Lucy Tweed is a food writer, consultant, and stylist. Her cookbook Every Night of The Week is named after the Instagram account she started to document the dinners she made for her family. Taking that theme, she turned it into a cookbook sectioned not by meals, ingredients, or seasons, but by days of the week. Each day has a different energy; Monday being full of potential and Thursday… well by Thursday, you’re likely running low on ingredients and energy. The recipes in each day correspond to the energy of the day, a unique and fun way to cook.
The recipes are simple enough to be able to make them during the week without expending too much effort, but exciting enough that it makes you feel like you’re making something special. It’s a savory cookbook – the only baking you’ll find is frittatas and savory pies. There’s loads of Asian inspired flavors, chicken dishes (which I’ve tagged just about all) and one pan/pot dishes. Dietary-wise, it’s suited for those that do eat animal proteins as they feature in most of the recipes. A fair amount is gluten free and heavy on veggies so it falls under recipes that are nutritious.
One of my favorite sections is the tips and tricks of the trade. It is two pages filled with some genius cooking advice, like how to store herbs so they last longer, using skewers when breading chicken or fish to avoid sticky fingers, and doubling anything you can freeze to save time later.
The recipe I’m sharing is for her silky soup. It’s the second soup recipe I’ve made from the book, and both were A+. It’s made using cauliflower, leeks and marrow and is rich and creamy – like eating a cloud dream as Lucy aptly writes. I opted for her suggestion to make it dairy free by removing the butter in favor of more olive oil. She serves it with a caper breadcrumb topping which adds a little bit of crunch and briney-ness to the soup.
Every Night of the Week by Lucy Tweed is published byPenguin Random House and is available here.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 leek white and pale green part only, cut into 1cm thick slices
- 2 parsnips peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 head cauliflower roughly chopped
- 2 zucchini roughly chopped
- 1 head of garlic halved horizontally
- 1 Litre vegetable or chicken stock
- salt and pepper to taste
Crunchy Topping
- 3 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoon baby capers patted as dry as possible
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
- Add the leek, parsnip, cauliflower, zucchini and garlic head and cook for 15 minutes until the vegetables are starting to soften.
- Add the stock and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Remove the garlic and squeeze the soft flesh back into the soup.
- Blitz. Season to taste.
- For the topping, heat the oil in a large frying pan until hot and add the capers. These will spit and generally behave badly so keep an eye on them. Once they blossom open crisply or begin to brown, add the breadcrumbs and continue to fry, stirring, until golden brown.
- Eat the soup with a handful of crumbs and capers on top.
Recipe is reprinted with permission from the publisher. Images are by Nutreats Food Photography Studio.
