Beetroot, carrot & feta salad

Ingredients Garlic, walnuts, olive oil, 1 carrot, 1 beetroot, 150g feta, poppy seeds, 1 clementine

Preparation: 15 minutes

This stunning salad, using my walnut & garlic paste, is a complex mix of flavours and textures but the juicy carrot and beetroot, the tangy rich feta and the savoury garlic marry together beautifully. A wonderful quick lunch for one or a great side dish to share.

1) Peel and grate the beetroot and carrot, zest the clementine and squeeze in a little of the juice. Stir through and set aside.

2) Cut the feta into cubes and roll in a dish of poppy seeds.

3) Stir a tablespoon of walnut paste into the carrot and beetroot mix, then serve with the feta.

Roast garlic & walnut paste

Ingredients 3 bulbs garlic, 200g walnuts, olive oil.

Preparation: 30 minutes

The ability to produce different flavours from one ingredient merely by cooking it a different way is one of the great joys of cooking for me. Garlic when roasted produces a creamy, almost sweet puree and it is that which forms the basis of this luscious paste which I'm going to feature in a number of recipes in the coming weeks.

1) Roast the garlic in the oven for 20 minutes, then squeeze out the jelly-like cloves from the skin. Crush through a garlic press to release the pureed garlic.

2) Finely chop the walnuts or pulse in a blender and add to the garlic. Stir through a good glug of olive oil, season and set aside. I like to keep it in a kilner jar in the fridge.

Goats cheese, fig & walnut bites

Ingredients Goat's cheese, fig, walnuts

Preparation: 5 minutes

The combination of figs, goats cheese and walnuts is no stranger to this blog. from a simple salad to linguine with fig and walnut pesto and crumbled goats cheese, it's a holy trinity of vegetarian perfection. In honour of the glorious British Summer, I give you this picnic treat.

1) Slice the figs and halve each slice.

2) If your goats cheese has a rind, peel this away, then poke a hollow into the goats cheese with your thumb, press the fig into it and roll the goats cheese around it in the palm of your hand.

3) Finely chop the walnuts (or pulse in the blender if your knife skills are not so strong) then roll the goats cheese balls in the walnuts until they are coated in the crispness. Serve!

Spinach & ricotta cheesecake

Ingredients 400g spinach, 75g ricotta, 30g walnuts, 1/4 nutmeg, 10g parmigiano, 3 eggs

Serves: 2 Preparation: 30 minutes

Spinach and ricotta, when done well is a marvellous combination. Without the addition of freshly grated nutmeg, cheese, or the contrast of a piquant tomato sauce or juicy vegetables it can be a little bit bland though, even for a spinach freak like me. This juicy little cake (I suppose one could consider it an incredibly lazy souffle) is marvellous for lunch with salad, or could be served with sides as the protein part of an evening meal.

1) Blitz the spinach in a blender and add the ricotta, freshly grated nutmeg, finely chopped walnuts and parmeggian.

2) Whisk the eggs in a bowl and stir the spinach and ricotta mixture into the eggs.

3) Spoon into lightly buttered ramekins and bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

By buttering the ramekins they will slide effortlessly out but be careful not to burn yourself!

Pasta with lamb & mint pesto

Ingredients Linguine, 400g lamb mince, 20g mint, 5g parsley, 5g pea shoots, olive oil, 1 garlic clove, lemon, 2 tbsp parmigiano, 5g walnuts.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 20 minutes

First of all, apologies for the dreadful quality of the photo but I had no light due to Impending Construction Of New Kitchen. You'll also notice that I have controversially used pasta shells instead of a linguine... this is again due to Kitchen mayhem - I was using up what little stocks I had left!
Despite the tragic image before you, I can assure you that mint pesto tastes incredible, and that it's the perfect partner for lamb mince.
Despite being fanatical about preparing pesto properly (in a mortar and pestle), I have no compunctions about getting creative with it. I've shared recipes for pistachio pesto, olive pesto, pistou (almond), sage pesto and walnut pesto... so it was only a matter of time before the mint came out. Give it a try!

1) Put the pasta on to boil in hot salted water for 10 minutes and strain.

2) To make the pesto - add the mint, parsley and pea shoot leaves to a mortar and pestle and grind to a fine pulp. Add a crushed garlic clove to the mortar bowl along with a pinch of salt and the chopped walnuts. Grind thoroughly, adding a squeeze of lemon juice, olive oil and the parmeggian.

3) Fry off the mince and drain away the fat, toss with the pasta and mint pesto and serve.

Stilton & walnut scones

Ingredients  225g self raising flour, 50g butter, 75ml buttermilk, Stilton, 5 walnuts.

Serves: 8 preparation: 30

I confess, I have never before enjoyed a cheese scone. It is something I would never order in a cafe by choice - often greasy and pungent with crispy bits of cheese on the top. *shudders* then I started to think that it was impacting my reputation for being a cheese whore in a thoroughly negative manner. The result of my experimentations are these buttery, crumbly scones which are rich in flavour (perfect with a little cream cheese and honey) with not a crusty or greasy bit in sight!

1) First finely dice the walnut until it resembles fine crumbs, and crumble the stilton.

2) Sift the flour, walnut and sugar together, then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

3) Mix the cheese and double cream in with the dry ingredients until a dough has formed.

4)  Roll out the dough on a floured surface and then fold it in half and roll again. Cut out rounds of pastry with a scalloped cutter and brush with the last drizzles of the milk to help the surface colour.

5) Bake at 200 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Stuffed aubergine canapes

Ingredients Baby aubergine, mozarella pearls, walnuts, basil oil, salt

Preparation: 30 minutes

I love aubergines, they're so versatile and I love to roast them until they're  melt in the mouth perfection. These cute canapes are a good way of using the whole baby aubergine to create two recipes with minimal ingredients.

1) Slice the baby aubergines into three pieces - two with the skin side to stuff with walnuts and one long strip to wrap around mozarella.

2) Sprinkle the aubergines with salt to draw out the bitter juices, set to rest for 5 minutes then rinse under the tap.

3) Set them in an ovenproof dish - skin side down for the outer pieces - and drizzle with basil oil. Roast at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.

4) Finely dice the walnuts and spoon them onto the pieces of aubergine. Wrap the strips of aubergine carefully around the mozarella pearls and then return the aubergine to the oven for a further 3-5 minutes.

Serve warm or cold

Pumpkin & walnut bread

Ingredients  1 1/2 cups wholemeal bread flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 cup/240ml pumpkin, 1/2 cup /240ml   butter, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp allspice, 1/2 tsp   cinnamon, 1/2 cup walnuts. (Optional - 2 cups sugar)

Serves: 12 slices Preparation: 2 hours


At this time of year I go pumpkin crazy, making soup, bread, pasta dishes and pies. I even made pumpkin chips last year but the least said about that the better... this bread can be made sweet or savoury and is equally glorious. It's also something I always make at the same time as pumpkin soup because it only requires a small amount of pumpkin. Waste not want not!


1) Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds and pith with a spoon. Make sure all the stringiness has been removed. Peel away the skin with a chef's knife and cut the flesh into cubes. 


2) Roast in the oven in an ovenproof dish with a lid for 50 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the roast pumpkin and blend until smooth. 


3) Sieve away the excess juice - this, along with the juice in the ovenproof dish should make about a pint of liquid. The liquid remaining from this recipe, along with the rest of the pumpkin puree is perfect for Pumpkin Soup.


4) Sift together the flour, salt, spices, nuts and baking soda. (if you are making sweet pumpking bread, add the sugar at this stage)


5) Melt the butter and mix into 1 cup of the pumpkin puree. Beat in the eggs and 1/4 cup of the pumpkin juice.


6) Combine the wet and dry ingredients, but do not mix too thoroughly. Pour into a loaf tin and bake for 50 minutes at 180 degrees or until a skewer comes out clean.

Carrot & walnut bread

Ingredients 1 carrot, handful of walnuts, 350g plain flour, 150g wholemeal flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 300ml Rachel's Organic Greek yoghurt, 125ml milk.

Serves: 8 Preparation: 2 hours

This is one of my favourite breads - it's light and rich with flavour, makes amazingly crunchy toast and goes absolutely perfectly with my pumpkin soup.


1) Mix the flours together and add the salt and bicarbonate of soda.


2) Grate the carrot and finely dice the walnuts then add in to the flour mix.


3) Stir through the yoghurt and add the milk little by little until a soft, sticky dough is formed.

4) Form a rough ball with the dough and dust with flour. Bake on a baking sheet for 30 minutes or until a good crust has formed which sounds hollow when you tap it.

Banana & walnut cake

Ingredients    3/4 cup butter (127g), 2 ripe   bananas, 3 cups plain flour (681g), 1  1/12 tsp baking soda, 2 cups sugar     (454g), 3 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla    essence, 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (339g), walnuts.

1) Sift the flour and baking powder with a pinch of salt and set aside


2) Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla essence together and beat in the eggs one at a time


3) Whisk in the flour a cup at a time, alternating with the buttermilk


4) Mash the ripe bananas and whisk into the rest, stirring a handful of finely chopped walnuts at the last minute


5) Pour into a cake tin (this quantity fills one large cake tin or 2 loaf tins) and bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. Put immediately into the freezer for 10 minutes - this will stop the steam from rising and make the cake incredibly moist.


6) Once cool, cream equal parts of icing sugar, butter and cream cheese together and slather onto the top. I had some leftover caramel from making my caramel apple pie so I swirled that over too!

Potato & camembert salad with poached pears & walnuts

Ingredients    Camembert, pears, red wine, walnuts, desiree potatoes, almond butter, honey, walnuts.

1) Prick the potatoes and boil them in hot salted water for 20 minutes. Strain and set aside.


2) Slice the flesh from 4 sides of a pear, leaving the core. Cut the pear slices into thirds and set aside.


3) Melt a generous knob of butter in a frying pan and add a glug of red wine. Set the pears skin side up in the pan and drizzle over with 2 tablespoons of honey.


4) Slice the potatoes into chunks and stir in the pears with enough of the sauce to glaze the potatoes. Cut the camembert into chunks and stir through along with some finely diced walnuts.

Waldorf Inspired Salad

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Ingredients Walnuts, cucumber, braeburn apple, dried cranberries, 4 eggs, lemon juice, salt, 1 pint basil oil

1) 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, a pinch of salt and whisk thoroughly.
Now add 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) Using a potato peeler, peel fine strips of cucumber, peel and core an apple and cut into segments. Mix the cucumber and apple together with mayonnaise and add the cranberries and walnuts. Serve on a bed of lettuce.