Easy Wins

Welcome Easy Wins into your kitchen with me at one of these exciting events on my book tour (and a few more special events still to be announced).

• In Season
• Feast
• Celebration
• Barbecue

These little toasts are a riot of colour and represent all that is great about English gardens in spring. The first radishes, roasted until they sweeten, the sweet peas, and some allium or chive flowers, if you can get them, add some prettiness as well as a punch of flavour. These go particularly well with a glass of ice-cold rosé outside on a warm day. I use the dip-dyed pink and white breakfast radishes here, but the regular round ones would work really well too. We eat this for a late evening dinner but I’d proudly serve this as a quick starter too. They are also great at a picnic or a party; just double or triple the recipe for a crowd.

• Pasta
• One-pot

This orzo cooks all in one pan to a satisfying deep purple with the spoonable feeling of a risotto. You can use any colour of beetroot you like here; I love the deep magenta of the red ones but yellow and pink work well too. I make this orzo with different vegetables as the seasons change.

• In Season
• One-pot

• In Season
• Sweet
• Celebration

Just-right sweet yet tart scarlet and vibrant pink summer fruit sits on top of a half-pastry, half-flapjack base, all topped off with a crunchy crumble topping. These bars are free from eggs, dairy and refined sugar, and gluten-free if you use a good gluten-free flour blend. If coconut sugar and oil are too much of a stretch for you, follow the recipe using the same quantities of butter or coconut oil and soft, light brown sugar. You can vary the fruits you use here depending on the time of year: apples and blackberries are great, as are plums and pears. In the summer, apricots and raspberries are amazing.

• In Season
• Salads
• Barbecue

A few months back, I was lucky enough to have lunch with the frankly amazing Stanley Tucci. You will know him as an incredible actor and director but as I learnt over lunch and some very early and very delicious wine (it was 11.30am) he is the most passionate cook and all out food lover. Family and food run through his blood, so inevitably that's what we ended up talking about. I tried to play it all cool having a Hollywood big hitter for lunch, not sure I quite managed it. I'll let you be the judges. The lunch we prepared and ate together sits at the crossroads of fresh and hearty. It’s the kind of food I remember eating when I was growing up in San Francisco. Light, bright and goodness-packed. This dish is a teaming up of all the things that remind me of California: unusual grains, bright citrus, avocado, nuts and seeds, and sprouted seeds and beans. You can use any grain here – I like pearl barley for its chewy, pillowy heartiness, but quinoa, millet or even brown rice would work a treat. If you are vegan, leave out the feta and use coconut yoghurt. I have used basil, as I usually have a plant sitting on the windowsill, but any soft herb would be good. This barley salad bowl is just as good the next day and travels particularly well, so I often make it for plane journeys or make extra for lunch the next day.