holy garlic batman!

{avacado, quinoa and radish salad}

{carrot and mung bean salad}

{caramelized garlic tarte -- as seen yesterday!}

Three nights of Yotam Ottolenghi and I can hardly feel my tongue. You know the burn of raw garlic? I've been experiencing that for 72 hours. Don't get me wrong I love garlic, but like with so many things in my life I've taken my love affair with garlic too far. It started off innocently enough on Saturday when I made a tart to take to a girlfriend who just had a baby. I made an extra tart for us -- it called for three heads of garlic (yes heads, not cloves). My mum came over for a light dinner on Sunday night and Jeff made us a delicious quinoa salad, heavy on the citrus and again heavy on the garlic. Tonight without thinking I started making one of our favourite weeknight dishes, carrot and mung bean salad with, you guessed it, a healthy dose of raw garlic.

I've expressed my admiration for Ottolenghi's flavourful, vegetable-centric dishes many times on this blog. I think the word "electric" best describes his style of cooking. No matter how humble the ingredients he uses are on their own, somehow the combination of vegetables, grains and seasonings always seem to come together in perfect harmony (and it is hard to make a mung bean sing).

My only complaint is I cannot stop tasting garlic.

Last night I brushed, flossed and used mouth wash before bed -- but I still tasted garlic. I grabbed a piece of spearmint gum so I wouldn't feel so self-concious while Jeff and I watched a movie in bed. Jeff has been on the garlic train too, but I still felt bad. A few minutes into the movie Jeff said something to the effect of "garlic and spearmint is worse than just garlic, do you mind losing the gum". Romance fail.

We plan our menu for the week on the weekend (nerd alert) and I am afraid that there is more garlic in the forecast (turkey burgers before soccer tomorrow; rice and lentils on Wednesday). I'm beginning to wonder if I will ever be able to kiss my husband and not be reminded of hummus again.

What is the antidote to garlic? Any suggestions as to how I can get rid of this taste in my mouth? Everyone I come in contact with will thank you!

xo

Em