“Why do you insist on making your life harder?” a friend asked unsympathetically, forking all the halloumi on to her plate as we sat enjoying the weekend sunshine. Why, in other words, had I decided to go plant-based for Lent – and use that to justify eating more than my fair share of the hummus? It’s a good question, and not an easy one to answer, given that religion has very little to do with it (sorry, Mum).

Although I don’t eat a lot of meat and fish at home, I do consume a significant amount of dairy, particularly yoghurt and butter, along with eggs, and I’d like to see whether I can reduce this a little (consuming less, but better) by forming new habits. Plus, like many keen cooks, I find restriction exciting – it forces me to be more creative in the kitchen (though it doesn’t always make me popular, as said friend, who witnessed my no-added-sugars phase, will attest).

Last time I tried veganism – for an article almost a decade ago, when such a diet, despite its ancient roots, was seen as newsworthy – the thing I found hardest was all the processed food my editor asked me to sample. This time I get to eat what I want, which mostly means business as usual and cooking for myself. There’s no shortage of brilliant, incidentally plant-based dishes out there, from Rukmini Iyer’s lime and coconut dal to Georgina Hayden’s kebbet laktin (a spinach and onion tart using pumpkin and bulgur wheat pastry, pictured above), but in 40 days I suspect I may also crave the familiar.

Fortunately, I’ve already written recipes for vegan alternatives to some of my favourite dishes; there’s a coffee-spiked black bean chilli on the stove as I type, and I’m sure my vegan moussaka, ragu and ice-cream will also be making appearances (not least because I now know how expensive good vegan ice-cream is!). But I also want to discover new ones: Meera Sodha’s delightfully trashy-sounding vegan mac and cheese is definitely on the cards (why did I give away that tub of nutritional yeast last year), as is her tiramisu; I can see Harriet Birrell’s plant-based parmesan alternative taking up residence in my kitchen, too.

March is still stew weather, and Sam Dixon’s root veg version comes with dumplings, which immediately warms my cockles. Meera, who will probably feature a lot in my near future, offers a mushroom, Guinness and pearl barley number that makes me wish I liked mushrooms more (a bit of a hurdle on a plant-based diet); happily, Anna Jones’s squash and caramelised onion quesadillas and Yotam Ottolenghi’s tofu and cauliflower korma are both fungi-free.

Philip Khoury’s sticky toffee and pecan pudding, meanwhile, looks utterly glorious, as does his three-ingredient chocolate mousse. Though my late-afternoon snack of choice, salted nuts, is still on the menu, I can also see myself reaching for Benjamina Ebuehi’s tahini and date cookies and, should I find an excuse for a tea party, Meera’s updated take on my very favourite cake, coffee and walnut, is top of my list. See you on the other side!

PS: Last night, after a month of ageing, I finally tried the prune-infused negroni I wrote about in my last newsletter – can hard recommend.

A bracing, moving read | Rukmini Iyer’s extremely honest account of her breast cancer diagnosis, two weeks before giving birth to her second child, was the best thing I read this week, and comes with a list of reading and resources she found helpful during her treatment: “NOTE: you won’t find any juice diets/chia seeds/meditation cured my cancer stuff. I did and took everything the NHS doctors advised.” There is a lot that’s worth reading, and perhaps sharing with anyone you know going through a similar experience.

Chip, chip hooray! | I’m at least 80% more likely to make an attractive recipe if I already have all the ingredients in the house, which was the happy case with baker Kate Ray’s nut butter chocolate chip cookies for Vittles: I used the now sadly discontinued Marmite peanut butter, which was almost certainly not Kate’s intention, but it gave them a lovely, miso-ish edge. The recipe is behind a paywall, but if you subscribe to Vittles, do also check out its new Too Many Cookbooks supplement.

Give (frozen) peas a chance | The British food world is small enough that it’s hard to recommend a book that isn’t by someone I know – and I’m grateful to be friends with someone brilliant enough to write an entire book of recipes for the most common thing you’ll find in most people’s freezers: peas. From a green shakshuka to a vibrant pea, pistachio and matcha loaf cake, there are loads of fresh ideas for this versatile staple in Samuel Goldsmith’s new Frozen Peas Cookbook, alongside classics such as matar paneer and risi e bisi; I can recommend the easy pea-sta sauce.

British beans | While everyone is obsessed with protein, I’m much more concerned about fibre, and have been making an effort to eat more beans and pulses. Along with the increasing difficulty of finding a range of dried beans in supermarkets, low consumption in the UK means they can be of indeterminate age and provenance. So I was delighted to be sent samples of Hodmedod’s new range of French organic flageolet, borlotti, black and coco beans. The creamy flageolet were delicious with a braised chicken, the black are going in the next batch of vegan chilli, and I’ll save the coco for a cassoulet when duck fat is back on my menu.