From Season to Season: A Year in Recipes

1 small handful of sesame seeds

For the dressing

3 tablespoons of sesame oil

1 tablespoon of brown rice vinegar

1 teaspoon of tamari (wheat-free soy sauce)

1 teaspoon of agave syrup or honey

Cook the soba noodles by bringing 2 litres/8 cups of water to the boil, adding the noodles and cooking on low for 6 or so minutes. Drain and cool. When the noodles are cool, put them in the bowl you are planning to serve them in and add all of the vegetables – shredding, grating and thinly slicing.

In a small frying pan, toast the sesame seeds for a minute or so. Add to the noodles. Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together, adjusting according to taste, and pour over the noodles.

Lentil salad with a mustard dressing (#ulink_b1f7199e-3058-55f5-959f-b70ba35495c7)

Lentils are always good things to have in stock, along with chickpeas. You can turn them into a salad or soup on the spot. This is a hearty salad that is also good warm.

SERVES 4

225g/1¼ cups of Puy lentils

2 celery sticks, chopped in fine rounds

A handful of cherry tomatoes, finely chopped

150g/1 cup of feta, crumbled

A small handful of fresh chopped mint

For the dressing

4 tablespoons of olive or rapeseed oil

1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar

2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard

1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped

Salt and pepper

Place the lentils in a pan and add just enough water to cover. Simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes, then drain.

In a serving bowl, mix the lentils with the celery, tomatoes and feta.

Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together, adjusting according to taste. Dress the salad and then toss with the mint.

Beef Stroganoff (#ulink_d4e48c58-4d77-558d-9194-7a7ff7416d92)

I know, I know. Totally from the same school as Chicken Kiev in terms of 80s nostalgia and naffness. But wasn’t it good, particularly if it came in a ready meal? We knew not what we did. I used to beg for Beef Stroganoff as a child. I think, as a worthy vegetarian, it became Quorn Stroganoff and now, somewhere in the middle, the last time I had anything resembling it was a mushroom variety in a pub in Cornwall. Good old retro food.

SERVES 4

1 tablespoon of olive oil or butter, plus extra oil

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

2 handfuls of mushrooms, roughly chopped

500g/1lb 2oz of beef fillet, chopped into strips 1cm/½ inch wide and thick

1 teaspoon of paprika

Juice of ½ a lemon

A splash of vermouth

60ml/¼ cup of sour cream

A handful of fresh chopped parsley

Put a frying pan on a low heat and drop in the oil or butter. Add the onion and garlic and sweat for a few minutes, making sure they don’t brown. Add the mushrooms and cook until they are golden. Put this mixture to the side.

In the same pan, heat a little more oil and add the beef strips, the paprika and the lemon. Toss around. Cook for a minute or so, and then splash on the vermouth. Pour the mushroom and onion mixture back in the pan, cook for another minute but no longer, and then take off the heat and add the sour cream and the parsley. Mix it all together and serve with some simple boiled potatoes or rice.

Autumn Suppers (#ulink_cb85bd2a-4cab-5a19-85c6-431674e25fb0)

Salmon steaks with a wasabi coating (#ulink_7da18ec5-a23a-5134-82dc-e3b91300cc69)

I adore the kick that wasabi gives to anything in its path. Buy it in powder form and add SLOWLY to dressings or mayonnaise, or if anyone you know goes to Japan, get them to bring you back some of the toxic green stuff in a tube.

SERVES 2

2 salmon steaks, about 175g/6oz each

Salt and pepper

For the rice

100g/¾ cup of wild rice

1 large beetroot/beet

1 pomegranate