New year, new recipes, new crockery

First up I'm not one for new year, new start or new year resolutions. There is a lot of pressure around an arbitrary date at an already difficult time of the year which just results in me setting myself up for failure. January is also often when everything I've been putting to one side to get through Christmas comes home to roost and as such the last thing I need is additional pressure.

So this post isn't all about a bright new start, but there are a few simple new things I want to celebrate. I'm sure everyone will be glad to hear I treated myself to a new cookbook at the end of December - which means some of my recipes might come from something other than the Green Roasting Tin (although I still see this featuring heavily in my menu planning). The new book is '15 minute vegan on a budget' by Katy Beskow and has been responsible for most of my early January cooking.

First up was a Garden Crumble. To keep this quick the crumble base and topping were cooked separately and assembled when serving. Begin with an onion then add garlic, courgette, pepper, cherry tomatoes, green beans, and herbes de Provence, and rosemary. Cook for a couple of minutes before adding tinned chopped tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes. Separately mix plain flour, oats, chopped walnuts, and margarine to create the topping. Spread on a baking tray and place in the oven for 7 minutes. One disclaimer here, although the cookbook is vegan not all of my interpretations were - I generally used standard margarine etc. as that was what I had in the house. 

The observant among you may notice that I got new crockery for Christmas (as well as new decent knives). This is bigger thing than perhaps it should be - I had perfectly serviceable crockery which was a hand down and I would have struggled to justify buying new ones but asking for them as gifts seemed more reasonable.

Next up was laksa noodles. Start with the flavouring base by cooking chillies (I used very lazy chillies as that was what the supermarket had available), garlic, ginger (also very lazy), Chinese 5 spice, soy sauce and spring onion in oil for a couple of minutes. At this stage I realised that the difference between 15 minute meals and roasting tin dishes is that more preparation is required beforehand. Once the first ingredients are in the pan you want the ingredients to be ready for the next stage - there's not a lot of time for chopping during these quick dishes! After a couple of minutes add carrot, sugar snap peas, and pepper and cook for a couple more minutes. Finally add coconut milk and smooth peanut butter and cook for 5 minutes, before adding ready to wok noodles. Serve with lime juice, coriander leaves, and spring onion.

Last up is a quick version of gigantes plaki. Begin by cooking onion and carrot for a few minutes. Next add garlic, paprika, oregano, chilli powder, and cinnamon for a minute. Then add chopped tomatoes, butter beans, sugar, and tomato ketchup and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes. Finally stir through chopped parsley and mint. Serve with flatbreads or crusty bread - or simple sliced brown bread if that is what is available. Next time I may omit the sugar and/or the ketchup as the end result was a little sweet for my tastes.

All of these gave me two portions so the next week will involve second portions of the above and finding recipes for leftover ingredients. 

Now I'm going to spend the rest of the evening making some very loose and non specific plans for things I might like to do over the next few weekends. Despite everything I said about no resolutions and no expectations I do need to think about options at least in the short tern future. I've had a very lazy weekend so I'd like to look forward to something a little more active next weekend.