• London_Mummy on January 15, 2026

  This book is really excellent & encyclopaedic. I got it for £3 in a charity shop & had a stereotype that the recipes would be pretentious or bland because Leith's was so Establishment - but that preconception was wrong. The recipes are very varied, reliable & tasty. I do not need photos of everything in the cookbook so the lack of illustrations is OK for me.

• rodillagra on May 18, 2015

  Made: Pink Russian Salad (recommend) Stuffed Cabbage leaves (first recipe) (recommend)

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Broccoli soup

  • alexthepink on April 29, 2019

    Surprisingly delicious for such a simple recipe. I used it to rescue some very sad, yellowing broccoli and it did the trick.

• Broccoli and cauliflower pudding

  • London_Mummy on January 02, 2026

    My motivation to make this was to use up a lot of broccoli & cauliflower, but it has turned out tasty. I don't understand what makes it a "pudding" because it is basically a soufflé, which is instead cooked modestly in a large, greased oven dish.

• Cheese fondue with cauliflower and polenta fritters

  • London_Mummy on March 14, 2026

    The frosty, wintery returned & provided an excuse to make fondue. I had no wine or kirsch, so I used up some leftover Korean soju topped up with some brandy & water, & it turned out delicious.

• Carrot and swede mash with roasted seed butter

  • London_Mummy on December 25, 2025

    I varied this recipe by using 1 kg of carrots & 1 kg of parsnips & omitted the roasted seeds, however, it proved to be the most popular side dish on the table. Sometimes the simplest classics are the best.

  • London_Mummy on January 07, 2026

    Popular as this dish was at Xmas, 2 kg was a lot to finish. In the end, I made the leftovers into chapatis/flatbreads by improvising from potato cakes recipes, along with some fried onions & herbs which also needed using up. The flatbreads were surprisingly good & the dough kept very well in a closed plastic box in the fridge.

• Baked sweet potatoes with chilli soured cream

  • London_Mummy on March 19, 2026

    I find it hard to believe that anyone really needs a recipe to make a baked potato but here was this recipe when I searched for the ingredients in my fridge. I substituted some reduced-to-clear Waitrose Deli Style Coleslaw for the chilli soured cream.

• Glazed turnips with coriander

  • London_Mummy on February 25, 2026

    This is a good recipe for a side dish to an English meal, which uses a traditional, inexpensive, locally-grown vegetable but lacks the blandness of much traditional English fare! I used a big white English turnip. I was too busy to make the hot, spicy stock suggested, so I used part of a vegetable stock cube mixed with some kimchi juice which was left over at the bottom of a jar at the back of the fridge.

• Winter vegetable pie with rough puff pastry crust

  • London_Mummy on October 30, 2025

    I made this pie because all the winter vegetables are in season & cheap, & I also had some chestnuts in the freezer. As I was out of barley, I substituted coarse bulgar, which worked well. I also used readymade ready-rolled puff pastry. Nevertheless,a pie is a time-consuming dinner for a weekday. On the other hand, everyone loves a pie, so my family was happy. It was a very traditional English recipe, flavoured by a bay leaf, stock & mushroom ketchup. This was too bland for us. I added chilli sauce on my plate. Next time I'd definitely add some spices to the filling.

• Quorn and leek pie

  • annie_6swuo4 on April 14, 2026

    I added a little bit of mustard powder to this, otherwise followed the recipe. Very nice

• Baked halloumi with roasted aubergine and tomato

  • Tealismyname on September 04, 2021

    Absolutely delicious. I didn't have enough aubergine, so I cut everything into cubes. It was a great salad even the next day. I added a dash of pomegranite mollasses to the dressing as well.

  • Tealismyname on September 07, 2025

    Yummy and pretty hands off-- We bulked it out with cous cous (would recommend this)

• Stuffed red peppers with soufflé tops

  • dan_zua823 on May 10, 2026

    Tasty but needed to add some water to cook the lentils. I think this is missed out of the recipe as the tinned tomatoes didn’t have enough liquid.

• Tomato curry with black mustard seeds and curry leaves

  • Karine.1 on August 31, 2022

    Very good.

• Roasted wedges of acorn squash with fennel seeds and garlic

  • Tealismyname on April 14, 2024

    We did with Red Kuri Squash which isn't as sweet. Perhaps, slightly overly seasoned but that could be because our squash was smaller. Really yummy with yogurt and feta on top. Served with fennel, radish and buratta salad.

• Courgette, pepper and potato empanadilla

  • Stantonjulie on June 25, 2022

    Spice mix not quite right. Need to experiment. Otherwise works as per recipe.

• Fennel and walnut filo pie

  • London_Mummy on December 23, 2025

    The fennel filling of this pie is really gorgeous. I used readymade filo pastry.

• Aubergine and black-eyed bean curry

  • London_Mummy on March 13, 2026

    I picked this recipe simply because I wanted to use the aubergines & leeks which I had, but it came out better than I had expected for an English-style curry. I used butter beans from the suggested alternatives to black-eyed beans. I substituted a leftover half tin of chopped tomatoes, one tbs of tomato puree plus a splash of sriracha for the spicy stock plus 2 tbs of tomato puree. I used English curry powder plus a bit of ground cardamom for the "korma curry powder" listed. Also, fennel is currently so costly at £5/bulb that I omitted it & added one star anise seed instead to give the fennelly flavour.

• Butter bean croustade

  • Tealismyname on August 31, 2024

    Really really yummy and easy. Better suited to fall/winter if using frozen broadbeans.

• Nut roast layered with spinach

  • London_Mummy on January 10, 2026

    This was easy to make & has cooked well, holding together. In the last minute before putting it into the oven, I realised that a hungry teenager had finished all of the cheese in the house, so I did not have 30g for the topping, which was annoying! I substituted nutritional yeast drizzled with oil, which seems to have worked fine. In the last minute before taking it out of the oven, I realised that in the hassle about the cheese, I had forgotten to add the decorative layer of chopped nuts, so I added them late, along with more nutritional yeast & oil. I'm not sure the top layer will stick but I was making it ahead for lunch tomorrow anyway, so perhaps it will all work out when I reheat it?

• Linguine with samphire and herb butter sauce

  • London_Mummy on January 15, 2026

    I never knew I had seven samphire recipes in my books. I do not usually buy samphire because it is so expensive, so I grabbed three bags when it was reduced to clear. This recipe turned out delicious, even though I was tired & made a few mistakes which I had to correct (eg adding "the" knob of butter all at the start instead of "a" knob). I substituted: spring onions for shallots; dill & coriander for tarragon & chervil; wholewheat tagliatelle for linguine. One family member who had said they were not hungry & did not want dinner took a second helping; so did another family member who said they do not like samphire because it just tastes of salt whilst eating their second helping. Haha!

• Penne with asparagus tips and pinenuts

  • London_Mummy on January 01, 2026

    This was a tasty & satisfying recipe, which enabled me to finish the leftover crème frâiche which was languishing in the fridge, showcase some expensive leftover pinenuts, & use up the half-price cherry tomatoes & asparagus which I had bought on New Year's Eve before the supermarket closed for the bank holiday. The mild flavour of the dish allows the flavour of the tomatoes & asparagus to shine through. I had to substitute red onions for shallots & that worked well.

• Pasta with sautéed courgettes and garlic tomatoes

  • Tealismyname on August 31, 2024

    quite simple. Bland for what it was.

• Pea sauce for long pasta

  • e_ballad on February 05, 2021

    Really tasty despite having so few ingredients. I’m not sure that it really needs the 30 min simmering time though, as the peas were well & truly tender much earlier than this.

• Swiss chard omelette

  • Tealismyname on March 08, 2025

    It was okay- just a standard omelet.

• Country-style omelette (Tortilla paisana)

  • London_Mummy on May 14, 2026

    I searched for a recipe to use asparagus, green beans & eggs. It is nice enough but I substituted boiled sweet potatoes for fried white potatoes, to try & make the recipe healthier & to fit with what I had at home, & it has come out sweeter than I would have preferred.

• Egg and spinach koulibiac in a brioche crust

  • London_Mummy on March 21, 2026

    Wow, this wonderful book never lets you down, whatever you do to the recipe. I spontaneously decided to make this because it matched what was in my fridge; but in the last minute I found that a family member had finished absolutely all my plain flour. So, in a flashback to lockdown, I made a mixture of leftover multigrain atta, strong white bread flour & wholemeal spelt, which was what I had. I also substituted active dried yeast, because I hate wasting food & that is what I had. I thought it was doomed to fail because the dough felt so heavy & greasy & hardly rose when proving. It is also a lot of Maths because she says use brioche dough equivalent to 450 g of flour, but her brioche dough recipe is for 285 g! My interest waned, I did not take trouble on a neat presentation & I even forgot to add in the crème frâiche. Despite all that, it tastes very good. I would definitely make it again. With all the correct ingredients & attitude it would be a fabulous dinner party centrepiece.

• Raspberry and coconut polenta cake

  • London_Mummy on November 02, 2025

    This cake came out smaller & more homely than I had expected, but I had to use an 8" tin instead of the prescribed 7", & it is also completely gluten-free. It is a nice, everyday kind of cake & a good step on my journey of using up the 2 kg of polenta which I bought on a special offer!