Lent, Week Four

We have almost passed the ‘danger of frost’ my seed packets warn me about. It is still a thick coat in the morning, short sleeves in the afternoon, and then time for the coat again as soon as the sun dips. Inch by inch we are getting there. I am just so thankful to have the sun up when I wake.

We had a nice lazy Sunday. I love it when my meal planning happens to match the mood perfectly. We had BBQ pulled pork and coleslaw from a gorgeous bone-in hunk of shoulder from our butcher and delicious BBQ sauce my in-laws had given us. Almost completely hands off and lowkey. (Okay I had intended on baking buns but they were totally unnecessary!)

Monday was chana masala from Made In India. A classic weeknight go-to for us, it comes together so quickly if you use canned chickpeas (or cook them from dried in advance).

Tuesday was Bean-a-leekie soup, which I have posted recently. I wanted to make a vegetarian version of cock-a-leekie soup and I think I got pretty close! Very savory and perfect for a drizzly cold day (which it was not, but one must have these tools in their pocket).

Wednesday was some glazed tofu (I lightly fried cubes of tofu and then coated with a glaze of mirin and soy sauce with a bit of cornstarch), rice, and this Roasted Miso Garlic Cauliflower from Just One Cookbook. It was absolutely incredible and I could eat two heads of this cauliflower in a sitting. It is so savory and is pretty much the only way I want to eat cauliflower for the rest of my life.

Thursday we had black bean nachos with salsa and guacamole. Sometimes you just want to eat chips covered in cheese with your hands. Since leaving the US we rarely eat avocados so it is a treat when we do. I just feel not great about having to fly something across the world to eat it.

Friday I made this pasta with fish and citrus from The Guardian a few weeks back. I don’t think I picked the best fish for it (plaice, it happened to come in a pack at the exact amount we needed) and I think these light oil-based pasta recipes just taste so much better near the ocean.

Saturday was supposed to be Black-eyed Beans Burgers (Accra) from Cool Beans but we were feeling lazy after our DND session that afternoon. Luckily Georgina Hayden’s new book Nistisima (it is lovely btw) had just arrived the morning prior, and had a recipe for Black-eyed beans, Chard, and Lemon that was so easy and absolutely delicious. It didn’t feel like fasting food in the slightest.