No One’s Perfect (But Your Lunch Can Be)

Today’s lunch could have been a bit of a disaster: I was starving, in a mad rush, and, my usual kitchen toolkit standbys have mostly run dry… But, no one is perfect – least of all me – and the important thing is knowing how to get back on the ‘culinary’ horse…

In no more than 10 minutes (8 to microwave the sweet potato – yes I know but desperate measures were required!), I pulled together a very pretty, vibrant and nutritious plate of food.

Sweet potato, cooked in its skin for 8 minutes in the microwave, was spoon mashed lightly onto a plate, drizzled with olive oil, flaky sea salt and pepper.
While this was cooking I sliced a red chilli on the diagonal and ‘quick pickled’ it in red wine vinegar (to cover) with a good pinch each of sugar, salt and pepper and left it to do it’s thing.

Half an avocado was very finely sliced with a butter knife on the diagonal and spooned out on top and given the same olive oil, s+p treatment.
A few rogue slow roast tomatoes (see previous posts for these) were strewn over the top, followed by the chilli slices which gave a welcome bite of heat and acidity. A few urfa chilli flakes (I buy mine from Spice Mountain on top gave a lovely smokiness…

As I can’t get enough of chilli I served mine with greek yogurt stirred through with a good harissa paste from my local farmers market and toasted flat breads. Lunch in minutes…