Roasted Radishes and Asparagus

Sweet, grassy asparagus and earthy radishes work so well together, raw or cooked.  Here I’ve roasted them for a quick but delicious summer salad. It works as a standalone dish for a quick lunch or as a side or a starter. Continue reading

Borlotti Beans with Tomatoes and Spinach

My recent freezer forage turned up a lot of home-grown borlotti beans. These speckled beauties are good simply cooked with aromatics and dressed with olive oil, herbs and  lemon zest and juice, but they’re even better in this rich tomato sauce. I added spinach because I had a big bag in the fridge, but you can use kale or chard, too. Continue reading

Extra-crunchy Celery Salad

Possibly the world’s crunchiest salad, this employs a technique which gives you super-crisp celery. It’s indescribably good. I’ve combined it here with beautiful blood oranges and black olives for an enlivening winter side dish. It’ll make your taste buds tap dance. Continue reading

The Winter Garden

King Henry I is said to have died from a surfeit of lampreys. I can’t eel out of the fact that I’m suffering from an overdose of Christmas. Delicious though the mince pies, clotted cream and chocolates were, I’m beginning to look like a galleon in full sail. Continue reading

Pumpkin Soup with Harissa and Pickled Lemon

After Hallowe’en you could be forgiven if you were sick of the sight of pumpkins, but they give a wonderful autumnal flavour and texture to this spicy main course soup. Continue reading

Goan Cauliflower Curry

Image of a bowl of the sauceI usually use this sauce for a Goan fish curry but after the meat-filled excesses of Christmas we were craving something different. So I adapted it to use a slightly frostbitten cauli I had sitting shivering in the fridge for a warming, flavour-packed but vegetarian supper. It would also work well with chunks of roasted pumpkin. Continue reading