Chinese Congee (Rice Porridge/Soup)

Rice porridge may sound unappealing, but this simple Asian dish is great comfort food and can be taken in a soup flask as a packed lunch. 

Congee is the Mandarin name, Jook in Cantonese, Chok in Thailand, and Cháo in Vietnamese. I regularly had it for breakfast backpacking in Malaysia, Thailand, and Hong Kong.

The classic congee is just rice simmered in water or stock until it breaks down essentially to mush, and flavoured with ginger and soy.

Shredded chicken, minced pork, or egg can be added to the classic congee for protein, but I like to make a plant based version with vegetable stock, tofu, and colourful vegetables.

Serves 2

1 litre vegetable stock

1 cup cooked rice, white rice is traditional but I prefer brown rice

1 tbsp finely grated ginger

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

200g firm tofu, grated

1 large carrot, grated

1 pak choi, thinly sliced 

2 spring onions, finely chopped

Seasonings - chilli oil, sesame oil, chilli flakes, soy sauce, and/or fish sauce to serve

Add the rice, garlic, and ginger to a pan.  Pour over the stock and bring to the boil.

Boil for 5-10 minutes uncovered until the rice is a runny porridge consistence. 

Stir in the tofu, carrot, and pak choi to heat up.

Serve when congee comes back to the boil.  Sprinkle each serving with a chopped spring onion, and season with what ever you have to hand and to your own taste.

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Super Green Flatbreads

@boroughchef has a great recipe for Wild Garlic Flatbreads.  As ever, I've played around with ingredients based on what I have on hand.  The flat breads above were made with wholemeal self raising flour, as it needed using up. I've made them with plain flour and bread flour.  These were made with wild garlic, but I've also used chard, spinach, kale, and watercress.

Makes 4 

120g flour (self raising, plain, bread)
50g wild garlic, spinach, chard, watercress, or kale

80g plain yoghurt, labneh, cottage cheese, ricotta, feta, soured cream, kefir, or creme fraiche

1 tbsp olive oil

Pinch of salt

Liquidise your greens of choice with your dairy of choice plus the olive oil.

Mix the liquidised greens, flour, and salt into a dough.  Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 2-3 minutes until smooth and not sticky.  Add more flour a little at a time if it is very sticky/tacky.  

Divide the dough equally into 4, shape into balls and roll out into a circle as best you can.  My tip is to roll them out then leave for about 30 minutes for the dough to relax, then roll them out a little further, otherwise I find the dough too elastic and it shrinks back to an impractical taco size.

Took cook the wraps, heat a frying pan over a medium high heat.  Carefully drape in one rolled out flatbread and cook for 1 minute until the underside is just starting to brown.  Flip over with tongs or a fish slice and cook the other side for another minute.  Watch your flatbreads carefully.  Thicker flatbreads will take longer to cook, but thinner ones will dry out quicker and crack when they cool and you try to wrap them around any filling.  Wrap the cooked flatbreads in a clean tea towel to keep them warm and moist until you are ready to fill them.

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Curried Bubble & Squeak (Potato Cakes) with Coriander Relish

Got leftover boiled or mashed potatoes, cooked carrots and greens? I thought I'd jazz up Bubble & Squeak with some curry spices and some coriander relish to use up some odd leftovers.

Serves 2

200g potato

Handful of cooked carrot, cabbage, Brussel sprouts etc

1 tsp garam masala or curry powder 

1 tbsp plain or chickpea flour

2 tbsp olive oil for frying

Relish

30g pack of coriander 

1 large garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped

2 cm ginger, roughly chopped

1/2 tsp hot chilli flakes 

2 tbsp dried mint

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar 

1-2 tbsp water

Mash the potato well, before adding in the finely chopped vegetables and spice.  Do not add any oil or butter as you need a stiff mash that you can shape into four 'burgers' and keep their shape.  Add a little flour to the mash if needed to make it stiffer.

Fry the potato cakes in the olive oil in a non-stick pan over a medium high heat for about 5 minutes each side or until golden brown.

Whilst frying the potato cakes, whizz together all the relish ingredients until you have a pourable, double cream-like, consistency. Add more water and vinegar if needed to get a pourable relish.

Dip the potato cakes into the relish or pour over.

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Cheats Nduja (Spicy Italian Pork Paté)

Unusually, I came across a recipe for a vegan nduja and made a meat version, as quite often I find myself making vegan versions of meat recipes.  We're not vegans, but meat has become a weekend treat. So as today is Saturday I made this Nduja pasta sauce.

Nduja is a fiery spreadable salami made with Calabrian chilli peppers.  There weren't any Calabria chills in Asda in Eastleigh in Hampshire, so I used the remnants of some Chipotle paste I had plus some hot chilli flakes.  I think I will stick to hot chilli flakes in future as they are easier to find.

Serves 6 with 500g dried pasta

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

500g higher welfare pork mince

2 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 large garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped

1 tsp red wine vinegar

100g roasted red peppers, keeping the liquid

1-2 tsp chilli powder or flakes, to taste (it is supposed to be fiery!)

In a frying pan, fry the pork mince in the olive oil over a medium high heat until browned.

Stir in the paprika, fennel seeds, and garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.

Add the red wine vinegar, stir around and then the peppers.  Stir then turn off the heat to cool for a 10+ minutes.

When cool enough run through a food processor, adding the reserved roasted pepper liquid if required, to make a spreadable paste.

Serve over pasta (a mug of pasta water helps make the 'nduja into more of a sauce), on toast or canapés.

Keep in the fridge for 3 days, or freeze in portions.

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Chicken, Sweetcorn, & Egg Noodle Soup

A quick filling soup made with leftover cooked chicken (or Christmas turkey). Vegetarian and vegan alternatives are detailed at the end of the recipe

Serves 4

3 litres chicken stock

3 nests rice noodles 

340g tin of sweetcorn or 1 mug frozen sweetcorn

2cm root ginger

1 large garlic clove

300g shredded cooked chicken

1 egg, beaten 

4 spring onions, chopped

Sesame oil

Chilli Oil

Liquidise the sweetcorn, ginger, and garlic with the water from the tin, or some warm chicken stock to thaw the frozen sweetcorn.

Bring the chicken stock to the boil. Add the liquidised sweetcorn and the noodle nests.  Cover, bring back to the boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions. I used Aldi Brown Rice Noodles which say take 5-10 minutes to cook, and in the end took 7 minutes.

Stir in the shredded chicken, turn up the heat a little, and bring back to the boil.  When bubbling, dribble over the beaten egg.  Leave for a minute for the egg to cook in the hot soup then divide into four bowls.  

Sprinkle a chopped spring onion over each bowl and drizzle with sesame oil and chilli oil to serve.

A vegetarian version can be made with vegetable stock and grated firm tofu instead of chicken.  And a vegan version can be made with vegetable stock, tofu, and 2 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp cold water stirred in instead of egg to thicken the soup a little. 

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Easy Aloo Gobi, Indian Potato & Cauliflower with Green Lentils

Most Indian recipes call for a long list of spices.  We do have these, but I thought I'd make an easy Aloo Gobi with a ready mixed spice blend. I used a spice mix called Chaat Masala as it needed using up (and goes well with potatoes - see Yotam Ottolenghi's Chaat Masala Potatoes), but Garam Masala, or even curry powder would work well.

I also added a tin of green lentils, and some ground flax seeds, for more fibre and to thicken the dish a little.

500g salad or all round potatoes

2 tbsp light olive oil

1 small cauliflower

1 small onion

1 large clove of garlic

1 tbsp chaat masala or garam masala, or 1 tsp hot curry powder

1 can green lentils, including liquid 

1 mug frozen peas

3 tbsp ground flax seeds

Turn the a medium heat on under the olive oil in a large sauté pan and start chopping the potatoes into bite sized piece.  Place the potatoes cut size down in the pan as you cut them.

Once potatoes are all cut and frying gently, cut the cauliflower into similar sized pieces to the potato.  

When you can smell fried potatoes, turn the potatoes over with a slice, make a clearing in the middle of the pan and add the cauliflower.  Cover with a lid whilst you peel and thinly slice the onion.

Flip over the cauliflower and potatoes when you have sliced the onion. Mix the cauliflower into the potatoes and make a clearing in the middle of the pan for the sliced onion. Put the lid back on until the garlic is peeled, sliced and ready to go into the middle of the pan.

Whilst the onion is frying (don't worry if there not much oil left in the pan - browning adds flavour!), sprinkle over your chosen spice and stir every thing together.

Pour in the cooked lentils and their liquid, and another can of water from the tap.  Cover and bring to the boil.

Once boiling add the frozen peas and the ground flax seeds.  Bring to the boil again, this time without the lid.  Once boiling, set a timer for 5 minutes to make sure the potato is cooked (You should be able to push a for into a piece without it feeling hard like uncooked potato. If it crumbles it is definitely cooked!), to cook the peas, and dry the dish out a little.

Serve with chutney and/or extra chilli if wanted.

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Jamie Oliver's Creamy Mushroom Soup

I make Jamie Oliver's Creamy Mushroom Soup every few weeks, and although I know most recipes by heart that I cook regularly, this one I cannot.   So in fear that one day Jamie's recipe will vanish from his website I will copy it here.

600g mushrooms

1 onion

2 sticks of celery 

3 cloves of garlic

a few sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley

a few sprigs of fresh thyme

1 tbsp olive oil

1.5 litres organic chicken or vegetable stock

75 ml single cream

Brush the mushrooms clean if required and tear into pieces.

Peel and finely slice the onion, celery and garlic, then pick the parsley, finely chopping the stalks. Pick the thyme leaves.

Heat a splash of olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the onion, celery, garlic, parsley stalks, thyme leaves and mushrooms, pop the lid on and cook gently until softened.

Pour the stock into the pan and bring to the boil over a medium heat, turn the heat down to low and simmer for 15 minutes.

Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper, then whiz with a stick blender until smooth.

Pour in the cream, bring just back to the boil, then turn off the heat.

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Samosa Potato Salad

Digging up over a kilo of salad potatoes, and having a vegetable samosa for lunch from a family butcher, gave me the idea of a samosa potato salad. OH thought it a bit dry to have for lunch at work, so I added a cashew and tamarind cream. It is ideal for a packed lunch as nothing in it needs to be kept cold.  And for those following Zoe Health, the plant count is over 20, with 10 in the garam masala alone!

Serves 4

Samosa Potato Salad

1kg cooked salad potatoes

1 tbsp light olive oil

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

2 medium carrots, grated

200g frozen peas

100ml recently boiled water

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp garam masala

2 tbsp mixed seeds (optional)

Cashew & Tamarind Cream

50g cashews

100ml recently boiled water

1 tbsp tamarind sauce or lemon juice

1 small garlic clove

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Boil the salad potatoes whole for 10-20 minutes, drain, and leave to cool.

Fry the onion in the light olive oil a large saute pan over a medium heat until golden brown.

Stir in the garlic and grated carrot and fry for a few minutes.  

Add the peas and hot water.

Simmer gently whilst you cut the potatoes into bite sized pieces into the pan.  Sprinkle over the seeds if using and mix well.

If making cashew cream, soak the cashews In 100ml boiling water. Once cool enough to handle, place all the cashew cream ingredients into liquidiser cup and blend until smooth and pourable like single cream.

Serve hot or cold.

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Mediterranean Rice

OH came up with this dish whilst cooking in the cramped static caravan in the south of France, and with the limited supplies in the small campsite shop (we had sweetcorn instead of yellow pepper, and he mistakenly picked up tuna in tomato sauce) 

Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and diced 
1 large clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 cans tuna chunks in oil
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and diced 
1 beef tomato, diced 
500g cooked rice (we could only find rice in sachets, which only took 12 minutes to cook)

Chilli powder (optional)

Soften the onion, pepper, and garlic in a large saucepan in either olive oil or the oil from one of the tuna cans.

When the onion is translucent, add the chopped tomato and cook gently until it starts to soften.
Stir in the tuna and rice and heat to piping hot. 

Serve with chilli powder if desired 

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Suzie Lee's Beef Fried Rice

Stumbled across Suzie Lee's (winner of BBC’s Best Home Cook 2020) recipes on iplayer on a quiet Friday night in.  Last night I made her Beef Fried Rice recipe, which went down a treat with my teens. Below is the recipe copy & pasted from the BBC website

Serves 4

4 eggs
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
40g of ginger
2 carrots
1 courgette (pak choi, peas, or edamame beans)
500g lean beef mince
500g cold cooked basmati rice
3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 Spring onions to garnish
Pinch of white pepper
Vegetable oil

Start by chopping the onion. Peel ginger and mince garlic cloves. Peel the carrots and take the ends off the courgette. Slice spring onions for garnish and set to the side.

Heat a large deep pan or wok and fry off beef mince without adding any oil. Break the mince up in the pan with a wooden spoon or spatula so that it breaks into smaller pieces and cooks evenly. Add a tbsp of soy sauce and white pepper to the mince to season. When the mince is cooked, remove from the pan and place to one side.

In the same pan add some vegetable oil. Beat the eggs together in a bowl or jug. Add the eggs to the pan and cook them like an omelette, until you have a cooked ‘disc’ of egg. Be careful not to overcook the egg, slightly under is better than over. When the egg is cooked take it out of the pan and put to one side.

Add enough oil to the pan to coat it. Grate in the peeled ginger and add minced garlic. When you can smell the aromatics, add the onion and grate in carrots and courgette. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring them round until they soften and the liquid evaporates

Make sure the pan is on a high heat and make room in the pan for the cold rice. Add the rice to the pan and stir through. Add 2 tbsp of soy sauce and add the mince back to the pan. Pour the sesame oil in, making sure it hits the metal of the pan to release the flavour. Season with white pepper. Add the oyster sauce and stir through before returning cooked egg to the pan. Mix everything through thoroughly, breaking up the egg as you go. 

Garnish with spring onions.

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Cauliflower Korma Soup

Inspired by The Doctor's Kitchen Masala Cauliflower Soup, and the many @Zoe and @mob bean based recipes I realised my own Cauliflower Korma recipe would make a very tasty soup.  

On a damp February day it is both filling and warming, and contains 16+ plants.

3 tbsp coconut oil

1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped

2.5cm ginger root, roughly chopped

5 garlic cloves, peeled and halved

500g cauliflower florets, leaves or stalk roughly chopped

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp ground coriander

1/8-1/4 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp garam masala

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin coconut milk

100g almonds or cashew nuts

1 litre recently boiled water

2 vegetable stock cubes 

Salt & pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a heavy based pan over a medium high heat, and fry the onion pieces until until they start to brown.

Stir in the dry spices, and then the rest of the ingredients. Cover and bring to the boil. Turn down and simmer for 20 minutes.

Liquidise and serve.

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Vegan Curried Parsnip Soup

During Veganuary a few years ago, I came up with the bright idea of adding cashews (or white beans if you have a nut allergy) to my 'normal' curried parsnip soup rather than dairy cream. This is now my new 'normal'. 

Makes 4 large bowls

200g parsnips

50g carrots

250g white potatoes

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 fat garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped

1 tsp medium curry powder

1 tsp garam masala

25g unsalted cashew nuts, or a can of white beans

1 litre recently boiled water

2 vegetable stock cubes 

Scrub the root vegetables with a vegetable brush, trim, roughly chop, but there is no need to peel.

Fry the onion in the soup pan with the vegetable oil over a medium heat until it starts to turn a golden colour.

Stir the ground spices into the onion, then stir in chopped root vegetables, and add the rest of the ingredients. If you want a more presentable soup, you can keep the cashews aside soaking in 100ml of the boiled water.  Liquidise the cashews and water separately to make a cashew cream, and swirl this into the liquidised soup before serving.

Cover and bring to the boil. Once boiling, keep the lid on and turn down to a simmer for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, take off the heat and liquidise.

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Pastina, Simple Italian Vegetable & Pasta Soup

Maybe because I've been under the weather, but a lot of Pastina recipes have popped up on social media over the last week.

Pastina literally means 'tiny pasta', but seems to have come to mean a simple restorative soup of liquidised vegetables with soup pasta. I'm guessing Italian nonnas would have grated or finely diced the vegetables rather than reached for the liquidiser?

Serves 4

1.5L good quality chicken or vegetable stock

1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped or finely diced

1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped or finely diced

1 large stick of celery, roughly chopped or finely diced

100g orzo or soup pasta

Simmer the vegetables in the stock in a covered saucepan for 20 minutes.  

Liquidise the soup and vegetables if this is your preference.  Add the soup pasta and simmer for the cooking time on the packet, until tender.  Stir from time to time to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pan.

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Courgette or Marrow Soup

Second half of my overgrown courgette found it's way into Riverford's Marrow, Potato & Sage Soup. To be honest it's a little bland for my tastes but that's marrow for you.

Serves 4

1 onion, peeled & roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled & roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
750g marrow, peeled & cut into chunks
250g white potatoes, roughly chopped
4 fresh sage leaves
1 litre veg or chicken stock
100ml single cream or vegan cream (I made cashew cream)
Salt and pepper.to season 

Heat the oil in a saucepan over a high heat and sizzle the sage leaves until crispy.

Add the onion and turn down to the heat to medium to soften rather than brown the onion.

Stir in the marrow, potato and garlic.  Cover and sweat over a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Add the stock, cover and bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer for 20-30 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

Pour in the cream and liquidise with a stick blender.

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Air Fryer Courgette Scarpaccia (Baked Courgette Pancake)

I have a new (secondhand) small air fryer, and a single courgette harvest from the allotment.  So let's try a air fryer Courgette Scarpaccia (kind of baked courgette pancake) for one.

Serves 1

1 small courgette, very thinly sliced

1/4 of a red onion, finely sliced

50g wheat flour (I used gram flour as I prefer it)

15g parmesan, freshly grated

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

Sprinkle a large pinch of salt over the courgette, mix well, and leave for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, mix courgette, onion, flour, parmesan, lots of black pepper and combine well. The mixture will be more of a paste than a loose batter. 

Grease the air fryer liner (I squished a slightly too big silicone sandwich tin into mine - will be ordering air fryer liners next) with a little olive oil and spread mixture with oiled hands our evenly. Top with a drizzle of oil, a little more grated parmesan, and more black pepper.

Bake at 200C for 10-15 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Eat as a light lunch, snack, or with an aperitivo.

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Gluten Free Lentil & Spinach Pancakes

I've seen a lot of posts on Instagram for lentil wraps and vegetable pancakes, so I thought I'd combine the both, as I have something of a chard glut at the allotment.

I didn't soak my lentils as long as many recommend, which may explain why they were not as flexible as those in reels. I also put a teaspoon of dry garlic chutney (garlic, chilli, fenugreek, mustard, cumin, coriander, sesame, turmeric, asafoetida, & mango powder) into the mixture, and ate the wraps like Indian roti canai.

Makes 4 

100g red lentils

250ml water

100g spinach, chard, or kale

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp dry garlic chutney (optional)

Soak the lentils in the water for a minimum of 4 hours

After soaking, whizz up with the rest of the ingredients until smooth.

Heat a non stick frying pan or pancake pan with a drizzle of olive oil.  Pour in about 1/4 of the mixture and spread out to to round pancake shape with a spatula. 

Cook for 1-2 minutes each side.

Use as wraps (if flexible enough), eat with a curry, or just as snack on their own.

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Gluten Free Vegan Curried Vegetable Pancakes

We've gone pancake mad this Shrove Tuesday. Kids made sweet pancakes, OH made savoury pancakes with cheddar and chorizo, and today I've made Curried Vegetable Pancakes based on my Asian Vegetable Pancakes.

As the gram flour can be a little bitter, I made a quick Coconut Chutney to go with these.

Serves 4, as a light lunch

Pancakes

180g gram flour
350ml water
1 tsp salt
Thinly sliced, grated vegetables; 1 carrot, 1 small onion,  quarter cabbage (I used homegrown brussel sprouts)
1 tsp medium curry powder, or 1 tbsp garam masala, or 1 tbsp curry paste
Vegetable oil for frying

Coconut Chutney

100g desiccated coconut

100g cashew nuts

4 tbsp tamarind paste

1 tbsp mustard oil

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

1cm ginger root

100ml water or as required

Whisk the flour and water in a large mixing bowl. 

Finely slice and/or grate the vegetables, and mix well into the batter.  It should look like the vegetables are lightly coated in batter, rather than swimming in it.

Leave the veggies to rest in the batter whilst you make the Coconut Chutney if using.  Liquidise all the chutney ingredients, adding enough water to make a thick but pourable 'chutney'.

Heat a non stick frying pan over a medium high heat, greasing with about 1 tsp vegetable oil. 

Add 1/4 of the mixture and flatten out in the pan.  Fry for a few minutes until golden brown. Flip over with a fish slice and fry the other side till golden brown too.  

Remove to a warm plate and continue to fry the next three pancakes one after the other (unless you have more frying pans).

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Christmas Minestrone

Hope it's not too late to save the cooking liquid from your Boxing Day ham? My Christmas Minestrone is made with ham stock (cooking liquid), leftover ham (or turkey, or pigs in blankets), Brussel sprouts (or cabbage).

Makes 4 hearty servings

1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced 
1 large stick of celery, diced

1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed 
100g leftover chopped ham, turkey, or pigs in blankets
1 can of tomatoes
1 can of beans (haricot, cannellini, kidney, whatever)
1 litre ham stock or chicken stock
2 heaped handfuls of finely sliced Brussels sprouts, cabbage, spring greens, kale, or spring greens
1 handful small pasta or macaroni
1 tbsp olive oil for frying
2 bay leaves (optional)

Parmesan or extra mature cheddar for serving

Fry the onion, carrot, and celery in the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. When slightly coloured add the chopped meat.  Stir and put the lid on for a few minutes to let the vegetables sweat. 

Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on.  Stir from time to time to ensure the pasta is not sticking to the bottom of the pan

My mum always used to say that this soup was better the day after, as the flavours seemed to develop more, but I am never organised enough to do this nor have enough space in the fridge to keep it cool overnight. 

Serve with a grating of parmesan or extra mature cheddar.

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Red Cabbage Coleslaw

It's Christmas Eve, and with poor communication, we have ended up with 3 red cabbages.  Three quarters of the largest (about 1.5kg!) has been braised to have with our Christmas Day pork. A small one past it's best has been made into sauerkraut (recipe to follow), and another large quarter has been made into my favourite coleslaw.

500g thinly sliced red cabbage

1 large carrot, grated

1 medium onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced

3-4 heaped dessertspoons greek yoghurt

1 levelish dessertspoon Dijon mustard

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

Simply mix together all the ingredients, seasoning to taste.  The longer you can leave this before eating, the flavours develop more. But it is still great straight after mixing. Not sure it tastes different to coleslaw made with green or white cabbage, but I think it looks nicer!

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Jamie Oliver's Sweet Leek Carbonara

This Sweet Leek Carbonara is as simple as it sounds. I have copied and pasted the recipe from Jamie Oliver's website below, plus my own notes. It can be easily veganised (see the end of the recipe)

“My veggie twist on a classic carbonara champions incredibly sweet leeks, thyme and plenty of cracked black pepper. It’s well worth slow-cooking the leeks here – leave them to gently tick away while you get on with other things. ”

Serves 4 

Cooks in 50 minutes

Not too tricky

2 large leeks

4 cloves of garlic (I added this grated finely to the egg as we like it strong)

4 sprigs of fresh thyme (optional)

1 knob of unsalted butter (optional)

olive oil

300 g dried spaghetti (i used 400g wholemeal pasta)

50 g Parmesan or pecorino cheese, plus extra to serve (I used 75g of parmesan & mature cheddar)

1 large egg

Trim, wash and finely slice the leeks. Peel and finely slice the garlic and pick the thyme leaves, then place in a large casserole pan on a medium heat with the butter and 1 tablespoon of oil.

Once sizzling, stir in the leeks and 400ml of water, then cover and simmer gently over a low heat for 40 minutes, or until sweet and soft, stirring occasionally. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

When the leeks are almost done, cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions, then drain, reserving a mugful of starchy cooking water.

Toss the drained pasta into the leek pan, then remove from the heat and wait 2 minutes for the pan to cool slightly while you finely grate the cheese and beat it with the egg (if the pan’s too hot, it’ll scramble; get it right and it’ll be smooth, silky and deliciously elegant).

Loosen the egg mixture with a splash of reserved cooking water, then pour over the pasta, tossing vigorously (the egg will cook in the residual heat).

Season to absolute perfection, going a little OTT on the pepper. Adjust the consistency with extra cooking water, if needed, and finish with a little stroke of cheese. Fantastic served with a glass of cold Italian white wine.

FREEZER STASH

Often I triple the leek base and freeze it for quick cooking another day.

GO VEGGIE

Swap Parmesan for vegetarian hard cheese.

GO VEGAN (Leesa's notes)

Swap the cheese and egg for cashew cream, and nutritional yeast if you have it

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