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.

Asparagus, pea and crunchy seed salad with a minty dressing

This is so easy to make, super quick, fresh and delicious. It's a mountain of green; the flavours go together really well, and I think show off the asparagus to its very best. Now technically, you should use fresh peas, but it's still a bit early for those, so I used frozen (slap me on the wrist but it was still tasty!). I'm not sure whether the seasons for asparagus and peas cross over at all as the former is only around for such a short time, but perhaps you can get fresh peas at this time of year somewhere!?

I think the chilli is really great with this, but then again I tend to put chilli in most things. Chilli rapeseed oil was especially good for a bit of bite. Do take that extra 2 minutes it takes to roast and salt the pumpkin seeds - it makes all the difference!

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.

Egg and chips anyone?

Here's a new take on egg and chips using the delightful Jersey Royals that are around at the moment. Crispy and nutty, with lovely runny poached eggs - great for brunch.

This could also be good with a few sundried tomatoes (not too many though as they're quite strong), some rosemary on the spuds or perhaps a bit of garlic.

My first grow your own experience...

Well I've been pretty absent here lately, but I have a good reason. I've started growing my own - now I've got a garden, I've got space for lots of pots of lovely edible things. I started off with just a few tomato seeds, but I've been excited by the fact that I'm not killing everything off within days and my collection of happy plants now streches to courgettes, baby leaves, little gems, peppers, bright lights chard, radishes, french beans and strawberries. It's hard work - but I can't wait to taste the fruits and veggies of my home grown labour.

I don't want this to turn into a growing your own blog, because it's about using what you get in your veg box every week, and I'm just going to be supplementing my weekly box with home grown delights (just expect many courgette recipes when they start to crop - fingers crossed!). And besides, there are plenty of grow your own blogs out there (Real Men Sow being a fantastic example). But - that doesn't stop me from being totally delighted with our first ever home grown salad the other evening.

It was nothing more than baby leaves, picked two minutes earlier (a mixture of rocket, mizuna, mustard oriental red, lambs lettuce and land cress), and a simple dressing of dijon mustard, lemon juice, a little black pepper and olive oil, a few pumpkin seeds and some parmesan. And it was delicious, especially knowing that I'd grown those lovely little leaves from tiny seeds.

Butternut and butterbean dip

Ok, so I've been doing a lot of recipes with butternut squash lately (see here) but this should be the last one for quite a while, as I've just about finished off the massive glut we had for a few weeks.

Just a simple spiced dip for lunch, a kind of squash and bean houmous (more houmous here if you don't fancy squash), it was really great with some celery and toast. It's not a recipe but more of a houmous variation. It tasted great so I figured I'd post it.

Spicy squash bean burgers

It’s barbecue time here in the UK! We’ve had gorgeous weather for the past week or two which has coincided really nicely with the easter bank holidays.

For a squashy twist on the run of the mill beanburger veggies are so often served up, try these. They’re really easy, tasty, and freeze well, so you can whip one and whack it on the grill if needed in an emergency (!). Load them up in freshly baked baps with homemade guacamole (or perhaps some coleslaw made with red cabbage and fennel) and enjoy alfresco eating.

Makes 4 large burgers

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.

Roasted rhubarb and stem ginger tart

Roasting rhubarb is something I hadn't tried until today, but I'd wanted to for a while after reading and seeing various people do it. Don't overlook it for rhubarb - it turns into melty, caramelised loveliness when you roast it and allow the flavours to develop. Stem ginger is really good friends with rhubarb and it creates the most wonderful syrup when you roast it with some of the juice and light brown sugar. That'd be great as a dessert on its own, but what's better than a warm, rich and crumbly almond pastry tart served with ice cream?

Makes enough for a 8 inch tart tin, plus 6 jam tarts

Rhubarb fool (the not-too-naughty version)

A great way to use rhubarb – a lovely spring pudding. Being slightly scared of eating as much cream as a fool requires, I made this with half yoghurt and half cream, and the result was much lighter but just as delicious. This amount would serve 6 or even 8. It’d also be great with ginger – add a bit of stem ginger and its syrup to the cooking rhubarb, and top with lightly bashed ginger biscuits.