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Recipes for the enthusiastic home cook
Potted Cheese is an easy, no-cook, traditional British cheese spread that’s perfect on crackers, biscuits, crusty bread or toast. Cheese and butter are simply combined with your choice of herbs and spices plus a touch of booze. You can make it with a single cheese such …Read more
Chocolate Coconut Crunch is an easy, egg-free bake with a biscuity chocolate-coconut base and rich, melted chocolate topping. With simple ingredients, it can be put together in ten to fifteen minutes. Just melt some butter then stir in flour, cocoa powder, desiccated coconut, sugar and …Read more
Fig & Fennel Sourdough is lightly sweet and spicy. Made with my easy overnight, no-knead method it’s great for both beginners and experienced bakers. I love it sliced and spread with butter, toasted or not. With no added sugar, I think its semi sweet flavour …Read more
Moroccan Spiced Baked Stuffed Squash, filled with spicy tomato sauce and chickpeas, finished with a drizzle of tahini sauce, makes a sensational vegetarian or plant-based main course. A Moroccan-inspired mix of cumin, paprika, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and chilli gives a warm, mild heat. To make …Read more
Fruit & Seed Flapjacks fit the bill whether you’re looking for a healthier sweet treat or an energising snack. The slow-release energy of oats is combined with apple and bananas, your choice of dried fruit and seeds, plus tahini or nut butter. Many flapjacks have …Read more
Lentil & Walnut Loaf is an easy, tasty, and nutritious vegetarian bake. Tinned lentils speed up the prep so you can get this herby, chewy loaf in the oven in around twenty minutes. Bake for an hour and serve hot with roast potatoes and veggies, or …Read more
Goat Chilli, with chunks of tender meat and black beans in a rich, spicy sauce, makes a great change from the usual beef. So easy to put together, you can simmer the chilli-spiked stew either on top of the stove or in the oven. Thick …Read more
Nasturtium Capers, with their piquant flavour, are an easy homemade alternative to capers. In fact, they’re not related to capers at all. They’re simply the pickled seeds of a colourful and common garden plant. Look among the leaves when your nasturtium plants have flowered, and you’ll …Read more
Mushroom, Cheese & Bacon Oat Bake (and its veggie incarnation with nuts instead of bacon) is a tasty, easy and economical dish. Which I think makes it perfect for weeknight dinners. Meeting a challenge set by Totally Locally, I was able to source all the …Read more
Cream of Chicken Soup is richly indulgent. Perfect for a tasty, comforting lunch, impressive enough to serve as a special occasion starter. But you might be surprised to learn that it contains relatively little cream. Its wonderful flavour and silky texture is thanks largely to …Read more
Baked Banana Sponge Pudding is old fashioned comfort food that everyone will love. Except, unlike the sponge puddings of old, this one doesn’t need to be steamed for hours and hours. This simple but delicious baked pudding needs just forty-five minutes in the oven. For very little …Read more
Minced Beef and Onion Pie is classic comfort food. But with everyday ingredients it’s so easy to make too. Onions, a clove of garlic and minced beef are browned in a little olive oil and butter then simmered in beef stock. Topped with a simple …Read more
Spinach Dal is a nutritious, economical and tasty soup or curry inspired by Indian dal palak. Based on yellow split peas, with whole and ground spices, a little tomato plus lots of fresh spinach, I think it’s a wonderfully vibrant mix. In a final flourish, cumin …Read more
Do you have a glut of homegrown tomatoes to use up? Or maybe you’re looking for recipes for those market, veg box, and shop-bought tomatoes? In this post you’ll find a dozen of my favourite ways to use tomatoes. I only have a few pots …Read more
Fruit Tea Loaf is a traditional sweet treat that’s adaptable to whatever dried fruit you have and whichever spices and flavourings you like. It contains no added fat (other than a little in the egg) but is delicious spread with butter. Perfect with a cuppa or …Read more
Apple Butter is a traditional and concentrated fruity preserve which doesn’t actually contain butter. Apples, along with water, sugar and spices, are cooked into a thick puree until they become caramelised and jam-like. For a bittersweet flavour, I include cider, but you could just use water …Read more
Panzanella is a simple but delicious Italian salad of tomatoes, bread, and onions. Wonderfully refreshing, it’s dressed with extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar and basil. My version includes multicoloured tomatoes plus red onion, cucumber, celery, and a little garlic. I like the salad …Read more
Cheese & Walnut Loaf is a savoury tea bread that uses self raising flour and eggs rather than yeast. Easily put together and into the oven in about ten minutes, this tasty quick bread has a soft and moist cake-like crumb plus a slightly crispy outside …Read more
Potted Ham is a delicious, easy way to use up cooked ham. But I think it’s so good I often buy a ham hock specially to make it. Whichever ham you include, spread on toast or crusty bread with a few pickles on the side, …Read more
Semi-Dried Tomatoes in Oil are a lovely way to preserve and enjoy either homegrown or bought tomatoes. Dried in the oven for around one and a half hours, they have the intense flavour of sun-dried tomatoes but retain much of their juiciness. Stored in the …Read more
Walnut & Pumpkin Seed Scottish Oatcakes are rustic, wholesome savoury biscuits or crackers. Perfect with cheese, pâté, nut butters, or to eat alongside soups, they’re incredibly easy to make and will keep for a month. The main ingredient is oats: make your own oatmeal by whizzing …Read more
Aubergine & Beetroot Moutabal (or baba ganoush) looks beautiful and tastes both smoky and sweet, earthy and mildly spicy. But this Middle Eastern inspired dip or spread with tahini, garlic, lemon and cumin is very easy to make. A whole aubergine is charred under the …Read more
Quick Flatbreads are easy to make and so versatile that every home cook should have this recipe! With no yeast, there’s no kneading and no waiting for the dough to rise. Just fifteen minutes’ rest and you’re ready to go. But, unlike many no-yeast quick flatbreads, …Read more
Scandi-Style Smoked Fish Salad is an easy, colourful main course salad. You can include any smoked fish you like in this Scandinavian/Nordic-inspired dish. I’ve used pan-fried, lightly smoked salmon fillets, but regular smoked salmon, smoked trout or smoked mackerel will all work well. Potatoes, beetroot …Read more
Fruit and Spice Bun Ring, with currants, cinnamon, and a maple syrup glaze, looks impressive. But, as I’ll show you in this post, the pull-apart bun ring is easily made AND baked in little more than half an hour. It’s so quick because, unlike most …Read more