Green is good

About this time in a normal December, I'm really starting to flag. My birthday and the early Christmas runup tend to bring a flurry of booze and dinner ops, and then there's works Christmas which would be this week, and the odd other catch up with friends who didn't make the earlier sessions and- well. It's usually about now that I reach my chestnut limit, and prosecco loses its sparkle (much more temporary than the chestnut thing), and I take a deep breath and realise I've *at least* three major family meals to get through yet. I usually hit the New Year in a flurry of miso soup and greens and avocados which has nothing to do with dieting and everything to do with needing some goddamn vitamins.

Well. Not so much, as they say. Not so much this year. I've had not a whit of turkey, nor bacon, no smoked salmon, no butternut squash soup with suspicious levels of truffle. Not a cracker in sight. Nobody has groaned at the sight of a pudding they really don't need, nor set fire to it. Any alcohol consumed has been at a steady 2-5 units per night, depending on the strength of the wine and/or the cocktail and (clearly) I have not gone to sleep drunkenly on any form of public transport. Particularly not a night bus. 

Not all of this is a bad thing. But it does make me a bit sad (and I have reasons to be dreading Christmas, which I'm not going into here - but let's say whatever happens it's not likely to be good). 

Also I seem to have hit January early. I'm eating some very nice things, of a virtuous nature. And tbh I assume that means I'm going to try marzipan guineafowl in January. You have been warned. 

Meanwhile, back to greens. This is really a version of the broccoli ripassi I did way back in April, but this has a stronger stylist. 

Begin with that mysterious beast, a romanesco cauli:

I've avoided these in the past, as they slightly trigger my weird hatred of knobbly patterns (Do Not Arsk About Shell Grottoes And Gaudi), but chopping one up is both easy and therapeutic. 

Boil till proper squishy (10-15 mins, yes I know but it is needed), draining and resrving some of the booking water. Then cook a few sliced garlic cloves with plenty of fennel seeds, oil, chilli and bung your squishy cauli in there, stirring well. Use the cauli water to create steam, and add a spritz of lemon too. You don't want this soggy, but it's not to be browned. 

This is a glorious pasta sauce, with a bit of parmesan. 

Meanwhile, slowly fry an onion, because you'll need it for spinach soup for lunch tomorrow. 

This is a super simple recipe, no thickening or such, so you need the onions to be slow, sweet and tasty. All that happens after that is stirring in loads of spinach till it wilts. Possibly a pinch of sugar if the onions didn't sweeten up. Add stock till it's just covering the veg, and cook about 10 mins. 

 

Blend, season, add a bit of lemon just before serving (not earlier - it'll change the colour of the spinach as you might just see in the bowl pic - there are brown surface stripes where the lemon landed!), and add a blob of creme fraiche.

 

It's tasty as is, but the recipe says serve with garlic croutons. I just rubbed a garlic clove onto toast with oil because I was in the middle of working. Raw and pungent, while the soup is green and good. 

There's no need to be virtuous, this is all years, but if you feel like you need some greens, I commend these to you.