Bulk buying means bulk cooking

The finished carrot cake in all it's glory. I've never really got the point of carrot cake before, but this may have convinced me

We may have over ordered on the carrots. Even in the context for trying to manage with as few deliveries as possible (to reduce the potential for infection arriving in the house, and because deliveries are not always that easy to get), we may have over ordered.


In our defence, the delivery was from our wonderful local farmers market, The Goods Shed. We’re used to buying our veg there using the highly scientific method of picking up some and going ‘That looks enough’. With delivery, you have to be a bit more specific. Well, this whole experience is a learning curve, isn’t it? I didn’t necessarily realise the curriculum would include weights and measures.


Of course, in these days, we are very much not wasting food, so Operation Carrot swung into action. An afternoon of peeling/grating (husband) and cooking (me) means our freezer is now stocked with Jack Monroe’scarrot and bean burgers, and curried carrot soup (recipe follows).  I find it comforting to have a stash of food in the freezer in which vitamins actually feature, just in case things get really bad.


We also had a small carrot cake (there are only two of us, and eggs are a potentially scarce resource), buttered carrots with Sunday dinner. Later in the week, there will be carrot cornbread (I found a recipe which uses almond milk, which I have, and not buttermilk, which seems to be unobtainable), which should use up the stash.

Small cake: hand for size

The carrot soup recipe is adapted from one by top chef  Michael Caines (for anyone who hasn’t come across him, note the S on the surname, we are not dealing with the aging actor here). Mine is very definitely a simplified version, as he has two Michelin stars, and, I er, don’t.


Serves 4:

One onion
Two cloves garlic
500g carrots
800 ml stock (chicken or vegetable)
Cumin seeds (a generous pinch, or more if you want)
Teaspoon curry powder


Chop and cook carrots, onions and garlic in either butter or olive oil (butter tastes a bit better for this, olive oil is healthier – I used a mixture, be fairly generous whatever you use), then add the cumin seeds and curry powder, cook for a few minutes, then add stock and simmer for 30 minutes. Blend. (I told you it was simplified).

Curried carrot soup, ready for the freezer

We also ordered a moderately large amount of beetroot, which so far been made into beetroot hummus and beetroot and feta samosas (there are beetroot burgers already in the freezer). The samosa recipe comes from Meera Sodha’s Made In India, and uses filo pastry, which I happened to have in the freezer, and are baked rather then fired, so they’re marginally healthier (the filo still requires a lot of melted butter).  I’ve never actually made samosa before, so I was pleased with how these turned out, and the leftovers were good cold for lunch the next day. I’d generally be a bit wary about trying out a new and potentially fiddly recipe, but somehow in these conditions the desire to both eat nice food and not waste anything seems to override that. As I said, this whole experience is a learning curve - but the curriculum is proving unexpected.

The evolution of my samosa making skills, from left to right.