14 February - quinoa salad and a veggie curry

I tend to rotate between potatoes, bread and pasta for lunch, with couscous and polenta occasionally. Today I thought I'd have some quinoa instead - quite similar to couscous, but with a slightly different texture and nutty flavour. There was a handful of chestnut mushrooms in the fridge, so I fried them up with a shallot and a bit of garlic and simply stirred them into some cooked quinoa and sprinkled some toasted pine nuts on the top. Not a bad combination for a change.

For supper, we had Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's bean and aubergine curry again - a top recipe!

2 November - veg soup and aubergine curry

I made up a pan of chunky vegetable soup for lunch to use up some of the veg still in the fridge from last week's vegbox plus a few borlotti beans from Monday's chilli. I cooked up some red onion, carrot, courgette, garlic, chopped bacon, diced potatoes, borlotti beans and shredded cabbage and covered it all with chicken stock. I simmered it for 10-15 mins until everything was tender, then blended about a third of the soup and returned it to the pan - just enough to make it thick and creamy. It came out more of a vegetable stew, perhaps a bit saltier than it could be from the combination of the bacon and some rather salty chicken stock, but still tasty and warming with slice of toasted sourdough.

In the evening, I tried out another recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg - this time for aubergine and green bean curry. It took a bit of time to make, but was definitely well worth it. It ended up cooking a bit longer than it should, but that meant the aubergine came out wonderfully soft and silky - really delicious and definitely one to try again.