12.06.13 | CHARRED CAULIFLOWER W/ TOMATOES & DILL

Remember me, the girl who doesn't really like cauliflower? 

Yoooou know, I'm that same girl who absolutely hates red kidney beans!!

Yeah that's me - Miss Fickle, but who cares when I'm ready to once again shout about cauliflower, because it turns out that actually it can be quite nice?

I've worked out the trick is to not cook it but instead just tease it a little bit with a some heat and then BAM hit it with shed loads of flavours.

CLEVER!

Buuut, who do you turn to when you want lots and lots of flavour?
Ottolenghi, right? Has to be.
I was actually looking through the window at his Notting Hill place a couple of months back at all the mountains of gorgeous salad creations and I'm still kicking myself for not getting a single morsel. I'll be brave next time, especially as i made this one at the weekend and it didn't kill me.
Winner right? A salad that won't kill you? Yeah, try telling that to my six year old.

Let's go!

13.04.13 | SUPER SALAD WITH ROASTED RED PEPPER DRESSING

Every now & then I post a picture of something that I've made on twitter or instagram, or even my own personal facebook page now that I'm totally OK with real life friends knowing about the blog (ok, so not totally ok, that is still a little bit strange) but none the less, every now & then people go mad get a little more interested than usual for what i've made and they contact me wanting the recipe or asking when it will go live on the blog (which is awesome by the way - thank you!)

But, you can bet your life that those times it's almost always going to be something I got majorly lucky on taste wise. 

It's also almost definitely going to be something I made up out of god knows where. 

And I can pretty much guarantee that it's going to be the one time i didn't have my camera next to me snapping every stage. 

So of course this is exactly what happened when I made this Super Salad, which is why it's taken me ages to get it on the blog. I had to scurry around in my (still very much baby) brain remembering what i used, what I did and in which order I did it in, but I finally did and here it is. Yaay for that...

FOOD: VEGGIE COTTAGE PIE

I ask you this: is there anything more comforting than a pie? No is the answer you're looking for, especially when it's -2 outside and you're so cold that your fingers are about to fall off.
However comforting pies may be, I'll admit it took me a little while to actually come around to the idea. I've never been a meat & two veg type of girl & I'm not overly crazy about roast dinners or anything really that involves gravy. Team that with the fact that I ditched all meat (except poultry) over a year ago and the fact that I'm not really very keen on pastry and you'll see why pies were never on my go-to list.
But then Bill Granger's chickpea, tomato & spinach cottage pie caught my eye & my mind was changed forever. This dish blew my socks off & even if i did think the idea of chickpeas in a pie was a bit odd, I listened to the voice of reason (that would be Bill) & I just got on with it - thank god for that!
So from now on I'm shouting HURRAH for chickpeas in a pie, HURRAH for the richest tomato sauce ever & HURRAH for the most amazing cheese & herb crust.

Well, what are you waiting for?