Recipes – pulses

Red lentil soup with harissa croutons

Thumbnail image for Red lentil soup with harissa croutons February 21, 2013

“Life is a rollercoaster” warbled Ronan Keating – and despite not being a fan of boybands, and looking back at the past 10 days here at Cooksister HQ, I have to say that I think he had a point.  The Big Thunder Mountain experience started with a plunge into discovering that somebody I know is [...]

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Easy homemade hummus with South African chakalaka spice – inspired by the 2013 McCormick Flavour Forecast

Thumbnail image for Easy homemade hummus with South African chakalaka spice – inspired by the 2013 McCormick Flavour Forecast December 6, 2012

Back in 2009 when I was writing a bi-weekly column for the Food24 website, I wrote a piece called The Shock of the New, all about a document called the Flavour Forecast brought out annually by American spice company McCormick (known as the ubiquitous Schwartz spices here in the UK). The Flavour Forecast is the result [...]

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Sausage and cannellini bean gratin with kale and Parmesan

Thumbnail image for Sausage and cannellini bean gratin with kale and Parmesan January 17, 2012

  In the late summer of 2010 we rented a villa on the Costa Tropical in Spain, near Almunecar (which turns out to be the source of every cherimoya fruit I’ve seen since!).  The villa was gorgeous, perched high up on a hillside with a 180 degree view of the blue Mediterranean and spectacular sunsets [...]

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Spanish chicken bake with butter beans, chorizo and olives

February 26, 2009

I always wonder how some dishes got their names – particularly names that ascribe a certain national heritage to a dish, but which dish you won’t find on a single menu in its alleged coutry of origin. I have a recipe which I got from a friend in high school or shortly afterwards, and which my [...]

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Boereboontjies plus easy sausage & bean casserole with herb dumplings for IMBB #11

January 23, 2005

Family legends – there's nothing to beat them.  All those catchphrases, anecdotes, made-up words and in-jokes that form the glue that bind together a group of people across the miles and across the years.  Our family seems to be a particularly rich source, possibly because we have more eccentricity per square chromosome than most (!), [...]

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Chicken breasts in a tomato and chickpea sauce on vegetable couscous

May 31, 2004

Here’s what we had for dinner last night – I didn’t want anything to rich and creamy (trying to be virtuous, hahahaha!), I didn’t want anything too fussy and I had 2 chicken breasts in the fridge that needed eating – so here’s the end result. Truly delicious!! CHICKEN BREASTS IN A TOMATO & CHICKPEA [...]

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