Beetroot and Yoghurt Dip with Za’atar

I love beetroot in any form - it is probably my favourite root vegetable, as it is so versatile and combines beautifully with many other ingredients. For a while, I was obsessed with finding great beetroot dip recipes. There is something about the vibrant, magenta colour of a beetroot dip that is just so appealing – it calls out to you, just asking to be scooped up with your crudités of choice, again and again and again. After several experiments, with several recipes, I have finally settled on this one, from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's beautiful book, Jerusalem -a purée of beetroot lightened with Greek yoghurt and perfumed with za'atar - as my favourite.

Pesto and Pasta alla Genovese

We are having bright, hot, sunny days in Colombo, and my herb garden is thriving. Without exaggeration, I have a forest of basil on my rooftop right now. Ok, so that’s a slight exaggeration… 12 pots do not quite a forest make. I’ve been growing basil in my little potted herb garden since we moved into our place in Colombo – it is a delightful plant to grow, mainly because it requires very little care to do well. A cool drink every day and plenty of sunshine and it grows faster than my toddlers. As a relatively inexperienced herb-gardener, the abundance of basil didn’t always send me into a pesto-making frenzy. In the early days, I was so thrilled that my herbs were not just surviving but actually thriving, that I naively refrained from too much pruning. This was a mistake because the more vigorously one prunes basil, the more verdant and lush it grows. I now prune enthusiastically, which means that I have a constant, fresh supply of these fragrant, emerald leaves to hand.

Aubergine with buttermilk sauce

I love Yotam Ottolenghi’s books on cooking vegetables, Plenty and Plenty More. I always think of them like that – books on cooking vegetables, rather than as vegetarian cookbooks. I’m one of those people who struggles without having meat or fish to get my teeth into, so to speak, for a meal. I love vegetables, of course – roasted or raw, steamed, sautéed, curried or crunchy and fresh in a salad – but I always think of them as sides, and never as taking centre stage on the plate. But, there is something about Ottolenghi’s recipes that convinces me, at least for the duration of the meal, to change that attitude. Almost every vegetable dish I have cooked from Ottolenghi’s books, I’d be happy eating by itself. And that’s saying something.