SPINACH & CHICKPEA CURRY

w/ a candied peanut and crispy onion topper of DREAMS

dinner for the warehouse

As we all know, social media isn’t an accurate representation of how we live our lives, it’s a highlights reel. I think the general perception of my living situation is that we eat like kings and queens on a daily basis, but the reality, is far from the truth.

For context, I live communally with six of my friends in a disused carpet warehouse in East London. What that means, in simple terms, is that we all pay £25 a week into a kitty and that money pays for all our weekly household goods, from our food to our toothpaste, cleaning materials and bin bags. We each take it in turn to cook, with one person cooking dinner for everyone else each night of the week. I adore this arrangement, it makes living in London far more affordable, enjoyable and delicious than it otherwise would be. I love that we each only have to think of something to cook once a week, the result being that we all put in a good amount of thought and effort to our meals. The joy of knowing there will always be a delicious meal waiting for you at home after a long day, rarely wears thin. I think it’s fair to say we are all obsessed with food, to varying degrees, and the house is made up of good cooks. So you can count on it always being delicious, and we sometimes whip up fresh pasta, dumplings and bread from scratch, but (!) we also are human, and this is not our every day.

I have had a difficult time of late, struggling to balance work and life commitments, taking very little time off and generally being stretched a bit too thin. So this week, when it was my turn to cook, and I felt overwhelmed and out of ideas, this is what I did:

The first port of call is always to ask who is in for dinner, so I know how many I am cooking for and can consider all their needs. The next is to check out what we have in the house, depending on where we are in the week and how recently our food shop has been delivered, this can vary from an overflowing fridge to a barren pantry. On this day, we had lots in the way of tinned and dried goods, but not that many fresh ingredients, so I worked with what we had and made this curry up on the fly. It worked out really well and will now be something I lean on in busy and stressful times. It’s always good to have those recipes you can go back to, that are a comfort. A quick, healthy and easy route to a delicious dinner for all.

Next time you are in a rut with your dinner ideas, I hope this curry can be there to save the day for you too.

Sending love, Rosie x