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A range of recipes for soups & stews. From refreshing, cold, summer soups like Cucumber, Avocado & Mint Gazpacho to hearty, winter fare like Sausage, Vegetable & Lentil Stew.
Gazpacho Smoothie with Wild Garlic is a refreshing drink or light meal with lots of raw blended vegetables. Perfect on a hot day, you can substitute a small clove of garlic and greens such as spinach when wild garlic isn’t in season. If you want …Read more
Cheat’s Chicken Broth, although made in little more than half an hour, is full of flavour. Using commercial stock cubes and a chicken breast, it’s perfect when you or someone in your house is feeling poorly and needs food that’s easily digestible but nourishing. Make …Read more
Roasted Cauliflower Soup is a warming, comforting delight. Made with both milk and stock it’s creamy and velvety without being cloying or overly rich. Topped with crunchy, cheesy and garlicky croutons plus morsels of cheese to melt in as you eat, it’ll chase away the last …Read more
Beef & Bean Stew is simple comfort food for chilly days and nights. And it’s even better with fluffy suet dumplings cooked on top. As well as tender cubes of beef and gravy thickened with veg, there’s beans in this economical stew too. In this …Read more
Mushroom & Chestnut Soup is wonderfully full flavoured, containing dried porcini mushrooms as well as fresh mushrooms. I like to add a little smoked bacon, but that can be left out if you want to keep the soup vegetarian. But what makes this different to …Read more
Roasted Red Pepper & Borlotti Bean Soup makes use of economical and easy to use peppers from a jar plus tinned beans. With the addition of vegetables like onion, carrot and celery it’s a nutritious, vibrant soup with the warming heat of a little chilli …Read more
Smoky Bacon, Leek & Potato Soup is a welcome change from the usual creamy leek and potato version. Made in around 45 minutes, this golden coloured soup has bags of flavour, including smokiness from bacon or pancetta. Say ‘leek & potato soup’ and what …Read more
Chicken Chilli is a lighter alternative to many traditional chillies, whether meat or veggie. Instead of a tomato base this is a ‘white’ chilli with sweetcorn and white beans as well as chunks of chicken. The spicy mix, with as much chilli as you like, is …Read more
Bean, Bacon & Cabbage Soup is nourishing and flavour-packed. Using tinned cannellini beans speeds up the process and each bowlful will give you three to four portions of vegetables. Perfect comfort food for Autumn and Winter. As if the fact that Autumn is …Read more
Green Bean, Tomato & Coconut Curry is full of spicy flavour. The creamy coconut milk in the sauce is balanced by tomatoes and a final squeeze of lime. Use fresh or frozen green beans of any kind in this easy, completely plant-based curry. This curry …Read more
Aubergine & Chickpea Curry, full of rich, spicy flavour, is so simple to make. Apart from the aubergine, most of the ingredients, including tinned chickpeas and tinned tomatoes, are fridge and kitchen cupboard staples. Which makes this tasty, nutritious curry perfect for a weeknight dinner. …Read more
Black Bean Chilli with Peppers & Corn is a tasty, easy dish. Combining convenient tinned black beans, tomatoes and sweetcorn with fresh peppers, coriander and a host of store cupboard spices, it’s perfect for a healthy, midweek meal. And forget boring old rice with your …Read more
Matar Paneer is one of my favourite vegetarian curries. With browned cubes of Indian paneer cheese plus peas in a thick, spicy tomato sauce freshened with mint, I think this Punjabi dish is utterly delicious. With a good stock of whole and ground spices in your …Read more
Smoky Lentil & Vegetable Soup is a tasty, warming dish for Autumn and Winter. Or any other time you want a hot, comforting bowl of goodness. The soup is full of smoky flavour whether you make the original with bacon, or follow my tip for …Read more
Spiced Split Pea Soup with Apple & Coconut is wonderfully light and refreshing. Nutritious split peas are enlivened with spices and are given a nuttiness with coconut. Tangy apple gives a welcome sharpness. Try topping with my crunchy, fried potato matchsticks for perfect textural contrast. …Read more
Venison Stew is rich, comforting, warming and utterly satisfying. In short, it’s just what’s needed at this time of year, with Autumn turning to Winter. Even better, cook some traditional, fluffy Suet Dumplings on top of the stew and let them soak up all that …Read more
Split Pea & Ham Soup is a fabulous warming dish for Autumn or Winter. Packed with nutritious, fibre and protein-rich dried peas, plenty of vegetables and tasty ham, it’s top-notch comfort food. SPLIT PEA & HAM SOUP: A BRITISH CLASSIC Versions of …Read more
Corn, Red Pepper & Coconut Curry is subtly spiced, creamy and delicious. Inspired by the dishes of South and West India, it’s entirely plant based. Use fresh, tinned or frozen corn. I think Indian cooking must be the best in the world for inspiring, …Read more
Simple Lentil Soup must be one of the first soups I ever made. With ingredients I always have to hand – red lentils, onion, garlic, cumin, lemon – it’s easy to make a batch whenever I fancy something warming and comforting. The easy recipe can …Read more
Creamy White Bean Soup is incredibly easy to make but so satisfying. Its creaminess comes largely from beans such as cannellini cooked in stock and milk along with onions, celery and garlic. Pureed with a hand blender, the soup is rich and smooth even if you …Read more
Chunky and satisfying, Vegetable Tomato Soup is so easy to make. Infinitely adaptable by using whatever vegetables and herbs you have to hand. Add cooked beans or lentils to make it even heartier. THE SEASON FOR SOUPS & STEWS As I write this, the …Read more
Green Gazpacho? Maybe purists would take exception to me calling this refreshing, raw cold soup gazpacho. That’s because, unlike the Spanish original, it isn’t based on tomatoes. Instead, I’ve used cucumber, avocado and yellow pepper, which I find much less acidic. Perfect for a hot …Read more
Winter is traditionally the time for slow-cooked stews, and oxtail with its rich flavour and soft, silky texture teased out by long cooking, is understandably a contender for this sort of comfort food. But for me, oxtail evokes thoughts of warmer climates; specifically the southern …Read more
Spicy Lentil & Coconut Soup is creamy, warming but with fresh, vibrant flavours. In this easy but satifsfying soup, red lentils are simmered with tomatoes, vegetables and spices then made creamy with coconut milk. To finish, whole spices are fried and stirred through the soup, …Read more
Although I’ve put this post in the ‘recipes’ category, it’s hardly a recipe at all. To make turkey stock, or any other meat stock really, it’s simply a case of putting the bones plus any scraps of meat, skin and fat plus selected vegetables in …Read more