Rosemary potato and harissa kale pizza

I didn't cook this on the BBQ, but I found the recipe in a book that did. Just when I thought I really didn't need another BBQ book, this one came along and seduced with the most beautiful recipes imaginable, including a whole chapter on pizzas. There are quite a lot of flavours that instinctively marry well, as this book illustrates perfectly, sometimes suggesting strange combinations that seem odd, (chocolate and cauliflower?), but my new taste discovery is potato and rosemary. Hardly something new, but the perfect compliment. Earthy meets floral and woodsy. Add some fruity olive oil, some salty Provolone and a bit of salt and you have a pizza to die for.

My first harvest of the season

The success I'm having this year with growing things is truly unprecedented. Previously trying to cultivate vegetables and flowers on a tiny shady balcony makes me feel sad now. I tried so hard and had a few little triumphs, but now I know I was doing everything wrong. Light, sun, good soil...today I have all these things and my veg are thriving. The vegetable plot, (see below), contains 4 types of basil, 5 types of tomato, spinach, fennel, shiso leaves, broccoli, gai lan, chili peppers, nasturtiums, chives, beets, radish and eggplant. When I say radish I mean singular radish. I obviously haven't improved enough as a gardener yet as I planted one radish seed and got a beauty, but that's it, no more radish for us this Summer.

Butternut squash and potato salad with miso-harissa dressing

I have Heidi Swanson's blog 101 cookbooks to thank for this. Whenever I need to make something healthy and vegetarian, to her wisdom I will travel. The salad is what we're talking about here, not the fritters, which despite being delicious, have the unfortunate appearance of grass cow pats. Heidi made her version of this salad with delicata squash, a summer veg which can be cooked with the skin intact, giving it a pleasing stripey look, however, this being Winter, I adapted and used butternut. The combination of miso and olive oil was intriguing and had the most amazing nutty, sweet and tangy flavour, coupled with some spice from harissa. Toasted almonds added crunch and a toasty taste and the radishes helped cut through all the richness. Superb.