Saturday 13 January 2007

The broccoli is eaten! Actually, it wasn't too bad. I decided to use the tried and tested on kids approach of hiding it where I couldn't see it before moving on to the version that looks like broccoli. So the logical answer was to make one of my soup recipes for the weekend broccoli based, so that I could blend it into a green mush that looks like other things I eat.

I didn't want just broccoli though, so I hunted round for ideas. I came up with a plan to make broccoli and stilton soup, but couldn't find a recipe that did exactly what I wanted (most seemed to have a load of cream in them), so I used a recipe as inspiration and then added some beans and tweaked around with a couple of other ingredients to make it fit better into my style of eating. And the results were pretty impressive actually. This is what I ended up making, it wasn't too cheesy at all, and the beans gave it some nice substance. Dare I say it, I actually enjoyed it! In fact, it was bloody lovely!

Then this evening I moved onto winter veg ratatouille. I roasted all the veg, then saved half for other (as yet undecided) uses, poured half the passata in, then split the mixture into half and cooked one portion of pasta to stir into it rather than enough to feed a small family. I crumbled some goats cheese over the top on the basis that I had some, and it wasn't worth opening the parmesan I have in the fridge when I already seem to have a growing cheese mountain in there. I have to say, the parsnips and carrots were so unlike supermarket veg! Even the supermarket organic versions, the parsnip was just so soft and luscious, and the carrot was so bright and orangey compared to the stuff I normally eat. I'm liking this veg lark (although I am starting to wonder how I'm going to eat it all, the freezer is getting closer and closer to bursting, but if I spend a day eating stuff I've frozen it will be a day less when I can cook with the veg!