Category: Quick and Easy

Easy recipes for when energy is low

Savoury Apple Sauce

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I always used to love apple sauce with a roast dinner but these days I find it a bit boring when it’s apple and nothing else. Last night I was struggling to think of something to liven up some organic pork and invented a more interesting (IMHO) version that contains three of the best gut-friendly foods on the planet – four, if you count the prebiotic impact of extra virgin olive oil. It’s also incredibly simple and can be made in 10 minutes flat. This is a vegetable dish in it’s own right – not just a condiment.

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Easy Chicken Tagine

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This is a recipe I make all the time but always forget to photograph. It’s incredibly quick and impressively tasty. I remembered my camera today so I can finally share it. This is definitely a dish that takes minimum effort and delivers maximum impact; it’s also endlessly versatile, depending on what’s in the fridge. Continue reading →

Leeks baked with chorizo and tomato

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Leeks, to me, are one of the most underrated vegetables. They are full of valuable prebiotic fibre and oestrogen detoxing sulphur and, cooked well, they become velvety and unctuous, complementing both meat and fish. The recipe below works well with any robust fish or seafood, it’s delicious with chicken or lamb, and even makes a great pasta sauce. (Black bean spaghetti is my new guilty pleasure!)

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Duck, walnut and pomegranate salad

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I’ve been a Riverford customer for ever, or so it seems. My account tells me I’ve ordered from them 273 times (22.75 years of weekly orders) which means I placed my first order shortly after my diagnosis of breast cancer. They’ve been an important part of my drive to stay healthy: never more so than the way they’ve managed to keep all their customers supplied with fresh vegetables during the coronavirus lockdown. This weekend they added some Easter roasting joints to their website and I chose an organic duck. With only two of us for lunch on Easter Day, I ended up with much more meat than we could  eat so I will be using it in various creative ways over the next few days. Tonight’s dinner was delicious!

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Apple and Almond Cake

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We invited some dear friends to supper last night for an impromptu birthday celebration. Although I’m not the world’s most prolific or skilled baker I decided to make a cake. My inspiration was a delicious apple and almond cake I tasted at the delightful Southern Cross cafe in Edinburgh – it made such an impression on me that I vowed to recreate it. It’s supposed to have some flaked almonds on top to make it look pretty but the cupboard was bare yesterday so that didn’t happen. The resulting cake is both light and dense, moist and crumbly – easy to make and well worth the effort.

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