This recipe is perfect to serve warm or cold in the summertime and would be a great addition to a picnic or low key hosting spread. It also works well for an easy weeknight light dinner alongside a green salad.

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The fermentation process mellows the aggressiveness of fresh onion and jalapeño and blends it through the fresh tastes of tomato, lime and coriander.

With none of the added unnecessary ingredients, this gives you a fresh professional tasting salsa that you can feel good about eating for those hot summer days.

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The spring onion, chilli, garlic and ginger base give this dish a powerful punch of flavour, rounded out by fresh tomatoes and lime.

It’s a super healthy way to cook fish and while you can use any type of noodle (udon, rice, ramen etc), I love to use glass noodles in this to keep it fairly light.

This is a very quick, impressive and really tasty dinner option you won’t regret trying!

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I grew up going to Jordan Pond House in Acadia, Maine every summer, which is famous for its popovers. And I always assumed that they were difficult to make - spoiler, they’re not.

Give these a go for a lazy Sunday morning treat, served with butter, strawberry jam, a side of streaky bacon and a cup of hot tea for the New England experience.

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Puff pastry stuffed with chana aloo filling and baked, you get the essence of the samosa without attempting the dough and frying.

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This recipe is one of our go-to’s because it requires almost zero skill and prep. You just let it simmer away slowly on the stove for several hours (or in a slow cooker throughout the day) and you’ve got a juicy, chipotle shredded chicken to have with tacos or on nachos.

We even love to make this one up in advance, freeze it and take it camping to make campfire nachos.

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This spin with lemon curd adds an extra tangy taste and also makes a relatively simple dessert look and sound way more impressive when you’re hosting. I like to make these up in the morning before friends come over for a grab and serve dessert option.

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This recipe includes making your own wonton wrappers if you don’t live near an Asian supermarket. And I promise that it’s a lot easier than it sounds - give it a try!

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The filling is easy - marinaded grilled or pan fried pork, pate, spicy mayo, cucumber, fermented veg that I always have on hand. The hard part was mastering the bread - and I’m still not sure I’m quite there yet. The game changer was buying a baguette pan so I do recommend grabbing one if you want to try this and love a homemade bread - it made a world of difference to the shape and rise. But no matter what your bread looks like, it will taste great I promise.

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I love to top this with a sriracha and garlic sour cream sauce (as easy as it sounds, just mix those ingredients), a fermented pineapple and red pepper salsa, and the starter ingredients for fermenters slaw (red cabbage and onion).

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With a roasted butternut squash, garlic and ricotta filling and topped with browned butter, toasted pine nuts, crispy sage and a sprinkle of grated Parmesan, these will quickly become an autumnal staple for hosting or a weekend treat.

You will need a pasta machine for this, or endless patience to roll it out by hand.

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And honestly I don’t know what I was afraid about. It’s super easy. This is my go-to fried chicken recipe - no fuss, crunchy and juicy every time.

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This recipe introduces a completely different Middle Eastern style flavour to the meal rotation, giving a surprise and delight taste when you bite in. It’s also packed with veggies and the homemade dough base means you’re avoiding any unnecessary preservatives.

I love to serve these topped with fermented cabbage and diced cucumbers for an extra fresh bang.

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This recipe was my gateway to lacto-fetmented everything and I promise you won’t be disappointed.

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With a Polish heritage, I grew up making pierogies from scratch every Christmas so the knack to stuffing these dumplings comes pretty easily to me. However, I will say it has taken my husband a while to get up to picture perfect level. Don’t be disheartened though, they will still taste great, no matter what they look like.

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You’ll need two spring top jars for the fermentation process and the great thing about this is that you can mix up as little or as much as you want, any time you want, as the veg will keep in the fridge for up to three months. Just adjust the ingredient proportions to taste and scale!

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Fermenting your ginger is an easy way to always have fresh ginger at your fingertips, avoid food waste and have 10 minutes of annoyance for delicious tasting food. The fermentation process really brings out the flavour and you’ll notice a difference in your food with this one!

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Here is a simple low faff way to make fresh kefir daily. I used to be fastidious about filling recipes to the tee. That isn’t necessary here. Don’t over think it. If you don’t have enough grains they will grow. Adjust the measures based on taste and your conditions.

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It’s a great quick addition to a BBQ - we like to serve it alongside wood-fired buffalo wings and a green salad.

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Thankfully, you can now find them quite regularly - though blue cheese dressing is still a rarity, not a given.

Whacking these in the pizza oven gives an extra smokey flavour that really hits home for me - but these are also easy enough to cook on a grill or in the oven.

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This is a crowd pleaser for a family meal or Italian hosting spread and keeps well for leftover lunches.

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It packs protein, veggies and a healthy carb all into one dish and is easy to whip up on a weeknight. While I normally am against using store bought sauces and pastes, I have a thing about mincing up lemongrass to make my own red curry paste. I’ll do it but it takes so long that I find that store bought curry paste is where I’ll cave - case in point with this recipe.

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Traditionally, this salad should consist of tomatoes, croutons, fresh mozzarella, basil, shallots and a tomato red wine vinaigrette.

I’m not a fan of fresh onion in a salad because I like to be able to speak to people after I eat it. I also find this too tomato and bread forward so I ditch the onion and add Italian greens to balance it out. It’s great as a light lunch on its own or side salad, and perfect for making in advance to take to the office.

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If you like pizza and are on the fence here is your sign to take the plunge. I was doubtful and waited two years too long to get one.

After that I started the search for a dough recipe and ingredients that worked for me. Here is where I landed as a good balance between fancy and minimal effort. A few minutes the night before is all this takes and it is worth that prep.

A poolish is a simple overnight pre-ferment — equal weights of flour and water with a tiny amount of yeast — and it is the single biggest upgrade you can make to a home pizza dough. The long, cold fermentation develops lactic and acetic acids that give the crust genuine depth of flavour, while the pre-hydrated flour produces a softer, more extensible dough that stretches without tearing.

This recipe has two stages: mix the poolish the night before, refrigerate it, then build the main dough the following day. Use the method and calculator below to scale everything to your needs.

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One of our favourite dishes while we’re there is garlic butter clams, served with a crusty bread to lap up the leftover buttery liquid.

With an unexpected heatwave, we decided to try it out for ourselves…

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We are lucky to live near an H Mart so we use spare ribs for this recipe with tons of meat on them. We find that we get a better cut there than a normal supermarket but grab whatever ribs you fancy! We love to serve this with fermented coleslaw and baby potatoes to round it out.

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This recipe perfectly marries two loves - garlic and fermented veg. It’s gut healthy, makes cooking so much easier, keeps for a year and creates a sweet, sticky, almost caramelised garlic that you almost want to eat with a spoon.

You’ll need a fermenting jar or just a jar with a spring form lid (see pictures) and a weighing scale.

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I’ve classed this recipe as hard - not because the steps are hard, but because it’s hard to simmer the octopus at the right temperature and not overcook them.

When overcooked, you will get a rubbery texture. You want to simmer these babies very gently and take them out when a sharp knife goes into them with no resistance, like it would into a cooked potato. It may take a couple a tries of this recipe to get it right, but when you do, it’s a great summer dinner.

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Ever since I started making my own vinaigrette, I never went back to store-bought. This is very simple to make, tastes great and people are always impressed that you make your own.

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Make for a weeknight dinner paired with mash potato, gravy and peas, to bring to a picnic or to add to a hobbit themed hosting spread. They’re best served warm but still taste great cold.

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This is an incredibly easy homemade bread recipe - even the worst cook in the world would be hard pressed to mess it up and it produces a tasty, fresh crusty bread loaf that will impress any guest.

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These are great to bring to a picnic, supplement a hosting spread of nibbles and hand food, or delicious as a cheeky week day lunch.

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I love this recipe for how easy it is and how it creates the juiciest meatballs with a hint of spice. This is a great one for midweek or to add into the mix for when you're hosting. Head over to my dinner parties collection to see how it can be paired with a short-rib ragu and panzanella salad for a great spread that both kids and adults will love.

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This is a firm favourite in our house and I promise it’s not as out-of-reach for homecooking as it might sound. Once you get over the fear and slight disgust of deep frying in boiling oil (that took me several years), you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

For this recipe, you’ll need bamboo steamers, parchment paper, and a dutch oven or large pot and ideally a slotted or colander spoon (tongs can be substituted but way more fiddly and more likely to burn yourself) and a meat thermometer.

Top tip: I use fermented carrots and radishes instead of a quick pickle for a slightly healthier and, I think, tastier option.

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