Broccoli salad with added fire

The broccoli around at the moment is fantastic and great when you need an injection of health in your life, having eaten way too much cake. We had two huge heads this week so I set about making a broccoli extravaganza this evening - first a big batch of chopped with 2 peas soup and secondly this healthy salad with crunchy florets, silky roast squash, nutty puy lentils and pumpkin seeds and a fiery harissa dressing. Would be great with some feta also, and you can make it as fiery or not as you like! Perhaps you could also try adding in some raisins if you like them. It was great with the addition of the romano peppers sliced thinly - you could of course use a chilli pepper for even more heat.

I love using puy lentils in salads - they're really substantial and filling but also super tasty. I like to make a version of this in the summer with cherry tomatoes that have been roasted for 5-10 mins in lots of olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano just until they're squishing, blanched french beans and sundried tomatoes.

You could serve this on its own, or for a more substantial lunch serve with bread and some yogurt to cool off and perhaps sprinkle with feta.

Chopped with 2 peas soup (broccoli!)

When me and my sister were much younger, we used to go and stay with our mum's cousin and his wife for weekends, where we'd spend time cooking and crafting. The name of this soup came about when my sister was writing out the recipe - she was clearly a bit better at spelling than my auntie thought a primary school child should be - part of the recipe was 'broccoli chopped (with two p's)' which she wrote as 'chopped with 2 peas' and it's forever been known as that. Unfortunately that draft of the recipe had to be re-written and didn't make it home, but here's the re-written version. I made it tonight with cheddar rather than red lesiter (!) and it was just as yummy as I remembered.