Browse recipes

Black garlic mashed into miso and butter until it becomes a dark, jammy paste, then loosened with pasta water into a glossy sauce that clings. Sweet, deeply savory, and on the table in the time it takes the water to boil.

Elderflower cordial cut with lemon, cucumber and mint over a lot of ice. Barely a recipe, and the most refreshing thing in the book.

Sweet, slowly-sweated leeks and floury potatoes blended into a thick, comforting soup. No cream needed: the potato does all of it.

Sharp apples baked under a thick, buttery oat rubble until the juices bubble up the sides. The one everybody actually wants.

Canned tomatoes and white beans simmered with garlic then blended smooth, so the beans do the work of cream. Fifteen minutes of cooking and almost nothing to chop.

Firm green lentils dressed while warm in a sharp Dijon vinaigrette, with plenty of shallot, herbs and walnuts. Good hot, better after an hour, excellent from the fridge.

Deep brown, glossy and savory enough to stand up to anything you pour it over. Built on properly browned mushrooms rather than on a stock cube.

Soft olive-oil-poached potatoes and onion set in a chickpea-flour batter, cooked slowly until the middle is just custardy. Good hot, better at room temperature.

A proper Sunday project: a dark, savory lentil and mushroom base under a mash lid, browned hard on top. Feeds six and reheats beautifully.

Silky, garlicky and thick enough to coat every strand of pasta. Blended rather than cooked, so it takes about as long as boiling the water.

White beans and vegan sausage baked slowly under a breadcrumb crust until the top is golden and the beans beneath have gone completely creamy. A weekend pot.

Deeply browned mushrooms in a creamy, smoky, mustard-sharpened sauce over pasta. The whole dish turns on getting real color on the mushrooms first.

The Provençal summer-vegetable stew, cooked the honest way: each vegetable browned so it keeps its character, then folded together to melt into a glossy, herby whole.

Good bread toasted hard, rubbed with a cut clove of garlic, then with the cut face of a ripe tomato until the crumb is stained red. Salt, olive oil, and nothing else.

Coffee-soaked sponge layered with whipped cashew cream and a heavy dusting of cocoa. Assembled in twenty minutes, transformed by a night in the fridge.

A deep red paprika stew of mushrooms, peppers and potato, finished with a swirl of plant cream. The paprika goes in off the heat, which is the trick nobody mentions.

Shop-bought gnocchi roasted straight from the packet with cherry tomatoes until the gnocchi crisp at the edges and the tomatoes burst into a sauce. One tray, no boiling.

Whole pears simmered in spiced red wine until stained crimson to the core, then served in their own reduced syrup. Almost no work and looks like a great deal of it.

Oats soaked overnight in plant milk with grated apple, lemon and raisins, then loosened with yogurt in the morning and topped with almonds. Five minutes of work the night before, and breakfast is already made.

Thick discs cut from king oyster stems, scored in a crosshatch so they drink up a nori and miso brine, then seared hard until the cut faces caramelize. The sea flavor comes from the brine, not the shape, which is the step most versions leave out.

Pears roasted in maple and thyme until the cut faces caramelize, served with berries and a cashew cream sharpened with white miso. The miso is doing what a blue cheese does here: salt and funk against sweet fruit, which is the whole reason that pairing works.

A generous vegetable soup with beans and small pasta, built on a slowly softened base of onion, carrot and celery. The kind of pot that improves every time you reheat it.

A whole celery root scored deep, rubbed with oil and thyme and roasted slowly until the outside goes mahogany and crackling and the inside turns sweet and custardy. It comes to the table whole and gets carved like a joint.

Warm waxy potatoes, sliced into thick rounds and dressed while still hot in a sharp mustard-and-vinegar dressing loosened with stock, sharpened with finely diced yellow onion. No mayonnaise anywhere near it.