The week of dill

For some reason, I bought a bunch of dill at the market last week. I'm not sure why. I like dill, but I don't have any in my herb garden, and the only herb I buy with any regularity is cilantro. So here we were, with dill, and I had to figure out what to do with it.

This week we had: baked potatoes with cashew sour cream and dill; a creamy potato, leek and lentil soup with dill; Cabbage with Rice and Currants (and dill) from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian (this was very good: kind of like the lazy person's dolma); and this New Year Noodle Soup from 101 Cookbooks. This sounds like dill overload, but it wasn't really.

My brother recommended this soup months and months ago, back in the summer when I couldn't even think about soup. It's really wonderful: the soup is spiced quite simply, with cumin, turmeric, black pepper and chile, and yellow split peas give it a nice richness. There's chickpeas and borlotti beans too, and spinach, cilantro and dill, and homemade pasta (I went for fettucini rather than thin noodles). And the toppings really make it special: (tofu) sour cream, caramelized onions, and walnuts.

I love walnuts in soup! They fall to the bottom and surprise you when you find one.

Rosemary and basil

So here we are in the middle of winter in Perth, and I find myself obsessed with basil and rosemary. Luckily winter in Perth is sort of a joke, compared to Massachusetts (a typical winter day time temperature here is 18C or 64F) so I actually still have basil growing in the garden.

And as for rosemary, many of our neighbours have rosemary hedges in their front yards. I don't feel bad about grabbing a few sprigs here and there while walking the dog.

So this is how we ended up eating some pretty summery looking meals this week. Here you see beans with pesto and cherry tomatoes, green beans and mushrooms, and baked polenta 'fries'. (The polenta was pretty great -- I made it quite cheesy-tasting with miso and nutritional yeast.)

And here is baked eggplant with a quick tomato sauce and pesto, stir fried cabbage with lemon and pepper, a quick focaccia topped with rosemary, and rosemary-roasted tofu cubes (from Vegan Soul Kitchen). The tofu was great -- the baking technique is really cool. The tofu cubes puff up and get crisp on the outside.

Avocado Relish

Oh my god, if you love Indian food and guacamole, you must try this. From 660 Curries, it's Kerala-style Avocado Relish with Tamarind and Chiles. We had it with Eggplant-smothered Yellow Split Peas (left) and old favourite Cabbage and Potatoes with Fennel and Chiles (right).

This was so good! It's like guacamole, with chiles and cilantro and tamarind, and with a tarka of mustard seeds and curry leaves.