tired brassica pakoras

Sorry, more sprouts, but that’s the last of them for now, I promise.  Oh, and Pete wrote this, hence the long spice list! These pakoras were made with leftover cooked sprouts and an aging quarter cabbage lurking in the fridge veg drawer, but anything similar would do! Cauliflower, peas, potatoes – great way to use…

roasted brussels sprouts

Now, I know that brussels sprouts are much maligned, and many people claim to hate them. Well, we don’t – we love ’em. I bought a stalk of sprouts before Christmas for a quid, and there are still some left; the stalk has been out in the cold, in the log store, and they’re still…

everyday bread

This is, as named, my everyday bread recipe, lifted from Jack Monroe, the Bootstrap Cook. It is the most forgiving and adaptable of recipes; you can use pretty much any mix of flour, you can bake it into any shape you like, including rolls, you can add nuts or seeds, and it scales beautifully. Now I’ve…

soups of the week ending 11 nov 2018

I’ve decided I should more properly entitle these “soups” of the week, as they are different every day. So I am, starting now. This is the box I keep in the fridge, and all the Bits For Soup get put in it. This was its status on 6 Nov 2018 Monday 5th: there was a little…

soup of the week ending 28 oct 2018

Monday: an amalgam of leftovers from Thursday and Friday, the remains of the onion gravy from a toad in the hole, and a fistful of lentils. Delicious – tasted just like split pea and ham. Very odd, as there were neither split peas nor ham in it. Tuesday: A tiny bit of yesterday’s soup, plus cabbage…

soup of the week ending 14 oct 2018

Monday I went for a Thai sort of thing. Three carrots, some frozen sweet potatoes, an onion, about 40g of creamed coconut, two teaspoons of smooth peanut butter, pinch of chilli flakes. I think the third carrot made it too thick, but it tasted lovely. Tuesday 45g of lentils (soaked for 30 minutes), 1 medium carrot,…

soup of the week ending 7 oct 2018

Short week this week, as we are away for a couple of days, but: Tuesday: cabbage stalk, broccoli stalk, two leek tops (the green bits), two salad potatoes. Wednesday: two carrots, one courgette, pinch of chilli flakes Thursday: butternut squash, sweet potato (both bought from Iceland’s frozen veg, £1 per bag, used about ⅓ of each, so 60p),…

sprout stirfry!

Like a lot of people, we found ourselves eating up all sorts of bits and pieces after Christmas. We bought sprouts onnastalk for our festive dinner of roast goose, cooked a load up for the meal and subsequent bubble ‘n’ squeak, and then … forgot all about them. I’d stashed the stalk in the log…

indian black-eyed peas

I made a batch of these for a friend’s curry evening, and they were so nice, I’ve just made another huge batch for us! I might have gone ever so slightly overboard with the quantities, so think on if you’re going to try this 🙂 1kg black-eyed peas (£3.69 for 2kgs from our local Indian…

basic lentil mix

This is one of my standards – you can use it for lasagne, moussaka, shepherds pie … anything you do with mince, really. There are just two of us in the household, but I always cook for at least six so I can freeze some. Also, this recipe is a bitsa, using up what I…