Notes about Recipes in this book

• Cayenne eggs Benedict

  • marydulwich on January 16, 2020

    This is a great recipe that looked like a restaurant brunch at the end. An easy, simplified version of Hollandaise and thoroughly satisfying.

  • Ro_ on May 22, 2020

    Loved the cheat Hollondaise recipe. It turned out my cayenne pepper jar was practically empty, so I had to use some paprika in the sauce. Did the poached eggs in a large shallow pan, didn't bother with the clingfilm/ice water/reheating. All in all, a very nice breakfast.

• Cardamom banana drop scones

  • marydulwich on January 16, 2020

    These tasted really good and were easy to make.

• Brown mustard potato rösti

  • marydulwich on January 16, 2020

    A little bit more effort but still a great recipe for a weekend brunch with lots of flavour and a nice crispy crunch to it.

• Turmeric tomatoes on avocado toast

  • cewuk on January 01, 2020

    This worked brilliantly! Turmeric not an ingredient I’m particularly familiar with but it gave the dish a wonderful savoury/smokey, almost meaty quality. Will definitely make this again! A good recipe if keen to reduce meat intake without sacrificing flavour.

  • marydulwich on January 16, 2020

    Made this during my vegan week and was pleasantly surprised. I don't normally enjoy tomatoes or avocados so I'm not sure how this ended up being so tasty.

• Garlic & parsley egg cups

  • marydulwich on July 09, 2020

    Looked exactly like the photo when finished, super easy to make and held together perfectly.

• Black pepper & smoked salmon omelette

  • marydulwich on January 16, 2020

    Tried this without sandwiching it. It was a tasty meal but nothing wildly exciting.

• Masala eggy bread

  • marydulwich on January 16, 2020

    Ended up quite soggy, tasted ok but probably wouldn't try again.

  • Ro_ on April 11, 2020

    For something made from mostly storecupboard ingredients (I used chopped frozen coriander), this was a nice, different sort of breakfast. It benefitted from being dipped in ketchup (which I felt justified in doing seeing as there was a blob of ketchup on the plate in the photo in the book). Definitely needs to be eaten with a knife and fork. Doesn't beat "Savoury French Toast" from the same author's "Time to Eat" book, which is along similar lines but includes cheese and ham and remains one of my favourite breakfast recipes.

• Creamy broccoli & oregano pasta

  • joneshayley on January 27, 2018

    Quick easy dinner. Received well by family, but nothing “special”. I’d prefer other fresher broccoli pastas. Nb- 400ml of cream and 200g cheese is too much for us, so I halved both - it was creamy and cheesy enough.

• Tamarind prawn cocktail sandwich

  • marydulwich on January 16, 2020

    A great take on your average prawn cocktail sandwich. The addition of the tamarind and seafood sticks makes such a difference. Loved it.

• Coriander-crusted chicken liver salad

  • Ro_ on August 27, 2020

    I liked the method for preparing and cooking the liver and onions, and would definitely use this again. However, I was left with no liquid/oil in the pan at the end of this, and since the recipe does not say to dress the salad with anything, the resulting dish for me was crying out for a vinaigrette. Ideally this would be made in the pan to take advantage of any last bits of flavour left in there. I also think this would be nice with some gently pan-fried tomatoes as part of the salad.

• Coronation turkey jacket potato

  • Ro_ on December 03, 2019

    This was never going to be an 'oh my god this is amazing' recipe, but it reminded me that a baked potato with a nice topping in lots of sauce can be a very nice weeknight dinner. Contrary to Nadiya's instructions, I only blasted my potatoes in microwave for 5 minutes, preferring to finish them in the oven at 170 for about half an hour to crisp up the skin and get that nice oven taste. The coronation turkey topping was simple to make and tasted very nice.

• Five-spice duck pie

  • marydulwich on January 16, 2020

    This looked great when finished and there was lots of flavour, loved the addition of peanuts, however, it is incredibly heavy, particularly with the use of lard in the pastry.

• Aubergine & feta tart

  • Ro_ on June 10, 2020

    This was an absolutely delicious combination of flavours, kind of pizza-esque. My only criticism is that the base in the middle was not cooked through properly - I'm not entirely sure how to resolve this. Maybe preheating the baking sheet before putting the tart on it?

• Country beans

  • marydulwich on January 16, 2020

    More interesting than normal beans but I wouldn't be fussed about making them again.

• Breaded mackerel in tzatziki pittas

  • Ro_ on April 01, 2021

    This was accepted as "not bad" by my fish-disliking partner. I chose it precisely because it's the kind of fish dish you can get away with serving to someone who doesn't really like fish! I thought it was really nice and fairly easy to do, although I had to fillet the mackerel I had bought myself which took ages and is something I need to practice. I left the cumin seeds out of the tzatziki, but with hindsight I should definitely have put them in as nice as this dish was, it was missing a hint of spice and earthiness. It might also be nice with some sort of hot sauce or salsa added.

• Lamb bhuna with garlic naan

  • Ro_ on April 14, 2021

    Very nice bhuna recipe, but mine didn't come out as dark as in the picture, not sure why. We also really enjoyed the garlic naans. I'd repeat both elements.

• Prawn & orange curry with basmati rice

  • hannah_sc7nia on May 11, 2026

    Yum!! There is a typo—the garlic should be crushed like step 1 says, not chopped like the ingredients list says. Or diced but added after the onions.

• Red split lentils with five-spice soda bread

  • Ro_ on October 09, 2020

    I had a little trouble getting the soda bread to come together, but I think it's because I added a smidge too much buttermilk, and I forgot to wet my hands before attempting to mold it. Ultimately, the soda bread came out of the oven absolutely delicious, I loved the Indian spicing and the texture was good. I was thinking that the red split lentils would come out as a kind of lentil curry, actually what I got was more of a soup (dahl) but again the flavours were really good, and it went perfectly with the bread. It was all very filling! The bread definitely makes enough for four, but for the lentils I'd probably make more next time as we easily polished off the full quantity between two people at lunchtime (see picture).

• Black bean mole enchiladas

  • Ro_ on February 12, 2021

    Such a great enchilada recipe, I loved this and didn't miss the meat at all. The textures and flavours were wonderful, my only complaint is that they were way too spicy, and I left out the red chilli and am something who generally loves spicy food! But a teaspoon of chilli powder and 100g of jalapenos already made this burning-hot. I will make it again, but I will have to cut the chilli and jalapenos in half. Or maybe leave the jalapenos out altogether and serve them on the side.

  • hbakke on March 27, 2023

    Delicious enchiladas. We loved the sauce combined with the bean filling. I guessed that 4 cubes of dark chocolate was 40g, although I have no real reference if that is accurate. I used Monterey Jack cheese in place of cheddar and added quite a bit more salt than specified. I also wasn't sure if the jalapeños were meant to be pickled or not (ingredients list jalapeños, drained). I used half the amount of pickled jalapeños and it was plenty spicy. I would make this again.

• Meatball slider subs

  • Ro_ on April 04, 2021

    I couldn't get anything near submarine rolls when I went to the supermarket, they were even out of hot dog buns, so had to settle for burger buns. There was a lot that I liked about these, and my partner really loved them. The mozza and the crispy onions were a nice touch, and the sauce was also good (I added a little sugar to sweeten it up a bit). I just think I might have preferred the actual meatballs to be more Italian-style, so potentially next time I might leave out the garam masala and use some mixed herbs or similar. I reduced the sauce down a lot so that it clung to the meatballs, which was more convenient for the way I was serving. I only used 750g lamb mince and got 13 large meatballs, so the full 900g must make even huger ones!

• Carrot, cumin & coriander soup

  • embk27 on January 13, 2022

    This is a really tasty soup - I added a heaped tbsp of tomato purée too.

• Cheese scones with chive butter

  • Ro_ on March 25, 2021

    I made just under half the quantity, and came out with three scones. The good: the texture was absolutely perfect (I cooked for 15 mins) and the chive butter was also very nice. The bad: I didn't taste any cheese at all (I used strong cheddar as couldn't get red leicester) so would definitely add more next time, but also I think the quantity of butter stated is too much and overpowers the scones slightly.

  • Yildiz100 on June 16, 2021

    Agreed with Ro. No cheese flavor at all, but nice texture. The onion powder is also not detectable, though that is probably a good thing.

• Beef Wellington with fennel & mint salad

  • Ro_ on April 27, 2021

    Really flavoursome and delicious. Although it takes a long time to prepare, it's just in short bursts (followed by chilling) and the fact that this can be prepared and then refrigerated the day before until ready to cook makes it ideal for a dinner party. Only two things: I didn't get a great seal on the pastry at the bottom, I guess I should have used more egg and pressed more firmly with the fork. And secondly, it would have been nice with some sort of sauce (I didn't make the fennel salad).

• Arancini balls with roasted red pepper & pine nut dip

  • Ro_ on April 05, 2021

    We really enjoyed these cheesy arancini. I didn't want to deep fry, so shallow fried in about an inch of oil, in two batches, about 10m per batch flipping them around a lot, which was fine. A couple of family members don't generally like red pepper, but they ate the dip all the same. These were extremely filling and just needed green salad on the side, but it could also be nice to make miniature versions to eat as finger food.

• Beef carpaccio with ghee bread

  • Ro_ on August 26, 2020

    I really liked the method for making the carpaccio (the seasoning / searing / freezing / slicing) and the salsa verde was good too, it made a nice change from the traditional oil/balsamic/parmesan accompaniments to a beef carpaccio. I was less fussed about the concept of putting the carpaccio on bread, though admittedly I didn't have tiger bread or ghee so I used baguette slices and olive oil. I'd also note that I ended up with far too much salsa verde for the quantity of carpaccio, especially since you only need a little to get a lot of flavour - I'd make a half or even quarter quantity of the salsa verde next time.

• Pulled beef in brioche

  • Ro_ on June 22, 2020

    I should have a) reduced the sauce a little bit more and b) toasted the brioche buns, because my only criticism of these was that they were a bit too sloppy to eat easily. But the flavours were absolutely delicious. I added some hastily made coleslaw, which I think is worth doing. The beauty of this dish is that it's really easy to make and can be done in advance - I'll be making it again.

• Chai tea banana cake

  • gootenbeez on December 16, 2025

    This was good. Cake is buttery lightly spicedand not too sweet. Im not sure I'm fully sold on the mascarpone mixture. It sank all the way to the bottom. Is it supposed to? Maybe it would be goos using something else instead of mascarpone. Sour cream? Ricotta? I don't usually keep it in the house. Also true to form I forgot to dust the cake with powdered sugar before eating.

• Summer fruit semifreddo

  • Cvtbird on October 14, 2024

    Does turn out just like the picture! Once this is fully frozen it is too hard and not pleasant to eat. When it is just freezing but still the cream is a little soft it is delicious. So when it says freeze for 3 hours it means that.. not more.

• Rocky road cake

  • Ro_ on October 11, 2020

    The batter for the cake part of this was extremely liquid, it actually started leaking out of the bottom of my springform tin so I had to do a hasty transfer to another receptacle. I was worried about what kind of cake I'd get from it, but it was actually a really nice texture, and not too sweet which is important since the top part (the rocky road layer) is of course extremely sweet! Unfortunately mine didn't cut as nicely as Nadiya's, and the slices looked quite messy and tended to crumble apart. The taste was good, but this is an extremely heavy cake and one small slice is very filling! I'm not sure I'll make it again: I liked the concept more than the reality.