I hate not having enough time to write. And I hate starting a blog post with “it’s been ages since we spoke”. This month both remain true, and I thought I’d circumvent the circumstances by doing a round-up post instead of a new recipe; forgetting just how monumentally time-consuming round-ups actually are.

However, with the government dropping a typically cruel and economically lacklustre budget and Chlöe Swarbrick coining the “cost of greed crisis” as a useful way to augment the frequently called-upon but admittedly passive phrase ‘cost-of-living crisis’, I figured now was as good a time as any to round up, specifically, recipes that might meet people where they’re at.

This is not actually a place that I sit comfortably within, because:

• The prices of ingredients fluctuate too wildly (and usually upwards) to truly draw a line in the sand
• I realise that at least half my recipes lean towards what you might politely call ‘whimsy’
• Food is so subjective and accessibility is delicate: what might be reasonable in one kitchen, on one budget, might be preposterous in another
• We, the people, can’t budget our way out of supermarket duopoly bloodbaths, costs passed onto us, and wages that don’t live in the real world and it’s insulting to think that any recipe could save you from that!

But.

Until the great day comes where we can overthrow the structures of unearned power that currently rest on our collective necks, we still all have to make dinner. And on the offchance that it’s useful information or inspiration, here are 35 recipes, which I’ve grouped by:

• Shelf tomatoes: Like the current landscape of economic punishment, these ingredients don’t expire
• Soft food for hard times: Dinner that comforts without costing too much
• Something from nothing: Austere with time, effort and ingredients, abundant with flavour
• Razzle-dazzle potential: If you’ve been asked to bring a plate or just want something nice
• Deserved: Don’t make me say ‘sweet treat’, but it really does make life briefly bearable

Also, most of the below recipes have made in my current kitchen which has literally 30cm square benchspace, for what it’s worth. Let’s get into it.

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Shelf tomatoes

A handful of recipes that make the absolute most out of preserved, long-lasting tomatoes in various forms, including the humble but holy tinned tomatoes.

Plus:

• Piperade for all seasons | “around the satiny peppers forms a jammy-syrupy sauce, rich with garlic and smoked paprika” | vegan, gf, one-ish pan, versatile
  
• Triple tomato beans | “like being run over by a steamroller shaped like a giant tomato” | vegan, gf, one pan
  
• Tomato couscous with cinnamon, peanuts, and coriander | “the kind of food that you want to eat from a knotted up position on the couch when it’s raining outside (or in your heart)” | vegan, fast
  
• Chickpeas diabolique | “possibly my favourite chickpea recipe ever—so far—as much for its speed and ease as its dramatically delicious results from such simple ingredients” | vegan, gf, versatile
  
• Tomato and bread soup with fried carrot pesto | “drop in the torn-up ciabatta, which thirstily reduces and thickens the broth” | vegan, good for bread leftovers, needs a food processor for the pesto but you can hand-chop it

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Soft food for hard times

When everything sucks, humans invariably turn towards food that doesn’t require committed chewing. These recipes can loosely be described as comfort food without blandness, like getting a hug from someone wearing a leather jacket.

Plus:

• Sha’aktoura (rice and lentil pilaf) | “The texture is pure somnolent-soft comfort yet the flavours are invigorating and freshly vivacious” | vegan, gf, ready in about 30 mins
  
• Four-bean soup with Kewpie aioli | “creamy bumps of beans amidst the barley like the colourwork in a Fair Isle cardigan” | vegan, tastes better the next day
  
• One-pan fried chickpeas, rice and greens |  “a civilised jumble of textures — tender rice, popcorn-esque chickpeas, softly crunchy almonds, almost-melted greens” | vegan, one pan, gf
  
• Hands-free black bean and brown rice casserole | “so easy and, as the title suggests, hands-free that I almost felt light-headed from the lack of responsibility” | vegan, one dish, gf, customisation-friendly
  
• Caramelised onion butter bean soup with chilli butter pumpkin seeds | “the second tin, pureed smoothly, provides a lightly creamy backdrop for the whole beans and collapsed onions to bob around in” | vegan, gf
  
• Spiced pearl barley pilaf | “Soft and puffy with a rice-ishly fragrant flavour, just as good cold as hot, and a decently inexpensive contribution to your protein and fibre levels” | vegan, one pan, customisation-friendly, good hot or cold
  
• Catalan chickpeas and spinach | “for something so simple, starring two undeniably excellent but not terribly flashy ingredients, it’s just beautiful” | vegan, gf, one pan

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Something from nothing

Recipes that evoke magic tricks, like turning flour and water into chicken or making a gorgeous loaf of bread without any kneading or indeed, trying.

Plus:

• Pasta with two chillis | “The hardest part is remembering not to rub your eyes after chopping the chillis; I myself am a frequent cautionary tale in this regard” | vegan, fast
  
• Coconut pancakes | “the sort that might appear on the breakfast table in a Disney cartoon or a TV show where they’re inexplicably constantly eating lavish brunches that they continuously and wastefully abandon” | vegan, fast
  
• Vegan scrambled eggs | “filling, plentiful, brunchily luxurious” | vegan, can be gf
  
• Nigella’s Norwegian mountain loaf | “I really can’t express how minimal the effort is here—some half-hearted commitment to the ingredients list, a little apathetic stirring” | vegan

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Razzle-dazzle potential

Counter-intuitive perhaps but look, you might get invited to a potluck or you might want something a little lush and luxurious feeling, while still making the most of showcasing an inexpensive-ish central ingredient.

• Freeform black bean cobbler | “turns canned beans and unglamorous vegetables into something heartening, welcoming, soothing, and even celebratory” | vegan, customisation-friendly
  
• Cauliflower Marbella | “the unfurling crevice of each floret seemingly made to drink in the sour-sweet flavours” | vegan, gf
  
• Pappardelle with roasted carrots, hazelnuts and dill | “it tastes like abundance, but it doesn’t ask it of you” | vegan
  
• M’tabbal Qarae “the double-mint effect offers an icy-cool breeze that lifts the dip’s almost-heavy richness” | vegan, gf
  
• Shawarma spiced roast vegetables with feta | “taking fairly humble vegetables and making them feastlike and sumptuous” | vegan, gf, customisation-friendly

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Deserved

Sometimes you can feel the need for a dessert or a little something with a cup of tea as if the walls themselves are whispering it in your ear, it’s a need that is built into the architecture of human existence and you deserve it now despite it feeling like the first obvious cut. Hopefully these (and the chocolate cake and coconut pancakes above) are within reach for you.

Plus:

• Small batch peanut mocha cookies | “The contract between lacy-edged, Florentine-chewy outer and crisp, snappy middle is beguiling” | vegan, gf
  
• Pumpkin seed pastry hearts | “placing a questioning, haunting memory of the flavour and fragrance of baklava in the eater’s mind” | vegan

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With the round-up officially rounded up, I will now promise that new recipes are on their way as soon as I can make it happen. This month has, to be fair, had many happy reasons for being busy and time-less. Including a wild two weeks of remaining shortlisted at the Ockhams, participating in four different Auckland Writers Festival events in what was an utter dream come true for my younger self who genuinely did dream of being in a festival one day, plus a Hoods Landing potluck event, plus announcing the World All Languages (ex NZ) rights acquirement of Hoods Landing by Pushkin Press. It’s been a rollercoaster made of bees!

What I’ve been listening to lately:

Pati by Hun Lynch, the entire Sycophant album is very Tāmaki Noir but this song in particular makes me feel like I’m striding menacingly down Fort Street’s wet grey bricks.

Brand New Love by Sebadoh, although this chugging wall of hopefulness is resonant and gorgeous on its own I periodically like to revisit it specifically because the build up to the chorus sounds exactly like the orchestral build up to the final crescendo of Defying Gravity and I must stake my flag in the ground as the Person who has Noticed it.

Visions of a Life by Wolf Alice, I love this band so much anyway, but a song like this with a capricious and inconstant time signature and which is surely in dialogue with Rumble by Link Wray will immediately capture the heart of my ears.

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PS: Feeling hopeless is a luxury that serves no one but those perpetrating the hopelessness, despite the hopelessness being accelerated beyond comprehension daily. The people of Palestine need us now more than ever; aside from directly sending money when you see personal videos pop up as you scroll, you can support:

• ReliefAid’s Gaza Appeal, who are connected with teams on the ground in Gaza.
• Convoys of Good, another registered NZ charity distributing aid.
• Please visit Chuffed—they’re one of the few spaces providing families in Palestine with official crowd-funding platforms, as well as for other urgent causes.
• As I’ve already mentioned, you can also demonstrate your control and power through the absence of your dollars. Boycott Zine Aotearoa has helpfully put together two comprehensive free zines so you can quickly see who to studiously avoid when buying food, drinks, household items and beauty products.
• You can also check out the Pro-Palestine Business Aotearoa account by the same people for a very solid list of places to actively focus your consumer attention on.
• Finally—as if the government couldn’t get more appalling, inept, squanderous and ignominious—you should sign this petition rightly calling to block the definition of a woman bill.