Back on the veg

Back to work. Back to school (but for how long? ETA: not very). Back to January. Goodness it felt grey this morning. And I am not entirely in an optimistic headspace, waiting for another press conference. What does come next? I dunno.

But what I do know and can more or less control is menus and cooking. Really, we are back in March again, albeit with more rain and better storage in my case. And it is now my post-Christmas vegetable phase. Christmas and December in general hasn't been the binge it usually is but I've still had more cream and raisins than in any average month. And let us not speak of the unopened panettone lurking in the kitchen. 

My usual round of veg/fish/meat weeks is suspended at the moment, Christmas always messes it up. I've also realised I have a few basics I want to cook which have dropped off the list. But basically it's a veggie week this week, and then back to veganish and onwards. This week though we're on old faves and things I tend to cook at this time of year. 

Avocado tarragon and houmous

This is a 'recipe' from long, long ago - almost Heritage Kitchen long ago. From the days before austerity, when work still had catered parties with *external* catering. God, I'm old. But lovely Jenny used to do the best nibbles and since it's not the week for faking her honey chipolatas, I'm faking her only vegan dish. 

In Jenny's hands these were weeny tarragon pancakes, with a smudge of houmous and some lime-drenched avocado on top. In my world, you buy an English muffin and bung as many of the flavours on as possible. Mainly, you just want a ton of lime on your avocado, plus houmous. But the tarragon is also good. 

I'm not saying it's fancy, or all that healthy or exciting. But I am saying that a warm muffin with this on is a lunch that works pretty well for January.

Meanwhile, for dinner, it's reliable carrots. I went into a posh deli for the dill for this since all the supermarkets are out of herbs round here. It was early on Sunday morning and empty in there but still. Non-essential purchasing (except everything I'm cooking needs dill this week). I'm not sure I'll be doing it next week.

Roast carrots and lemony beans with dill

First roast your carrots: whole or split in half if chunky, you want to anoint them with a mix of oil, garlic, lemon juice, harissa (or not, I'm using aleppo pepper as I'm getting less and less able to eat chilli anything), a little bit of honey, cuming seed and seasoning. Tuck lemon slices around if you have spare lemon. 30-35 minutes in a medium oven, around 200deg should do it. 

 

Then, chop an onion (annoyingly you want half an onion for this even at full scale for 4 people with 2 tins of beans). Soften it a bit. Then mix in a tin of drained cannellini beans, a little stock, seasoning and a crushed garlic clove. Warm and cook through for a couple of minutes only. Squish the beans if you feel strongly about it.

Then finish off with lemon juice and chopped dill. Check the seasoning, spread it on plates, and pop carrots on top. Blob of yoghurt on the side if you have any, lovely.

 

It's semi-cupboard stuff, it's warm, it is good lockdown fare. We may be in need of such. Good luck, everyone.