warm winter veggie bowl with lemon tahini drizzle

basically a hug in bowl form

The moment my head hit the pillow on Tuesday night, instead of falling asleep, I was consumed with anxiety over the age-old question… Did I turn off the irrigation?!

I was 99.6% sure that I had turned off our irrigation system earlier that day, but there was that teeny, tiny 0.4% of doubt that was keeping me wide awake. Surely, I turned it off, I told myself. But what if I didn’t? And what if I wake up tomorrow and I’ve drowned all the newly planted kale and swiss chard seedlings, and then our CSA members won’t have their spring greens and all will be lost! (Man, love how my brain spirals with the worst possible scenarios. If you’ve ever left home and panicked about whether or not you turned off your curling iron, or accidentally left the stove on, then you know the feeling, and you know it’s the WORST).

The literal *last* thing I wanted to do was get out my cozy bed, but off I went, tip-toeing around all the creaky spots in our 100-year old house so I wouldn’t wake up the baby. I got downstairs, begrudgingly pulled on my coat, hat, and boots and trudged outside, where I was greeted by a frigid, star-filled night. As I opened the gate into the garden and walked towards the irrigation hydrant in question, my grumpy mood totally shifted as my feet crunched across the frozen, moon-lit grass.

Let’s just say I don’t typically go for strolls late at night in the winter, and I was taken aback by the vividly bright stars blanketing the sky, and I relished the crisp, cold air as it filled my lungs. It was basically a cold plunge without the water, and I was jolted out of my head and straight into the present moment.

Honestly, my unexpected evening stroll to double-check an irrigation hydrant (which, of course, was indeed properly turned off) was the most present I’d been all day. The whole reason I couldn’t remember if I’d turned off the water earlier was because I’d been too busy multi-tasking and thinking of a million other things at the time.

That’s the magical thing about Mother Nature (and, honestly, about small children) – if you aren’t paying attention, they will figure out a way to MAKE you pay attention. And as we steamroll into spring, I’m considering this my reminder to slow the heck down and stop dwelling on the past / fixating on what’s ahead. (Because otherwise, I’ve got a lot more late night irrigation inspections in my future...)

PS – I have a new life hack for scenarios like this… now I take a picture on my phone whenever I turn off the irrigation (or the stove or iron or whatever), so I can prove to my future paranoid self that I’m not going to drown my plants or burn the house down. ;)

Need some culinary inspiration for the weekend? Here’s my weekly round up of seasonal recipes from around Substack to help you eat like a farmer:

• Brothy Spiced Meatballs from

  Clare de Boer
  /
  The Best Bit

• Alfredo e Pepe from

  Ali Slagle
  /
  40 Ingredients Forever

• Homemade Marmalade from

  Anne Byrn
  /
  Anne Byrn: Between the Layers

Keep reading for today’s recipe for Warm Winter Veggie Bowl with Lemon Tahini Drizzle, available for paid subscribers.

If you’re curious what our family has really been eating most nights this winter, it’s some version of this Warm Winter Veggie Bowl with Lemon Tahini Drizzle.

This recipe isn’t fancy, it isn’t revolutionary, and it will never go viral. But it will warm your bones and fill your belly, and you can practically feel your body buzzing from all the nourishment. It’s the kind of thing that you’ll want to make again and again, season after season, each time a little different, but always exactly what you need.

The beautiful thing about a roasted veggie bowl is that they’re endlessly adaptable. My favorite winter combination (which you’ll see in today’s recipe) is sweet potatoes, broccoli, red onion, and chickpeas paired with warming spices – but use whatever you’ve got! Winter squash, carrots, beets, parsnips, etc would all work too. Just make sure that you chop everything in such a way that the different veggies roast evenly on the same baking sheet (ex: beets are super dense and take longer to roast than most other veggies, so if you use beets, just chop them into a smaller dice).

And don’t snooze on the lemony, nutty, salty, irresistible tahini sauce! You can whip it up in a quick minute, and it really does kick the whole dish up about 10 notches. Also, this bowl would be fabulous paired with some creamy polenta.

Keep reading for the full recipe (and a handy 1-page PDF for easy printing).

Become a paid subscriber to access today’s recipe (free subscribers get access to full recipes on the 1st Friday of the month). As a paid subscriber, you’ll also get access to my full recipe archive, gardening guides, and you’ll get bonus content and join our private community chats.

Warm Winter Veggie Bowl with Lemon Tahini Drizzle

Serves 4