What’s for dinner? Veganuary meals made simple

Good morning. Welcome to 2024! Fun week, sore head? At least there is always good food.

I’ll be writing a dinner-themed newsletter here on a monthly basis, where I’ll feed you suggestions of what you can cook on weeknights, weekends, for good times and for when you’ve got no time.

We live in an age when there’s an embarrassment of choice for what we could put on the table – the world is our oyster, but it’s also our pasta alla norma or our mapo tofu. But more choice equals more anxiety, so I’m here to take a mental load off, to stop the endless challenge of what to put on the table and help you make a plan.

Given it’s Veganuary, I encourage you not only to eat your greens, but to really cram them in. It takes a certain amount of planning and discipline – I’ve written a bit more about how to make a proper planhereandhere,to help youglide through it as easily as that new Japanese santoku knife you got for Christmas. Even if you’re just dipping into eating more vegetables, you’re welcome here, too. Either way, here are some suggestions for delicious meals that can easily be made midweek.

Try my beans in salsa verde,or Nigel Slater’s miso beans:they’re tasty, quick and zingy. Or, if you have root vegetables outstaying their Christmas welcome, Thomasina Miers’ röstiswill make light work of them. They’re vegetarian, but easily veganised if you sub the butter for vegan butter – Naturli and Flora make good ones – and find a good vegan cheese, such as Kinda Co’s Greek-style one from La Fauxmagerie, for the salad. Fancy pasta? Doesn’t Ixta Belfrage’s rocket rigatoni look great?

I’m a sucker for soups, dals and curries when the cold sets in: they warm the bones like a hot bath. On the midweek menu is Yotam Ottolenghi’s harira-style soup with carrots, swede and chickpeas (pictured top right) andmy own tofu, Thai basil and coconut curry. Tom Hunt’s five-minute dal, meanwhile, has piqued my curiosity, not least because it’s made with the answer to so many weeknight meals: a tin of lentils and tomatoes.

Something for the weekend? For batch cooking, these oven-baked aubergines with chickpeas and tomatoes will sort you out. Change up the flavours, if you like, as Nigel Slater does with his gochujang aubergines and beans. Or, for something rich and delicious, try Felicity Cloake’s perfect vegan ragu.

Finally, it’s my birthday on 25 January. It coincides with Burns Night, so I’ll be having friends over for my annual vegan haggis kheema and tattie roti party, which I’ll chase down with Ravneet Gill’s lazy person’s chocolate cake before (attempting) to dance it all off at a ceilidh. Woo!

Hot scoop | A fat jar of Mateo’s Gourmet Texas medium salsa, which I got at Costco: 907g of wild joy, perfect for scooping with the right tools, namely corn tortilla chips.

Noodle around | I’m launching a new dish at Stevie Parle’s restaurant Pastaio in London! Kimchi and tomato spaghetti! Come along! You’ll be able to eat it all this month. As a bonus, 50p from each portion sold will go to the Trussell Trust.

TV I watched while pretending to work | No food included, but I’ve been inhaling Fleischman Is in Trouble on Disney+. It’s darkly funny – in part probably because it cuts to the quick: I’m a middle-aged person watching other middle-aged people fall apart.

Holy guacamole! | A classic Tex-Mex seven-layer dip made by my friend Anna. It’s the mega-dip other dips worship at the feet of. The layers in question were refried beans, soured cream, guacamole, salsa, cheese, olives, spring onions and sliced jalapeños. Holy guacamole, it was good.