Budget Supermarket Pasta

Budget Supermarket Pasta

In Van Life Cookbook authors Danny Jack and Hailee Kukura share a collection of recipes designed to be cooked and enjoyed in the small kitchen spaces of campervans and caravans, or in the great outdoors. They are also budget conscious, and eat a predominantly vegetarian diet. This Budget Supermarket Pasta recipe includes anchovies and cheese, ... Read more »

Menemen: Turkish One-Pan Eggs

Menemen Turkish One-Pan Eggs

Although it’s commonly served for breakfast, Menemen – aka Turkish Eggs – is also excellent as a quick lunch or light evening meal. This one-pan recipe comes from the ‘Van Life Cookbook: Resourceful recipes for life on the road: from small spaces to the great outdoors’ by Danny Jack and Hailee Kukura. This recipe is ... Read more »

Turkish Ezme

Ezme Salad

For many years, ezme has been one of my favourite side dishes when visiting the many Turkish restaurants of North London. A simple cold dish of chopped tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and red peppers with lots of parsley and mint, ezme is the perfect foil to kebabs such as adana kofte, chicken and lamb cis, and ... Read more »

Tomato and Onion Curry

Tomato and Onion Curry

This Tomato and Onion Curry is not like other Indian curries I’ve made; I’m used to recipes where tomatoes are integral to the curry’s base, cooked down to melt into a rich, thick gravy redolent with onion, ginger and spices. But in this wonderfully quick and easy recipe from Urvashi Roe’s Biting Biting, the tomatoes ... Read more »

BBQ Piri Piri Chicken Thighs with Tomato and Onion Salad

Piri Pri Chicken Thighs with Tomato and Onion Salad

In the era of Nando’s – the ubiquitous South African restaurant chain specialising in peri-peri chicken – this fiery chicken recipe has become a favourite across the UK. It’s a dish born of European colonisation and global trade. The Portuguese traded chillies and many other products from the Americas to Europe, and across their colonies ... Read more »

Pork Shoulder Vindaloo

Pork Shoulder Vindaloo

This is a classic pork vindaloo from Eleanor Ford’s The Nutmeg Trail and she describes it as “an assertive, almost pickle-sour braise“. Made from pork shoulder, this recipe brings together ingredients and ideas from three continents. Its roots are in a Portuguese pickled pork dish called carne de vinho e alhos, which melded with the ... Read more »

Dad’s Tibetan Rice

Dad's Tibetan Rice

This recipe for Tibetan Rice, from Taste Tibet: Family Recipes from the Himalayas by Julie Kleeman and Yeshi Jampa, is a speciality of Yeshi’s older father, a dish he makes for lunch every Tibetan New Year. Unlike barley – which grows well in the high mountain climate of the Tibetan plateau – rice must be ... Read more »

Avocado, Mushroom and Tomato Pilaf | Harem Pilav

Harem pilav (avocado, wine and mushroom pilau)

It’s likely this Avocado, Mushroom and Tomato Pilaf recipe from Arto der Haroutunian’s cookbook, Vegetarian Dishes of the Middle East carries influences from French colonialism in the region, given the use of white wine in the recipe. There’s a pleasingly retro vibe to the suggested presentation, and it’s a straightforward recipe for a midweek meal. ... Read more »

Onion, Chilli & Mint Marmalade (Muraba-e-Murch-e-Surkh wa Piaz)

Onion, chilli and mint marmalade

This Onion, Chilli and Mint Marmalade features a hefty kick of chilli that adds extra punch to its rich sweet and savoury flavours. The recipe is from Sally Butcher’s Veggiestan cookbook, now republished as a new edition for its 10th anniversary. It pairs equally well with soft and salty cheeses such as feta or goats cheese, ... Read more »