A comforting spring vegetable broth

This is a great way of eating spring veggies at their very best; cooking for the minimum time possible to retain their sweetness and gentle crunch. Tiny mint and basil leaves along with chopped fennel tops enhance the flavour, although dill could work equally well, (but mine hasn't grown yet). The white wine brings a lovely freshness. You could use chicken stock as well if you're not veggie.


I think a lot of people wouldn't try cooking lettuce, but actually it's a fantastic way to use little gem or other romaine lettuces, which can sometimes be a bit bitter, because the compact heart means it'll keep its shape well. Everything needs to be sliced up super small and cooked for very little time, as it'll carry on in the bowl when you're eating it.It'd also work with any other spring veg you've got - perhaps beans, baby carrots or asparagus. It's a nice way of cooking spring veg as a side dish too (although a shame to waste the tasty broth) - perhaps serve with fish if you're that way inclined?

This would work really well as a starter as it's wonderfully light, but works equally well as a tasty lunch with some day old bread to mop up the juice.

Wet garlic, herb and lemon omelette

I was given a very large tray of the freshest, organicest, free-rangest eggs you can imagine at the weekend, from hens that roam around an overgrown field all day, much to their delight. They make the yellowest eggs I've ever seen, so naturally, I wanted to do them justice. This did just that - simple enough to enhance the eggs yet with enough flavour to excite the palate.

I have two omelette tips (and you've probably heard them before) - firstly, get yourself a great pan. It makes all the difference. A smaller pan is easier and makes a thicker omelette, which means you get more foldy juiciness and less pancake-yness. The second is add a bit of water to the egg once you've beaten it to make it light as a feather - never fails.

Wet garlic works really well in this and it was in my box this week, but if you can't get it, normal dried (bulb) garlic is fine - it's just got a fresher flavour.

Butternut squash gnocchi with spinach and herb pesto

Until I made this, I’d never attempted gnocchi before, but I’d done quite a bit of reading up on how to make them super tender and light to avoid the out of the packet rubberiness. This article from Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks is fantastic. She talks about her best gnocchi recipe having no egg in at all, which I wasn’t quite ready for! However, I took her advice and I did use the bare minimum of egg to bind the dough. When you’ve made it up, it’ll be quite tacky (I think this is to do with the water content of the squash). At this point I was very scared – should I add more flour and risk them becoming chewy? But I pressed on, ignoring my instincts and worries, and the result was light and delicious.

I had quite a bit of spinach to use up so made some herb pesto warmed up with a hint of chilli, which paired perfectly with the squash. I used thyme and sage as I think they go really well with the nutty squash flavour, but you could use whatever herbs you’ve got.

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.

Jerusalem artichoke and roasted garlic houmous

I love houmous. There's something so comforting and wholesome about it. But I hardly ever make it myself. Tonight I was thinking about what I could do with the rest of the jerusalem artichokes - I'd read that they're great pureed, so I thought - why not in houmous? The result was a very wintery, garlicky, nutty houmous. I'm going to have it for my lunch tomorrow with some left over roasted veggies and bread.

If you're not too sure about the flavour of the artichokes and would prefer a more subtle flavour, I'd recommend using one or two. It's really nice though - just experiment with the proportions of garlic, oil and lemon juice until you find the combination you like.

1 400g tin of chickpeas
between 1 and 4 jerusalem artichokes
between 1 and 3 cloves of garlic, skins left on
juice of about half a lemon
olive oil
salt and pepper

Peel and roast the artichokes and garlic cloves in a bit of olive oil. I prefer to do them slowly at about 150-160 degrees for about 40-50 mins to really let the flavour develop. You might want to take the garlic cloves out before this time though, as you don't want them to be too brown; just nicely soft.

Once they've cooled you just need to pop them in a food processor and blitz - add the drained chickpeas and garlic (according to taste) and keep blending. Add a bit of oil (I don't like to use too much because I think it can overpower the flavour, but again it's all down to taste), the lemon juice and maybe a bit of water to ensure the consistency isn't too dry. Season and taste - add a bit more of whatever you need and blitz again until it's the consistency you like. Very easy!