Spiced cauliflower salad

To use up the rest of my vegbox cauliflower, I used this recipe as a starting point (thank you BBC!). As I said before, I think cauliflower is yummy with plenty of spice, so I added a few things and some extra nuts and it turned out great. Roasting cauliflower isn’t something that most people would think to try, but it really does enhance the flavours. Here’s my version.

Coconut cauliflower dahl with cumin fried leeks

Cauliflower’s one of those vegetables that people seem to love or hate, probably because of the memories we all have of the watery, mushy weird stuff we were served up at school. I think it’s great though, but for me, it lends itself to spices, and lots of them. Served up as a creamy, substantial dahl, cooked slowly with coconut and delicate spices, or as a crunchy, exotic salad with nuts and dried fruit (my next recipe), it’s easy to enjoy cauliflower without any cheese sauce in sight*.

I love making dahl – it’s the ultimate comforting one-pot wonder – and I do experiment quite a bit with different spices and textures. This one is very thick with the addition the coconut and cauliflower (more of a lentil and cauliflower curry), but I think it could also be turned into a more soupy variety by using less lentils and more coconut milk or stock. I try to roast whole spices then crush them up as I think it makes the flavour deeper, but you can of course use ready ground if it’s easier.

Squash falafel (like Leon's)

I was so excited when I found this recipe on 101 cookbooks for the lovely squishy squashy baked sweet potato falafel made famous by Leon. Since discovering it, I've made it in the sweet potato version, but also experimented a bit with peas and feta in the summer, and today, with roasted squash.

They're fantastically light falafel (not as you know them), healthy because they're baked, and have a wonderful flavour. They also freeze really well - pop them in when you've shaped them, and cook as you need from frozen. As with an awful lots of the things I'm cooking lately, you begin by slowly roasting the squash to develop its flavour.

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.

Pear, honey and almond tart

I fell in love with Valentine Warner’s recipe for raspberry and peach tart that he made as part of his ‘what to eat now – more please’ series a little while ago the first time I made it. It’s the most tasty, sweet, happy-inducing tart ever I think, and I’ve made it loads of times.

The best thing about it is that it can be adjusted to whatever fruit you can get that’s in season, so while raspberries and peaches are great in summer, it was especially great with figs or plums, and you can experiment with different jams, too. This time, having a large number of pears to use up, I figured another version of this versatile delight should be on the cards, but this time with honey.

I have to say from the start that (sorry Valentine) I don’t use the pastry from the recipe – firstly because I think it’s rich enough without using a pastry with egg in, and secondly, because my mum is the queen of pastry. I have honestly never tasted such incredible, melt in the mouth, crumbly, light pastry as my mum’s, so naturally, I’ve got to make sure I can carry on this family tradition.

I make the quantities in the recipe but because I don’t have a 25cm flan tin, it usually makes enough for two smaller tarts. For the first time, I’ve tried freezing one to see how it behaves – I don’t see why it should do anything nasty but will update if it does.

It’s labour intensive but definitely worth it – despite being a long wait it’s very easy, impressive and can be adapted. It can be eaten hot or cold and keeps for a good few days, although it won’t last that long with hungry people around. What more could you want from seasonal food eh?!

Makes about enough for two tarts, 18-20cm

My various-root borek

I LOVE Turkish, Greek and middle eastern food. I have a friend who's half Greek and one who's Turkish so I get to learn brilliant things about this wonderful cuisine, as well as being fed olives for breakfast and things like that.

I first made these borek stlye parcels a few Christmas Eves ago for a drinks gathering and they went down a storm, especially with my mum's Thai friend who is a fantastic cook. The great thing about them is that you can make them with pretty much anything you've got - they'd work with pretty much any root veg I think, roasted with cumin, cinammon or a bit of chilli, you can add honey, cheese, herbs, any nuts or seeds you like, perhaps some green veg (spinach would be good). They also freeze really well - I usually make a big batch then freeze and just cook up what I need.

They're really nice served as part of a mezze style spread. I made some tzatziki (grated cucumber, add 1/2-1 clove of garlic, greek yogurt - the 0% stuff is fine - then herbs - dried at this time of year is fine, I used dill and mint), a strange sprouted seed salad which turned our suprisingly well (sprouted seeds, chopped artichokes and sundried tomatoes from jars, cucumber and feta), some houmous and pita. The only thing missing was the Turkish bread, which I absolutely adore. I used to buy this all the time when I was living in London, but sadly haven't managed to find it anywhere up here yet!