What to cook this week

If you love potatoes, early spring is the time to enjoy them with impunity. They are much lower in starch than mature potatoes, but rich in fibre. How to prepare Jersey Royals or Cornish new?

When big coats go into the cupboards and sleeves shorten, it’s time to shift winter pounds. Are you going to intermittently fast? Whether or not, let’s make it lean and healthy.

Easter is the chocolate holiday. I’ll probably make some DIY mini crème eggs, but it’s the hot cross buns that excite me the most at Easter: a breakfast of one or two toasted and buttered is pure delight.

Life with no biscuits in it is a bit miserable. But rather than buying them, we should bake an occasional batch, and there is no easier thing to bake than biccies.

Is it time? Is it time yet for the fluffy, sticky, cheerful and disgustingly nice hot cross buns? Is three weeks ahead indecently early, like Christmas decorations in September? Who cares!

The Hungry Season used to be the time when winter crops were finished and the fields were empty. These days you wouldn’t even know, but we can still be seasonal and responsible using tins, frozen and dried produce.

Do you seem to be cooking the same foods over and over? Find inspiration for exciting dishes that won’t require special skills, equipment or ingredients and won’t take hours slaving at the hob.

Penne, trofie, linguine or fusilli – I adore them all. But I cook pasta at home because it is ridiculously easy to do well, and I’d rather spend my money eating out on foods I don’t or can’t make myself.

It’s much better value to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a gorgeous meal at home. There are some super easy and very impressively special options to choose from.

It’s not just about keeping you regular! Fibre is important for our general health and heart health in particular. So what to eat and what to cook for happy gut and plenty of roughage?

While your rice cooker is preparing the perfect side of rice, you can focus on your stir fries, meat and vegetable dishes to serve it with.

The weather at this time of year is conducive to dishes that warm our cockles. Winter warmers should be saucy, creamy or cheesy, anointed with gravy, swimming in butter or drowned in broth.

How to make sure your protein intake is sufficient if you do strength training? If your diet is balanced and full of necessary nutrients, you need no extra protein powders or shakes.

Mushroom based fusion dishes served in bowls, washed down with funky drinks? That's my take on next big food trends, somewhat simplified.

Leftovers are the best Christmas food. Christmas dinner is special, but it’s the week after when you really appreciate the turkey or the duck.

Christmas lunch is a doddle, I tell ya: the only thing that matters is good gravy and plenty of roast potatoes. The roast? Half the kids are vegan anyway so most of the turkey will go to waste.

Everyone should bake and prepare what their Christmas table crowd will welcome most, not what’s traditional. If nobody likes Christmas pud, ditch it and bake gingerbread cake instead.

Do you know anyone who doesn’t like potatoes? Or, more on trend, who is potato-intolerant? I thought not. Just consider how many different ways they can be cooked in.

It’s the vibrant time of the unassuming autumnal heroes: root vegetables. I look forward to trays of caramelised carrots, sweet parsnips, gnarly celeriac and humble turnips.

Cook from the cupboard and the fridge, making use of what you have rather than planning fancy dishes you hadn’t shopped for. Far less wasteful!

If it’s fish for dinner, it’s likely to be salmon in UK households. A great source of omega-3 fatty acids, it’s tasty and it’s versatile. We should just pay attention to where it's sourced from!

When cooking on a budget, and if you have a bunch of meat eaters to feed, mince is unparalleled. Mince, minced meat or ground meat has uses far beyond students' spag bol.

Remember, remember the fifth of November! Let's gather round a bonfire with mulled wine and a slice of parkin. And pumpkins are better as food than as lanterns!

It's that time of the year when all you want is a blanket, streaming service and a bowl of soup. Stormy days endorse food that has been cooked for a long while, mostly hands off.