5 fennel bulbs
2 cloves garlic
2 fresh chillis (or just add to taste – 2 is quite spicy!)
2 stock cubes (I use kallo chicken)
1 bag salad potatoes (small potatoes)
1 tbsp butter (or more..)
1 tbsp truffle oil (white or black, both delicious!)

Method

Cut off the frondy pipes and the woody base from the fennel. Then slice across as thinly as you can, place in a colander and rinse. Drain, and tip into an ovenproof dish that has a lid.

Crush garlic, finely chop chilli, and add both to fennel. Mix stock cubes with a pint of boiling water and pour over fennel and garlic. It should be covered, if not, add a bit more water. Cover with lid and bake in oven at 150c for around 80 mins, stirring a couple of times.

While it bakes, boil the potatoes (skins on – with salad potatoes they are thin and clean) in salted water until cooked. Drain and crush slightly with a masher or large spoon – not to a pulp, but so that the potatoes are broken.

When fennel is ready, remove from oven and mix in the crushed potatoes, butter and truffle oil. Season to taste.

This makes a super working at home lunch – very satisfying and full of savoury flavours and spice!

Quinoa, Spinach and Feta salad

Ingredients
1 mug quinoa (boiled in 2 mugs water for 20 mins and left to cool)
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 handfuls baby spinach
1/2 pack feta
1 tbsp Flax seeds
1 tbsp Sesame seeds
1 tbsp Sunflower seeds
1 tbsp Pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp Pine nuts
2 tbsp Pesto or basil oil

Mix all together. Quinoa can be made in advance.

Mix and store in an air tight jar.

Use on crackers, breadsticks, roll fresh cheese it in, sprinkle on salads, flat breads, rice, bbq meat…

Blend and season to taste.

250g S/R Flour
50g Hard Margarine
150ml Milk
Tomato Puree
100g grated cheese
2 finely diced mushrooms
100g finely chopped cooked chicken

METHOD
Heat oven to 200c. Sieve flour into bowl and rub in Margarine. Gradually add milk and stir to make dough.  Roll out to the size of a4 paper.
Spread on puree and sprinkle on cheese, chicken and mushroom. Roll up and slice into 8 – 10 even pieces. Spread out onto greased tray and bake for 15 mins.

Ingredients & Method

2 tins chickpeas
1 red onion
3 cloves garlic
handful fresh coriander/parsley
100g gram flour
1 1/2 tsp harissa (rose is lovely)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 mug couscous (wholewheat is good)
Light oil to fry.

Put couscous in bowl and pour over boiling water until it is just over level with the couscous.

Add all the other ingredients into a jug and blend with a stick blender.

Using your hands or a spoon, mix in the couscous.

Heat a large frying pan on high and pour in 2 tbsp oil. Use a spoon to keep your felafel an even size – size of spoon depends on how big you want them, and shape them into small balls before placing in pan – don’t let them touch. Once you have a pan full, press down gently with a spatula, then continue shaping the rest of the mixture and put on a plate until the first lot are cooked.

Flip over the first batch when they are brown underneath (about 5 mins) and cook the other side. When cooked lift out and place on a plate with some baking paper on it to absorb some of the oil.

Cook the second batch in the same way.

Delicious cold for packed lunches, served in pitta bread with salad, or over spaghetti instead of meatballs… a super lunch or supper for everyone to enjoy as it ticks the vegan and vegetarian options of course. For gluten free, omit the couscous or use an alternative. Excellent for toddlers too.

Makes around 18 (36 halves) green mint & nutella macaron –  you can use this mix for any flavour though.

Ingredients
70g ground almonds
110g icing sugar
2 large egg whites
50g caster sugar

Flavouring
Colour: 5 drops green
Flavour: 6 drops mint essence. (Do mix a drop colour/flavour together in advance – ensure they don’t react and change colour.)
Filling: Nutella.

Tools
sieve, whisk, plastic bowls, piping bag with smooth nozzle, baking paper, cooling rack.

Method
Line trays with baking paper.  Separate eggs and add whites to large plastic bowl with caster sugar.

Put almonds and icing sugar in food processor and process for 3 mins. Pass through sieve.

Whisk sugar/egg white mixuture to stiff peaks. Split batch if you are making more than one flavour (and make sure you have two piping bags ready or a plastic bag with the corner chopped off).

Whisk in colour and flavouring.

Fold in almond/sugar mixture very carefully until mixture is smooth but still very thick.

Open piping bag in a glass and spoon in mixture. Pipe 2/3 inch circles onto baking paper, leaving a cm between each one. Start with the circumference and work to the middle. Try and keep them all the same size and height. Refill bag as necessary. When finished, bang trays on counter a couple of times to release air bubbles and pat down the point in the middle of the circles. These should settle to a smooth, flat finish.

Heat oven to 160 degrees. Leave macarons to dry for 30 mins, then bake for 9-11 mins, 1 tray at a time. Turn tray after 4 mins and do not let them brown.

Remove from oven and slide baking paper onto cooling rack. After 5 mins, gently peel off paper and place on rack to dry. Repeat with second tray.

Leave to cool, then box up and pop in fridge (or wrap in airtight bags and freeze).

When you are ready to fill, sandwich them together with the filling (I use nutella). Store in fridge if there are any left..

Galette (recipe makes 10ish)

200g Buckwheat flour
2 eggs
600ml milk
80g salted butter (melted)

Fillings

1 pack washed baby spinach
5 mushrooms (finely sliced)
60g sliced or grated cheese
4 eggs (More if you put an egg on every pancake!)
Ham, Tuna, Salmon, Ricotta (optional)

Sift flour into bowl.  Measure milk in a jug and whisk in eggs.  Set butter to melt.  Pour milk mixture into batter and whisk well.

Heat large, flat pan to a medium temperature (or galette maker, should you have purchased such a useful item from Aldi).  Lightly grease surface.  Grease a baking tray and heat oven to 180c.

Whisk butter into batter and pour back into jug (easier to control for pancake making).  Pour some batter into pan a tip to cover all of pan ensuring pancake is very thin (or use the fancy wooden handled T that comes with your galette maker – it’s harder than it looks!).  Once edges begin to brown, flip pancake.

Immediately add a ring of cheese in the middle, top with spinach and sliced mushrooms.  Break an egg into the centre.  Once the egg white begins to set, fold in the corners and transfer onto a tray.  Make the next pancake in the same way.

Bake in the oven for around 5 mins, until the egg white is set, but yolk is still runny.

This is great to do with kids as they can make their own pancakes and choose their own fillings.  This mixture should make around 10 pancakes, so about right for a family or meal with 4 hungry people!

Provided you have three ripe bananas, there is never a bad time to make these!  Can even be done whilst the kids were eating breakfast for packed lunches, they are that quick to create.  Nigella’s full version is on her site, but this is my speedy version, all you need is a handheld blender and an electronic scale.  Also fab to make with kids as an after school activity!

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas (very or overripe ideal)
  
• 125 ml vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 100g muscovado sugar
• 225g plain flour
• 40g  cocoa powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100g choc chips

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  Put 12 muffin cases into a muffin tin.

In a blender beaker, pour in your oil to 125ml.  Break in your three bananas (defrosted ones are great for this too).  Add eggs and brown sugar (I put the cup on the weighing scale, set to zero and weigh sugar directly into the beaker).  Blend with stick blender until you have a beaker of goo!

Put a sieve over a bowl, weigh out flour, cocoa and bicarb, and sift into bowl.  Gently fold in goo from beaker until you have a uniform brown batter – don’t overmix!  Add choc chips and stir in gently.

Using a dessert spoon, add 1 1/2 spoonfuls to each muffin case (it should divide equally).  Bake for 14-20 mins (in my oven they take 14 and I spin them around the 10 min mark for more even baking!

These are delicious as they are, but I love topping them with Betty Crocker chocolate fudge icing…

A bright, sunny cake to make your January zing! This comes from one of my favourite books for cooking with kids – the Usbourne Beginners Cookbook (yellow and blue, spiral bound).

For the cake itself:
175g SR Flour
1 tsp baking powder
175g Caster Sugar
175g Stork Margarine
3 eggs
1 lemon, juice & rind

For the lemon curd:
1 lemon, juice & rind
75g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

For the icing:
Juice of one lemon (rind in curls to decorate cake if so wished)
100g Icing sugar

Set oven to 180 degrees. Butter or line either two 7in tins, (cooking time 30 mins). Or one 10in round tin, or a 1Kg loaf tin to slice in half (cooking time 45 mins).

Put all the cake ingredients apart from lemon juice and rind in food processor, and process for 1 minute.  Pour in lemon and rind, and process for another minute.  Split mixture between two tins (or pour or into one larger tin).

Bake in oven for 30mins (or 45 if single tin) until a skewer comes out clean.

While it is baking – make the lemon curd.  Find a bowl that fits fairly snugly in a saucepan.  Pour water into the pan round the bowl so it comes half way up the side of the bowl.  Tip your curd ingredients into the bowl and heat the pan, whilst whisking frequently.  It takes about 5-10 minutes for the mixture to come together and thicken.  Once it is the consistency of yoghurt, stop whisking and take the pan out of the bowl for the curd to cool.

Mix together the lemon juice and icing sugar.

When the cake is baked and cooled, fill with the lemon curd, and top with the icing. Decorate with lemony things or sugar roses.  Absolutely our favourite cake at the moment!