Simple Summer Salads

London is heating up and what could be better than a picnic lunch? Your options are plentiful: a day lazing by the river in Bishop’s Park (Putney Bridge), sitting on striped deck chairs near Buckingham Palace (Hyde Park Corner), or a working lunch watching the tennis or cricket with a glass of chilled pinot grigio…

Mexi Jenga

Green chili mexi-beans with corn fritters  Serves 6 Mexican food is too much fun. It’s fresh, feisty and goes well with tequila. What more can you really ask for? The word on the street is that mexi-parties are springing up all over Sydney (at least according to my trendy buddy Gabs) and this little feast…

French Lentils with Ginger and Fragrant Spices

Lentilles du Puy, or French lentils, are a smaller, rounder variety of lentils that take slightly longer to cook. Because they hold their shape so well, these snazzy little guys are the perfect addition to a salad, slow cooked meal, or a more textural soup. I can honestly say I’ve never seen a recipe that combines fresh…

Sour Cherry Chocolate Brownies

  It’s finally time to fall off the health-wagon and indulge in some chocolate brownies. Congratulations to those who have embraced chick-peas, lentils…now‘s the time to be rewarded! Personally I am a fan of bitter cocoa brownies, rather than ones made with melted chocolate. To me they taste richer and more like the dark, 85%…

Sunday Sudanese Lentils

My big brother is an archaeologist and gets to visit some pretty interesting places. A couple of years ago he was working in Sudan, and when he came to visit us last Christmas he brought home some culinary secrets. I’d never cooked with red lentils until he showed us what they’d eat on the dig,…

Vegetarian Lasagne from Dalton HQ

My poor mother married a vegetarian and then later down the line watched as her seven year old son was converted to cheese burgers sans the meat patty…twenty years on and my sister and I have also gone to the dark side and now that 80% of Dalton HQ are vegetarians, this recipe is a…

Chickpea Ratatouille with Baked Sweet Potato

This is one of my favourite chickpea dishes, formulated in my economical student days living in Newtown. Originally called Chickpea Jumble, I think the name Ratatouille adds a bit of class. Humble chickpeas are chock-a-block full of iron and protein and are also very inexpensive. An average can of peas doesn’t cost more than $1.50,…