Day 3: Market for the win!

Third time lucky, hooray! Today we made our way to the market and found it was not only open, but full to bursting with beautiful colourful veg. We had a lovely time wandering around and choosing which pound-a-bowl treats to spend our £7 on – there’s just so much to choose from, and the prices are way better than the supermarket (assuming you want more than one of each thing, of course) – we didn’t even end up spending the whole £7.

In the end we pottered home laden down with huge beetroots (which we’re going to salt roast – NOM!), two heads of broccoli, five sweet potatoes, a big ol’ chunk of pumpkin (which Si has grand plans for… I hear murmurings of ‘Mexican squash wellington’ – exciting!), two aubergines, a cauliflower, and the World’s Biggest Cabbage. All for about £6.70. Can’t grumble about that!

Working from home means a quick leftovers lunch – the last of yesterday’s cauliflower ‘cheese’, with extra peas and a splodge of ketchup – not bad, in fact, I think I preferred it cold and crispy to when it was hot! But for dinner it was time to be a bit more inventive, and to think of something to make with some of our new finds.

My turn to cook tonight, and I took my inspiration from this fab teriyaki aubergine recipe on the Delicious Magazine website – though with a few tweaks 🙂 The first change was purely practical, as we’re all out of teriyaki sauce (should have checked!) – but no matter, as Si (who was eager to help out with something) whipped up a speedy replacement from soy sauce, 2tbsp water, maple syrup, a crushed dried chilli, and two cloves of crushed garlic. It smelled amazing!

Further inspiration came from a stroke of luck – Si had forgotten to cancel his Beer 52 subscription, and today a box arrived containing not only a bunch of interesting-looking (but currently strictly banned!) beers but also a vegan-friendly snack: giant roasted corn. Brilliant! We crushed them up in Simon’s trusty mortar and pestle to use as a tasty crunchy topping. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

First things first, I cut an aubergine in half, scored the cut surfaces, and brushed them with sesame oil. Into a roasting dish they went, cut sides down, for 20 minutes until the skins were wrinkly and dark. The rice went on at the same time, and as the aubergines cooked we also soaked some dried mushrooms, poured hot water over a bowl of peas to thaw, and snipped up a couple of spring onions. When the timer pinged, we took out the aubergines, flipped them over, and poured Si’s lovely soy and maple sauce over it. Back in the oven for another 10 mins – by then it was smelling amazing!

When the aubergine was cooked, we popped the halves out of the way in a bowl while we mixed the rice, mushrooms, and peas in the roasting dish, stirring well so they got nice and coated in the remaining sauce. Then all that’s left it to make a nice heap of rice/peas/mushrooms on a plate, nestle an aubergine half into it, and top with a scatter of crushed corn, spring onion, and pomegranate seeds. It looked beautiful and smelled even more so!

All told, today counts as a great success 🙂 The aubergine was beautiful – sweet and silky with a lovely mix of textures and a great mouth-glow from the chilli – we have to make that again. The addition of the corn has to count as one of our more serendipitous vegan moments. I’m looking forward to seeing what we make next!

Today I ate/drank:

• Tea with almond milk
• Loads of fizzy squash
• Piece of toast with chilli jam and mango chutney
• Leftover cauliflower ‘cheese’ pasta bake, peas and ketchup
• Jewelled aubergine with rice, peas, and mushrooms
• Alpro chocolate and hazelnut dessert

Today’s cravings

• None, woohoo!