I found myself cooking for twelve strangers last Thursday. Amanda fucking Palmer was in town. A couple of months ago, she asked if any fans had

a) a living room that could fit 12

b) food that could feed 12 bellies

and well, my apartment is tiny. So I sent off an email and thought nothing of it until I got a reply. This is what I cooked for a woman that continues to inspire me.

Zucchini slice, that I had previously blogged about and hadn’t pictured. Fred from the Nervous Cabaret thought it was a bread of some sorts. I was stoked that he didn’t realise it’s main ingredient was (drum roll please) a vegetable.

Pumpkin and tatsoi pasta. A uber healthy shot of baked pumpkin (butternut squash), tatsoi sauteed with garlic, pine nuts, sliced sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil and goat cheese. Substitute a cream sauce with olive oil and the left over oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. I know you think that the prep work is crazy but I roasted the butternut a couple of days before and sauteing the tatsoi took 5 minutes tops. You can use spinach or any leafy green.

Roasted mushrooms in tomato and chickpea sauce. Easy as. Two cans of pureed tomatoes, one can of drained and rinsed chickpeas, washed mushrooms with the stalks removed. Oven at 180 C (350 f) for half an hour. Garnish with basil. Done!

And at midday, I had this:

And at the end of the day, it was gone.