• London_Mummy on October 13, 2025

  This book is a bit too chatty in style & sometimes you find small omissions or errors, however, the flavours are wonderful & each dish has a kind of French sophistication. Bear with it, read each recipe carefully twice before you start cooking, & don't try to make any of the recipes less rich.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Celeriac soup with bouillabaisse seasonings and rouile

  • veronicafrance on December 23, 2016

    This is a truly fantastic soup. It might seem a faff, but the result is worth it.

• Cauliflower and corn chowder

  • London_Mummy on December 11, 2025

    A very nice, tasty, easy recipe which brought variety to the parade of winter soups

• Borscht with accessories

  • jonwakeman on September 13, 2016

    Page 85

• Broccoli sautéed with shiitake mushrooms and tofu

  • London_Mummy on February 18, 2026

    This is a quick & easy classic. I used smoked tofu, closed cup mushrooms, sprouting broccoli & some precooked noodles which were reduced to clear.

• Carrots braised with cumin, saffron and garlic

  • veronicafrance on February 19, 2016

    I was disappointed with this; I've had much better spiced Moroccan carrots. I didn't have Nadine's pretty carrots with tops, so I cut the large ones I had into chunky batons. Even so, they took longer than her suggested 20 minutes to reach even al dente state, and the sauce didn't reduce as I'd expected. It was OK, and would have been improved with better carrots, but I probably won't bother with it again. Served with the rice and broad bean pilaff.

• Mile high vegetable pie in a hot-water crust

  • London_Mummy on October 13, 2025

    This is a really gorgeous, rich & impressive pie for a special occasion. It is a lot of work preparing the separate fillings, so the second time I made it, I prepared some fillings the previous day. You must preseve some energy & enthusiasm right to the end, so that you arrange the fillings carefully & the layers & eggs look great when the pie is cut open.

• Moussaka

  • taufiq_erinn on July 12, 2015

    This is such a tasty dish, every time. Once you get over the ingredients list (which goes over two pages on the side note), you realise how quick and easy you can do each of the steps. This has become a staple in our house, and it makes at least 6 generous serves.

  • London_Mummy on January 20, 2026

    In order to accommodate a special request for moussaka (very suitable comfort food for the current cold, damp weather), I ended up making it even though it is not really a suitable after-work dish. I sliced the potatoes & aubergines in my Magimix but initially forgot to adjust cooking methods for the thin slices. I ended up frying them in a pan rather than grilling the aubergine, & with quite crumbly potato slices, however, by the time the moussaka was all cooked, no one could tell how messy my slices had been. I used readymade Heinz sundried cherry tomato & basil sauce (which I like because it contains no sugar or additives) plus a big pinch of Kashmiri chilli powder & readymade Waitrose cheese sauce (which I had bought in clearance & frozen & which also contains only ordinary kitchen ingredients & no additives). Everyone liked the moussaka & took seconds, but someone requested an earlier meal tomorrow...

• Soft polenta with broccoli

  • k.a.g on June 17, 2013

    This is the best recipe for polenta that I know - be generous with the 'mix-ins' and you won't look back. I have served it with the broccoli several times (delicious) but I also don't hesitate to pull it into service as part of many other meals - it was perfect with lamb shanks tonight (sorry, vegetarians). One thing though: I can only assume the 'serves 4' is a typo. I used half the recipe to serve 4 tonight and there is still plenty left over to enjoy as olive-oil fried slices tomorrow. Yum.

• Spinach gnocchi with a rich tomato sauce

  • taufiq_erinn on July 12, 2015

    Delicious dish! As with all of Nadine's recipes I've attempted, if you follow her instructions completely you end up with a fabulous and tasty meal. I made the mistake of buying actual english spinach, and spent a good hour getting the grit out of it before being able to start cooking - I think next time I'll just use baby spinach.

• Puy lentils with winter roasted vegetables

  • veronicafrance on April 15, 2012

    Simple to do, and very adaptable -- good if you get a veggie box because you can use pretty much whatever suitable veg you have. There's a summer variation in the book, with grilled vegetables. Non-vegetarians can add mergues or saucisse de Toulouse to the lentils.

• Chickpea salad with coriander, sunblushed tomatoes and haloumi

  • Camillafh on August 23, 2012

    used cherry tomatoes mixed in with the salad instead of sun blushed (didn't have sun blushed to hand) & mint instead of parsley (all I had) and lime instead of lemon (all I had) and still tasted divine. Used half recipe for just over one main course lunch portion.

• Biryani

  • veronicafrance on March 23, 2013

    Naughty Nadine uses yoghurt and lime zest in the method which are not mentioned in the ingredient list, so you need to add these to your shopping list. Nadine Abensur is one of my favourite vegetarian cookbook authors, and she doesn't disappoint here. Like many of her recipes, it's rather elaborate, but in its favour, you can prepare rice and curry in advance and put them together half an hour before the meal. You could vary the vegetables too. Good for feeding a crowd. I'll certainly make it again.

• Broad bean pilaff with raisins and almonds

  • veronicafrance on May 13, 2012

    This was a bit bland, but would be fine as an accompaniment to spicier dishes, as Nadine Abensur suggests. Don't stint on the coriander. Some grated lemon zest would be good too. I jazzed it up with a glug of fino sherry added at the end. Oh, and I added some bacon, just because I had some to use up, and broad beans without bacon just didn't seem right.

• Buckwheat with petits pois

  • London_Mummy on December 11, 2025

    This recipe is a bit too bland for us but I'm happy that I used up some buckwheat which had been hanging around in a jar for too long.

• Paella

  • monicahorridge on April 17, 2012

    this is really yummy. when prepping I thought it may end up being boring lumps of carrot...but everything in it ended up tasting amazing. and really easy to make. highly recommend!

• Lemon drizzle cake

  • veronicafrance on March 18, 2016

    This makes a massive cake. It really does take well over an hour to cook through. I'd advise looking at it after 45 minutes and covering with foil if the top is starting to burn. Test right in the middle with a skewer to avoid undercooked centre. Untypically for lemon drizzle, Nadine tells you to heat the glaze to dissolve the sugar before pouring it over. I didn't do this, because the crackly top with undissolved sugar is part of the point. Lovely lemony flavour and (very) moist crumb.

• Roasted plums with orange water and crystallised-ginger crème fraîche

  • veronicafrance on October 01, 2016

    Really delicious and so quick to do. Effort vs results 10/10. Orange flower water isn't something I have in the cupboard, but using Cointreau instead of brandy I considered it wasn't necessary. As the recipe specified stem ginger syrup, I used the stem ginger from the jar rather than crystallised ginger. Used Greek yoghurt instead of cream.

• Quinces slowly poached with rose water and cardamom

  • Ganga108 on August 04, 2022

    A lovely and simple recipe that slices the quinces thinly then simmers gently for 2 hours. Rosewater and quinces is such a great pairing (try adding a little rosewater to quince paste next time you make it). The aromas from the kitchen are divine. The recipe itself is written beautifully and makes you want to immediately plant a quince tree. (I added a pinch of pepper and some HM dehydrated orange slices to the quinces while cooking.) TIP: slice the quince longways so that pips etc are easy to remove.

• Marmalade and slivered-almond muffins

  • veronicafrance on March 11, 2016

    Like Nadine, I had jars of ageing marmalade to use up. These are not bad; they rose less than expected, but were still light. I liked the fact they weren't too sweet, unlike most muffins; there's no sugar except what's provided by the marmalade, and my home-made marmalade is of the bitter orange variety. The crisp almond top was a nice contrast too. Could be varied by using other types of marmalade/jam; cherry would be good.

• Chocolate almond cake

  • London_Mummy on October 13, 2025

    I used to make this sumptuous cake regularly for my children's birthday parties. All the young guests loved it because it was chocolate (& it's good for some of them to experience a more complex dark chocolate flavour for the first time) & the parents all used to end up eating it too, because it is sophisticated, delicious cake. Don't try to make it "healthier": just add all the eggs, butter, white bread crumbs & the best quality dark chocolate which you can afford, & enjoy it!

• Basic pizza dough and toppings

  • zoe_bjtylb on May 09, 2026

    Page 354

• Goat's cheese, olive and sunblushed-tomato muffins

  • k.a.g on June 16, 2013

    I bake a lot, and rarely do my baked goods disappear as quickly as these. There is something addictive about them, and they are wonderful to eat, jam-packed as they are with the good stuff. I also find them easy to make (no machinery required, just a bit of chopping, which you can do the day before if that makes life easier). I multiply the recipe by 1.5 and this makes the perfect amount for 12 generous muffins. One caution - they seem to stick terribly to standard muffin papers (the cheese, perhaps?) which wastes a lot of muffin, so last time I used squares of baking paper roughly lining the muffin tins. As well as being perfectly non-stick this also made the end product look great!

• Tin and Thyme

  ...written with the home cook in mind and a number of tips are peppered throughout. I particularly like the way the book is organised...

  Full review