Notes about Recipes in this book

• Home-made granola American style

  • e_ballad on October 10, 2018

    This is very sweet, almost to the point of being confectionery! I have since halved the maple syrup & brown sugar, which was still very tasty.

• Quinoa porridge with pink grapefruit, pumpkin seeds & chia seeds

  • Astrid5555 on June 21, 2014

    Nice change from my daily oatmeal routine. Used rhubarb compote instead of pink grapefruits, which added a nice tanginess.

• Honey-puffed wholegrain cereal

  • e_ballad on April 15, 2018

    Before embarking on this recipe, go to your wallet: get out $40 AUD, $30 USD, £20, €25, or an equivalent currency. Now burn it. I’ve now saved you the trouble of proceeding with this recipe. At 15 mins at the stated oven temp, this was charcoaled. The stated cooking time is 40mins. I use a calibrated oven thermometer. There is no way this recipe has been tested. A good concept, but NOT using this recipe.

• Super greens smoothie

  • Astrid5555 on June 21, 2014

    Substituted store-bought almond milk for home-made pumpkinseed milk, since this is what I had already on hand. The combination of avocado and banana adds a great creaminess, while the addition of baby spinach and basil make for a great color and taste. Excellent!

• Oat, ricotta & berry pancakes with thyme honey

  • Neodymia on August 16, 2014

    Very good, but don't make them big as they are very delicate and you can't turn them over.

• Pumpkin, white bean & kale soup

  • e_ballad on November 09, 2016

    Despite using a well-flavoured stock (& piffing in some Parmesan rinds that were hanging about), this was pretty unexciting. Quick but boring.

• Tuna, anchovy, semi-dried tomato & cannellini bean salald

  • Lepa on May 14, 2026

    The proportions for this salad dressing are way off. There is too much olive oil, which ruined the salad. It's a shame, as we love bean and tuna salad and were looking forward to a new variation. I might try this again with less oil and more mustard.

• Autumnal wild & brown rice salad

  • e_ballad on August 01, 2018

    A nice rice salad with a punchy dressing that prevents the sweetness of the dried fruit from dominating.

• Winter grain & vegetable salad with honey & mustard dressing

  • SugarFree_Vegan on September 26, 2020

    I roasted my cauliflower for this recipe as I wanted a more cooked element and seeing the other veggies are raw it makes for a more cozy meal. I used Spelt / Farotto instead of the wheat berries which in my case cooks in about 12 mins (whilst I flash roasted the cauli). A really yummy mix of veggies, lots of crunch but also satisfying too. Ooh, almost forgot, I didn't have celeriac so I added a bit more cauli instead.

• Tagine of lamb with chickpeas, apricots, saffron & honey

  • e_ballad on June 30, 2019

    A very tasty tagine. I initially held back on the quantity of honey, fearing that it might be too sweet, however, it actually works against the sourness of the dried fruits.

• Beetroot risotto with goat's cheese & watercress pesto

  • e_ballad on April 05, 2017

    Wow, this was terrible. Either the cooking time or the oven temp was off, as it was completely overcooked. Stodge, tasteless stodge.

• Salmon & lemon couscous with broad bean purée, pancetta & mint

  • e_ballad on April 01, 2017

    This was ok & certainly everything worked according to the recipe instructions, but it just didn't wow us.

• Leek, spinach & Gruyère tart with spelt pastry

  • e_ballad on November 27, 2017

    A very cheesy tart, this was a good way to get extra greens into the kiddo. The crust was quite heavy despite the recipe note to the contrary. Note that the pastry requires refrigeration for 2 hours, resulting in an outlay of 3.5 hours for a dish that is really good, but not amazing.

• Rice, pecan & bean salad with ginger & maple dressing

  • e_ballad on October 20, 2016

    This was great. The stem ginger in syrup really made this zing & it was fantastic as a lunch the following day. Yum.

• Warm white beans with wilted rocket & onions

  • e_ballad on October 27, 2016

    Meh. Nothing interesting about this dish at all.

• Turkish spiced black-eyed peas with yoghurt & mint butter

  • VineTomato on November 07, 2017

    We did not enjoy this, the flavour was a little off and the mint butter did not help matters. The recipe for Turkish soup in Stirring Slowly is one of my all time favourite and it is a different style dish I mention it because the mint butter added the end of that recipe is totally delicious.

• Turkish barley & lentil salad with tahini dressing

  • e_ballad on September 21, 2016

    Very tasty. The lentil/carrot/tomato component took longer than the pearl barley to cook, so would suggest starting this first. Would also halve the quantity of dressing as it would drown the salad.

• Spring couscous with herbs, lemons & pistachios

  • e_ballad on October 10, 2016

    An easy no-frills couscous salad that can work as a vehicle for a stronger flavored main. Unlikely to rock anyone's world, but sometimes a simple dish like this is needed for a robust tagine or marinated grilled meat.

• Orange & pistachio pilaff

  • e_ballad on February 15, 2017

    This was great, but don't make my mistake & misread the instructions. Despite 900mL stock in the ingredients, the recipe actually calls for 600mL, using extra to top up if sticking to the pan. Needless to say, I whacked the whole lot in with predictably mushy results. But geez it was tasty mush!

• Warm barley with roast pumpkin & feta

  • e_ballad on September 10, 2016

    This would be great as a vegetarian main. We had this as a side dish for lamb cutlets & it was fantastic. Will be on high rotation during the autumn months.

• Glazed upside-down apricot & hazelnut cake

  • e_ballad on January 31, 2019

    Disappointing. Overly sweet hazelnut cake that rapidly went soggy, rather than caramelised like the photo.

• Date, orange & chia loaf

  • Lepa on May 24, 2026

    This is fantastic - everything I want in a breakfast/tea loaf. It needed the full 75 minutes (I was skeptical)! Putting this in our rotation.

• Beetroot, carrot & multigrain seed loaf

  • SugarFree_Vegan on March 04, 2018

    Page 280 - The loaf worked very well, moist but not dense and didn't sink like some veganized cake recipes! I veganized this by using flax eggs (3 tbsp ground flax seeds in 9 tbsp warm water) and used vegan butter; I also made it sugar free by subbing in xylitol, truvia and a little coconut nectar (I tasted it as I was going along to make sure it was sweet enough) in place of the soft brown sugar and added a 1/2 tbsp of maca powder to add a little caramel note.

• The Telegraph

  ...a book that takes its inspiration from Middle Eastern, Moroccan, Indian and Spanish cuisines and lets you into the ancient secrets of [grains]...and dishes them up for 21st-century consumption.

  Full review