A Modern Way to Cook: Over 150 quick, smart and flavour-packed recipes for every day

½ a red chilli

1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari

2 limes

a little runny honey

Get all your ingredients and equipment together. Soak the peanuts in iced water and put them into the fridge while you get on with everything else.

Peel the carrots, then use a speed-peeler to peel them into long strips and place them in a bowl with some iced water.

Cut the watermelon into bite-size pieces, removing any very seedy bits and the outer skin. Halve the cherry tomatoes. Pop both into a serving bowl and put into the fridge.

Use the speed-peeler to peel the cucumber into long strips too, stopping when you get to the watery seeded bit, and add to the serving bowl of watermelon and tomatoes in the fridge. Shred the lettuce and pick the coriander leaves from the stalks.

Chop the red chilli for the dressing and put into a small bowl with the soy, the juice of both limes and a small squeeze of honey. Taste and adjust, adding more lime, honey and soy if needed until you have a nice balance of heat, acidity and sweetness.

Take the serving bowl and the peanuts out of the fridge. Drain the peanuts and carrots well, add to the bowl and pour over the dressing. Toss through the lettuce and scatter over the coriander. Eat in a breezy spot, while thinking of dipping your feet in the pool.

10 favourite omelette fillings

An omelette is one of the ultimate quick dinners. These are my 10 favourite omelette fillings, but follow this pattern and you can’t go wrong: main veg – back-up veg – accent flavour – back-up flavour – richness.

See here (#ulink_066ee32c-bf71-582d-ba9e-9cde035720a8) for my favourite way to make an omelette, and remember to buy the best eggs you can.

Gently spiced sweet potato and quinoa bowls

The first time we made this was one of those moments where a few things pulled out of the fridge were thrown together for a quick dinner and the stars aligned to make something brilliant. It is, in fact, John’s recipe. He is amazing at cooking quick nutritious food, and about the only person I know who really truly honestly in his heart of hearts would prefer a bowl of vegetables to just about anything else.

You can have this on your table in about 15 minutes and it uses quinoa in a way I would never have considered, yet it is so good. Here, coconut and turmeric are backed up by minerally greens and a final shock of lemon. Good, quick, tasty eating.

I use chard, but spring greens or even spinach would work just fine. Creamed coconut instead of coconut milk gives a more intense flavour and lends itself well to quick cooking.

SERVES 3

150g quinoa

1 teaspoon vegetable stock powder, or ½ a stock cube

4 spring onions

1 clove of garlic

coconut oil

2 teaspoons mustard seeds (I use black)

2 carrots

1 sweet potato

½ × 200g pack of creamed coconut

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

½ × 400g tin of chickpeas, or 250g home-cooked chickpeas (see here (#litres_trial_promo)–here (#litres_trial_promo))

400g bunch of chard or spring greens

1 lemon

Fill and boil a kettle and get all your ingredients and equipment together.

Weigh out the quinoa in a mug or measuring jug, making note of the level it comes up to, quickly rinse it under cold water, then pour it into a large saucepan. Fill the mug to the same level with boiling water and add to the pan, then repeat so you have double the volume of water to quinoa. Add the stock powder or cube, then put the pan on a high heat, put the lid on and cook the quinoa at a steady simmer for 10–12 minutes, until almost all the water has been absorbed and the little curly grain has been released from each quinoa seed.

Meanwhile, chop the spring onions into thin rounds. Peel and finely slice the garlic. Put a saucepan on a medium heat and add a knob of coconut oil. Throw in the spring onions and cook for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic and the mustard seeds and cook until the seeds begin to pop.

Peel the carrots and cut in half lengthways and then into thin slices, then do the same with the sweet potato. It’s important that the slices are thin, so that the vegetables cook quickly. Add them to the pan and cook for a minute before adding the creamed coconut, turmeric, drained chickpeas, 400ml of hot water and a good pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes, until the sweet potato is soft.

Keep an eye on your quinoa – it should have absorbed all the water by now, and the little curly grain should be visible. If it is, turn off the heat and leave the lid on.

Finally, cut the leaves off the chard or greens and shred them finely, then finely slice the stalks. Heat a tiny bit of coconut oil in a frying pan, add the stalks and fry for a minute, then add the leaves and sauté until wilted – this will take 2–3 minutes.

Once the sweet potato is cooked, stir the quinoa into the coconut and sweet potato. Serve in deep bowls, with the chard on top, and finish with a squeeze of lemon.

Smoky pepper and white bean quesadillas

10 MINUTES

Quesadillas, like a lot of Mexican food, get a bad write-up as being cheese-laden and lazy, but they are a truly quick meal, and by filling them with not just cheese they become more nourishing and much more delicious.

Here I have stepped away from the straight-up Mexican quesadillas and introduced some Spanish flavours. Roasted red peppers, smoky paprika and white beans – it makes me think of summer trips to Barcelona, and that can never be a bad thing.

If you are vegan, leave the cheese out and double the white beans, which hold it all together; you may want to be more generous with the seasoning too. I mostly make these at lunchtime, but they are filling enough for a dinner – you might want some sherry-vinegar-dressed green salad on the side.

If you are making these for a party, which I often do, the filling can be made in bigger batches really easily. The quesadillas can be stacked in the fridge, filled, and ready for frying.

SERVES 2 (MAKES 1 DEEPLY FILLED QUESADILLA)

2 spring onions

olive oil

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

50g cooked white beans

100g jarred, roasted red peppers