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home-made lemon vinegar instead of water as the liquid, feeling that the flavour would go well with the courgette : 1 1/4 c whole wheat flour 1/2 c butter, cold 1/4 c vinegar 1 tsp zaatar 1/2 leek, cut in rounds 1 courgette Lay rounds of leek over the ricotta, then arrange courgette and pepper over that.

Ingredients: 1 - 1 1/2 c boiled potatoes, coarsely grated 2 apples, coarsely grated 2 courgettes, coarsely

Ingredients: 1 c flour 1/3 cold butter, diced 1/3-1/2 c cottage cheese pepper 1 aubergine, chopped 1 courgette Wrap up and chill for at least 30 minutes. 3) Place aubergine and courgette in a bowl and salt generously Leave for 10 minutes. 4) Roll out the pastry and line a tart dish with it. 5) Place aubergine and courgette Salting the aubergine and courgette ahead of time drew out some of the liquid, making the tart less wet

1/2 head garlic, chopped 1/2 celeriac head, chopped 4-5 carrots, chopped 1 aubergine sliced thin 1 courgette

add enough whey/stock/water to compensate and bring it to the right consistency. 3) Begin layering: courgette I only had two layers of courgette, after that I spread the sauce directly on the ricotta. lasagne too, and I would be tempted next time (because there will be a next time) to use additional courgette

I love curry. I love its versatility, and the fluctuating meanings hidden behind the word. It can mean something spicy and hot, it can mean something creamy with warmer flavours behind it. The word encompasses dishes from a wide range of different cultures' cuisines. It includes any number of spices and spice combinations, and is an area which holds so much potential for experimentation and play. This curry was born in part of inspiration from a curry of Ottolenghi's from Flavour that I had planned on trying a week ago and then discovered I didn't have all the ingredients for, and in part from what was in the fridge and how I felt like matching things at the time. Ottolenghi's recipe was a lentil coconut curry with paneer stuffed aubergines. I made the paneer for it, and then discovered I didn't have coconut milk. Then I was on night shifts for a few days and we had used a number of the other ingredients by the time I came back around to the idea this week. What we did have though was a wealth of sweet potatoes, some other veg that needed using, and paneer. I roasted the sweet potatoes, added the other veg, brought it all up to temperature then popped the pot in my Wonderbag oven and went on a bike ride. When I came home (10 km on a soft tyre later) it was all ready to go, we just had to make rice for it. The first night I remembered the spring onions I had wanted to put over the top but forgot the paneer, then next night I remembered the paneer but was out of spring onions. Ideally, it would have had both. I also would have liked more red lentils in this curry, but I am terrible at knowing what I am going to put in a dish until I make it, and didn't take a look in the cupboard before starting. When I did come to adding it, I discovered I had only a cup of lentils, so that is all that went in. Ingredients: Approx 10 sweet potatoes 1/2 tbsp peanut oil 1 onion, chopped 1 head garlic, chopped 3 inches of ginger, chopped 1 c cream 1/2 - 1 tbsp garam masala (this one was heavy on the cinnamon) 1 tsp cardammom 1/2 tsp cloves 1 tsp tandoori powder 2 zucchinis, chopped 1 eggplant, chopped 1 small head of broccoli, floretted 1 c red lentils 2-3 c water Salt and pepper to taste Optional toppings: 2 c paneer, cubed 2 tsp oil 2 small spring onions chopped Rice to serve (we had ours with mixed wild rice) 1) Roast the sweet potatoes whole at 200°c for about 30 minutes until soft. 2) Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot. Sauté the onions, garlic and ginger until fragrant. Roughly chop the sweet potato and add along with the spices. (I kept the sweet potato skins, but feel free to chuck them at this stage). Stir to combine and add a little water. 3) Stir in veg and cream. Add lentils. Add enough water for the consistency to be moist but not wet and not too thick. Bring to a boil then either reduce to a simmer, making sure to stir regularly to prevent sticking, or place in a slow cooker for a couple of hours. 4) If serving with paneer, fry the cubed paneer at medium heat about 5-10 minutes until browned on 2 sides. Serve over rice with a sprinkling of spring onions and/or fried paneer. This curry came out beautifully. I liked the play of textures and colours and flavours. You may have noticed that there isn't much heat to it. Recently, contrary to my wont, I haven't been cooking with much heat in order to be more inclusive of Little Bit who likes a little heat, especially certain types (he happily chews raw ginger) but is quickly overwhelmed by it. Instead most of our food tends to be quite mild these days, then we add hot sauce to it to our own tastes. Our current hot sauce of choice for this is my dad's home made scotch bonnet hot sauce which is quite hot. A teaspoon of that goes quite nicely in a plate of curry. The cream could be replaced with coconut milk and the paneer omitted if you wanted to make this vegan. Currently vegetarian, it could quite happily accommodate some meat if you wanted. Don't feel beholden to the veg I used, that's just what I had on hand. Play with it! This was my second time making paneer. Last time I used yogurt as the curdling agent. This time I used lemon juice. 1.5 l required about 1 and a half lemons' worth of juice. I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out though as Hubby accidentally turned on the heat under the pot as the milk and lemon juice were resting and cheese-ifying. It came back up to a rolling boil before we realised. It did however come out quite well. It was not as solid as last time, and more liquid was released when frying it in the pan, but it pressed nicely under a baking dish full of sweet potatoes and was certainly very tasty on top of the curry.

Littler Bit has arrived, spelling the end of a rather tough pregnancy. My body and energy levels are bouncing back, but not so my sleep schedule. I now have a toddler and a newborn to contend with, so we'll see what effect this has on my cooking going forward. My sister, she of the Variations on a Theme recipes, is staying with us to help for a while. Shortly after arriving she mentioned having seen an idea somewhere for a rainbow lasagna, but without actually looking at what it entailed. We have since spent the last few days bouncing ideas around and decided to try our own version tonight. Well received by all (except Little Bit, who as a toddler, objects to various elements of his food touching each other, a necessity in lasagna), so here it is. It is maybe an intimidating ingredient list, but assembly is very quick! Caution: the quantities below resulted in about two complete lasagna pans-worth -- about double what we had intended. This worked out well, as we now have ready-made leftovers. Reduce all ingredients except cheese and red pepper for a single dish. Ingredients: 2 beets, peeled and sliced 1 1/2c ricotta 2 c spinach (or 2 large cubes of frozen spinach) 3/4 c tinned tomato 1 c black beans - cooked or tinned 1 large eggplant, thinly sliced 2 zucchinis, thinly sliced 2 c butternut squash purée* (from roasted squash scooped out of its skin) 1 tbsp butter, melted 2 red bell peppers, quartered lengthwise 2c grated cheese (we used gruyère- and raclette-type cheese leftover in the fridge) 1/3 c mascarpone 1/4 c whey, milk, or stock (we used whey) ~6 lasagna sheets 1 tsp sumac 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp urfa biber 1/2 tsp allspice 2 tsp sage 1 tsp thyme 1/2 tsp tarragon Handful of pomegranate seeds Salt and Pepper to taste * Could be replaced with pumpkin purée, either homemade or tinned (if you have the good fortune to live in a place where that is available to you). 1) Steam beets until al dente. Blitz with just enough whey, milk or stock to allow the blender to run smoothly. Add spinach, sage, thyme, tarragon and 1c ricotta. Set aside. 2) In a bowl, mix squash purée with 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, allspice and sumac. Add mascarpone and remaining ricotta. Set aside. 3) In another bowl, roughly mash up black beans with tomatoes, and add the urfa biber and remaining half teaspoon of cinnamon. 4) Brush a baking dish with melted butter. Line the bottom of the dish with lasagna sheets and brush with butter again. Spread beans and tomato mixture in a thin layer over the lasagna sheets and cover with eggplant slices. Spread a layer of the beet mixture and arrange a layer of zucchini sliced over the top. Sprinkle on a layer of grated cheese and then spread the squash mix, followed by the red pepper and another layer of cheese. Sprinkle pomegranate seeds over the top and grind a generous amount of black pepper. 5) Bake at 180° C/350°F for 45-60 minutes. Seve hot (with a nice glass of red if so inclined). We were very pleased with how this came out! Once his portion was deconstructed, even the toddler consented to have some. The consistency was a little goopy, resulting in a tendency to flow, rather than come out in nice squares. For structural integrity purposes, we should have used thinner layers of the puree, but we thought this would have been to the detriment of flavour -- after all, this is a meal, not an engineering project! The squash layer, taste-tested prior to assembly, would be great to experiment with as the filling for a pie! It was sweet and dessert-y, with warm flavour notes and a rich, creamy texture. We had intended to add orange zest to either the squash layer or the final layer, but forgot. In terms of eating the rainbow, this tasted great, but the green and blue sort of got lost. To truly eat the rainbow, we would need to devise a green/blue layer that held its own a little better without overshadowing the others. For example, a layer of beet greens over the zucchini. As a side note, the ricotta in this was homemade last week, as I had wanted to try freezing the ricotta. We defrosted it for this dish and found that it held its flavour well, although its texture was slightly grainier. This is a good solution for keeping ricotta on hand, as long as you don't need a smooth, whipped texture. This could easily be made gluten-free, by simply omitting the pasta layer, which we included primarily for structural-integrity purposes.

We tend to serve it on a bed of spiralised and sautéed veg, usually carrots and courgettes. For the veggie beds: 3 courgettes, spiralised 2 carrots, spiralised 2 onions, spiralised 1 tbsp peanut high heat. sauté the onion for a minute then add the carrot, sauté a couple more minutes then add the courgette

I used them and enjoyed them, but the courgette slices could do just as well on their own. tsp oregano 1 1/2 tsp rosemary 1 1/2-2 c whey (or chicken stock) Salt and pepper For the layers: 2 courgettes Layer the courgettes, then some of the chicken mixture, some lasagne sheets, melted butter brushed over

Challenge update: On day 9, we had a beautiful roast veg salad, with corn, courgette, beetroot, feta,