Firstly a snippet of useful information. Around this time of year we often get ‘fresh garlic’ in our veg box. In the past I’ve just used it as garlic which is fine except it has really long stems that I end up throwing away. When it arrived last week I thought I wonder if there’s anything more I could/should be doing with this and I found this really useful article, ‘Fresh garlic: our guide on how to use it’, from Better Food, a shop and café based in Bristol. More generally it looks like an interesting website, particularly since I want to learn more about food security and sustainability.

Now on to what I’ve been eating…

Friday 29th May 2026

Lunch

We were at home again today so another opportunity for a trip to Aesthete. I had a dish that I’ve looked at on the specials board a number of times: Crispy Cheesy Eggs on toast with avocado smash, crispy chilli oil and fresh herbs. It was absolutely delicious. The ‘crispy’ element reminded me of toast cheese sandwiches when I was a kid and how some of the cheese always escaped and went beautifully crispy in the ridged sandwich toaster we had.

Dinner

This was completely motivated by the large yellow peppers that arrive in the veg box today. A dish we hadn’t had in quite a while, Pasta with Yellow Pepper and Mascarpone Sauce. I used Suma’s Wholewheat Fusilli for the pasta which is really nice.

Saturday 30th May 2026

Lunch

I made one of our favourite soups for lunch today, a very simple minestrone soup (onion, carrot, garlic, rosemary fried in olive oil and then a tin of tomatoes, 500ml veg stock, a couple of handfuls of small pasta shapes and some shredded cavolo nero). I also threw in the leftover pasta and sauce from last night which worked well. We also had half a jar of tapanade in the fridge so I served the soup with cheese on toast with a layer of tapenade under the cheese.

Dinner

We decided to eat out tonight and went to a relatively new local Turkish restaurant, Micho, in Crookes in Sheffield. It was nice to walk up there through the park and have a beer at Two Sheds micropub on the way. We shared a range of veggie mezze at the restaurant and it was all delicious. I accidentally over-ordered on the bread, not realising it already came with one of the dishes we ordered, but no bad thing because it was really fresh and tasty. We first visited Micho in January this year and enjoyed it then but this evening’s meal was even better.

Clockwise from top centre the dishes are Çoban Salatası (a very fresh salad with pomegranate), Turkish bread, bulgur (cooked with tomato paste, onions, mixed peppers, garlic and herbs), Patlıcan Tarator (or what I call aubergine mush), mixed olives, Şakşuka (a stew with aubergine, potatoes and mixed peppers) and Sigara Börek (feta cheese filled pastry cigars).

It was all great but the bulgur, the salad and the Patlıcan Tarator with bread were the standout dishes for me.

Sunday 31st May 2026

Lunch

The leftovers from yesterday’s minestrone today, this time served with one The Depot bakery’s lovely baguettes.

Dinner

After a lovely meal out yesterday, I thought I would try something new today so I made the ‘Spinach, courgette and feta galette’ from Georgina Hayden’s book, MEDesque.

I skipped the leek and used the stem from the fresh garlic instead. I tasted it while I was chopping it and it was very strong and garlicky so I fried it in a bit of olive oil before adding it in to the filling mix. We also had a bit more feta than the recipe specified because I wasn’t concentrating. I spread the last of that jar of tapenade on the pastry under the filling and poured the leftover egg (from glazing the pastry) over the top, but other than that I followed the recipe! Anyway, it turned out beautifully and we enjoyed it with a salad made from various bits from the veg box.

Monday 1st June 2026

Lunch

I had to stay at the office in Kelham Island today because I had a meeting in the afternoon so I took the opportunity to lunch at Gaard. They had a new salad on their Specials board: cous cous, chickpeas and roasted vegetables on a bed of houmous. It was lovely with a tasty dressing and crunchy seeds and very satisfying with all the chickpeas in there. Their food is always really tasty.

Dinner

There was plenty of yesterday’s galette left for dinner so I warmed it up and we treated ourselves to frozen crinkle cut chips with it!

Tuesday 2nd 2026

Lunch

I was out of lunch again today because I met up with some friends for a visit to the lovely spring-fed outdoor pool at the New Bath Hotel in Matlock. We had a lovely swim – the water is so beautiful – and then we had lunch at the hotel. It’s not the most exciting menu but I had a nice cheese sandwich and some chips.

Dinner

I was hungry this evening and wanted something I could really get my teeth into so I made the ‘Tomato & Tofu Curry’ from Big Veg Energy by Christina Soteriou. It’s a very simple but tasty curry like a vegan version of Mattar (Pea) Paneer. Like in the book, I served it with basmati rice and toasted flaked almonds to sprinkle on top which work really well.

Wednesday 3rd June 2026

Lunch

I was late coming home for lunch because I had a networking event in town in the morning so I took the chance to finally Urban Pitta because there’s a new branch recently opened close to home. I thought I was grabbing something quick but ended up waiting about 25 minutes so I’m glad to say that it was very good and worth the wait. I had a halloumi salad bowl. It was very ample and you got to choose all the salad elements and sauces.

Dinner

We ended up eating out in the evening too because I had a lot of work to do so didn’t really get finished in good time for cooking. We hadn’t been to eat at one of locals, The Punchbowl, in Crookes for quite a while and there food it usually good so we headed there. Tom had pie of the day and I had a broccoli and macaroni cheese with truffle-y breadcrumbs on top. It was a very comforting eat. They usually have some sort of veggie lasagne or pasta bake on the menu and it’s always good.

Thursday 4th June 2026

Lunch

I made Magic Soup for lunch – we have this at least every couple of weeks! We always have the ingredients in because carrots are a regular feature in our veg box and it’s good and healthy and tasty.

Dinner

Home cooking really dipped towards the end of this week. We went to a speed session with our local running club this evening which turned out to be tough and quite long. I really didn’t have any cooking energy afterwards so I dropped Tom off at home to cook some veggie sausages and I called at the local chip shop for chips and mushy peas to have alongside the sausages. It was very satisfying!