Weekly Love: Week 145

I’m sitting here, finishing off this blog post today curled up on my office sofa, still wearing the big scarf I had on to take my car to the garage this morning. Everything is just too cold. I can see the trees outside my window swinging violently back and forth, so it is no surprise that all I can think about right now is soup. If you’ve got a nice, hot, steaming bowl of something on the brain too, here are the recipes for my Pea & Mozzarella Soup, A Basic Chicken Soup, Pumpkin & Coconut Soup, A Warming Carrot Soup, and my aptly named ‘Winter Cure’ Kale, Barley & Root Vegetable Soup. Grab the ingredients on the way home, make a massive vat of soup for dinner tonight, and don’t leave the house (and preferably your duvet) all weekend. Simple. 

Weekly Love 060215[1]

1. Over on the Borough Market blog, I’ve started my new column of easy, healthy and exciting desk lunches you can make ahead and take into work with you. I’ve got so many exciting dishes planned I can’t wait to share with you, but for now click through for my recipe for this Pearl barley & Pomegranate Tabbouleh. | 2. Sitting down with Waitrose Kitchen to a leftovers lunch: leftover roast duck, soba noodles, baby kale, spring onions, sesame oil, hoisin sauce and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. | 3. Making the beetroot and cinnamon smoothie for breakfast Hemsley + Hemsley created for the Vita Coco Coconut Oil event I attended last month. You can get the full recipe over on my Instagram, and keep your eyes peeled for more coconut oil in upcoming recipes. I’m a little obsessed. My favourite ways to use it so far are scrambling my eggs in it and stir frying Asian greens. | 4. My first ever veg box, from Abel & Cole for my collaboration with Ebury publishing to celebrate the launch of Rachel de Thample’s book FIVE. I promised I’d let you know how I got on with the box, and I need to be honest that I did not finish it. I think it was the chicory: I’ve never been a fan! | 5. Something I did make using the shiitake mushrooms from the box, was this delicious leftovers lunch: the end of a homemade loaf topped with shiitake pan fried in butter with a dash of soy sauce, topped off with tamago ribbons (Japanese omelette made with mirin) and lots of fresh chopped coriander. | 6. Curling up on a Sunday with some of my favourite cookbooks and a freshly baked plate of Chocolate-truffle Cookies from Joy Wilson’s book Homemade Decadence.

Weekly Love 060215[2]

7. A breakfast of navel oranges, blueberries and fresh mint, with my usual glass of V8 juice, reading Uyen Luu’s book My Vietnamese Kitchen. I’ve cooked a fair bit from it, and I’ll be sharing it with you guys at some point. | 8. A few Sundays ago, I joined a group of bloggers for an early Chinese New Year treat at Millennium Hotel in Knightsbridge. Everything is Asian themed, and all of the dishes are exciting, and unique – I’d really recommend it for something a little different in between a days shopping, as long as you remember to hoard the pork dim sum buns for yourself; they’re the best! You can find more information on the hotel website. | 9. Geeking out on food and literature with the Hemsley + Hemsley book and Peter Ackroyd’s retelling of The Canterbury Tales. | 10. Lunchtime toasts: avocado, sunflower seeds, avocado oil and fleur de sel, and fresh mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. | 11. Delicious, ice cream filled profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce at Canterbury’s newest opening, Chez Joel. | 12. Watching the red slowly creep into every blood orange I cut into, carried back home with me from Borough Market.

What have you been enjoying this week, and what do you have planned for the weekend?

Discussion