Roasted Spring Vegetables

Well it's been a year. The year has simultaneously flown past and dragged its feet and while I didn't notice that much change within myself, when I look back at myself this time last year I realise I am a completely different person. Mostly for the better, though I won't pretend for one minute to have it all figured out. Not by a long shot. I don't want to make this all about my new found status as mom, but really it is. 

Before I had A this blog was my way of escaping reality, of burying my head in the sand. Stuck in a crappy job, with seemingly no way out (the job market was stone cold dead) and wanting a baby but being unable to have one almost catapulted me into a depression. Well I say almost, but realistically it actually did. This blog saved me. I threw my all into it - planning meals, playing with ingredients, learning about food photography, obsessing over just how to style that plate perfectly, launching myself into the world of social media, attending the very first food blogger conference in South Africa (and the one immediately following it) - food blogging provided me with an outlet for my passion of cooking. 

And I could console myself with the fact that it was one area of my life where I could invest abc and achieve xyz. Consistently. 

So very unlike the business of trying to make a baby. 

I eventually found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I fell pregnant. At first I had every intention of keeping up with the blog. Then the pregnancy food aversions struck. Oh how I don't miss those! And before I could find time to blink and assess the situation, A was born. One year and one week ago. My whole world zoomed in on her, the centre of my universe. I realise this description makes me sound obsessive and strangely I don't care.

I tried to continue with the blog, even setting up a food photo shoot one week after she was born, wielding the camera while carrying her in the sling. It was um... tough... to say the least. You'd think after twenty months of trying and nine months of pregnancy I'd be fully prepared for motherhood, but then you'd be wrong. It took a couple of months to figure things out. To figure me out and to figure us out. The new family dynamic. And a new blog dynamic. 

I'm sure posts won't be regular. I'm sure photos won't be picture perfect. And I'm sure meals won't be glamorous or exotic. But I'll be here. Posting about food. With a photo or two if I remembered to charge the camera batteries that day. If not, I will try my best to wax lyrical in the description of the food so that you, dear reader, won't feel too hard done by. And yes, many blog posts will contain glimpses of little Miss A. So I hope you're down with that. 

Here's to new beginnings. And keeping it real. 

Roasted Spring Vegetables
Serves 4

1 small cauliflower
100g fresh asparagus
1 small bunch shallots
1 small green bellpepper
1/2 punnet mushrooms
olive oil salt and pepper to taste

Tahini Dipping Sauce
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
3 tablespoons tahini
2 - 3 tablespoons water 
salt & pepper, to taste


Arrange vegetables in a roasting tin, drizzle with oil and season to taste. Roast at 180C until crisp-tender. 


In the meantime, mix mayonnaise and tahini together, adding just enough water to get a thick pouring consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with vegetables hot from the oven or at room temperature. 

Eat these vegetables as is with just the dipping sauce as accompaniment, or perhaps some chunks of seed loaf to fill the gaps. Other serving options include cutting open a steaming hot pita bread, slathering it with the tahini sauce and filling the pocket with steamed veggies. A drizzle of sweet chili sauce completes the picture. Simply piled onto toast and topped with melting cheese is also a pretty perfect way of inhaling these veggies. Don't try to complicate it too much though - the beauty of these vegetables lie in the simple roasting thereof, enhancing their natural flavours and encouraging you to scarf down a meal for four all by yourself. Hey - it's good for you!