Springtime ‘get together’ recipes
perfect for Easter, the first of this year’s lunches outdoors & beyond
We blinked and we are hurtling towards April, Easter and May bank holidays galore. Does anyone else forget bank holiday weekends until they creep up on us? Is it mainly us freelancers that forget because it’s just another working day for us?!
I have an armload of recipes to share with you today as this is a very exciting time in the year where we are starting to see some of the very first spring ingredients in the shops and we get to enjoy some of our favourite seasonal foods that we haven’t been able to get our hands on for 12 loooong months. Like glorious wild garlic, which I always find quite magical especially in city corners. I was making my way down the canal in north london last week and got a whiff of wild garlic. On that same walk, I spotted an unsettled swan who kept rearranging her position and was (my interpretation) trying and failing to get comfy on her nest. I know that feeling at bedtime. Nothing feels quite right. She, like me, must be getting close to the big day….
March has been the final stretch for me in my second much longed for pregnancy. And I’ve been feeling very very stretched. My tummy is bursting, my temper is fraying and I have no patience whatsoever. I’ve been sick for most of the last 9 months so although I’m happy and grateful, I’m really quite irritable! After a relatively dramatic first pregnancy and birth, I thought I might be in for an easier ride this time but no, it’s been even more tumultuous and I’m looking forward to being on the other side and bringing my new best friend back home with me. It’s taken me a long long time to be a mother and I don’t take it for granted. There’s so many parts of growing a human that I love but I do ‘pah ha ha’ when I hear people comment that “pregnancy is easy / billions of women have been pregnant / what’s the fuss / it’s not like you’re having twins” etc….!
What’s on the menu this month
Scroll on down for the recipes or click on the purple links
Spring beetroot salad - recipe below
Wild garlic pesto - for spaghetti, for roast potatoes - recipe below
Niçoise salad (tuna free)
Easter marzipan bunnies - recipe below
Spiced lamb with crispy chickpea and cucumber salad
Veggie chickpea pancake (egg free) - gorgeous for a brunch
My fave brunch recipes for slow Sundays and long weekends
And here’s some more general ‘celebration vibe’ recipes, I think you’ll want to save
chocolate almond cake - never ever fails me
chocolate date hearts - 15 minutes of effort
Citrus pomegranate cake - zesty, tangy and juicy
Cucumber bites with smoked trout & chives or radishes with mint & lemon
Spring beetroot salad
This big, hearty and quite beautiful beetroot salad does just the job on colder Spring days. Celebrating spring ingredients, this salad has the best textures with crispy chickpeas, roasted carrots, fresh crunchy beets & creamy yoghurt.
