Nibbles #34
The history of cabbage, the healing power of vegetable gardening, and 10 brand-new bowl-food dinner recipes.
Welcome to Nibbles where once a month I share everything brilliant I’ve been reading on the web as well as some general updates from my kitchen, my vegetable garden during the growing season, and other miscellaneous ‘you really need to know about’ updates.
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Ed’s weeknight tuna rice bowl / hand roll / everyone helps themselves dinner idea is family dinner genius:
Another genius recipe idea, Kristina’s Crispy Chive and Pork Pockets (flat spring roll) recipe is perfect for people like me who are simply terrible at rolling the damn things!
Julia, on the history of cabbage as an ingredient:
I’ve never seen the film (no trying to convince me to do otherwise please!!) but Rosie’s slightly mad, very brilliant Titanic-themed dinner party menu is filled with things I want to eat:
Felicity visits a school in Kharkiv, Ukraine that has been built underground for some of the first in-person classes since the war began:
I’ve had another big batch of recipes uploaded to the BBC Food website this month, all bowl-food dishes perfect for cosy weeknight dinners, most of them going large on the Asian-inspired flavours.
In the rice-bowl category I’ve got a lovely Gochujang Chicken recipe (pictured above!) served with homemade gochujang mayo and some quick pickled cucumber, a Chicken Fajita Bowl with homemade Pico de Gallo salsa and all the fixings, a Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowl which took me ages to perfect but which I’m super proud of, a Salt and Pepper Tofu Bowl with a saucy method of cooking Chinese vegetables on the side I’m serving everything with at the moment, a Miso Salmon Rice Bowl (pictured above!) with toasted sesame-smashed avocado on the side, and a Salt and Chilli Chicken recipe with rice and quick pickled cucumber I made for Chinese New Year and which we both loved.
On the noodle front, I’m also super proud of my almond butter-gochujang base Miso Vegetable Ramen recipe (also pictured above!) and hat tip to
for inspiring me to use sausage meat in this Bún Chả Noodle Bowl. A few more miscellaneous recipes to complete the set, I’ve got a Smoked Tofu Bowl with quinoa, an Asian-inspired slaw and my go-to homemade Korean sweet chilli sauce, and a meal-prep friendly recipe for Burnt Aubergine Chilli!
Elsewhere, for my Macknade residency this month we’re talking brunch with my Spiced Butter Fried Eggs with Homemade Flatbreads & Quick Pickled Onions, and for meal prep website Project Meal Plan I’ve developed a great recipe for Air Fryer Stuffed Chicken Parmesan.
Cooking other people’s recipes, I also made this Butter Bean, Sundried Tomato and Broccoli Chopped Salad recipe for lunch today with some British purple sprouting broccoli - to be recommended!
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the launch of fellow Substacker
’s new book Rough Patch, which I finally got the chance to read last weekend. For those of you unfamiliar with Kathy’s brilliant Substack once upon a time Kathy had a flying career in advertising, but after she was signed off work suffering from burnout, anxiety and depression she gradually found her way back to herself through growing vegetables, then cooking them, carving out a new life for herself which includes writing delicious veg-forward recipes for us all with the seasons.Rough Patch is funny, life affirming, and is a reminder of the healing powder of nature. And it has some great recipes: I can attest this from eating the canapés at the launch, and I can’t wait to make her harissa lamb mince stuffed courgettes come summer. If you find solace in nature, and find modern life a bit too much, go buy a copy.
I spent the weekend in my parent’s potting shed sorting out my long-neglected herb pots from my patio at the cottage. The discombobulation of not technically having a home at the moment has been impacting me more than I expected, but being in a garden planting things has really helped. I’m sure my lemon balm (the big healthy one in the middle!) will survive the apocalypse, but I’m glad to see my sage looking a lot happier (I raised these two from seed during the first Covid lockdown but they’ve been cross with me for the past year), tarragon starting to return, and I’ve got three extra, future thyme plants out of repotting my resuscitated one where I’d dumped it in a far off pot after stripping it for the kitchen.
I’ve also been on daily germination watch for the trays of seeds I planted last weekend helping my father catch up for his growing season: I’ve got plenty of cos and little gem lettuces poking out the soil (no news yet on the big, frilling red lettuces I’ve also planted), broccoli sprouting, as well as lots of little beetroot seedlings though time will tell with those, as I’ve never had any issues growing them for salad leaves, but have never successfully grown an actual beetroot. No news yet on the outdoor cucumbers, Crown prince squash and garlic chives (something my father has never successfully grown and I’ve never tried) or aubergines I’ve also planted, as of yet.
Ooh what a rich bounty of “scoop me up” meals, thanks!
Thanks for the mention!