Week 14 and we’ve got to the stage when we’ve taken on
enough new recipes to be able to go back and cook the ones we really liked
again. In fact though I found that this week I could hardly be bothered with
thinking about what we were going to eat. Some weeks are like that. Sitting
down and planning it seems like such a faff even though I know that not
planning it will make for a week of days when I have to suddenly start being
creative with food each night. So in the end, this week was made up of things
we’ve been making for years – slowcooker favourites like medieterrannean fennel
with nutty crumble on top, perennial emergeny staple, lentil soup – plus the
celeriac macaroni that I somehow forgot to buy the ingredients for last week
and on Sunday a lasagne because it was Livia’s birthday and she’s been having
lasagne for her birthday for as long as she’s been able to choose. We made the
kale and mushroom one from Anna Jones that we made way back in the very first
week we did this. We have a whole lasagne repertoire now!
The celeriac macaroni was a revelation. I am NOT a fan of
macaroni cheese. There are some bland comfort foods I am up for, but macaroni
is not one of them. It tastes of nothing but creamy stodge and no matter how
much cheese you put into it it seems to soak in the flavour so that it still
ends up tasteless. It’s slightly improved by putting breadcrumbs on top for a
bit of crunch, and made very much worse by making it in advance which makes it
solid. But no, on the whole, macaroni cheese in emergencies only for me.
So this macaroni is made in a whizzed-up sauce that contains
celeriac and butter beans – no cheese. I was surprised to find you couldn’t
taste the celeriac. Its celery flavour is quite obvious in most things it’s in.
The sauce on the pasta certainly looked like macaroni cheese. Then on the top,
there’s a layer of kale mixed with olives and nuts for crunch and a little bit
of parmesan. It was a perfect contrast to the bland pasta and hit all the sweet
spots with the macaroni cheese lovers in the house too. Though a word of
warning – do remember not to make it in advance and heat it up because, just
like the everyday version, this does end up a bit solid.
So next week, Elspeth is home and I’m relying on her to
bolster my enthusiasm for this veggie diet. She’s been a vegetarian since the
beginning of the year and even before that she rarely cooked meat or fish for
herself so I’m hoping she’ll have lots of good ideas to share. Also, since she’s
been cooking for one most of the time, she’ll probably be keen to experiment
with tarts and bakes and other things you can’t easily make for one. Crossing
my fingers…
You can find the complete menu from week fourteen here.
Claire Watts and her family are cooking vegetarian for a year. You can find out why - and why 'cooking vegetarian' doesn't always necessarily mean 'eating vegetarian' here.
Claire Watts writes and edits books for children.
She's currently working on making something beautiful with fairy tales.
Find out about her Snippets project and how you can help on her Patreon page.
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