Vegetable moussaka
A rich layering of lentils, eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms and more, this vegetable moussaka is a winner, or so the boys in the family say. It delivers on its promise as a really delicious vegan meal.
Meat madras, almost
This Madras curry, my cookbook tells me, is a popular hot and spicy dish names after Madras, the major city of southern India. The hot and spicy label is hardly surprising once you read the recipe: it tells us to include at least five chillies! I have to admit using about half the recommended dose of chilli when…
Sunday soup: Our basic minestrone
Minestrone soup is one of those soups that every student would have learned how to cook. It’s tasty, cheap, and you can make enough to feed a household easily. These same features make it ideal for a family with growing teenagers, or to fuel a committed athlete. My Italian cookbook tells me that minestrone is…
A pesto pizza, with eggplant and zuchinni on top
An eggplant and zucchini pizza with pesto as a base? No tomato paste? No mozarella cheese on top? No, none at all. Just a few cherry tomatoes to add a bit of zing. With thanks to La Petite Panière for the inspiration, this pizza is now a family favourite and well worth a try.
Ratatouille
Ratatouille is flavoursome and versatile. Mostly we pair it with Basmati or brown rice for a healthy, vegan main course (until the kids add cheese to theirs!). But it also makes a great snack with polenta rounds or even cucumber slices. I’ve also seen it used in wraps. Really, you can’t go too far past ratatouille as a great all rounder.
Turkish aubergine meatballs
These meatballs are ‘packed with flavour’, according to the kids, and ‘don’t taste like they’re not all meat’ according to my-other. They are fiddly, as are all meatballs, but really, really worth the effort.
Brinjal curry
Brinjal (eggplant) curry, another favourite recipe from our travels in Nepal. You can serve as a meal in its own right, or with daal baht, chilli and other side dishes.
Mermaid's tresses 