Cornbread

Ingredients 1 1/2 cups Rachel's Organic Greek yoghurt, 1/2 cup butter,1 cup polenta, 3/4 cup self-raising flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 eggs

2 bell peppers, 100g sweetcorn, 1 small red chilli or 1/2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)

Serves: 5 Preparation: 30 minutes

Cornbread is a fabulous example of mixing the best of both worlds in one dish. Savoury with sweet nuggets of corn and pepper, a little spicy if you like that sort of thing with a fluffy yet grainy texture on the inside and a fabulous toasty crust on the outside. I like this with my Mexican mole soup, or part of a fried breakfast but it can be eaten cool just as a snack on its own. 

1) Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6 and grease a baking tray.

2) Melt the butter in a pan and whisk in the eggs and Greek Yoghurt.

3) Add the polenta, flour, baking powder, bicarb of soda to a bowl and mix thoroughly. Pour the wet ingredients from the pan into the dry ingredients and mix together until a smooth batter is formed.

4) Dice the bell pepper and add, along with the sweetcorn (frozen is fine) to the batter and transfer to the baking tray.

5) Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top begins to turn golden and a skewer in the centre comes out clean. Cornbread can be eaten when cool, but is best toasted on a griddle.

Quorn corn chowder with noodles

Ingredients 1/2 litre vegetable stock, 200g sweetcorn, 1 cup Quorn, 100g noodles, 1 red and 1 green chilli pepper.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 20 minutes

Corn chowder is a thing of beauty - sweet, spicy, light and cheap but nutritionally it really doesn't contain anything that makes a meal. I like to give it a protein kick with some Quorn "chicken" pieces and some noodles to 

1) Finely dice the chilli peppers and add to a pan

2) Add the vegetable stock and sweetcorn and stir through.

3) Simmer for about 5 minutes until the sweetcorn has cooked, strain the sweetcorn from the liquid before blending thoroughly and parsing through a sieve to separate the sweetcorn flesh from the skin.

4) Add the pureed sweetcorn back to the vegetable stock along with some more sweetcorn, the Quorn pieces and the noodles and simmer for 5 minutes.

Broccoli & cheddar potato cakes

Ingredients Broccoli, 1 potato, 200g cheddar, old bread, 1 egg, 1/2 cup sweetcorn

Serves: 6 Preparation: 40 minutes

Comfort food comes in different guises for me. Sometimes it's about something warm and cosy, sometimes it's about something sinful and indulgent which will cheer me out of a funk. And sometimes it's about something quick and satisfying. This recipe falls into the latter category - these potato cakes are so quick to throw together and have a great texture. A crispy outer shell, soft fluffy potato, gooey cheddar and crunchy sweetcorn.

1) Peel and dice the potato and broccoli. I like to use just the florets and save the stem for pasta sauce or a pasta ingredient. Boil the potato for 8 minutes, add the broccoli with 6 minutes to go and the sweetcorn with 2 minutes to go. One pan... less washing up! Strain and set aside

2) Whisk an egg into a shallow bowl and make breadcrumbs in a blender by adding old bread and blitzing. Put the breadcrumbs into a separate shallow bowl.

3) Mash the potato roughly with a fork, or if you prefer, separate it from the broccoli and sweetcorn and mash using a ricer. Stir the ingredients together and grate in the cheese.

4) Form into patties with your hands, then dip in the egg mix and roll in the breadcrumbs.

5) You can deep fry for 1 minute, but I prefer to bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees.

Spinach halloumi & sweetcorn fritters

Ingredients 40g polenta, 20g plain flour, 1 egg, spinach, sweetcorn, halloumi, olive oil (Optional: Rachel's Organic Greek Yoghurt)

Serves: 2 preparation: 10 minutes

Fritters are traditionally a sort of savoury doughnut, but thin like a pancake full of stuff, but like potato cakes - I like to make mine a bit thicker. Sweetcorn and polenta as both a texture and flavour combination are absolutely wonderful but combined with spinach (you know me, anything with spinach is pretty much my food heaven!) and the salty tang of halloumi this makes a great comfort food.
1) Whisk an egg and stir in the flour and polenta.

2) Finely chop the spinach, cut the halloumi into chunks and stir along with the sweetcorn into the flour and polenta. If the texture is a little dry I like to add in a little Greek yoghurt.

3) Form a patty and drop onto a lightly oiled pan. Sizzle for 2-3 minutes on each side then serve.

Sweetcorn soup

Ingredients  200g sweetcorn, 1 pint vegetable stock, sage, leek, Rachel's Organic Greek Yoghurt, olive oil.

Serves: 2 Preparation: 30 minutes


This soup is quite sweet and fresh, a perfect summer soup.


1) Finely dice the leek and 3 or 4 sage leaves, then saute in a tablespoon of olive oil.


2) Add the vegetable stock and sweetcorn and stir through.


3) Simmer for about 5 minutes until the sweetcorn has cooked, strain the sweetcorn from the liquid before blending thoroughly and parsing through a sieve to separate the sweetcorn flesh from the skin.


4) Add the pureed sweetcorn back to the vegetable stock and allow to simmer. If you would prefer a smooth soup, serve as it is - if you would like bit of texture add some more sweetcorn into the soup.


5) I served this with a spoonful of yoghurt stirred through and topped with my leek & cheddar mini muffins as croutons.

Mexican scramble

Ingredients   Eggs, sweetcorn, baby plum   tomatoes, parsley, oregano, Mexican cheese, butter.

1) Whisk 3 eggs and season with a pinch of salt, pepper and oregano.


2) Slice the plum tomatoes and cube the spicy cheese and set aside.


3) Pour the eggs into a frying pan with a knob of butter and stir rapidly. As the eggs begin to form, add the cheese, tomatoes and sweetcorn. Continue to stir until the eggs are fully scrambled.


Serve with polenta fries and freshly chopped parsley.

Sweet chilli soba noodles

Ingredients Soba noodles, broccoli, goji berries, sweetcorn, rice vinegar, garlic, salt, lime, lemon, honey, 2 serrano chillis, 2 birds eye chillis.

1) To make the sweet chilli sauce: deseed and finely dice the chillis then add into a pan with a good splash of rice vinegar, 3 cloves of minced garlic, a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, stirring frequently and then turn down the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens.
Squeeze in some lemon and lime juice to taste.


2) Steam some broccoli florets


3) Drop the soba noodles into into hot water and add a handful of goji berries and sweetcorn. Goji berries taste repulsive when dried, but once they have rehydrated they become sweet and delicious. After 7 minutes strain the water from the noodles and stir in the sweet chilli sauce and broccoli.


Serve!

Pasta salad

Ingredients Pasta, bell peppers, sweetcorn, mayonnaise, grated mozarella  Mayonnaise4 eggs, lemon juice/white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, 1 pint oil (olive or vegetable - I'm using basil today)

1) To make your own mayonnaise - separate 4 egg yolks from the whites (discard the whites) and put in a large clean bowl to whisk (or use the whisk attachment on your blender if you have one). Add the lemon juice/vinegar, salt and pepper and whisk thoroughly, adding the oil ONE DROP at a time until the mayonnaise is thick and glossy. You don't have to use all the oil - I like it quite thick but if it's too thick you can always add a little warm water to thin it back down again.

2) Boil your pasta, adding the sweetcorn right at the end, and then strain in a colander. Run cold water over the pasta to cool it and then squeeze out the excess water.

3) Transfer into a bowl and add diced bell pepper and the grated mozarella, stir through 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise until the pasta is coated evenly.