I don't remember eating a sexy beast

I know that I always say that fruits and vegetables are available easily and cheap here, but then I never elaborate and tell what we make of them

If you have been paying attention, you already know that one of my flatmates is vegan, which means he doesn't eat or drink anything that is of animal origin. No eggs, no milk. Since we usually cook together, the household is practically vegan, with a few kilos of cheese here and there, because it's good, and I should bring home some local cheese next time, and beause it can be added to most dishes at the very end, therefore inducing a case of cake eaten and had.

In the indian store and on the market we can buy different types of lentils, couscous, beans and chickpeas, and every time somebody comes back from the developed world, they bring some quinoa with them. These then can be combined with the aubergine-zucchini-squash-cauliflower-tomato-bell peppers team, and they usually end up being very tasty dishes. If I make the soup, I start with the obvious onion-paprika base, and throw in everything I can find, blender it and at the very end add a little powdered coconut milk. If Marcello cooks, the soup has more of a minsetrone feel to it, I tend to pour that all over myself, and Rafa just squeezes lemon juice into everything.

The avocados here grow to a decent size, and zucchinis even bigger, so it happens that the combination of those two end up as fake (zucchini) pasta with avocado sauce. Noms.

Sometimes the chickpeas make it to the soup, but most of the time they serve as base material for the hummus. Luckily for us, because of the indian contingent, there are a few well-equipped indian stores here, and tajina (pureed sesame) is always accessible. Which is good, the hummus needs it. (As pesto usually has cheese in it, we don't keep any at home, so nowadays, if life gets hard, I eat tajina with a spoon from the jar. Nothing is unsolvable.)

One of my favourite creations is fresh spinach being sautéed (any expert is more than welcome to provide the appropriate English term for this) in olive oil with garlic, mixed with mushrooms and quinoa in the wok. I can eat that standing right next to the stove. I could, if my flatmates weren't circling in the kitchen, like vultures, waiting for the dish to be of edible temperature.

Ratatouille (again, please be shy with your English term proposals. The household and life in general is largely multilingual, if I don't know a word in English, I throw it in French. Or Hungarian. Spanish. Swahili.) is an obvious choice, and the advanced version at that, with aubergine and some sort of squash. Aubergine happens to be my other love, turns up in grilled version as well, usually hiding under tomato sauce,

but I have also made ugly but tasty purée out of it. I can make ugly but tasty purée out of pretty much anything, last weekend I put carrots in the hummus. I would have put more, but the boys thought that the carrots chips will be afternoon snacks and ate half of it straight from the oven dish. This then gave me the brilliant idea of making some more for the Tuesday movie night, something to munch on, which is not processed potato chips from the store, but also doesn't require my dancing in the kitchen for hours, as I do when „we” are making pizza.

My dancing in the kitchen for hours usually has some surprising results. Such as: baklava (vegan), chocolate cake (vegan), rainbow cake (vegan, but tastes very artificial),

garlic cheese bread (no, not vegan. It requires cheese, garlic butter and love. A lot of love.),

Grandma's pogácsa (also not very vegan), banana bread (vegan)

or stuffed bell peppers (vegan upon request). Aaaaand! Last weekend we made sushi and tempura! We spent about three hours in the kitchen, and devoured the outcome in less than nine minutes. And then all went straight to a food coma. It was great.