A Modern Way to Cook: Over 150 quick, smart and flavour-packed recipes for every day

1 unwaxed lemon

½ a bunch of fresh parsley

50g Manchego cheese (see note for vegans (#ulink_369a06cc-727a-5a22-bed3-2c5b7116e85d))

2 wholemeal or seeded tortillas or wraps

a handful of cherry tomatoes

Get all your ingredients together.

Finely slice the spring onions. Put a frying pan on a medium heat, add a little olive oil, the spring onions and smoked paprika, and cook for a couple of minutes, until starting to brown.

Meanwhile, put the white beans into a mixing bowl and mash them with a fork, then roughly chop your red peppers and add half of them to the beans. Grate over the zest of the lemon, then roughly chop the parsley and add half to the bowl. Grate in your Manchego. Once the spring onions are browned, add these too.

Lay a tortilla or wrap on your work surface. Spoon the red pepper mixture all over it, spread it evenly, then top with the other tortilla. Heat a frying pan and toast the quesadilla for a couple of minutes on each side – I do this dry, but you can add a splash of oil if you like your quesadillas crispy. If you find it hard to flip, a plate on top might help.

While the quesadilla is toasting, roughly chop the tomatoes, mix with the remaining peppers and parsley and squeeze in the juice of half the lemon.

Once toasted on both sides, remove the quesadilla from the pan and cut into six pieces. Serve in the middle of the table, with the salsa for spooning over.

Green pea and coconut soup

15 MINUTES

When I am hungry and impatient and I have nothing in the fridge this simple soup is the recipe I turn to.

For a really speedy soup the pan you use is important; a small deep saucepan will mean your soup won’t come to a simmer quickly, so I suggest a deep, wide saucepan. Cast iron is ideal as it conducts the heat evenly, so even though you are cooking quickly it’s less likely that your soup will catch on the bottom. Of course use what you have, but a good deep heavy-bottomed saucepan is a great investment.

If you don’t have spring onions, a normal onion will do fine – you may just need to cook it for a little longer.

SERVES 4–6

a bunch of spring onions

1 teaspoon coconut oil

1kg frozen peas

1 × 400ml tin of coconut milk

1 tablespoon vegetable stock powder, or ½ a stock cube

a bunch of basil or coriander (or a mixture of both)

1 lemon

TO SERVE

extra virgin olive oil

Fill and boil a kettle and get all your ingredients and equipment together. Put a large soup pan, one that has a lid, on a medium heat to warm up.

Chop the spring onions quite finely and put into the pan with the coconut oil. Turn up the heat to its highest and cook for 2 minutes, until softened.

Add the peas to the pan with the coconut milk, the stock powder or cube and 750ml of boiling water, then put a lid on and bring to the boil. Once boiling, simmer, still on a high heat, for 2–3 minutes.

Take off the heat. Add most of the herbs, stalks and all, and the juice of the lemon and use a stick blender to blitz the soup until super-smooth.

Serve ladled into bowls with a little olive oil and the rest of the green herbs.

Pour-over soup

10 MINUTES

This soup is the epitome of quick cooking. Finely sliced vegetables, delicate noodles and flavour-packed aromatics all come together to make a soup that’s ready in the time it takes to boil the kettle. Most of the cooking is done by adding the boiling water from the kettle, so no pans, just a couple of bowls and a bit of chopping.

You can mix and match the veg you use here for variety, but just make sure they are ones that will be edible with very little cooking – greens, finely sliced carrots, grated squash, sliced mushrooms all work well.

This is a great, healthy meal to take to work if that’s your thing; just keep it in the fridge and pour over the hot water at your desk.

SERVES 1

50g thin rice vermicelli (I use brown rice ones)

a small piece of fresh ginger

1 tablespoon creamed coconut

a good spoonful of white miso paste

a splash of sesame oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari

1 star anise

1 spring onion

1 fresh red chilli

a small handful of greens

½ a courgette

a small handful of sugar snap peas

TO SERVE