I love to cook, and yet even I get tired of it sometimes. You know what those days are like, I’m sure: The hour is late, your energy is low, the cupboard is practically bare. You’re out of time, out of ideas. In summertime, the cooking is supposed to be so effortless, and yet here you are, struggling to get a meal together.
When I get in one of those ruts, I try to shift perspective, and it usually works. Just as traveling to an unfamiliar destination can help you see your everyday struggles in a new light, flipping through a book you normally wouldn’t have paid attention to or reading a blog that you’ve never bookmarked before can give you new insight in the kitchen — or at least a new recipe.
I found both in Angela Liddon’s new “The Oh She Glows Cookbook” (Avery, 2014). Now, I’ll be honest: The name of Liddon’s book (derived from her blog) had previously caused me to assume that I couldn’t possibly find anything within that spoke to me. It turns out that we share plenty of interests: in fruits and vegetables and other whole foods, in farmers markets, in gardening. I’ve never struggled with eating disorders the way that Liddon did (before finding her way back to health through veganism), but I’m certainly no stranger to the transformative powers of a shift in dietary habits.
One of the most popular recipes on her blog, she writes, is for a pasta dish that uses one of my favorite ingredients, but one that I hadn’t thought to pair with spaghetti: avocado. It was an idea I could get behind, especially because that ingredient was the sole thing I needed to buy to make a dish that was otherwise covered by my pantry and garden. I don’t need or necessarily want my pasta dinners to be dairy-free, but when the avocado blends with a little lemon, basil, garlic and olive oil, it makes a nice, creamy sauce that doesn’t happen to include any cream, cheese or butter.