Butterbean (Lima Bean) Pasta Salad

This is a relatively simple and quick cold pasta salad; I often make some variant of this recipe for lunch at work when I want to have a break from sandwiches. For convenience, you can make it the night before, pop it into the fridge, and then take it into work the next day. It would also work well for a picnic salad (though as I write this, it's completely the wrong season). I designed this recipe in order to have a well-balanced lunch - carbs (pasta) plus protein (beans) plus vegetables. This time I happened to use butterbeans (i.e. lima beans) and sweetcorn, but I have used other beans (kidney, cannellini, whatever else is in the cupboard) and other veg (e.g. sweet pepper or cherry tomatoes) so feel free to play around with the recipe as you see fit. If you don't like mayonnaise, I have also made this before with a simple home made salad dressing of oil and vinegar, so you could do that instead.

Sweet potato, feta and pine nut pie

This pie is one of my 'I have some odds and ends that need using up so I'll just try make something up' recipes. The filling definitely has a wow factor (for me) and all the flavours really worked well together. I'm not entirely convinced as to the pastry - as you may be able to tell from the photos, I did not make enough so the 'lid' was not entirely closed! I've estimated how much would be better and changed the amounts here. In fact, I think it would be better - instead of having a full enclosed pie - to just add the filling straight to the dish, and top with a store bought puff pastry 'lid'. This would also make things easier.

Mushroom, Lentil and Carrot Soup

This soup recipe comes from my first vegetarian cookbook, which I bought when I was still eating meat but wanted to cut down my intake. It has been many years but I still come back to this recipe time and time again. The reason? One word describes this soup: tasty. The addition of red wine and soy sauce gives it a really rich, savoury flavour. An absolute must to get you through the winter!

North African Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew

Another Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe that I have tweaked to suit my store cupboard contents; despite having a large library of cookbooks, I keep coming back to his 'Veg Everyday!' cookbook because it's so fabulous. This is essentially a Moroccan stew, but the addition of pasta means this is a one-pot dish and you don't need to serve with any carb e.g. cous cous. The low pasta content (in fact I added more to Hugh's original recipe) in the stew also means those who would rather have it without can, in my view, remove it without fear of compromising the recipe too much. I bought saffron especially for this, because I've always seen it in recipes and omitted it, but felt like trying it out. I have to admit that I balked at the price - four GB pounds for a small jar! However, I pressed on and bought it anyway. I have to admit, I'm not sure how much it adds to the dish - perhaps a subtle flavour - so if you too do not feel like shelling out for such an expensive spice then feel free to omit that too.

Leek, Red Onion, and Blue Cheese Pizza

This pizza topping is relatively easy to make and the blue cheese compliments the sweetness of the red onions and the sharpness of the leeks. Delicious! If you have a breadmaker with a pizza dough setting, use that to make the dough. Otherwise, just follow the instructions I've provided below. Of course, you could just use store-bought ready-made pizza bases, but they are far inferior to home made, so if you have the time (and the inclination) I'd strongly suggest making the dough yourself.