In most ways, being a food blogger is my dream job as I love pretty much everything it involves. After years of soul-destroying nine-to-five, I cannot believe that I finally get to call what I actually love doing ‘my job’. I count myself very lucky indeed and I would not change it for the world. There is one thing though that I find really challenging and I am still figuring out ways to deal with it. When your job is all about food, day in and day out, it is really really hard to keep your food habits on the straight and narrow. No, I don’t inhale cakes (although I wish I could 😉 ) for breakfast, but I bake way more often than I would normally and find it difficult to curb my constant impulse to ‘taste test’ and (let’s not beat about the bush here) snack as I cook, style and photograph. I also hate food waste and while most people are happy to take some cake off your hands, sometimes I’ve hacked the said cake so much, trying to cut a perfect piece for my photos that I’m ashamed to offer it to anyone. Normally I try to counteract my food sins with an increased amount of running, but as we’ve had truly awful weather around these parts lately and I really don’t fancy running in 10 Beaufort wind, I’ve slipped up again…We are off to Poland later on this week and I’m definitely packing my running gear with me. Hopefully, crisp and cold days will reignite my love for running and get me back on track.

So as me and cake have decided to take a wee break and you’ve probably also made some healthy eating New Year’s resolutions, which I don’t intend to sabotage, today’s recipe is a vegan winter salad. Winter may seem a difficult time for salad lovers (I’m talking raw veggies here) when compared to other seasons, as the selection of veg that does not require cooking is somewhat poor. This recipe, however, manages to combine some of the best winter produce into an easy and a quick-to-prepare salad bowl. If you are after a heartier meal, it goes super well with these baked sweet potato falafels and a small amount of cooked quinoa or buckwheat (for a gluten-free and vegan meal).