Pad Thai

I love Pad Thai – the delicious sweet and savoury noodle combination is always a winner. I love that there's filling egg mixed in with the noodles! You could use silken tofu in place of the egg to get that eggy texture. I haven't tried that yet... I have made my version with firm tofu (in addition to the egg) and, although it may not be the most authentic, it is made using ingredients that are available from most supermarkets.

Like most stir-fry-type recipes, this is pretty fast-paced so have all your ingredients to hand and be prepared to give it your full attention! It does mean that a delicious dinner can be on the table within 20 minutes – faster than an oven-baked ready-meal! I can't beat that pesky microwave though...

Pad Thai
Serves 2


120 g rice noodles
1/2 a bell pepper
1/2 a pack of firm tofu cut into cubes
4 spring onions (or "scallions" to my American readers)
2 eggs

1 lime
1 tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
Peanuts (unsalted or roasted and salted - your choice; chopped)
Coriander (or "cilantro"! to serve)


Start by chopping the bell pepper, spring onions and tofu, taking care to dry the tofu cubes on some kitchen roll. Boil some water in a pan and soak the rice noodles (they should be cooked by the time you need to use them – you could soak them in a saucepan and if they're not quite done, boil them for a minute or two).

Warm up a wok with a couple of teaspoons of oil. When hot add the spring onions and peppers and fry for a minute. Add the tofu and fry for a further 2 minutes. Add the fish sauce, sugar and rice-wine vinegar. Add the noodles and stir to coat. Move the contents of the wok to one side and quickly add both eggs. Leave the noodles where they are while the eggs cook – stir them to scramble them. When they're separated into egg-bits (after a minute or two), stir them through the noodles. Taste and add more sugar or fish sauce.

Serve in bowls and squeeze a quarter of a lime over each bowl. Put the other quarter of a lime at the edge of the noodles. Sprinkle the peanuts and coriander over the top in an artistic flourish!

NB: I just realised this isn't vegetarian - darn that fish sauce! For Veggies, use soy sauce instead.

Chicken salad

We've been having unseasonably warm weather recently (even though it's October, temperatures have reached 29 degrees celcius!), and I try not to complain, but it has been a bit too hot at times. I feel able to say this because I hardly ever complain about it being too cold in the winter (what's not to like about wrapping up warm in layers of clothing, and having an excuse to stop and get a hot chocolate, and having rosy wind-beaten cheeks and toasty feet in boots and curling up under a blanket to watch a film on tv at 4pm because it's already dark?). Mmmmm winter...

Anyway, I made this chicken salad because it was too hot to cook anything else. I was pretty impressed with the results, if I do say so myself. My inspiration came vaguely from Pret's Italian Chicken Salad and a Caesar salad (and whatever was in the fridge!). This recipe looks a little complex, with a lot of ingredients, but they're all things you will probably have in the house and once you get going it'll all come together nicely.

Chicken salad
Serves 2

2 chicken breasts
1 teaspoon sunflower oil
Juice of half a lemon
Black pepper


70 g quinoa with a little vegetable bouillon
1 little gem lettuce (and other salad leaves of your choice)
30 g butternut squash (or a couple of thick slices)
A handful of radishes
Cherry tomatoes
Olives
Parmasan cheese


For the dressing:
3 tablespoons low-fat yoghurt
A few teaspoons lemon juice (to taste)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Add the quinoa to a pan of boiling water and cook for about 10 minutes (I didn't overcook it this time!) with a little vegetable bouillon.

Flatten the chicken (I cover it in clingfilm and then hammer it with a rolling pin) then add to a frying pan with the oil and lemon juice and a good sprinkle of black pepper. Fry until it is cooked through (5–8 minutes). The lemon juice caramelises beautifully on the outside of the chicken. You may need to turn the heat up at the end to get it really brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the salad. Slice the radishes (I used a mandolin, which my sister-in-law bought me before I even knew the fun that could be had with it!) and the olives and toss with the salad leaves – I did this in two serving bowls to save on washing-up. Chop the butternut squash and put into a microwaveable bowl with a little water and cling film over the top to seal it. Microwave on full power for 3 minutes. Add the butternut squash to the salad.

Drain any water off the quinoa and add the tomatoes (I have a thing about cold tomatoes from the fridge - I think it's to do with my sensitive teeth) to warm them up. Then add to the salad bowls.

Mix the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl. When the chicken is done, place one piece on each salad, drizzle all over with dressing and shave parmasan on the top (I used the same mandolin again).

Quinoa dinner

I really like the nutty flavour of this grain – quinoa – but I only thought to use it as the basis of a meal the other day (when we had eaten pasta too often!). Halfway through cooking, I had the idea that vinegar and honey would complement the flavour of the quinoa, and it worked really well. I added a bit of pomegranate molasses for extra zing (I think lemon juice would work equally well).

The only problem was that I overcooked the quinoa – so don't try and make it look like the picture! I'm also still using up my (wonderful) glut of tomatoes and runner beans, but you could substitute the vegetables with other ones. I think butternut squash and spinach could work really well.

Quinoa dinner

Serves 2

100g quinoa, rinsed

1 tablespoon vegetable stock (such as Boullion)

A handful of cherry tomatoes

6 runner beans

1 yellow or red bell pepper

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses

Cook the quinoa according to the packet instructions (it's available in Waitrose, and don't let it lose its grainy-ness - mine turned into stodge quite quickly!). Add the vegetable stock to the quinoa and water as it's boiling and give it a quick stir. Add the runner beans, tomatoes and bell pepper towards the end of cooking. When the quinoa is cooked (you may have to drain excess water) add the vinegar, honey and pomegranate molasses, and season to taste. Serve hot with bread on the side (the bread in the picture is from a wonderful Turkish deli on Isabella street in Southwark).

Fresh garden vegetable pasta

I've been watching green tomatoes grow all summer and now I'm finally getting a regular supply of tasty, red, ripe ones (it's almost September!), although I should be very grateful really, because these tomatoes grew without me realising when I used some of last year's tomato growbag to top up the pots on my patio. So instead of growing flowers, up came tomatoes! I didn't even realise they weren't flowers until they were quite big and had that tomato smell. Shame about the flowers. I also have some late runner beans, which my Granny gave me as little plants. They're enjoying the wet weather and beginning to grow some delicious beans. The rest of the vegetable patch contains some gladioli, which were going to be cut flowers but only one made it into the house, a cabbage from last year that survived the caterpillar attack and a forgotten pepper plant that might grow a pepper, one day. You can probably tell, I'm not that great at maintaining my veg patch, which makes me all the more grateful for this lovely pasta dish, the ingredients for which grew all by themselves!

Fresh garden vegetable pasta
Serves 2

100g spiralini (or your pasta of choice)
8-10 fresh cherry tomatoes
4 runner beans
A handful of capers, rinsed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
A handful of marjoram (or oregano - I just happen to grow marjoram in my garden)

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the packaging. Chop the runner beans into short lengths, about 2 cm each and add to the pan with the pasta towards the end of cooking. Chop the tomatoes into quarters and the capers into smaller pieces (I find this distributes their salty flavour, especially the bigger varieties). When the pasta is cooked, drain most of the cooking water, but leave a few tablespoons of water behind in the pan. Add the tomatoes, capers, olive oil and balsamic vinegar and toss to combine. Sprinkle the marjoram on top to serve.

Peppery Thai basil noodles

My husband and I went to New York in April and after visiting this church (we thought we might see Tim Keller! We didn't, but it was still pretty cool) we went for a late dinner in Greenwich Village. We only had four days in the city and we wanted to make the most of our time there, so a look at the Village area at night was better than nothing.

We came across a very good value Thai restaurant (our wallets were feeling a bit battered!). We chose noodle dishes and were both disappointed by our choices - mine was too bland and my husband's was too spicy. Once we had swapped, I was in heaven! He had chosen a very peppery basil noodle dish which I have attempted to re-create (I say "attempted" to be modest - it was pretty darn tasty!).

Peppery Thai basil noodles
To serve one


1 carrot
2 chesnut mushrooms
small handful of curly kale (or your favourite greens) 
40g buckwheat (or your favourite) noodles
1 tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp red peppercorns
2 tbsp fish sauce (or nam pa)
3 tsp sugar
3 or 4 sprigs of fresh basil (I used regular basil but I'm sure it would taste even better with Thai basil)

Peel the carrot and chop into thin sticks. Boil a half-full kettle. Spray a wok with cooking spray or 1 tsp oil and add the carrots once the pan is hot. Chop the mushrooms and curly kale into thin slices and add them to the pan when the carrots are starting to char on the edges. Keep moving everything around the pan by flipping it, or stirring.

Add the noodles to a bowl with the boiling water from the kettle and leave for 5 minutes or until tender. Grind the peppercorns in a food processor or pestle and mortar. Drain the noodles and add to the wok with a few tablespoons of the water the noodles were soaking in. Add the peppercorns, fish sauce, sugar and basil and stir thoroughly.