Beetroot and spinach is a match made in heaven, the earthy flavour of freshly boiled beetroot with sweet-sour tomato works in many ways. Here, the dish begins with onion, softened and flavoured with crushed garlic, chilli and aniseedy caraway. Diced beetroot and peeled, seeded tomato are simmered with the onion then stirred with quickly blanched…

Leftover roast chicken was the inspiration for this gratin. I added it to faux sausage meatballs with a hint of shallot, lemon zest and nutmeg, all held in a Dijon mustard flavoured sauce made with chicken stock and milk. The gratinee topping ended up suitably crusty and golden, the perfect foil for the essentially soft…

I hate clearing out my deep freeze and usually end up throwing out forgotten food, the single lamb chop and burst packet of peas. The happy discovery of two half eaten bags of frozen broad beans and four forlorn rashers of streaky bacon led to this fantastic soup. By starting the recipe with smoked streaky…

This might sound like a disparate combination of ingredients but the end result is fantastic. Cooking begins with browning onions, adding diced pork belly, soy, lemonade and water, then its left to simmer filling the house with amazing smells. Do try it. One tip, if you are concerned about the vast amount of fat in…

This year the Summer Festival at Daylesford Organic Farm in Gloucestershire has a theme: The Summer of Love – 1967. It’s happening this Saturday 8 June, promising to be a fun, family day out with plenty of eating and drinking in various tents around the farm shop near Kingham, GL56 OYG. It starts at 10am…

Oh my goodness, this is so good, so easy to make and pretty to present. The only down side is peeling and slicing the squash. My recipe includes some tips for achieving that with minimal difficulty. Serves 4Prep: 35 minCook: 40 min 1 butternut squash2 tbsp groundnut oilFor the tomato vinaigrette:6 vine tomatoes2 cloves new…