Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

Ingredients 1/2 can pumpkin puree, 1 clove garlic, 1/4 leek, 250g macaroni, 1 pint vegetable stock, 1 tsp truffle oil, 100g cheese, 1/4 tsp allspice, 1/4 tsp sage, 1/4 tsp thyme, 1/4 tsp smoked paprika, 1/4 sweet potato.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 30 minutes

I absolutely adore mac and cheese. So much so that despite it's obvious perfection, I am constantly re-inventing it in order to have it more often, without being bored. This version is about as far as the traditional roux-based cheese sauce as you can get, but it's healthy, can be made lactose intolerant or vegan-friendly by using a wheat-free pasta or substituting the layer of cheese with a dairy-free alternative respectively. As Autumn rolls in, I go pumpkin crazy and this truly is an out-of-this world dish.
Check out some of my other favourite versions: avocado mac and cheese using my roast garlic and avocado puree, cauliflower mac and cheese, broccoli mac and cheese and of course mac and peas.

1) Use 3/4 of the vegetable stock to put the macaroni on to boil, reserving the remaining 1/4 for the sauce.

2) Slice and dice the leek finely (discarding the root and leafy ends) and add to a pan with the truffle oil. Sautee gently, adding the garlic (crushed) once it begins to soften.

3) By the time the garlic begins to sizzle the macaroni should be ready - drain and set aside, reserving a ladle of the vegetable stock to add to the leek and garlic. Reduce this by about 50% and add the pumpkin puree, herbs and spices.

4) If the sauce is too thick, add a little more vegetable stock to thin it out (or cream if you want to be REALLY decadent), then stir in the drained macaroni.

5) Transfer to an oven-proof dish and grate the sweet potato and cheese onto the top. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes (until the cheese is gooey and golden and the sweet potato is just beginning to crisp) and serve hot.    

I very rarely add salt as standard to a dish, advising only to season to taste, but in this case I found a tiny bit of salt and black pepper to be a nice touch once I'd removed a portion for my toddler.

Cider & sage roast chicken soup

Ingredients Chicken, sage leaves, 1 maris piper potato, 1 can cider, chicken stock, onion

Serves: 4 Preparation: 2 hours (including chicken roasting time)

Despite being a vegetarian, I have a healthy respect for chicken soup. I've been making it all my life for people that I love, when they're sick or just deserve a treat. When we have people over and I roast a chicken for dinner, The Husband is usually more excited about the soup he knows I'll make than the luscious, juicy chicken itself. This soup, following my cider can chicken recipe is velvet textured from the potato, delicately flavoured with sweet sage and cider and stuffed chock full of melt-in-the-mouth chicken.

1) Peel and slice a white onion, and add to a stock pot along with the chicken carcass (ensure any good meat remaining is removed to add to the soup), the remaining cider from the can the chicken was sitting on and 1/2 pint of water. Simmer for 30 minutes and strain the liquid into a separate pan.

2) Set the liquid to cool in the fridge for an hour, then skim the fat from the surface. 

3) Blend the leftover slices of potato and add to a pan along with some leftover chicken meat, and the stock jelly.

4) Simmer on the hob for 30 minutes, seasoning with salt, pepper and more chopped sage to taste.

Cider can chicken

Ingredients 3 maris piper potatoes per chicken, 1 can cider per chicken, sage leaves, butter

Preparation: 2 hours

When I roast a chicken, I stuff the cavity with pierced lemons, filling the inside with fragrant steam to make the meat moist and succulent. Cider can chicken works on the same principle - flavouring the chicken with the sweetness of the cider and sage. The French method of slicing potatoes to cook in the chicken juices makes a wonderful roast meal.

1) Massage a little butter into the skin of the chicken and stick sage leaves to the skin of the chicken.

2) Pour 1/3 of the cider out of the can, add some chopped sage to the remaining cider, then spread the legs of the chicken and sit it on top of the can. Press down until the chicken is balanced.

3) Cut the potatoes into cm thick slices, then arrange around the chicken.

4) Roast in the oven, basting at intervals to crisp up the skin, then remove carefully from the can and carve. Save the cider, some of the potates, chicken and the carcass to make stock for soup.

Pork & apple burgers

Ingredients 400g Sausage meat, 1 apple, sage, 1/2 white onion, butter

Serves: 6 preparation: 20 minutes

Making burgers is so quick and simple that I refuse to entertain the idea that there is any excuse for the kind of specimens that come under the category of "convenience food" and "fast food". They're unhealthy, low quality and truly no faster. Pork, apple and sage are such classic flavour combinations - give this a try as a fun BBQ alternative to beef.

1) Peel and finely dice half a white onion, peel, core and dice the apple and and fry both together in a little butter with some chopped sage for 2 minutes.

2) Combine the onions, apple and sausage meat - you could use a blender but I prefer to leave the apple chunks intact and use my hands. Season with  a pinch of salt and pepper first.


3) Form patties with your hands, packing the meat quite tightly and either BBQ, grill or bake in the oven.  For best results, sizzle the outside of the burger first using the juices from the onion, apple & sage pan.


I served with fresh lettuce from the garden and ketchup in a burger bun

Spinach & asparagus ravioli with sage & pistachio butter

Ingredients  400g spinach, 20 fine asparagus    stalks, 8oz pasta flour, 1 tsp olive oil, 4 eggs, handful of pistachio nuts, 1 tbsp sage, 2 tbsp butter

Serves: 4 Preparation: 1 hour (+5 hours pasta preparation)

I adore pasta and thankfully love making it almost as much as I love to eat it - there's nothing quite like freshly made pasta, fresh from the pot. The combination of flavours in this dish is quite frankly insane but somehow it really works. Sage butter is something that I love with pumpkin or butternut squash ravioli but in this case I made it into more of a pesto using pistachio nuts to balance out the intensity of the sage. This sweetness really brought out the flavour of the asparagus and the spinach provided a freshness that balanced everything out.

1) Pour 8 ounces of grade 00 flour (pasta flour), 1 teaspoon of olive oil, a good pinch of salt, 3 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk into a bowl and kneed with your hands until you have a firm dough. Wrap this in cling film and chill in the fridge for 2-5 hours.

2) Steam the asparagus and 200g of the spinach for 4 minutes, strain as much of the water from the spinach as possible and then completely pulverise in the blender, leaving a thick puree.


3) To prepare the "pesto" finely chop the sage and stir into some gently warmed butter. Finely chop the pistachio nuts/ grind in a mortar and pestle or pulse in the blender. Stir the nuts through and set aside for the flavours to infuse.

4) Dust a worktop with pasta flour and roll out the dough into a sheet 1/3 of a centimetre thick. Cut out squares of pasta with a knife and roll these through a pasta machine (or using a rolling pin if you don't have one) until you have a thin rectangle of pasta. Add a teaspoon of the spinach and asparagus mixture to the centre of the rectandle and fold in half, pinching the ends together firmly like a cornish pasty until each piece is completely sealed.


5) When all the pasta shapes are stuffed, drop them into a large pan of hot, salted water. The pasta will sink to the bottom initially but when it is ready (2-3 minutes maximum unless your pasta is too thick) it will float to the top.

6) Remove the ravioli from the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to a bowl. Stir through the pesto and serve on a bed of steamed spinach with additional asparagus if you wish.

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.

Pumpkin cannelloni

Ingredients Pumpkin, marscapone, egg, passata tomatoes, mozarella, cheddar, smoked garlic, smoked chipotle chillis, white onion, sage

Serves: 2 Preparation: 30 minutes (+1 hour to make the pumpkin puree)


I love pumpkin, this time of year finds me baking pumpkin bread and making pumpkin soup and I always save some of the pumpkin puree to make cannelloni or ravioli with. When it comes to cannelloni I love to get creative - seeing people in the supermarket buying microwaveable spinach and ricotta cannelloni that I know will taste bland and have the texture of leather makes me feel so sad. It's so quick and easy to make. If you haven't already - check out my spinach & goats cheese, pork & apple and stilton & cashew cannelloni recipes.


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) Sage really brings out the warmth of pumpkin - finely chop about 5 large sage leaves and stir into the pumpkin puree. Beat together one egg and the marscapone, then whisk in 200 of the pumpkin puree. Put in the fridge to firm up.


5) Pumpkin loves spices so to make this sauce sautee half a very finely diced onion in about a teaspoon of chilli oil then pour in 250g of passata tomatoes. 


6) Add half a bulb of smoked garlic, minced and a tablespoon of chopped smoked chipotle chillis and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes. Thank you to The Chilli Jam Man for the yummy smoked ingredients! Season with salt to taste.


7) Stuff 6 cannelloni tubes with the pumpkin mix using a teaspoon and rest in an ovenproof dish. Pour over the sauce and top with 100g grated mozarella and cheddar. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes covered with foil and a further 5 minutes uncovered to allow the cheese to crisp.

Guinness pie

Ingredients 250g plain flour, 1 tsp salt 250g butter 450g stewing steak, 2 white onions, 1tsp grainy mustard, 1 tablespoon chopped sage, 1 tsps honey, 1 pint Guinness, 3 rashers bacon, mushrooms.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 1 hour and a half

1) To make the pastry - Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and rub in the butter. Make a well in the centre and mix in about 100ml cold water until you have a firm rough dough. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge to chill.

2) Dice the onions and sautee them in 2 tablespoons of butter. Stir the stewing steak into about a quarter of a cup of flour, then add into the pan to seal the meat and form a fine roux that will be the base of the gravy.

3) Pour in the pint of Guinness and stir through thoroughly until it has been completely incorporated. At this stage add the bacon and mushrooms, chopped into slivers.

4) Flavour with the sage, honey and mustard then simmer on the hob for about 15 minutes. 

5) Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until it's no more than 1cm thick.  Line the pie dish with half of it and blind bake for 10-12 minutes.

6) Spoon the meat and onions into the pie dish using a slotted spoon which will ensure that there's some sauce left to make gravy with (add a little water to thin it down, then simmer on a low heat as the pie is baking) but also distributes enough into the pie.

7) Cover the pie with the remaining pastry, poking a steam hole in the centre and ensuring the edges are pinched tight to seal it shut. Bake for 30 minutes and serve smothered with the gravy.

Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients 1 large pumpkin, 2 small butternut squashes, 1 onion, 3 cloves garlic, 1 pint vegetable stock, 1 tablespoon cumin, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 300ml double cream, butter, sage.

Serves: 8 Preparation: 2 hours


1) Peel the butternut squash and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Cut into cubes and set aside.

2) 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 and set aside.
3) Roast both in the oven in an ovenproof dish with a lid for 50 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the roast vegetables and blend until smooth. The excess juice in in the ovenproof dish should make about a pint of liquid - do not discard it.
4) Peel and finely dice an onion and 3 cloves of garlic. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a stock pot and sizzle the onions until soft. Add the garlic and chopped sage leaves and then stir through the pureed pumpkin, pumpkin/squash juice and pint of vegetable stock.
5) Add the vegetable stock, cumin and pepper and stir through.
6) After 20 minutes, carefully strain the liquid from the mashed vegetables and pass them through a sieve. Be patient as this will take a while but the result - velvety smooth soup - is worth it.
7) Return to the hob along with the cream and leave to simmer for half an hour to one hour before serving.

Cassoulet

Ingredients Pork belly, cannellini beans, chicken   stock, sage, onions, garlic, goose/duck fat, Merguez sausage.

1) Peel and roughly dice 2 white onions and sautee in a tablespoon of goose fat. Add 4 cloves of crushed garlic and some roughly chopped Merguez sausage.


2) Pour in 1 pint of chicken stock and a small handful of freshly chopped sage. Stir through and add 2 cans of cannellini beans.


3) Layer the pork belly in the bottom of a casserole dish (I used 6 pieces of pork belly per 2 cans of beans/pint of stock) and pour over the beans, sausage and stock. The trick is to cover the meat with the beans so that a crust can be formed, but ensure that the meat is set in enough liquid so that it doesn't dry out.


4) Cook in the oven for at least one hour. The top should have a lovely crispy crust, and the meat fats should have reduced into a creamy, rich sauce underneath.

Butternut squash rice salad

Ingredients     Butternut squash, long grain rice,     wild rice, pumpkin seeds, sage, lemon, butter.

1) Peel the butternut squash and scoop out the seeds. Dice the flesh and roast in the oven for 30 minutes.


2) Mix the rice together and boil for 20 minutes.


3) Squeeze lemon juice into a little melted butter and finely diced sage leaves. Strain the rice and stir through the dressing and butternut squash. Spinkle with pumpkin seeds and serve hot or cold.

Butternut squash arancini

Ingredients Leftover Butternut squash risotto, sausage meat, old bread, egg.

Risotto is rubbish when reheated - it tends to congeal and lose the lovely soupy-ness so I like to put that to good use and once it's cool, roll it into risotto balls or arancini di riso if you speak Italian.


1) Pulse old bread in your blender to form breadcrumbs. In this case I used some mediterrean rustiques - garlic, tomato and herb bread.


2) Roll out the sausage meat and form it around the risotto ball. Dip in whisked egg and roll about in the breadcrumbs.


3) Deep fry until golden and crispy - or sizzle for 1 minute and bake in the oven for 4 minutes if like me you're not a fan of fried food.

Cream of mushroom soup

Ingredients White onion, mushrooms, vegetable stock, sherry, sage, double cream, butter, potato, parsley.

1) Finely dice one white onion, some sage and sautee in butter. 


2) Add a finely diced small potato and the chopped mushrooms and stir through. Cook off 2 tablespoons of sherry.


3) Add a pint of vegetable stock and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.


4) Blitz in your blender with a glug of double cream, then return to the hob.


5) Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Butternut squash risotto

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Ingredients Risotto rice (arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano - I would recommend carnaroli), vegetable stock, white onion, garlic, sage, rosemary, butter, butternut squash, brandy.

All risottos (no matter what the ingredients) can be made in 3 simple stages. The first is called tostatura - coating the rice in fat, the second involves cooking off some alcohol (white wine, brandy or vermouth produce the best flavours) and the third involves releasing the starch from the rice one ladle of stock at a time.

1) Peel the butternut squash, slice it in half and remove the seeds before cutting it into chunks. Melt a little butter and chopped sage leaves and stir the butternut squash into it. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.

2) Separate 5 cloves of garlic from the bulb and roast in the oven for 30 minutes (within the skin) Squeeze the garlic from the skin and stir into a pint of vegetable stock.

3) Melt a knob of butter in a pan and add some chopped sage and rosemary leaves and half a finely diced white onion. Soften the onions for about a minute and then stir in the risotto rice. Stir until the rice becomes transparent, revealing a white dot in the centre and pour in a glass of brandy.

4) Once the alcohol has cooked off, stir through the stock one ladleful at a time, adding the roasted butternut squash with the second ladle of stock.

5) Serve once the rice has softened and the starch has created a creamy sauce.

Chicken and sage soup

Ingredients 1 roast chicken carcass, sage leaves, white onion

When I cook a Sunday roast for family or friends I tend to serve them the breast meat and save the legs, wings and carcass to make this fabulous chicken soup with.

1) Pick as much chicken meat from the carcass as possible and separate the wings and legs. If like me you are a vegetarian, ask someone to do this for you because otherwise you will look like this...

2) Bring a litre of water to the boil, add a handful of chopped sage leaves and a diced white onion along with the meat and chicken carcass and simmer for 1 hour in a stock pot.

3) Strain the chicken stock from the meat and bones with a colander and pick out the decent bits of meat from the bones.

4) I would recommend that you allow the stock to cool, covered in the fridge so that you can separate the fat (which will float to the top of the liquid and form a solid layer) and then add the meat and reheat. If you wish though you could just add the meat straight to the chicken stock, adding more sage if necessary and serve.

Carrot and kiwi soup

Ingredients 6 carrots, 1 butternut squash, 1 sweet potato, 1 parsnip, 2 garlic cloves, 1 pint vegetable stock, sage, 6 kiwi fruit, basil oil, brandy, brown sugar Optional - to garnish grated cheddar

1) Crush 2 cloves of garlic and sautee in basil oil for 1 minute before adding a shot of brandy and a teaspoon of brown muscovado sugar to caramelise the garlic

2) Peel and cube the carrots, parsnip, squash and sweet potato and add into the pan along with a pint of vegetable stock and the chopped sage

3) Simmer for 20 minutes before separating the vegetables from the liquid and pureeing. Pass the puree through a sieve for a smooth liquid and add back into the pan of liquid along with the sliced kiwi

4) After 10 minutes puree a final time and serve with grated cheddar for contrast