This is a salad my German uncle used to often make and I have memories of post-beach families BBQs eating this alongside grilled sardines or cold meat.

You might be surprised by the amount of vinegar, and especially the ratio to olive oil, but it really does work, I promise! Be mindful that this is probably not the salad you want to eat before a date, unless you want to go home (on your own) quicker.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg baby potatoes
• 3 shallots or 1 onion
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 tbsp. of vinegar (potentially more if you’re like me)
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• Chives 1/3 bunch
• Black pepper to taste
• Onion seeds optional

Method:

Boil the potatoes in their skins until just cook through. They need to be cooked all the way through but you don’t want to cook them for too long and end up with mashed potatoes.

While the potatoes are still warm, peel them, slice them and put them in a large bowl. Someone on Instagram mentioned it was a shame to peel the potatoes and they are not wrong. I’m just giving you the recipe as I remember it but feel free to do what you want with it. I have to say I quite enjoy the challenge of handling the potatoes while still hot and trying not to burn myself, but that’s probably just me…

Add the vinegar and salt, mix and leave while you’re attending to the rest. This is to let the warm potatoes soaked up the vinegar; this is an important step!

Finely mince the shallots/onions (I prefer shallots in this recipe but I didn’t have any) as well as the chives.

Add the onions, chives, oil and a crack of black pepper. Mix and leave to cool.

Before serving, decorate with onion seeds and chive flowers, if you feel so inclined.

This isn’t a meal in itself but it works great as a side or as part of a BBQ.

This lovely parsnip apple and hazelnut soup would have seemed very atypical to me growing up. That’s because I never even saw a parsnip before moving to the UK. When I first bit into this strange white carrot during a roast dinner organised by friends, I was struck by how nutty it tasted. I’ve loved them ever since.

The apple gives it a little twang that stops the whole thing from being too earthy. Sometimes I use more, sometimes less, I tend to use fallen apples so it really depends on what I get.

This parsnip, apple and hazelnut soup serves four for a light meal but don’t even think of eating it without bread. We had a lovely cheese loaf with it, which I just warmed in the oven for 10min before serving.

Ingredients:

• 500g organic parsnips – you don’t have to use organic but that way you don’t have to peel them
• 250g apples
• 100g almonds
• A bag of 20g sage
• 1 onion
• 1 head of garlic
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1.5L vegetable stock
• Hazelnut oil (optional)

Instructions:

Lightly toast the hazelnuts in the oven in a large roasting tin until golden but not dark – circa 10min.

Chop the parsnips in even chunks. Peel the onion and cut it in quarters. Cut the head on garlic in half and remove the stalks from the sage.

Once the hazelnuts are ready, place them in the blender (keep a few for decorating) and add the oil to the roasting dish. Let the oil heat up in the oven for 5min, then remove the dish from the oven and throw in the sage while stirring. This should be enough to cook them without burning them.

Remove the leaves and pop them in your blender.

Now add the parsnips, apple, onion and garlic (face down) to the dish, stir well and roast gently (150 degrees) for 30min or until everything is soft.

Place the parsnip, onion and apple chunks in the blender and when cool enough to handle, squeeze the garlic out of the head into the blender too. Pour in the stock and whizz away!

You may serve this parsnip, apple and hazelnut soup with some fried sage leaves, a crack of black pepper and a drizzle of hazelnut oil – if you’re feeling fancy.

You end up with a rich, thick and earthy but tangy soup with works wonders on cold autumnal days.

A word of warning though: my youngest point blank refused to eat it after the first mouthful… His brother lapped it all up, so don’t let a fussy child deter you.

These Vietnamese spring rolls will forever remind me of my childhood. Despite the fact that I grew up in deep dark Brittany, my culinary influences have stretched much further since I come from a very multicultural family. My mum came from the Germanic border, I had one German uncle, an aunt who had been well steeped in anglo-saxon culture after living several years in the UK, cousins who lived in Algeria and Morroco and a Vietnamese uncle.

Family gathering were real melting pots of cultures when we’d have a tagine followed by a cinnamon scented strudel or some spatzle followed by a tarte au citron, or crepes followed by a crumble…

I remember once being in the apartment of my cousins’ grandmother in a vibrant part of Paris. She was this tiny Vietnamese woman called “banoy” (although that’s probably not how you write it!) and she could chop quicker than your shadow. She had prepared all sorts of vegetables that I had never seen before and she was also cooking some meat and fish (I remember the aromatic smell!), then everything got wrapped in lettuce leaves and we merrily tucked away at everything on the table.

I have since tried to recreate this scene many times and got used to wrapping my rolls in rice paper because it’s slightly less messy to eat, although I still use lettuce leaves now and again. The dipping sauce isn’t original but it works well providing tang, spices and also some needed fat to the recipe.

SPRING ROLLS

Ingredients:

This is a very loose list and the amount will really depend on how many people you want to serve.

• Rice paper – about 3 per person
• Cooked chicken/prawns/pork – allow 100g of protein per person
• Cucumber
• Carrots
• Red pepper
• Yellow pepper
• Radishes
• Avocado
• Spring onions
• Lettuce
• Rice noodles – 1 nest for 3 people

Instructions:

Peel and grate the carrots.

Wash all the vegetables then thinly slice them – it’s important to slice them as thinly as possible as it’ll make the rolls easier to eat.

Thinly slice the chicken/pork if that’s what you’re using .

Boil the kettle and pour the water into a shallow bowl big enough to contain a sheet of rice paper. Dip your rice paper in the water for 5 seconds or until the paper has softened enough to be pliable.

Place your softened rice paper onto a clean surface, then put 4 strips of chicken in the middle of the paper, then about 3 strips of pepper, a little pile of carrots, 3 strips of avocado, a row of rice noodle, a tumble of radishes and spring onions and a sprinkle of lettuce.

Carefully fold the bottom end of the paper onto the pile of vegetables, then fold the sides on top and slowly roll away from you in order to close the roll onto itself. It’s important to roll the vegetables tightly so that it doesn’t all fall apart, go for it, the paper it quite sturdy!

For the prawn rolls, start by placing 3 prawns onto the roll then all the vegetables as above.

The key is not to put too much in or you won’t be able to fold it but also not to put a measly amount or all you’ll be eating is rice paper, which isn’t that nice on its own.

Serve cold with the dipping sauce below.

DIPPING SAUCE

Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp. peanut butter
• 6 tbsp. lime juice
• 3 tbsp. warm water
• 6 tbsp. tamari/soy sauce
• 3 tsp. grated ginger
• 1½ tsp. grated garlic (or already chopped)
• 1½ tsp. chopped chilli

Instructions:

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well with a fork or mini whisk until it forms a homogenous and creamy sauce.

These are great for packed lunches as they’ll keep for a couple of days wrapped in the fridge.

Those beetroot wraps were a real hit on my Insta feed so I had to put the recipe on here! The slight problem is that I did my classic freestyling when I just go (in my head) “that’s so simple I’m totally going to remember this and in any even I’ll post it right up on my blog so it just won’t be a problem”. But then of course, you had clients’ notes to finish, remembering to put a wash on, working out how I’m going to go to the puppet show, making two costumes for World Book Day, which was cancelled anyway and my poor frazzled head can’t remember a thing apart from the fact it had beetroot in…

I think I vaguely remember, so I thought I’d write it on here now or there won’t be any chance of me remembering in 10 days time, unless I make the said beetroot wraps again.

The idea behind them was first aesthetic, I love pretty things and I live in a house full of boys (well, there are three of them including my husband, but that often seems like a lot more!), Nerf guns and Lego so a bit of pink is sometimes needed!

I also do love beetroot because it has a very distinctive taste and is packed with nutrients such as vitamin C, potassium, folate and manganese, as well as the antioxidant betacyanin. Beetrrots are thought to support liver function, have anti-inflammatory properties and potentially lower our blood pressure.

Ingredients:

• 160g cooked beetroot – that’s about two small ones
• 60g plain flour
• 40g buckwheat flour
• 1 medium egg
• 1 pinch of salt
• 160ml water – that’s where I’m a bit hazy because I kept adding a bit more and a bit more… Basically you want to end up with the consistency of single cream.

Method:

I wanted a very silky batter so I put all the ingredients n my Vitamix but I reckon a food processor would work just fine.

Next heat up a large pan (mine is about 30cm) with a bit of coconut oil – we’re talking enough to lubricate the pan but not so much that you will end up with a greasy wrap, so about the end of a knife’s worth.

When the pan is hot enough, ladle enough batter to cover the pan and leave the wrap to cook on a medium heat. You’ll know when to turn it over when the edges start to lift a little, at this point turn the wrap over and let it cook on the other side for a 1 min or so. Place on a plate and carry on with the rest.

When cooled down comes the fun part: adding the filling and you could use literally anything you like! In mine I added some hummus, sliced avocado, some boiled egg, finely sliced cucumber, some lettuce and some olives.

The easiest way to close those beetroot wraps is the place the filling in the middle but more towards the bottom half. Then fold the sides inwards and start rolling tightly away from you. The portion size will depend on how much filling you put in and how big your pan is, I was going to have two of mine but 1.5 was enough and the other half kept well in the fridge until the next day.