Basic recipes

Peanut butter & jam cookies Makes around 20 This is literally the contents of my baking cupboard poured into a bowl….  we used two different jams – apricot, and black cherry – you can use whatever you’ve got. Likewise, you can use any kinds of dried fruit, and nuts. The cookies would actually be better with dried cranberries, cherries and blueberries, but I don’t have them! Ingredients: 300g self raising flour 100g soft light brown sugar Large pinch of salt 50g mixed, roasted nuts – we used walnuts and cashews 90g mixed dried fruit  150g smooth peanut butter 50ml coconut oil, melted 90ml soya milk (or any plant based milk) 1 tsp vanilla essence Jam – we used black cherry, and apricot jams Flaked almonds Method: Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees celsius and line a couple of baking sheets with greaseproof paper. Mix flour, sugar, salt, mixed fruit and nuts into a large bowl. Mix milk, coconut oil, peanut butter and vanilla essence togethe

Dhal and homemade naan  Serves 3-4 The dhal recipe is stolen from Delicious magazine, but as our store cupboards and fresh herbs and vegetables run a bit low, I’ve adapted it to a more basic version. Also, we tried to buy yeast in the supermarket a couple of weeks ago, with no success so we made a yeast-free naan which still tastes pretty good. Dhal: 300g red lentils 400ml tin of coconut milk 400g tin chopped tomatoes vegetable oil 2 tsp curry powder 1 tsp crushed coriander seeds 1 tsp chilli flakes 100g chopped kale  1 tsp chilli flakes Naan: 210g plain flour 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp salt ½ tsp baking powder 1 tsp ground cumin 1tsp crushed coriander seeds 1 tblsp olive oil 120ml oat milk (or any plant based milk) vegetable oil Method: Put the lentils in a large, heavy based, pan with a pinch of salt, the tin of coconut milk and 600ml water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tin of tomatoes and simmer for 3

Rice and beans Serves 3-4 I have to give full credit for this recipe to my daughter Louise. She ate it every night for about six months when she was a student. She made it for us recently and we’ve become addicted. This is a staple dish of many countries and we make no claim that this is an authentic rice and beans recipe, it’s a low budget UK student version. The best thing about this recipe is that you can substitute nearly all ingredients for whatever you have in your cupboards. Any green vegetable will do – broccoli, spinach, kale, green beans, asparagus – whatever you’ve got either fresh or in the freezer.  Likewise, you can use any beans you might have in the cupboard – black beans are great, as are cannellini beans, borlotti beans or even chickpeas.  Ingredients: 300g brown rice 1 x 400g tin butter beans 1 x 400g tin kidney beans (or whatever beans you have in the cupboard) 1 x tblsp olive oil plus more for drizzling 100g chopped kale (or spinach, or any g