You know those small pasta shapes you can buy which are ideal for minestrone? Well, it turns out they make a really good pasta bake. I found this out by accident when making my creamy lentil pasta bake and looked in the cupboard to find only teeny tiny bows to hand. This is a seriously tasty and very filling vegetarian pasta bake which is crammed full of veg with a little added double cream for a touch of weeknight luxury.
Ingredients
You Creamy Lentil Pasta Bake
You know those small pasta shapes you can buy which are ideal for minestrone? Well, it turns out they make a really good pasta bake. I found this out by accident when making my creamy lentil pasta bake and looked in the cupboard to find only teeny tiny bows to hand. This is a seriously tasty and very filling vegetarian pasta bake which is crammed full of veg with a little added double cream for a touch of weeknight luxury.
Ingredients
You 
In my perfect world, a mince pie would be 70% pastry, 30% mincemeat. It's not that I don't like mincemeat I just don't like too much of it. That's where my mince pie crumble bars come in. A thick layer of buttery shortbread, a spiced mincemeat middle and further crumbly shortbread on the top. Let's be honest, it's mostly biscuit with a hint of Christmas. Perfect.
Ingredients
You will need (for 12 mince pie crumble bars):
300g softened 
I often get left with carrots at the bottom of the fridge. They play an overlooked, but important, base in so many meals: part of a mirepoix, in casseroles and in pies to name a few. Rarely, in my kitchen anyway, do the carrots get to be the star of the dish. So when some beautiful rainbow carrots arrived in the veg box it would have been rude to simply chuck them into various dinners. This time, I wanted to celebrate this lovely root in a rainbow 
Most people would take one look at our barbecue and wonder what on Earth we were thinking when we bought it. As non-seasoned barbecuers we didn't want to splash the cash and bought pretty much the cheapest barbecue we could find. It's cast iron, uses coal or wood and has just enough space for food for two or three people and it's brilliant. Of course, the first ever barbecue was too hot, the second was too cold but we are pros now and not even a 
It is important to note that this recipe is not shy on calories. There's cheese, double cream, lashings of olive oil, layers of pasta and plenty of veg. My green summer vegetable lasagne is quicker to make than a traditional lasagne (there's no baking) and you can use the sauce with any pasta if you so choose. I like to think that all that green veg negates the calories and I happily ploughed through a whole plate of this. Bear in mind, I am very 
You know when you see a recipe and you can't get it out of your head? It all started when I saw a recipe for buffalo cauliflower, it sounded so good. Then I saw an idea for some seriously loaded nachos. The combination of the two sounded like a dream. These pulled buffalo chicken nachos are everything I wanted them to be: spicy, slightly sweet, covered with cheese and full of texture. Perfect for sharing on the sofa.
Ingredients
You will 
When you get your hands on some truly spectacular ingredients they don't need much interfering with. I picked up some sublimely sweet tomatoes and a small burrata at a market recently and I wanted these simple ingredients to shine. My balsamic roasted tomatoes and burrata were served with a warm olive studded focaccia which we enjoyed eating outside for the first time this year. When you're serving up tomatoes, cheese and warm bread can you really 
At this time of year I get all the spices out of the cupboard and start to use those that I forgot about over the summer months. I found a tub of my homemade keema spice mix and although I know it's delicious with lamb I wanted to try and make a veggie version. After trying out a few different vegetables and quantities I decided that I like this version of my vegetable keema rice the best. Not only is it easy and filling, it's also got four different 
When I cut into a lemon I can't help but give it a good sniff. It's the same with lime and grapefruit. There's something about that citrus smell that I just can't wait to inhale; especially if it's a drizzly day. I also love tropical flavours at this time of year: coconut, passion fruit, mango, you name it! Combining a bit of citrus and a bit of tropical was the idea here so I set about baking some lemon and coconut flapjacks.
Sometimes there's nothing better than a sandwich. It could be a properly crusty, thickly sliced loaf filled with simple cheese and chutney, a bagel filled with pastrami, gherkins and mustard or some thin rye bread topped with smoked fish and herbs. I don't think I could ever tire of something that you can just grab and eat with your hands. My salami and mozzarella open ciabatta is just the thing for a simple, no fuss, full of flavour dinner. Don't 
