It's getting hot in here (and everywhere)

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I've not got anything particularly original to say about the heatwave. It's uncomfortable and worrying both in terms of immediate concerns (wellbeing of family members primarily) and the wider climate change alarm bells. In these temperatures seeking relief in the kitchen is somehow less appealing. 

A large, plastic, blue bowl photographed from above. In the bowl are green leaves, and slices of grapefruit and orange.

It has given me the opportunity to try out new a new recipe and to revisit an older one. First up fregola citrus salad from 15 Minute Vegan on a Budget, with a few tweaks. The main tweak was that it was actually giant cous cous salad, due to the lack of fregola at the supermarket. Admittedly this salad does require the cous cous to be cooked, but I made the first portion of it last week, and had the leftovers for dinner today. The citrus comes from sliced orange and grapefruit. The other tweak was that the recipe included watercress, but again due to availability of ingredients I used a mixture of watercress, rocket, and spinach.

A blue dinner plate with giant cous cous, slices of grapefruit and orange, and green leaves on it.

The revisiting a recipe was also prepared in advance but didn't require any cooking. The gazpacho soup just requires chopping, blending, and lots of sieving before being chilled. Definitely not a Melinda friendly recipe, as it includes cucumber and chilli, as well as peppers, tomatoes, onion, passata, oil, and lemon juice. Blend everything together and sieve well. I prepared this Sunday morning and it is currently chilling in my fridge ready for dinner tomorrow. It smells lovely and fresh every time I open the fridge.

A large, plastic, blue bowl with a smaller green sieve balanced on top. The sieve is too small to balance on the bowl so one side is balanced on a wooden spoon across the bowl. Another wooden spoon is in the sieve to push the mixture through.

I had a vegan (ish - the yoghurt was dairy) kedgeree for dinner yesterday with rice, spices, broccoli, beans, and peas. This was also from 15 Minute Vegan and the short cooking time (plus having a separate kitchen and living space) made in bearable. I also have a second portion for later in the week, so I shouldn't need to worry about doing much more than using the microwave for the rest of the week. 

View from above into a large, blue, plastic bowl. In the bowl is a smooth, deep red soup.

Hope everyone is managing to cope with the heat and the associated anxieties as best as possible. Here's to cool breezes and calmer brains soon!









Comments

  1. SharonP21 July 2022 at 18:12

    I really like the look of that citrus salad. I'll definitely be trying that.

    ReplyDelete

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