Spaghetti + broccoli

Sounds dull, doesn’t it? But it’s really, really not. It’s creamy and delicious and also full of goodness and I’ve eaten it two days in a row now.

I made a big bowl of this for lunch the other day to celebrate the beginning of Spring but it would of course also be perfect for a simple supper.

OK, the broccoli also looks weirdly kind of fluorescent against the lime green chopping board! I’ll take some new pics next time I make it.

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To make lunch (or dinner) for one you’ll need:

about 100g of broccoli, chopped

one clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

handful of spaghetti (about 100g)

salt and black pepper

dried chilli flakes (if liked)

Parmesan or Pecorino cheese, grated

Put a pan of water with a big pinch of salt over the heat and cover. While it’s coming to the boil chop the broccoli and when the water’s boiling, add the broccoli and boil on a medium heat for about four minutes.

And while that’s cooking, add a good slosh of olive oil, perhaps a tablespoon, to a non-stick pan and fry the garlic very gently, stirring often. Add a little splash of water from the pasta pan if it even thinks about sticking/burning.

When the broccoli has cooked, remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon and add to the frying pan with a ladle more of the pasta water so it can continue simmering.

Put the spaghetti into the same pan of water that the broccoli was in - it’ll only add more flavour and goodness to cook in the vegetable water. Cook according to pack instructions or to your taste - I did mine on a medium boil for eight minutes.

Keep stirring the simmering broccoli and it’s going to get really nice and soft. After about five minutes season with salt and pepper - and some dried chilli flakes if liked. Also add about half the cheese and stir in .

Drain the pasta when ready and add to the pan - make sure to reserve a little more of the cooking water in case you want to loosen your sauce any more. Stir, add the rest of the cheese and cook for another minute or two.

Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed and voila.

Creamy delicious nutritious broccoli spaghetti.

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Egg-fried cauliflower ‘rice’ with prawns

This is so good. So good.

And it has taken me SO long to get how to make cauli rice delicious!

One tip … make the cauliflower ‘rice’ first as it takes a good half an hour or so.

Or rather it takes that long to make it delicious hehe.

I’ve tried other ways. You know, just stir-frying it- and yes, you can add flavour after of course, but there’s still something kind of wet and insipid about it (in my opinion).

So I started roasting the cauliflower instead (having become a little obsessed with cauliflower ‘steaks’) and this, well I think this is delicious!

Whizz the cauliflower florets up in the food processor until they are rice-like - or couscous-like if you prefer - and then tip them into a baking tray or something where they’ll be in a relatively thin layer.

Add some sprays of oil - I use a coconut oil spray - or a little olive oil, and some salt and pepper and mix it all up and then spread evenly again.

I cooked mine on Gas 7 (medium hot) for 15 minutes, then stirred it all around and gave it another 15 minutes.

It’s personal preference really - I really like it when it’s just starting to turn a little brown, but just test and try and see what you like. You might want to cook yours for a shorter time, or give it a bit more time to brown and crisp even more.

Once done, just leave it somewhere warm while you make the rest of the dish.

Or of course use it straight away as a side dish for something else!

(Like this quick chicken and veg stir fry).

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But to make a prawn fried ‘rice’ for one, you’ll need:

cooking oil

a few slices of onion

a garlic clove, peeled and squashed and minced

1 birds eye chilli, minced (have more or less to your taste, of course)

some red pepper, chopped

about 1/3 of a Knorr chicken (or veg) stock cube

light soy sauce

fish sauce

a little white sugar

a few raw prawns, deveined (you could use ready cooked of course)

one egg

coriander leaves to garnish (if liked) and half a lime to serve

Use a good non-stick pan, add a slosh of cooking oil and when hot add the onion, garlic, chilli and red pepper (yep, the red pepper at the same time, why not? I’ve tried waiting for the ‘aromatics’ to cook a little first and to be honest I don’t think it' makes any difference in a quick dish like this, so the simpler it is, the better).

Stir for a few second until it’s beautiful and fragrant. Make sure the garlic doesn’t burn and add a little slosh of water if it’s looking like sticking.

Then add a slightly bigger slosh of water and crumble in the piece of stock cube and bring to a boil.

Add a slosh each of light soy and fish sauce and add a pinch of sugar.

Stir and then add those lovely prawns and simmer for three minutes or so until they turn from grey to pink and are pretty much cooked.

Add the cauliflower rice and stir until it’s all hot.

There should be very little liquid left in the pan, so if you have a more try to boil some off before now, while you cook the prawns (this assumes you read the recipe in full of course before starting it, which I can’t say I always do!).

Push the whole stir fry to one side of the pan, add a tiny splash more cooking oil and then crack in the egg.

Leave it where it is and count to ten and THEN scramble it all in together and stir until it’s all perfect and the egg cooked through the mixture.

Turn out onto a plate (I pack the mixture into a little bowl and then turn over onto a plate so it keeps that lovely shape) and garnish with fresh coriander leaves if liked and serve with a wedge of lime to squeeze over.

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Courgette leek salad with (possibly) the best dressing ever

This one’s firmly based on a recipe from one of my favourite cookbooks, The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook by Mireille Guiliano.

I love her writing and her recipes but I do usually change them up just a little bit, as with most recipes, as here.

This is the most beautifully simple dish that would be an utterly elegant side dish but I’m on a focused lose-the-lockfown-weight THING so I had this for lunch.

And I’ll be having it again soon. It was DELICIOUS.

The dressing makes enough for two so I have my second portion (this image) in the fridge ready for tomorrow’s amazing salad lunch idea (that I have already).

Honey, mustard, olive oil, lemony dressing = AMAZING.

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To make it the way I did and to make a glorious, sunshine, light, gorgeous, healthy lunch for one, you’ll need:

FOR THE SALAD

2 leeks, cleaned, any tough outer layers removed, most of the green part cut off (use in soup another time) and the white piece remaining cut into a few smaller pieces

1 courgette, washed, peeled if you prefer, cut horizontally into slices and then these halved again

FOR THE DRESSING

2 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp runny honey

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

FOR THE MAKING IT ALL AMAZING

salt and pepper

fresh parmesan cheese, grated into little slices

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Bring a big pan of salted water to the boil, throw in the leeks and boil on a fairly gentle boil for five minutes.

Add the courgettes, bring it back to the boil and give it another two minutes.

Drain and leave to cool.

Make the dressing while the vegetables cool by mixing all the dressing ingredients together in a bowl (to be honest, I started eating it straight from the bowl with a spoon). Obviously taste and adjust the quantities so it’s exactly right for you.

When the vegetables are cool, tip into a bowl and season with salt and pepper to your liking.

Toss and add some of the dressing and toss again.

Taste again!

Crumble or peel or grate on some parmesan cheese.

When it’s perfect, just pile it all up and dig in …. this is SO SO GOOD.

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Summer spaghetti with courgettes

A lot of us probably have a glut of courgettes right now, trying to pick them before they seemingly overnight turn from tiny to marrow-sized monsters!

I like to peel and julienne them and have raw in a spicy Thai-style salad - they have a very similar texture to green papaya so make a great substitute when you’re craving som tam.

And last week at my sister’s in Cornwall (first time out on a train since lockdown! Seeing the sea! Seeing family!) we made a really nice lunch from a recipe I’d been reading (by Letitia Clark) and immediately wanted to try.

As the courgettes were begging to be picked and cooked, it was pretty immediate too.

That recipe is HERE and is a delicious Italian dish of slow-cooked courgettes with mint, chilli and almonds. We had it warm with crusty baguette and my favourite Roquefort cheese.

So when I arrived home a couple of nights later, yes to the sound of those begging courgettes here too, I made a kind of version of this to have with spaghetti.

I am slightly obsessed with very simple pasta recipes this year and this is now a new favourite. Cook the courgettes slowly so they’re a bit mushy and creamy and they are just perfect with the spaghetti and a good grating of fresh parmesan cheese.

Quantities are really up to you as you can make as much as you like, perhaps saving any leftover courgette sauce for lunch the next day, or just because you already know you’re going to be wanting more than one bowl of this summer lushness.

But this is what I used to make enough sauce for two:

olive oil

2 courgettes, washed, sliced lengthways and then into thin horizontal slices

1 clove of garlic, peele and squashed and finely minced (there’s two in this photo but I changed my mind and used on one - you use what feels right for you)

2 anchovies from the jar, with a little of their oil, roughly chopped (optional - just leave out if you don’t have or don’t like)

1 dried red chilli, or just a pinch of dried red chilli flakes

1 big fat spring onion, topped and tailed, any tough outer layer removed, and sliced

zest and juice of half a lemon

fresh mint and/or parsley leaves, chopped

salt and pepper to season

fresh parmesan to grate over

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OK, so firstly, I’m going to ignore the cooking of the spaghetti as I’m sure you’ll get that underway while the courgettes are cooking.

Personally I bring a big saucepan of water to the boil with a pinch of salt and when boiling add the spaghetti, stirring as it folds into the water, and then cook for - I think - ten minutes, maybe 11.

I like to do this alongside the sauce so that if the sauce needs loosening at all I can use a little of the nice hot starchy pasta water to do so.

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Anyway.

Put a good sized non-stick pan over a medium heat, add a slosh of olive oil and then courgettes and garlic and cook, stirring often, for 5-10 minutes until they start to slightly brown in places. Add a slosh of water if it looks like sticking though at any time and take it slowly and gently - maybe reduce that medium heat to a medium-low if that’s feeling more like it for you today.

Throw in the anchovies, reduce the heat to low and stir, stir, stir (gently) for a minute or two until the anchovies do their anchovy trick of just vanishing and leaving behind a full savoury slight saltiness to the dish (without tasting fishy either).

Crumble in the dried chilli and add the spring onion and a little slosh of water and cook for another ten minutes of so on a low heat with the pan covered, stirring every once in a while.

Uncover the pan, stir and taste. Add the lemon zest and juice, and the herbs, stir again and taste again before adding seasoning.

You can cook for a bit longer of course if you’d like your courgettes even creamier and mushier.

You might not need to add salt if you added the anchovies but a good grind of pepper might be good.

Tip the spaghetti into the pan of sauce to make sure it’s thoroughly coated and then put into a bowl and grate over (lots of) fresh parmesan.

So summery, so good and so good for using up those courgettes too!

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