A store-cupboard sauce based on salsa verde, for when you need something quick, flavoursome and can’t be bothered to go shopping. It’s also a handy way to use up that jar of capers lurking at the back of the fridge, and it will freeze well. Ingredients Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon 75g walnuts Small…
Category: Absolute beginner recipes
Walnut Pesto Two Ways
Two versions that put a quick, healthy, cheaper spin on the usual basil & pine nuts variety – this makes an ideal week-night dinner, and spare pesto will keep well in the freezer. It’s a good way to get healthy nuts into babies and young children, but don’t serve it to babies under six months…
Quinoa and celeriac fritters (better than they sound)
Surprisingly delicious for a recipe that sounds off-puttingly healthy, these are great hot and fresh, and work really well for baby-led weaning. They freeze well: make up a batch, then open-freeze the ones you don’t eat before popping them into a freezer bag. The fritters defrost quickly, then crisp back up in a dry frying pan….
Why bother cooking?
“Food preferences are learnt behaviour. Frequent, positive exposure to healthy food and consistently eating less sugar changes our sense of sweetness. Ditto salt.” Bee Wilson, First Bite: How We Learn to Eat, 2015 Eighty per cent of processed food has sugar added to it, including some surprising offenders: one of the high-street chain Eat’s soups, for…
Fabulous free-from, no-refined-sugar chocolate mousse
There are a two different versions of this recipe, though both use the same method: one makes a creamy mousse like your regular chocolate/cream/eggs/sugar recipe, and one sets harder and can be cut up to make ‘truffles’. This mousse is rich – you don’t need a lot of it, and considering it contains no refined sugar…
Learn to Cook: how to scramble, boil and poach an egg
There’s something poetic about an egg. One of the cheapest, most nutritious and easily cooked of foodstuffs, they are nevertheless taken for granted, have been libelled with health misinformation and tainted with fears about animal welfare, salmonella and allergens. But eggs are not so easily broken: in 2015 we still ate 12.2 billion of them – averaging 189 each…
Learn to Cook: how to make soup
Soup is an essential dish to become confident with for a number of reasons: It is quick and very easy to make; It is usually healthy; It is one of the cheapest possible meals; It is a great way of using up all sorts of leftovers, from vegetables to meat to pasta; It can be adapted…
First foods: mackerel pate
It’s worth the mess: this pate can be served up from six months, and will hopefully surprise you with its popularity. It’s a great way to tick off their weekly portion of oily fish, makes a good finger food when spread on toast or scooped onto cucumber, and as ever is flavoursome enough to share…
Easiest-Ever Soda Bread: How to eat organic bread every day for less than £1
..without having to buy a bread-maker, or spend time each morning and evening kneading dough. Read more about why you should care about real bread here, but in summary: mass-produced bread is nutritionally limited; the white stuff is made of refined white flour which causes unhealthy blood sugar spikes; and evidence suggests that long-fermented sourdough is easier to…
Learn to Cook: How to make white sauce
White sauce, otherwise known as béchamel, is the basis of a catalogue of other dishes you’re going to want to make: lasagne, fish pie, pasta bake, macaroni cheese. It is easy. It is not something you want to buy in a pot. It is good exercise for the arms (whisk whisk whisk!). You only really…
Simple snacks: Oat and fruit balls
This is a good very first recipe for young kids to ‘help’ with, getting involved in the stirring, mixing and trying to roll the balls up. It’s about as simple as baking gets. These oat balls can be taken anywhere you like from their most basic form: 200g porridge oats 100g dried fruit (a mix of raisins…
Smoked mackerel pate
This is always a popular starter or light lunch. Pate is something that most people don’t think of making themselves, but as you can see it’s insanely easy. Don’t let it intimidate you: start with these measurements, then taste it – if you want more capers in there, put them in. More of a horseradish kick?…
Time to Cook 