Roasted red pepper and tomato soup is a good reason to give your vegetables a little oven time before they reach the saucepan. The peppers soften and sweeten, the tomatoes become more concentrated, and the edges pick up a savoury roasted flavour. Blended together, they make a bright, substantial soup without needing cream. This version …
This harissa chicken stew recipe was one of my favorite meals during the pandemic. With lockdown, we all got used to more comforting and heart-warming meals. Nothing wrong with it. It is actually good that more people got more into home cooking, but in the long term we need to be smart with our choices …
Eating out can be part of a varied, enjoyable way of eating, whether you are meeting friends for lunch, ordering dinner after work or celebrating somewhere special. You do not need to find a perfect dish or turn the menu into a test. A few practical decisions about what you order, what accompanies it and …
Chicken, leek and white bean casserole brings together tender chicken, sweet leeks and soft beans in a light, savoury gravy. It is a comforting supper that does not need a cream sauce: crushing a few of the beans into the cooking liquid gives the pot a pleasingly creamy texture of its own. This version starts …
This radicchio and rocket salad is a classical Italian salad that has many variations. It is tasty, and a great accompaniment to many dishes as well as a good standalone starter too. Both rocket and radicchio have beneficial and complementary properties. Both support liver detoxification, while radicchio like all bitter foods is supportive of digestion, …
Reducing food waste at home starts with noticing what repeatedly goes uneaten. Perhaps half a cucumber gets forgotten, a bag of potatoes outlasts your plans, or the same condiment sits untouched after one recipe. You do not need a perfectly organised kitchen or elaborate leftover dishes. A few small decisions, made while you unpack, cook …
Baked oat and berry breakfast bars bring familiar porridge ingredients together in a soft, sliceable bake. Rolled oats give them texture, yoghurt keeps the middle tender, and berries add pockets of sharpness. Make a tin when you have a little time, let it cool, and you have breakfast portions ready to serve with yoghurt or …
Cooking from scratch can feel difficult when you arrive home hungry and have only a short gap before the next thing needs doing. Often, the difficulty is the order of the jobs: a pan waits cold while you chop, vegetables soften while you search for seasoning, or a quick sauce ends up waiting for slow …
Mushroom and barley risotto makes a comforting supper with a pleasantly chewy texture and plenty of savoury flavour. Pearl barley softens as it simmers, giving the sauce body while keeping the grains distinct. Browned mushrooms bring depth, a little hard cheese rounds out the finish, and lemon and parsley keep each bowl fresh. The key …
Hunger does not always arrive as a rumbling stomach, and fullness does not always announce itself with an obvious stopping point. Sometimes lunch simply starts to sound appealing; sometimes you realise you have worked through the afternoon without thinking about food. Understanding hunger and fullness cues means becoming familiar with your own patterns while recognising …
