The other day I was invited for a Persian-themed dinner and asked to make nibbles. So I got my favourite recipe books out and made a triumph with these two delicious dips…

The first and vibrantly pinkish one is the Beetroot and Walnut Hummus from Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall’s River Cottage Everyday (here’s the recipe on the Channel 4 website).

The second is the Burnt Aubergine and Tahini from Ottolenghi’s Plenty (recipe here in Unhip Squirrel blog).

I had lunch with Celia at Nopi, Ottolenghi’s new-ish Soho restaurant. It’s not vegan or even  veggie but there were 3 vegan options on the menu: Five Spice tofu with tomato and cardamom passata and braised aubergine (very good), French beans with tahini and lemon dressing (delicious), and Golden and Red beet, quince, caramelized macademias (out of this world).

Call in advance to check the menu as it changes daily… 

Instagram filter: Amaro

I know it’s not Wednesday, but to celebrate the first anniversary of the blog, here’s a little report of my Vegetarian Week, under the form of the 231st post.

OK, it’s Vegetarian Week all the time for me, but I’ve made the extra effort (!!) of having extra delicious food this week, so there we go.

Monday was Wahaca, with Seasonal vegetable Tacos and Black Bean Quesadilla, plus some tacos and guacamole in the background. Tuesday was Nopi with Celia and it was AMAZING. We had a selection of wonders - the chargrilled broccolini with skordalia, the spring tomatoes with wasabi mascarpone (OMFG), the grilled asparagus, an eggy Basque thing with peppers and tomatoes, served on garliquy baguette (this is not actually the name of the dish but it’s not on the menu anymore), and finally some heritage tomatoes with watercress. Wednesday - you know about Wednesday. Thursday I had a veggie box from Itsu, let’s skip smoothly over Friday (some sandwich eaten whilst cycling) and land on Saturday - veggie haggis from new gastro pub on Newington Green called the cellars, which I recommend.

Thanks for following me in the past year and here’s to many more dozens of vegan Wednesdays.

Here’s the vegan winter vegetable couscous recipe and the page in Plenty where it’s adapted from. It’s really easy and good for when you have lots of people. The vegetables are fine to reheat if you have leftovers - although I would recommend making a fresh batch of couscous.