Notes about Recipes in this book

• Blinis with soured cream and roasted peppers

  • Hannaha100 on December 25, 2016

    Made these for brunch (with different toppings) - a great success! We made smaller versions - tbsp measures were the right size for us. Homemade buckwheat flour is super easy and sounds more impressive than it is, a useful trick! Forgot to say we did these with sweetened soy milk and skipped the extra sugar to make dairy-free.

• Fried halloumi with lemon and capers

  • Hannaha100 on October 02, 2016

    Healthwise, this has no redeeming features at all so I served with grains & greens out of guilt. This was super quick and easy, and delicious as all fried foods are. The lemon dressing gave the whole thing a "fish and chips" feel. Husband liked the subtlety of chilli in the coating. Would make an excellent dinner-party starter or Sunday lunch alternative (with all the trimmings). Saving this one! Update: I've just noticed that this is suspiciously similar to a Delia recipe for Halloumi with lime and capers - may try that version too.

• Coronation chick peas and potato salad

  • monicahorridge on July 02, 2012

    a bit more of a potato salad than I was expecting, but a very yummy one at that. I think the chick peas would also work well on their own, without the potato. It's important to use a nice curry paste. I used makhani curry paste from waitrose and it was perfect.

  • KCKB on April 13, 2024

    Made a modified version of this - very tasty! I had curry powder instead of paste, and I was using up some leftover potatoes rather than cooking new potatoes from scratch, but it turned out great. I’ve never tasted coronation chicken salad to compare it with, but this was quick and easy to make, and it will work as a sandwich filling as well as a stand-alone salad.

• Asparagus, potato and fennel salad with Italian dressing

  • Pinkrupee on August 07, 2023

    We found this much too sharp for our taste, and as the oregano wasn't chopped you occasionally find yourself chewing on something that feels like cotton wool. I have to say, however, that otherwise the recipes in this book are nearly always exceptionally delicious.

• Beetroot tart

  • Hannaha100 on December 18, 2016

    This was just OK. On the plus side, very quick and easy to put together. Pine nuts were lovely. However, something missing. Maybe some spice or vinegar to passata for depth of flavour?

• Linguine with potato and pesto

  • Hannaha100 on May 07, 2020

    Simon Rimmer makes great comfort food but this was a bit of a letdown. Admittedly I swapped the mascarpone for vegan cream cheese (half the amount stated because it seemed excessive) and in hindsight it didn't really work, I wish I'd left it as just pesto (I used shop bought). The potatoes were admittedly delicious and I would make again like this (pan-fried in cubes) but I didn't feel they added much to the dish. I think I just prefer my pesto pasta with green veg. Having said this, the baby literally licked her bowl clean - a bit of a carb fiend.

• Goat's cheese cannelloni with cherry tomatoes

  • RosieB on October 20, 2016

    These were good but I took the precaution of adding tomato passata to the base of the fish and the top of the cannelloni to make sure there was sufficient to keep the pasta moist during cooking. It needed it. Next time I would do one and a half recipe as it was not really enough to feed husband and two hungry sons. The finished dish was really tasty.

• Moroccan spaghetti

  • Astrid5555 on November 19, 2012

    Combines healthy chickpeas with spaghetti. Excellent and well liked by the whole family.

• Italian bean casserole

  • Hannaha100 on October 06, 2016

    Made without the arancini. Delicious and vegan, great for colder nights. Recipe says serves 6-8. I doubt it would feed 8. Was very grateful for my food processor, made this a very easy recipe, would have been quite a lot of chopping otherwise. May look for a can of mixed beans next time, as I now have two partially used tins open.

• Black bean and aubergine chilli

  • Hannaha100 on July 08, 2020

    This was a but of a risky choice as my family aren't too keen on aubergine. Uses quite a bit of oil so not the healthiest option but I thought the way the aubergine melted into the tomato was tasty. Husband cleared two plates so can't have hated it. M1 was intrigued when I told her there was chocolate in it but disappointed that she couldn't see it. She did eat the aubergine and rice though. M2 didn't appear overly keen but we had leftovers from lunch that she polished off instead. Not sure this was enough of a hit to repeat.

• Ojja with sweet potato and okra

  • monicahorridge on May 15, 2012

    This was really tasty, different from what I'd usually cook. Enjoyed it a lot.

• Caramelised onion and mustard tart

  • Hannaha100 on October 17, 2016

    Used soy cream to make it dairy free (only single seemed to be available but worked fine). This tart got good reviews from my husband and went down well with baby too. Leftovers were good the next day.

  • shoffmann on March 20, 2018

    This just didn't really work. I had to put about twice as much milk as the recipe called for to get the pastry dough to come together. The onions gave the filling an odd texture, and it overall just felt like it was missing something... acid maybe? Will not be repeating.

• Celeriac and potato dauphinoise

  • Pinkrupee on October 03, 2024

    This is my go-to Dauphinoise recipe. It always works, it's completely indulgent and tastes absolutely fabulous.

• Honeycomb ice cream

  • kateastoria on December 19, 2018

    Honeycomb is inedible, way too much bicarb judging by the terrible aftertaste. US edition has to have a typo

• More chocolate than is good for you

  • Hannaha100 on November 10, 2017

    This is essentially a chocolate cheesecake. Tasty and fairly easy to make. I only had an 8.5“ springform and that worked well. This tested the limits of my food processor and really could do with reducing in size. I imagine it would be a crowd pleaser. Extremely rich so would easily serve 12 as stated. I also found it a bit one-note so not quite a 5* for me.