman's recipe online which you can find here.
Yay or Nay: Yay
I've made this a bunch of times, even before the blog started so I know it's a fail-safe recipe. It's a great light supper that you can prepare ahead of time and delicious to boot!
After eating so decadently I needed a bit of a break from rich and moreish dishes. As soon as I was back home I spent most of the morning trying to save plants from the dead and unpacking. I realised that I had no food in the fridge so had to quickly think of some things to eat for the week. In the muddle of jetlag I flicked through Amelia Freer's book Cook. Nourish. Glow. and picked out a few recipes that I could rustle up without searching far and wide for ingredients.
The one plus of going away was that I came home to a jungle of herbs, berries, peppers and tomatoes which I knew I would utilise this week for sure. For the Mediterranean 'Pasta' I had 90% of the ingredients bar the courgette/zucchini and olives so I knew this would be easy, but would it be tasty?
Yay or Nay: Nay
I love the idea of zucchini/courgette noodles and all that but it never really lives up to expectations - I did have an amazing bowl of noodles in, of all places, Prague but I've never really had anything close to that since. There's always that weird taste when it is raw so knowing that this was cooked appealed a little more. Once the noodles cook down it does have a better aftertaste and the zest of lemon adds freshness but it was overall kind of bland and boring. Plus there was no mention of seasoning it! I'm not a big salt person but even I knew to add salt and pepper for at least some flavour!
I made a different version of this pasta salad for Mother's Day but I pretty much made it the regular way, i.e. buying a jar of pesto and adding it to cooked pasta. This time I wanted to make my own as I have an over abundance of basil from my windowsill garden and why not?! If it doesn't work out then at least I can say I tried right?
I found this recipe (and there are countless on Pinterest) in Ruby Roth's book 'The Help Yourself Cookbook For Kids'. Judging by how easy her other recipes are (I mean, they're for kids - how hard can they be?) I knew this could be a winner.
Yay or Nay: Yay
I don't know if you've tried other vegan/veggie pesto recipes but this is AMAZING! It really does taste like real pesto - which kind of makes me question what is actually in those supermarket jars of pesto. Don't bother with them, make this NOW!
TIP: I used cashews instead of the traditional pine nuts (which are extortionately expensive - why exactly?!) and Ruth does give other options for nuts.
