I had a huge (and I really do mean huge) cauliflower from Abel and Cole that I wasn’t sure what to do with – it’s not a vegetable I normally use for much – so I figured I’d give Cauliflower and Cheese a try. It’s not exactly the most innovative recipe in the world and, while it’s one I like, not something I’m massively excited by. But why not? It’s not something I’d actually ever made before, and it’d keep well as a side dish.

I used the Good Housekeeping cauliflower and cheese recipe as the basis for this, but only loosely followed it. You could probably use any recipe for it that works well. But I tried the following variations on it:

• I roasted the cauliflower instead of boiled it. Basically all I did was floret it as normal, put it in the dish and roast it covered at 200C for 20-30 minutes with a bit of butter and salt (ok, a lot of butter and a bit of salt). Then I just added the sauce and cheese as normal on top of that.
• Additionally I added some leeks to the mix, roasting them along with the cauliflower.
• I added halved cherry tomatoes at the same time as the sauce.

This worked incredibly well. It took a nice dish and made it excellent. I had this as the main meal, served with a whole grain bread, and I’ve been very happily eating leftovers of it since.

Bwrgh. I can’t brain this evening.

Hmm. I should do dinner. What should I do?

What did I have for lunch? Rice, salmon teriyaki and edamame. I should avoid things like that.

Hm. And I just had a croissant for breakfast. Low veg day. I should do something with veg.

Oh, there’s an onion squash still on the counter. Squash is a vegetable. I should do that.

Chop chop chop. Hm. What do I do with it? Well, it’s nice and hollow, I should put something in it.

Needs a starch? Does it? I’ve had a fair bit today and have snacked, so maybe not.

Yeah, it needs a starch. but what? No rice. Had that for lunch. I have bread. Can I use that? No. I don’t feel like bread.

Ooh. I’ve not done polenta in a while. Would that work as a stuffing? Yes it would. Mmm. Polenta. Start the squash roasting and I’ll put some polenta on the stove to bubble away.

Wow, this dish has like no protein.

Oh, hey, pistachios. Let’s shell those and put them in the dish.

Man, shelling these is a lot of work.

Hmmm. What else can I put in this?

Cheese. I have cheese. That turkish cheese. kefa…teria? kefalotyri. like parmesan, only not.

Apparently also not turkish. Oh well.

This isn’t sounding very vegetabley, is it?

What else can I do?

Oh, I have tomato passata left. Tomatoes are a vegetable.

No, they’re not a fruit, they’re a vegetable dammit.

Hm. These squash are smaller than I thought. I can’t fit all the polenta I made in there. And there are more pistachios than I thought. Oh well, still room for a little tomato.

It’s more of a sauce than a vegetable ingredient anyway…

Now add the cheese.

Cool. I’ve made little pizzas on top of the squash.

I like pizza.

Now to wait.

So much waiting…

Waiting…

Waiting…

Ooh, food.

Hmm.

I think next time I’ll save creativity for when I’ve got a working brain.

I had the end of a loaf of whole grain olive bread left over. It was very tasty when fresh, but that was about two days ago and now it wasn’t good for much on its own. So I did the following:

I took some pomodoro tomatoes, quarters them, tossed them in olive oil, rosemary, sea salt and balsamic vinegar, fried them until they were quite soft. I then sliced the bread very finely (about half normal thickness for a slice of bread then cut in half crossways), added to the mix and kept frying until the bread had very thoroughly soaked up the tomatoes’ juices.

It was delicious. I served it with scrambled eggs and a diced cucumber salad.

Fried polenta goes really well in greek salad.

I’ve never had much success with making my own hummous. Whenever I try I end up with something which is ok, but generally a bit stodgy and unexciting.

Earlier I remembered the following amazing dish from vegan yum yum and it occurred to me that the cashews made it much ligher than the beans on their own would have. And thus was born the following recipe:

Ingredients

• A can of butterbeans
• 1 cup of raw cashews (I buy these broken and loose from a health food store, so they’re actually quite affordable)
• 1.5 lemons (whole, but with the peel removed)
• 1.5 tsp sea salt
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs tahini

Instructions

The exact process I used to make it involves 73 distinct and precise steps and requires attaining nirvana before its completion. As a fractionally simpler alternative, I recommend just sticking the entire lot in a food processor and blending until it’s smooth.

Result

This is very distinctly not hummous, but it is nevertheless delicious. It has a fairly mild flavour – you can distinctly taste the lemon and cashews, but they don’t dominate – and has a nice creamy texture. Probably works better as a pate rather than a dip, but definitely great for either