Today is a strange day. Now that the kids are at school (breakfasted and with their packed lunches, I only have to feed myself because the Husband is away and it's my turn NOT to have the kids after school. An ideal day, then to throw myself into the Random Recipe challenge for the first time. This challenge is hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen .
I've had my eye on this for a few months. Choose a random recipe book, let it fall open and then cook what ever is on that page. A great way to cook a bit more broadly than I might otherwise, even if it's just once a month. Being as it's just me, I was slightly concerned that I might end up having to cook something extravagant, or scaling down some dinner party extravaganza, but I needn't have worried.
My cook books are scattered round various shelves, and rotate between them, and along them - if you see what I mean - depending on who's in favour at any one time. I chose the shelf that features in the backdrop to my blog, and the book that ended up being the chosen volume based on the 'birthday number selector' set for this month's challenge (use the date of your birthday and count that number of books along from right to left) was my well thumbed copy of Veg Everyday. Surprisingly, it didn't fall open at Macaroni Peas or his magic bread dough, but a soup that I haven't cooked of his yet - Spinach and Lentil.
Amazingly, I had everything I needed in the kitchen, onion, carrot and thyme, garlic and tomates, puy lentils and spinach... actually, I didn't have the spinach but as luck would have it, one of the only things that's looking good in the veg patch at the moment is our little crop of spinach, so I squelched off down the garden to pick. I didn't have baby leaves as recommended in the recipe, but I just ripped the leaves off from the stalks of the big leafed stuff I had to hand, and used that instead.
It's what I'd call a very worthy soup. It's tasty without being too tasty - you know it's good for you. Turns out it was a little too worthy for me today. Much as I thought it tasted good, it tasted better with some shredded ham that I had left over in the fridge from a brilliant slow cooker experiment last week (not yet blogged) and some grano padano grated on top...
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