Roast fennel salad

I think fennel has gone to the top of my list of favourite vegetables (nudging courgettes and then runner beans into second and third place respectively). I can’t seem to get enough of fennel at the moment. I’ve been making a traybake most nights for dinner at the moment to save time on cooking. This…

Tabouleh with chargrilled aubergines and peppers

The base for this tabouleh is a mix of grains – bulgar, freekah and white and red quinoa (bought as one mixed pack from Sainsbury’s) but a more traditional tabouleh would just use bulgar wheat. My idea of a good tabouleh is to pack it with loads of fresh mint and parsley – in this…

Cobb salad

I’ve just come back from a few days away on the coast in Deal in Kent, spending time with my son and meeting up with my daughter who lives nearby in Canterbury. On the first day we went to Broadstairs, to Botany Bay, as the weather was lovely. We were starving after spending time on…

Griddled chicory with Gorgonzola dressing

This was a recipe I planned to use as a first course but with sourdough bread it was really substantial and I was too full to eat anything else. It’s based on a Jamie Oliver recipe which uses radicchio (which I couldn’t find so I used chicory instead) and raisins (which I didn’t have in…

Roasted beetroot, orange and feta salad

Beetroot is one of those vegetables people either love or hate. Roasting beetroot in olive oil and sea salt is completely different to eating tiny balls of vacuum packed beetroot soaked in vinegar. So if you have negative experiences of beetroot please give this roasted recipe a go. Beetroot provides a big flash of colour…

Puy lentils with anchovies and toasted pine nuts

I always keep Puy lentils in the cupboard and much prefer them for salads than green or brown lentils which I use for cooked lentil recipes like vegetarian shepherd’s pie. Puy lentils go very well with anchovies and toasted pine nuts and I’ve just added some hard boiled eggs in this recipe for a more…

Chicken Caesar salad

I love Caesar salad and I love its origins. A quick look on Wikipedia attributes the salad to Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who owned restaurants in the US and Mexico in the early part of the last century.  The salad was invented in 1924 when a Fourth of July rush depleted the kitchen supplies…

The first supper

I was away in North Yorkshire at the weekend and on the way home my friend and I started talking about what we were going to cook for our respective suppers. I always think that first supper home after a trip is important – you want something easy and tasty but also something that keeps…