We've eaten well this week. A tray of quickly ripening peaches has meant lots of fruit, both fresh and in desserts. Plus beautiful produce in my weekly vegetable box has inspired some lovely meals.

 

On Sunday night my partner made a version of this baked mushroom rice dish from Nigel Slater. It's a little like a risotto, but much easier to make and with a slightly different texture. We loved it. R used chopped leeks instead of the shallots and, not having any parmesan, we sprinkled over some pangritata instead.

 

It has a long cooking time, but most of that happens in the oven, so it's a lovely meal to make on a Sunday afternoon when you're pottering around.  Delicious too.

 

The other meal I've cooked, which I may have linked to before, as I make this a lot, is Radiant Soup.  I love this meal. Love, love love it. The basic recipe is delicious, but I usually tweak it a bit to make the dish more of a meal. Today I added a little more water and cooked some red lentils in the turmeric, coconut base.  I then added some rice noodles towards the end of cooking, together with some chilli flakes.  Absolutely delicious.

 

 

Over the weekend we had our first barbecue of the year. A few friends came over, for a very relaxed lunch, sitting in the garden. The weather was glorious, I hadn't seen some of the people for months and it was a beautiful afternoon.

The combination of people invited also meant a combination of food requirements - vegetarian, wheat free and dairy free. After a busy week I wanted the lunch to be very low fuss, spending minimal time in the kitchen.

Vegan "sausage" rolls: we started off with a batch of these "sausage" rolls from Where's the Beef. I've made this recipe countless times, they're delicious, easy and always go down well a treat. I pre-made them and then cooked when the guests arrived.

Sweet potato and coriander fritters: we had loads of sweet potato, leftover from the last few week's vegetable boxes. So I used them to make these fritters. I replaced the parmesan with some miso, because of the dairy intolerant friend. The fritters were absolutely delicious and barbecued really well. I made double the batch and have about a third left, for lunches and dinners this week.

Barbecued eggplant with tahini sauce: a variation on a recipe from the Ottolenghi cookbook, we sliced up some eggplant and salted them. I made a marinade of olive oil, lemon juice, chilli, fresh coriander and garlic, plus an easy tahini and lemon sauce.  We then cooked the eggplant slices on the barbecue, put them on a plate, poured over the olive oil marinade and served with the tahini sauce.

Chilli tofu: we thickly sliced some tofu and cooked it on the barbecue with some bought chilli infused sesame oil.

Flat "chips": I thickly sliced and then par boiled some potatoes, before our guests arrived. We also cooked these on the barbecue, together with some sliced onions.

It took me about an hour and a half to pre-make the sausage rolls, fritters, eggplant marinade and tahini sauce. Then, once our guests arrived I put the sausage rolls in the oven and par-boiled the potatoes.

Once these were cooked I sat in the garden, with my friends and a glass of wine and formed the sweet potato mix into fritters, while chatting away. Everything was then cooked on the barbecue, while we all sat around enjoying the sunshine.

A few months back I mentioned a radish pickle I've made a few times. It's an absolutely delicious way of using radish, a vegetable I'm not overly fond of. The pickle is more like a little salad, and it's sweet and crunchy, with complex layers of flavour.

 

A couple of weeks ago I bought some black radishes from a local market. They're slightly more peppery than regular radishes and when you slice into them the white inside flesh contrasts with the black skin. So pretty. 

 

Anyway, I used these radishes to make the pickle and it's delicious. The photograph shows the radish slices tossed in salt and sugar - you can see how lovely their texture and markings are.

 

 

I used the pickle in a few different ways. A small handful sparked up an otherwise dull salad.  I had another small handful on top of a bowl of noodles and then one morning I topped fresh bread with some mashed caramelised leeks and the radish pickle.

 

 

Asparagus is sold when it's ready-to-eat. It can degrade quickly and is at its best fresh, so use your spears up as soon as possible.

For best results, store asparagus in your fridge. Wrap the spears in a damp tea towel, which keeps the asparagus moist and protects it from damage. Place this in a plastic bag, in the crisper compartment of your fridge. Then use your asparagus up in 2 - 3 days.  To check if your asparagus is still fresh, flex the end of the spear, near the base, it should snap cleanly, rather than bend.

 

 

 

Look for firm, brightly coloured spears with tightly closed, compact tips. If the stalks have started to wrinkle then the asparagus is not as fresh as it could be.

 

 

Like all vegetables asparagus is full of nutritional goodness. It contains B vitamins, including folate, potassium, vitamin C, carotenoid antioxidants and fibre.