Carrots, chickpeas and solving a kitchen problem...

My kitchen is tiny. Not quite as tiny as Rachel Khoo's teeny weeny Paris kitchen (if she didn't fold her bed away in the morning she'd practically be cooking in bed) but it's small. There's just about enough room for one person to cook and one person to stand by the fridge drinking a glass of wine and passing the odd ingredient over from the fridge. And, as I've been here three and a half years and have accumulated various bits and pieces in that time, every now and then I encounter a serious storage problem. I've recently acquired a couple of new mugs, and there was literally nowhere for them to go, and the top of the microwave was absolutely covered in stuff too - something had to be done!

Then I happened to see a post on Laura's blog, Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish, where she mentioned using a cheap wooden shoe rack as kitchen storage. I did some online research and some measuring, and discovered I'd be able to fit a shoe rack on top of the (excellent) custom-made set of shelves my dad designed for me when I moved in. Brilliant!

It looks fab and it frees up tons of space elsewhere. In an ideal world I'd do a DIY job on the shoe rack and the shelves and paint them a lovely sage green or a nice warm cream to match the kitchen tiles, but that's for another weekend!

This evening's supper was just as successful - yet more veg box produce used, and yet another recipe from River Cottage Veg Every Day tried and tested! This time it was Hugh's spicy carrot and chickpea pitta pockets - lovely buttery carrots with lots of cumin and orange, served in Hugh's case with pittas and in my case with homemade wholemeal flatbreads.

I used this recipe for the breads, halving it and using wholemeal plain flour, and I didn't really change much about the carrot recipe except for halving it, which made a good main course-sized portion (it'd easily serve two as part of a mezze spread or as lunch) and using less butter and oil than directed (probably a quarter of the original recipe). I was a bit worried about the carrots burning, so I put a lid on the pan and sort of braised the carrots, shaking the pan every now and then, until they were tender.

It was seriously lovely, and definitely one I'll make again - it was so easy. I'm not even a fan of oranges, but I went with it and the zest and juice went perfectly with the carrots and cumin. Yum yum!