I am always looking for new ways to cook smoked haddock, other than kedgeree (which I tend to have at least once a fortnight). This is also a good way to use beans instead of potatoes as the main carb. You can be flexible with ingredients depending on what you have in stock, substituting courgettes…
Tag: Main courses
Authentic ragu recipe with tagliatelle
This recipe is a world away from the kind of ‘spag bol’ I used to make in my student days – a quickly cooked sauce using just minced beef as the meat base which always seem to end up very watery. A good ragu on the other hand is a rich sauce, full of flavour…
Haricot bean and halloumi bake
This was a recipe I made a couple of Saturdays ago, conjured up at the last minute based on ingredients I happened to have in the cupboard and fridge (a typical ‘Cheap, Fresh and Easy’ approach). I usually plan for the week’s meals in advance and shop accordingly, as it’s cheaper that way. But lately…
Pan griddled tuna steak with artichokes
This is a nutritious and very fresh tasting fish recipe which is ready in about 10 minutes. I’ve used canned artichokes, mixed with capers, lemon juice, parsley and mustard as the sauce. There is a big range of prepared artichokes available – my current favourite is a jar of artichokes marinated in oil, mint and…
Baked mackerel with fennel and pine nuts
This is such a cheap and easy tray bake it hardly needs a recipe at all. I originally wanted to make something with fresh sardines but couldn’t find any in the supermarket so went with mackerel instead. Mackerel is incredibly cheap and sustainable and a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, I’m going to eat…
Creamy cauliflower tagliatelle
Here’s another recipe to celebrate Veganuary (although I should say I’m not doing the full vegan diet this month, just using this time as an incentive to cut down on meat). This recipe is from Miguel Barclay’s book Vegan One Pound Meals – part of his fantastic One Pound Meals cook book series which is…
Black bean vegan burgers
I’m not a big fan of processed, shop bought vegan burgers – I am still on the hunt for one that I really like, both in texture and taste. In the meantime I prefer to make my own with pulses or as I did once with beetroot. This recipe using black beans is nice and…
Butternut squash lasagne
I love this recipe because it is so seasonal – the butternut squash was in my Oddbox recently and I already had most of the other ingredients in stock (including sage from my garden). I just needed to buy the ricotta and mozzarella. One of the pleasures of subscribing to Oddbox is that I start…
Stuffed cabbage
I’ve recently signed up to Oddbox, a brilliant way to reduce food waste. Basically it’s a solution to the 40% or so of all produce in the UK which would otherwise be thrown out even before it leaves the farm just because it doesn’t look right (eg mis-shapen looking fruit or veg). Oddbox also coordinates…
Creamy chicken and mushroom pappardelle
The inspiration for this recipe was the ingredients I just happened to have in my fridge. It’s a bit like the TV show ‘Ready, Steady Cook’ where contestants have to create a dish from four or five random ingredients. I used to love watching ‘Ready, Steady, Cook’ when I was in between work contracts (a…
Soy and sesame salmon tray bake
I normally love cooking but I currently have a kind of lockdown lethargy where I want to eat delicious fresh food without spending any time in the kitchen. Tray bakes are the answer and I’m kind of obsessed with them at the moment. What could be easier than spending five minutes washing and chopping some…
Paprika chicken
Recently I’ve been looking for recipes which are really quick, as well as cheap, fresh and easy. This paprika chicken recipe only takes about 15 minutes but doesn’t compromise on flavour. Using chicken thighs also adds to the depth of flavour – I nearly always prefer chicken thighs to breasts (they’re cheaper too). I absolutely…
Vegan paella
I’d really like to be in Spain now, sitting at a beachside restaurant and eating paella filled with chorizo, langoustine, chicken and clams. Who knows when we’ll be able to go off on our foreign holidays again? In the meantime here’s a dead easy vegan version of paella from Miguel Barclay’s Vegan One pound Meals cookery…
Chicken pizzaiola
The last time I went to Jamie’s Italian I had the chicken pizzaiola and it was so tender, spicy and delicious I wanted to try making it myself. It’s served with a puttanesca-type sauce (minus the anchovies) which I love, not just because of the flavour but because it’s so easy and quick to make….
Meat free moussaka
My holiday in Greece this year was wonderful. I stayed in Vassiliki on Lefkas, a pretty and laid back harbourside town and watersports centre where I windsurfed for the first time (proof that I can get out of my comfort zone). I also spent one morning on a tour of the nearby olive groves (where…
Fish tacos
This is a dinner which can be put together in about 12 minutes or as long as it takes to cook the fish, which I usually do in the oven. The joy of eating this meal is making up the tacos – stuffing in the fish along with a range of accompaniments which for me…
Stuffed peppers
A couple of weeks’ ago I watched an episode of Yottam Ottolenghi’s cookery series where he was in Crete. He visited a family restaurant where one of the specialities was stuffed vegetables. All the family got together on a vine clad, sun drenched terrace to stuff courgettes, tomatoes and peppers with a simple mixture of…
Beetroot burgers
Here’s a recipe inspired by a four day cookery and meditation retreat at Sharpham House I went on recently. This was the recipe I made as soon as I got home from the trip. It was for supper that same evening – I couldn’t wait to start trying out what I had learnt, even after…
Spanish hunter’s chicken
This started out as a chicken cacciatore (Italian hunter’s chicken) – minus the mushrooms, which I think are traditional in hunter’s chicken (of any nationality). But I had lots of red peppers to use up, and pitted black olives, so I was in two minds – Spanish chicken, or chicken cacciatore? So this is a…
Smoked fish salad
With the World Cup in full swing my current priority is to get straight down to watching TV as soon as I get home from work, so cooking has taken a bit of a back seat. I have a few home frozen meals for easy prep – some turkey and sweetcorn meatballs eaten cold with…
Pork meatballs with apple and sage
I think meatballs are the main reason I’m not a vegetarian – a trip to IKEA would never be the same again (although Sweden has admitted that its ‘national dish’ was actually Turkish). Having said that I should probably experiment with some vegetarian versions – the internet is full of this oxymoron of all recipes…
Lime chicken
Two weeks ago I spent a lovely long weekend in Lyme Regis to celebrate a milestone birthday of one of my friends. Her husband had rented a house for close family (and me – I’ve known my friend since we were five) as a surprise for her. The weather was fantastic most of the time,…
Tuscan chicken
This recipe is from one of my favourite cookery books ‘Pan cooked chicken dishes around the world’. It’s a bit of an old fashioned cookery book – by which I mean it’s not authored by any celebrity chef – which I bought it years ago from a charity shop. The other week I was amazed…
Pork chop and pak choi
I went to Croydon’s Surrey Street market yesterday. I tend to go to the market after a meditation session at Croydon’s Buddhist Centre (they do lunchtime sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays open to everyone). I always come out of the meditation session feeling very relaxed and usually pop in to a charity to shop…
Pasta puttanesca
Pasta puttanesca, or prostitutes’ pasta (so named perhaps because it is so quick to make it left ladies of the night more time to earn their living) is one of my store cupboard standby recipes. I nearly always have the ingredients in stock and it’s also really handy to make on holiday. If I know…
Cheap, fresh and easy 