I have been making this chicken pesto mozzarella and pasta dish for about 20 years. It was something I learnt form a friend at uni and it has stood the test of time. Even though my repertoire in the kitchen has expanded dramatically since then, I still make it today!

This is one of my favourite ways to eat chicken breast, it’s quick, easy and is so filling and comforting. It goes so well with pesto pasta, which let’s be honest, is amazing on its own already!

Pesto fried eggs, so simple, so delicious, why has it only recently become a food trend?! Pesto fried eggs are perfect for brunch, lunch or just a light meal whenever. I usually just have these with toast, however It’s pretty easy to elevate pesto fried eggs with some other additions. For example, why not serve with avocado, a side salad or even add some slices of chorizo or bacon on the side. Personally I like to keep it simple, there’s something that feels so virtuous and clean just keeping this to a 3 ingredient meal

Even though we are approaching winter, I still enjoy a salad and this is a lovely hearty winter-warming one. This cavolo nero, sweet potato and fennel salad with red cabbage and a tahini dressing is an unusual combination but it all just works. Hope you give it a go.

This is a great vegetarian salad that is substantial enough for dinner. Roasting the vegetables and serving it still warm really makes it feel more hearty too. The combination of cauliflower, sweet potatoes fennel and feta is wonderful and the hazelnuts are the perfect finisher. Great for a mid-week dinner and one you can easily change to your tastes and based on what you have in the fridge!

I must admit, the rice is actually my favourite part of this cod and tomato rice dish, it’s so full of yummy things that I thought would go well with the fish. In the end it turned out so well that I actually sometimes just make the rice to eat on its own! Still, the cod just finishes this dish off perfectly.

This is such a great combo and well balanced meal that is comforting and satisfying. I often make it mid-week as it’s easy and just full of my favourite flavours that go so well together. Beautiful salmon, creamy leeks and roasted potatoes, what more do you need.

The great thing about this sushi salmon bowl is that it’s easy to prepare.  I had thought about making sushi but to be honest, I find the end result in terms of flavour is the same and this is way faster, easier and dare I say, looks better, than my home made sushi. I fully respect that making sushi well takes some serious skill, skills which I have not quite honed yet! 

In this dish I have used salmon and salmon roe (ikura) which I have seasoned to add extra flavour.

This is sort of a soup, sort of a stew, not a million miles away from my chicken and white bean stew recipe. It is wonderful and hearty from the beans, sausage and the veg, but the broth is relatively light and the tomatoes provide a nice tang along with a hint of lemon and fennel.

This pasta dish with kale, lemon, trout roe and parsley is a quick and easy mid-week meal, but also the addition of the trout roe makes it seem fancier than it is. You could substitute the roe with anchovies which you can cook along with the garlic and kale if preferred.

This salad is both light a fresh from the fennel, apple, greens and the zing of the lemon but at same time the smoked mackerel packs a punch of flavour making the salad feel meaty and substantial. I love this in the summer for dinner.

The great thing about poke bowls is that they’re easy to prepare, you can put whatever you want in them and they’re generally quite a healthy meal whilst also being so tasty and colourful. I’ve used tuna here but salmon is another favourite. If you can’t get sushi grade fish that you can eat raw then you could always just use cooked fish.

Use sashimi grade tuna for this salad and all it needs is a quick sear. This salad is light and fresh with a distinct  hint  of East Asian flavour.

What makes this omelette special is the Chinese/garlic chives. They impart such a wonderful flavour which just can’t quite be matched with any substitute. Though they can bit a bit tough to find unless you have an Asian grocer nearby, once you do have these, the rest of the omelette uses just 3 other ingredients and some oil to fry, super simple and fast to make! Perfect for lunch, dinner or as part of a larger multi-dish meal.

This is a Korean street food snack made of spicy, chewy, moorish rice cakes. It’s unlike anything I could really compare to any Western dish. When my husband and I first tried it in Seoul we were immediately hooked. The cooking of this dish is actually incredibly easy, the biggest effort will probably be made sourcing the ingredients!

This salad is surprisingly delicious, in fact it is so good that it reinvigorated my use of cauliflower in my cooking altogether. This salad made me realise how versatile cauliflower can be and how flavoursome it is when roasted.

I really enjoy fruit in a savoury dish, mainly as it usually brings a lovely juiciness, this salad is no exception. The sweet juicy, tangy peaches surprisingly go really well against salty halloumi. Griddling the components of this salad add a nice charred flavour and looks nice too!

This has got to be one of the prettiest pasta dishes, plus a beetroot lover’s dream! This dish comes together in not much more time than it takes to cook the pasta but looks so special.

An easy to make warm salad that can be ready in less than half an hour. The halloumi makes this salad feel quite substantial and enough for a main, especially along with some nice bread.

I used to buy these in the Muslim quarter where I lived in China, they are originally from Shangxi province (near where the Terracotta Warriors were found) and are a very common and tasty street food.