What to cook this week

After three long years of Christmas cancellations and Zoom drinks we can finally PARTY! like it’s 1999. Nibbles or full-on dinner? Plenty ideas here for either option.

Chocolate makes us happy. It is good for us, in sensible quantities. It contains chemicals that aid the immune system and make us clever (seriously).

Like the Geordie girls who never dress for the weather, I don’t cook for the weather. It’s November, right? That means salads are out, in come stews and casseroles.

Ditch the supplements: the boring solution to aid your immune system is a varied diet with lots of plants, fibre and naturally occurring vitamins and nutrients.

Game is affordable and excellent value, sustainable and benign for the environment, and as ethical as killing animals for meat can get away with being.

Autumn is the time of plenty. Summer tomatoes, aubergines and peppers have worthy successors: parsnips, beetroot and carrots. Boring? Wait till you try the autumnal vegetable tian.

Food pairing for new flavours, what-goes-with-what or some brilliant matches to make in your pan, in the baking tray and on the plate - like figs baked with blue cheese.

Nuts are full of nutrients, antioxidants and fibre while supporting healthy lifestyle when munched as a snack. But they can also be used in cooking in many ways.

If you buy your bread, look at the label: anything other than flour, yeast and salt is additives, extra sugar and salt. Which is of course why it's best to bake your own.

Gen Z are very impressive. It doesn’t mean they don’t get takeaways, but they also cook! So here’s a handful of suggestions from me: how to cook your way through uni.

The most sustainable food of all that grows anywhere at hardly any cost, which is also amazingly nutritious and supremely delicious.

Peaches, apples, pears and grapes: much more than just pies and cakes. Autumnal salads with cheese and walnuts are on the menu, and did you know how wonderful grapes were roasted with meat?

September is the time of plenty: there is so much to choose from to put on your plate! Peppers, aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes provide endless cooking inspiration.

Pork deserves more attention. The myth that it's fatty and awfully unhealthy is all porkies. Look at Italians with their porchetta, lardo, salami - the list is long and very piggy.

We’re back on the treadmill, and instead of leisurely barbecues and beach picnics, we’re having to cook full meals in the ten minutes between the school run and a music lesson.

Homegrown tomatoes are warm from the sun, the fragrance from the leaves magnifying their own, so this year the amateur garden growers are the winners.

Spinach is such a versatile produce! It’s the best side dish for fish. It works as a filling, it's the perfect couple with cheese, and it’s good for breakfast!

Green beans, broad beans, carrots, lovely little beetroots, broccoli and sweetcorn: there are plenty of gorgeous dishes to be made with the local and the summery.

Create the summer holiday atmosphere at home, cooking classic dishes from Spain, Italy and Greece! Cheer yourself up with holiday style food if you're not going away right now.

Homemade ice cream might not always be the perfect texture but it is free of weird chemicals and can easily be made lower in calories if you cut down sugar.

How to cook when the kitchen is like an oven already? Come outside and barbecue away, or eat salads that don't require much effort and next to no cooking.

Let's have a run through my best berry recipes. If you think they are only fit for sweets and desserts, you'll be surprised. But obviously it’s cakes and desserts, primarily, that we want to put berries into.

Sunny weather + friends coming round = barbecue! But what to serve alongside burgers and sausages? Banish the eternal mixed salad and make a bowl of spring cabbage salad instead.

Contrary to recent research, I stick to my guns: no breakfast doesn’t mean weight loss. And morning is actually the best time to eat sweet carbs as the French know well.