I’ve recently discovered Yotam Ottolenghi’s innovative and inventive take on vegetarian food. The chef’s exciting approach to Mediterranean cooking is experimental with bold flavours and pure ingredients. Finding new ways to make vegetarian food interesting is always good so I’ll definitely be buying his book Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.
Some of his dishes include white and yellow [...]

For the month of January, The Sunday Times has been offering up a ten-point plan to a better you in the style section. A plan that encourages you to ‘Learn to relax’, ‘Find your purpose’, ‘Revel in strong moments’ and ‘Boost your chi factor’.
When reading it, I kind of zoned out and couldn’t help feel [...]

Christmas dinner is a very meat focused affair and although I do enjoy turkey, I think that turkey and ham are weird together. The sprouts are little green spheres of pure deliciousness but in general vegetables are a tad boring at Christmas and I think vegetarians get a bum deal on the day.
Well, if you [...]

Reading on BBC online, it appears that the latest conflict between Lebanon and Israel is all about hummus - please note that’s hummus not Hamas.
The delicious spread, made from chickpeas is usually blended with sesame paste, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. It has been eaten in the Middle East for centuries, though its [...]

I was in Egypt a few years ago and thought the food was very good indeed. For some of the time, I stayed with a family so I got to  experience some Egyptian takes on some of my favourite dishes.
As a big fan of Kofta I was in heaven but it was the falafel that [...]

As part of the African special this month, I have another couple of recipes from Morocco for you. I made these two delicious dishes last night and they turned out a treat.
I served the dishes with rice but you could also serve them with couscous or bulgar wheat.
The bean dish is cheap, healthy and straight [...]

I made this for dinner recently as a side for my Roast Chicken in Butter Sauce. Each time I make a tomato sauce, it’s different. It’s a wondrous, organic, changing thing and can taste so different each time, redolent of memories from the past, spag bol when I was a kid, bruschetta on my first [...]

We rounded off the pumpkin series on Friday with Pumpkin Cheesecake but I had to include this Roasted Butternut Squash with Thyme and Cider Vinegar recipe because it is so damn good. You could substitute the squash for pumpkin if you like.
My husband came up with this simple side dish over the weekend and it [...]

Following on from Tuesday’s post on cookbooks, another one of my favourite books is ‘Just One Pot’ by Lindsey Bareham.
What I love about this book is the recipes cover a whole range of cuisines including - India, France, Trinidad, Spain and Thailand amongst others.
As you can tell from the title, all the dishes can be [...]

Halloween is coming up and it’s a deadly festival. It’s actually my favourite and the fact that it’s origins lie in the ancient Irish festival ‘Samhain’ makes it all the more intriguing.
I cram in as many horror films as I can in the month of October and embrace all the usual traditions in an attempt [...]