A herby concoction

At 19, I moved to the UK for three years to get a degree. So I thought the move to Cambridge for a similar period would be similarly fuss free. But as the day drew closer, it dawned on me that this transition wouldn't be like the last. I couldn't simply pack a couple of luggages and take off, leaving the rest of my worldly possessions with my parents. This time, Ed and I had rented out our home to cover our mortgage, which meant having to pack up the entire home of too many belongings into an incredible number of boxes then storing them away for three years.

During that tiresome period, we had to sort our things into three categories - keep, throw and donate. We must have thrown and donated at least 15 garbage bags of all kinds of stuff. It was then that I made a mental note to buy less and buy only what was necessary.

So once we moved over to Cambridge, we've tried our very best to buy as little as possible. I'm still holding out on buying a standing or hand mixer. Sure, this means spending more time creaming butter and sugar together, but perhaps it is worth it. However, I did cave in on two occasions recently - a cookbook by Anna Jones called A Modern Way to Eat, and a mini food processor from Cuisinart.

The cookbook caught my attention in the bookstore because I was looking for a vegetarian recipe book. Being a pescetarian, and not having very many seafood options around us, I felt the need to expand our vegetable repetoire beyond the usual salads, roast vegetables or chinese stir fries. I leafed through the book and was particularly drawn to her way of thinking about layering of flavours, textures and colour. She also gently introduces foreign sounding ingredients like amaranth or freekah, while helping understand which vegetables are great in which season. The latter is particularly useful for people like me where the weather is just hot, hotter or hottest.

I noticed however, that she uses a food processor in many of her recipes, whether it is to grind cashew nuts down into a creamy paste, used in lieu of cream. Or to blend herbs with a wide variety of other tasty morsels like capers, cornichons, garlic, or avocado. Or make her own oat flour. I felt so compelled to try these recipes that I decided to take the plunge and invest in one mini food processor that I could bring home eventually. The one by Cuisinart had so many good reviews, it seemed silly to buy any other.

And finally, it arrived today! I couldn't wait to try it out. I had already decided to make a a pasta in a tomato stew for lunch, so I created a herb concoction to drizzle over the top. It looked almost like a pesto, but was looser in texture because I did not add the usual garlic or nuts to give it the bulk. For lack of a better word, perhaps you could call it a paste. This is simple, incredibly versatile, and can be added to dishes right before serving just for the extra green kick - both in taste and sight.

HERB-Y CONCOCTION

Ingredients

A bunch of herbs of your choice - I usually have some flat leaf parsley, coriander, spring onion and basil in the refrigerator, so I use any combination of that.

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Lemon juice (optional)

Method

Blend the herbs with the extra virgin olive oil, adding more oil if you would like a less viscous consistency.

Add salt and lemon juice to taste.

Leftovers can keep up to a week in a clean glass jar, in the refrigerator. But if you need to keep it, top it up with more oil if necessary, so that the herbs are not exposed to the air.

#FoodRecipe