The food photos in my my Instagram feed have been dominated by baked goods for (ahem) quite some time. It’s been a big year for cakes and other baking on the blog and I haven’t posted anything remotely green or vegetable-focused since the pickled radishes in March and the recipes for two summer salads in February. It’s not like I subsist on cake, though what bliss that would be; merely that my recent foodie moments have tended to be sweet and baked. I only share recipes here that I absolutely love and it seems that I just haven’t been very adventurous in the vegetable department lately.

In an effort to swing back to my usual interest in vegetables (and more balanced blog offerings), I decided to invest in a new cookbook. It’s hard not to be inspired by Sarah Britten’s new book, My New Roots (or her blog of the same name) with its bright, soft photographs and vibrant, colourful food. You’ll never catch me advocating dietary labels or extremes in any form, and Sarah is much the same. Her food is mostly vegetarian, mostly vegan in fact, and mostly gluten-free. She’s squarely focused on seasonal, plant-based wholefoods but it all comes off as innovative and exciting rather than pious and restrictive.

Every recipe I’ve tried so far has been deliciously different, even when no animal products whatsoever are included. When I prepare vegetarian food (which makes up the majority of my diet) most of the time I simply cook or assemble the dish and then add feta. Is the flavour missing a little something? Add feta. Could it be more delicious? Add feta. To this end, I always have a big tub of goat feta in the fridge as it just has this magical way of enhancing most food with its savoury, piquant tang. It’s become a habit because, well, feta is awesome, but it also feels a little lazy. It’s nice to be shown an alternative way to the same happy tummy.

Now as it happens, the recipe I’m posting here does feature feta, but I can tell you that I have happily left it out altogether or substituted a swipe of labne and/or a sprinkle of toasted pine nuts. Sarah’s recipe is a concept more than anything. To celebrate spring, she features asparagus, caramelised onions and herbs piled upon socca (more about this soon) to construct a gorgeous, fresh, pizza-esque plate. My version is barely changed – I’ve added courgettes to the asparagus, roasted the vegetables instead of grilling them, and freshened the dish with lemon zest and juice. It’s flexible. I can just see a late summer version using roasted eggplant, capsicum and basil pesto.

Now to the other new discovery – socca – a savoury pancake made from chickpea flour (sometimes sold as besan flour in Indian grocery stores) mixed with seasonings, oil and water. It’s gluten-free, if that’s important to you, and when eaten hot and freshly cooked it is completely addictive with a madly crispy texture and a spicy, peppery flavour. Sarah’s version uses ghee as the fat and is cooked in a frying pan. I had trouble with my socca sticking when cooked this way, but some wider reading revealed that it is traditionally made with olive oil and cooked in a wood-fired oven (its origins are from Nice, France). I’ve had the most success with cooking it my heavy roasting dish inside a hot oven so that’s how I do it now. I like David Lebovitz’s tip to add a little ground cumin to the batter to mimic the smokiness of the traditional method. Pairing it with chilled rosé as a pre-dinner nibble is also a great suggestion.

Socca alone is so awesome that you might demolish it all before you remember to create your little spring pizza. That’s ok – here’s to inspiration, not restriction!