Chicken liver paté a la Mo/M&S

My mum (Maureen) makes this chicken liver paté recipe every Christmas, and every Christmas we search through all her cookery books and find at least 2 other paté recipes before we find the right one.

It’s from one of her M&S cookery books from the 70s. These books were brilliant – sadly M&S don’t make cookery books any more.

The amount below is the quantity given in the book, but since it freezes so well we normally make double.

Chicken liver paté ingredients

• 75g butter
• 1 medium onion
• 225g chicken livers
• 1 clove garlic
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 teaspoons brandy
• Salt and pepper

How to make chicken liver paté

I have reduced this recipe to the bare minimum as it is so easy to make.

1. Fry the onions and garlic in the butter
2. Add the chicken livers
3. Add everything else
4. Cook
5. Process
6. Add brandy
7. Job done!

There's no photo to accompany this recipe at the moment as I haven't actually made it yet this year, but have posted the recipe early at Kerry's request. Maybe you could send in a photo Kerry when you've made it? 

Lentil and pumpkin soup

The delicious dahl and pumpkin soup

It's winter and work is busy so I want a good selection of soups in the freezer for easy (and free) lunches. If you make just one type of soup you'll soon get bored and and be put off eating soup for months. Having a variety of soups in the freezer (frozen, of course, in individual tupperware-shaped portions) will stop your heart from sinking when you contemplate a homemade lunch.

Last Sunday I made three different types of soup, giving me about 10 portions in total. I used instant vegetable stock as the base for all of them. I use reduced salt Swiss bouiIllon stock and add my own salt, as I find the normal stuff too salty.
I adapted this dahl-type soup from one in the New Covent Garden Soup and Beyond book.  

There's a long list of ingredients, but they're pretty standard spice rack staples. You can of course use fresh chillies - the recipe suggests 1 red and 1 green one, but I hate getting chilli juice on my fingers, or worse, in my eye, so use Lazy Chilli or  chilli paste from a jar.

Dahl and pumpkin soup ingredients

• 1 small pumpkin
• 1 medium onion
• About 125g red lentils
• About 1 litre vegetable stock
• 1 thumb root ginger, grated
• 2 teaspoons lazy chilli
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon ground tumeric
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
• lime juice, to finish, to taste 

Method for making dahl and pumpkin soup

1. Heat about 1 desert spoon of vegetable oil in a pan.
2. Add the onions and fry over a medium heat till a little browned at the edges.
3. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli, tumeric, coriander and cumin; fry for about 1 minute.
4. Add the vegetable stock, lentils and pumpkin and bring to the boil.
5. Simmer till the pumpkin is tender and the lentils are cooked. 
6. Mash to your liking with a potato masher. You can liquidise if you prefer, but I like a little texture in my soup. It makes it seem more like a meal and lesslike baby food.
7. Add the coconut milk and tamarind and warm for a minute or two.
8. Add the lime juice after you have removed from the heat and are just about to serve.

I actually wish I had made more of this soup as it is so tasty, and it feels like a real treat having 'curry' for lunch at work. For free.

Apple and rocket salad

I'm not a big fan of courgette and so the idea of it raw in a salad has never really appealed. For some reason, however, I decided to give it a try, and was gobsmacked: raw courgette is sweet and creamy, a million miles from the bitter watery cooked version. It makes me wonder why we ever bother to cook it at all. 

Based on this success, I have decided to incorporate it into a variety of salads.Here's one I made today to go with some lasagne and garlic bread.

Enough for 2 as a side salad.

 

Apple and rocket salad ingredients

• 1/2 small bunch rocket
• About 4 leaves little gem lettuce
• I banana shallot, finely chopped
• A 5cm piece cucumber, cut into thin matchsticks
• A 5cm piece courgette, cut into thin matchsticks
• 1 small English apple cut into thin matchsticks
• A small amount of blue cheese (I used Gorgonzola)

 

Apple and rocket salad dressing ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• juice 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon grain mustard

How to make apple and rocket salad

1. Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a small screwtop jar and shake well to combine
2. Rub a cut lemon over the apple as you slice it to prevent it from going brown.
3. Toss the leaves in the dressing.
4. Pile onto a large plate.
5. Sprinkle over the onion, followed by the cucumber, courgette and apple. 
6. Break up the blue cheese into very tiny morsels and scatter these over the salad.

A few toasted walnut pieces would have worked well in this salad too, but I didn't have any.

Beige soup

Cauliflower (beige) soup, at my desk

Despite this soup looking like something served in an old people's home, it is delicious, and well worth making a batch for freezing in individual portions. 

The magic ingredient that makes it so tasty is cheese. To my mind, the fact that there's loads of virtuous cauliflower in it cancels out the evilness of cheese, thus rendering the soup healthy. 

Its also the perfect way of using up any cauliflower you have left after making cauliflower cheese. 

Cauliflower soup ingredients

• 1 medium onion
• 1 stick celery
• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 1/2 litre chicken or vegetable stock 
• 250ml milk
• 100g cheese - I used farmhouse Cheddar but blue cheese is a delicious substitute - you will probably need a little less 
• 2 bay leaves
• A little grated nutmeg
• Salt and pepper

How to make cauliflower and cheese soup

1. Gently heat about a tablespoon rapeseed oil in a large pan.
   You could use butter if you prefer, but rapeseed oil has a buttery taste and is healthier.

2. Chop the onion and celery very finely and fry for about 7 minutes till soft.

3. Add the stock and bring to the boil.

4.  Reduce the heat and add the cauliflower and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper. 

5. Simmer until the cauliflower is just tender - test with a skewer or sharp knife. 

6. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little, remove the bay leaves, then liquidize.

7. Return to the pan, add the milk and a little grated nutmeg.

8. Grate in the cheese if using cheddar or crumble in if using blue cheese, and bring to a simmer.

9. Simmer til the cheese has melted into the soup.

 

 

 

Barbeque lamb in buttermilk

I've never used buttermilk before; I bought it for a chocolate Guinness cake recipe I made for a bake-off. We came 4th out of 6.  :(

BBQ lamb in buttermilk ingredients

• 2 lamb steaks, cut into large chunks
• Zest 1 unwaxed lemon
• Juice 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• About 150ml buttermilk (1/2 tub)
• 3 tablespoons fresh thyme 
• Black pepper
• Very large pinch salt

How to make BBQ lamb in buttermilk

Mix together all the ingredients and leave to marinade for about 2 hours.

This will produce incredibly tender meat with a wonderful flavour.

Thread the lamb onto skewers and barbequeue, turning regularly till charred on all sides but still pink in the middle.


To go with this I made flatbreads cooked on the grill and a leaf salad dressed only with olive oil and lemon juice. 

I forgot to take a photo.

Roasted vegetable salad

Roasted vegaletable salad with balsamic dressing and yoghurt on the side

A couple of weeks ago salad club was roasted vegetables. This was the list of ingredients:

• Roasted aubergines
• Roasted mixed peppers and onions
• Roasted squash or pumpkin
• Roasted sweet potato
• Roasted potato
• Sundried tomatoes
• Feta cheese
• Pineuts
• Balsamic dressing
• Yoghurt 

For some reason, the person who was allocated squash/pumkin was unable to find any so brought aubergine instead. (Really? Two weeks before Hallowe'en?? Where was he looking? An aubergine shop?) This means we had 2 lots of aubergine, but no squash.

I invited everyone to tell me how they prepared their vegetables but only received four replies. I love the different styles so have copied them verbatim below.

For the sweet potato (as described by Yuki)

Peeled and chopped sweet potato into bite size chunks.
Place in baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Put in oven at 180C and roast for 25mins. 

Paula's comment:  as expected from Yuki, practical, no nonesense, easy to follow instructions. 

For the potatoes (as described by Kate)

1lb of new potatoes
handful of chopped fresh dill
enough olive oil to cover the potatoes
Salt for taste

Paula's comment: I think these were then roasted in the oven, though at what temperature and for how long I don't know. I would also suggest that you simply drizzle olive oil over the potatoes, then toss to coat, rather than submerging them in oil.  

For (one of thee ) aubergines (as described by Amber)

we washed the aubergine, then chopped into cubes, put it in a colander and salted them for 30minutes, then rinsed, then tossed with olive oil, salt, chilli flakes, pepper and  italian mixed herbs. we baked it spread flat on a baking tray and placed in the oven at 180 for around 1 hr, checking and turning occasionally. 

Paula's comment: aw, how cute - love how Amber always says 'we' . Rehan (the other half of the 'we') is welcome at Salad Club any time.

For the balsamic salad dressing (as described by Gina)

Leave a couple minutes earlier so you have time to stop at Tesco
Check email to remember what ingredient assignment is
Locate salad dressing isle at Tesco
Spend a few minutes browsing for the best looking bottle of balsamic
Select and remove from shelf
Continue to check out and pay for your item
Store in fridge until salad club begins
Shake well and serve. 


Paula's comment: Top marks Gina, especially given that you subsequently had to miss Salad Club. Again. 

For the yoghurt side dish

This was my ingredient - it's something my Polish sister-in-law often serves with roast vegetables. 

• About half a large tub (200-250ml) natural or Greek yoghurt
• 2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed in their skins
• A handful chopped parsley
• A handful chopped dill
• A small lug of olive oil
• Salt and black pepper

1. Mix all the ingredients together at least an hour before you want to serve to let the yoghurt take up the flavours.
2. Remove the pieces of garlic before serving.

This was a tasty and filling salad, despite the lack of squash and only half the amount of feta since the other half was mouldy. Cheap too.

Thai chili beef salad

Danielle and Courtney with Thai beef salad

This salad was amazing - I urge you to try it. 

It's very simple to make, only requiring a bit of chopping and steak frying. Even the dressing is effortless. 
 

Thai chilli beef salad ingredients for 12

• Fried steak, cut into thin strips.  
• 3 packs rice noodles
• I cucumber, cut into fine strips
• I yellow or red pepper, cut into thin strips
• I bunch spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 bag cashew nuts, chopped
• I bag ready washed spinach
• Mint and coriander, finely chopped
• Green and red chillies, finely chopped 
• Dressing: 3 parts sweet chilli sauce, 3 parts lime juice to two parts fish sauce

For lunch you only need a little bit of steak, otherwise you'd be stuck in your swivel chair for the rest of the afternoon, unable even to swivel. We used 3 steaks for 12 people. Last night, I used 1 rump steak for 2 of us.

Smoked salmon and new potato salad

Heaven, Courtney, Kate, Danielle, Yuki, Andrea, Gina, Joyce

The problem with writing up Salad Club recipes is that quantities are rarely specified. This means they can be little vague, although generally the quantities seem to work out fine.

This week, however, we had a large turnout, and thought a few extra potatoes were needed. We 'steamed' these in the microwave by cutting them in half, placing in a large tupperware container, covering with boiling water and cooking on a high setting for 10 minutes. I have to say they worked well. Thanks to Kate for the instructions on microwaving potatoes. . 

Smoked salmon and potato salad with horseradish ingredients

Enough for 12

• 3 packs smoked salmon
• New potatoes, boiled
• 1 cucumber, cut into matchsticks
• String beans (aka green beans or French beans)
• 2 avocados, roughly chopped
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• 3 bags watercress*

Creme fraiche and horseradish dressing ingredients

• About 500ml half fat creme fraiche
• 1/2 large bunch dill
• Small amount chopped fresh parsley
• 1 bunch chopped chives
• Rind of 1 unwaxed lemon
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2 tablespoon hot horseradish sauce
• Salt and pepper

How to make fraiche and horseradish dressing

1. Chop the herbs finely and mix together with all the other ingredients.
2. Season to taste, adding more lemon and horseradish till the dressing has the right balance.

A word on watercress

*I watched some rubbish programme last week where James Martin annoyed me about how watercress was underused. Rubbish! Watercress is ubiquitous!

Watercress is a great salad ingredient but doesn't hang around in a good condition for very long. If you get it mixed with other leaves in packets from the supermarket its always the first one to go soggy. You end up either throwing out the whole lot or picking out the rotten watercress to salvage the rocket and spinach. Packs of just watercress from the greengrocer need using up within a day or two before they turn slimy and unusable.

Of course, watercress doesn't just belong in salads. Its peppery taste and vivid green colour can be turned into a cracking sauce to go with fish, or, my favourite, fishcakes.
 

 

 

Salad Club: Tastes of Morocco

From left: Kate, Peggy, Yuki, Danielle

I've been on holiday for a week and in my absence it seems that Salad Club was also on a break.
On my return, we have a Moroccan themed Salad Club.

I am responsible for the hummus and roasted red peppers. I do my usual hummus recipe.

For the roasted red peppers, I do some online research, and find that controversy rages as to the best way of doing this. Some roast the peppers over a naked gas flame. This seems like a tedious and slightly dangerous method to me. So then. Oven? Grill? Whole? Quartered? Who cares? Does it really make that much difference? The answer is probably yes. Having cut and deseeded the peppers and roasted them in a hot oven for about an hour, I took them out and put them straight into a tupperware box with a clip lid, thinking this would make the skins easy to peel off when cool. Wrong. After about half an hour I ended up with an incompletely peeled pathetic little heap of pepper pieces.  I swear, next time I buy them in a jar.

Sorry for cutting your head off Danielle

The rest of the Salad Clubbers brought in the following:

• Cooked chickpeas
• Steak
• Tomato salad
• Artichokes
• Lemon couscous
• Halloumi
• Cucumber, cut into chunks
• Salad leaves
• Steak 
• Chopped dill
• Chopped parsley

For the couscous (Yuki)

Add the rind of half a lemon, some thyme and Moroccan spice mix to the couscous then cover with boiling water and leave to soak for about 10 minutes.

For the tomatoes (Kate)

• Dice tomatoes and add the following:
• Garlic
• Parsely
• Dill
• Spring onion
• Lemon peel
• Cumin
• Ras el hanout
• Curry powder
• Nutmeg
• Red wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper

 
As for the quantities, you're on your own here - this is Kate's secret recipe and She. Will. Take. It. To. The. Grave. 

For the steak (Peggy)

• 1 kg steak
• 2 cloves of garlic, pressed or very finely chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or more to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon chili pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cliantro (coriander)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil  

How to make the steak (as dictated by Peggy)

1. Stab the steak all over repeatedly with a knife. Pretend its that inconsiderate person that was taking up too much space on the tube this morning*
2. Dunk the steak in the 'marinade'. Apparently you are supposed to actually marinade the steak, though I have to say it worked perfectly well without marinading.
3. Make sure you poke some of the pieces of garlic into the holes made by stabbing the steak.
4. Fry the steak in the marinade for a while, then turn it over and fry the other side. My guess is as good as yours as to how long 'a while' is. The marinade will evaporate, leaving a paste.
5. Leave the steak to cool in the paste, then cut up into slices. 

*author's own addition.

All the homemade ingredients this week were exceptional, but the star Tosser had to be Peggy for the steak.

With thanks to article contributors Yuki, Kate and Peggy.  
Additional thanks to Yuki for HTML formatting help.

Salad Club IV: salad nicoise

Kate, Erik,  Peggy

I'm convinced that the reason so many people are missing from this week's salad club is that its a shit salad: tuna nicoise. Although I like every ingredient individually, there is just something about combining them all on one plate that makes me depressed and think of Torquay. Perhaps it once featured in an episode of Fawlty Towers?

Due to drop-outs (going to Amsterdam on business, on holiday in the Caymen Islands, kidney infection, yada yada), myself and Kate (Director of Salad Communications) are stepping up to cover the shortfall.

Salad nicoise ingredients 

• 750g baby new potatoes - cooked, then dressed when hot with a good lug of olive oil and some grated lemon rind
• A lot of green beans (Kate to supply details of exact amount)
• A large tub black olives - we used Kalamata olives which were a little on the salty side but good nonetheless 
• 2 packs cherry tomatoes
• Some salad leaves
• Anchovies - as many as you want, or don't want as the case may be (I hate anchovies)
• 1 boiled egg per person. The eggs were done to perfection by Kate. She boiled them for 2 minutes then took them off the heat and left them in the water, I think.
• 3 tins tuna steak in brine 
• I portion lemon dressing

Lemon dressing for salad nicoise ingredients

• About 10 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• About 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• Juice 1/2 lemon
• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
• Salt, 2 large pinches
• A good grinding of black pepper
• 2 small garlic cloves, crushed, but unpeeled

Oh, and by the way, I am a convert: this salad was delicious.

Salad Club III: Who is him? Greek salad

Today's salad is in honour of our former Greek colleague. We miss you, Nikki Papadaki.

Authentic Greek salad does not contain lettuce or chicken. For some reason, our version included cooked chicken, but I did draw the line at lettuce.

Greek salad ingredients

• 2 packs feta cheese (400g in total)
• 1 large cucumber, cut into cubes
• black olives, a large tub
• 1  red and 1 yellow pepper, cut into cubes
• 2 punnets cherry tomatoes
• 1 small red onion, very finely sliced
• 1bunch mint
• 1 bunch basil
• Cooked chicken

 
 
 
 

Greek salad dressing ingredients

• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Thyme
• Salt & pepper

 

Greek salad accompaniments to serve

Hummus, tzatziki, pitta bread. 


This week's salad club got a little out of hand. There were too many members (9) and too many slackers. We almost ran out of food and I had to send out rules. 

This week's star Tosser was Amber, who brought in home made tzatziki. Kate also deserves a special commendation for the salad dressing.




 

Salad Club II: Mexican chicken

Mexican chicken salad ingredients

• 1 whole cooked chicken 
• 2 ripe avocados 
• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes
•  2 Cos lettuces, or 1 Romaine lettuce (any crispy lettuce will do) 
• 1 small red onion 
• 1 tin sweetcorn 
• 1 tin kidney beans 
• Coriander (cilantro, I am bilingual), chopped (optional) 
• 1 quantity salsa dressing

How to make Mexican chicken salad

This is the easiest salad to make in the world, since we bought a cooked whole chicken from the supermarket. 

1. Pull the chicken meat off the carcass
2. Chop the tomatoes in half
3. Cut the cucumber into thick slices, then quarter the slices
4. Finely chop the onion
5. Slice the avocado into thin slices
6. Put everything in separate bows
7. Empty the sweetcorn into its own bowl, and the beans into another
8. Get Courtney to make the salad dressing.

Enjoy!

Prawns, sardines and chicken on the barbeque

Halfway through September, and summer finally arrived. I  wished I hadn't left the barbeque exposed to the elements for a year, it would have saved my nails from splitting cleaning it with wire wool.

To start, large shell on prawns, marinaded in crushed garlic and lemon juice. Delish.

Next, sardine fillets that the fishmonger somehow convinced me to buy. These were marinaded in olive oil, dill and lemon juice.These only took a few minutes each side  to cook on the barbie.

To go with this, a potato salad, based on several of Nigel Slater's recipes.  

Potato salad ingredients

• 1/3 cucumber
• 6 cornichon
• baby new potatoes - about 300g
• 1/2 bunch dill
• 1/2 bunch chives
• 2 tablespoons half fat creme fraiche
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard  
• I tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• I teaspoon cider vinegar 

How to make potato salad

You need to prepare the cucumber by halving then quartering it and then cutting out the slimy jelly seedy bit in the middle or else it will make your potato salad go soggy. Its not really the best bit of the cucumber in any case. 

Mix together all the ingredients apart from the potatoes in a large shallow dish.

Then you just need to cook the new potatoes by putting them in a pan, pouring over some boiling water and adding a good pinch of salt. Turn down to a simmer then cook till tender - probably about 20 mins depending on the size and variety of the potatoes.

Once the potatoes are tender when tested with a skewer, drain and then toss in the dressing straight away while still hot. This allows the flavours to be absorbed and prevents your potatoes from drying out.

By the way, don't ever add boiling water to floury potatoes (they type you would use for mash or roasties) as they will fall apart in the water.

As you can see, we also had a cheeky little corn on the cob with our sardines and potato salad.

Finally, chicken kebabs. 

Chicken breasts were cut into largeish pieces and marinaded in olive oil, thyme leaves, lemon juice and garlic for a couple of hours. 

I then threaded them onto wooden skewers, soaked for a few minutes in boiling water so the chicken doesn't stick to them, interspersed with pieces of red onion, yellow peppers and cherry tomatoes.

This threading of different vegetables and the meat turned out to be a mistake: the tomatoes were cooked within minutes and started to drip off the skewers. After a little reassembly job the chicken and peppers cooked at the same time, with the onions taking a little longer. This didn't matter, as it gave the chicken a few minutes to rest while the onions finished cooking.
. 

Pasta, prawns, peppers

Pasta is boring. It's what you eat at home when there's nobody else around. Its not something you serve to guests (unless you actually made the pasta yourself) and its not something you choose when eating out. It is lazy cooking. But it can be damn tasty.

If pasta recipes are as easy to write as they are to cook I may be about to enter an extremely prolific blogging phase.

Pasta with prawns and peppers (OK, plus a few more ingredients) 

• 2 small portions fusili pasta (wholewheat or tricolore)
• I bag raw king prawns
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• 1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes
• 4 sundried tomatoes
• 1 bag rocket
• Chilli oil
• Unwaxed lemon, rind only

How to make pasta with prawns and a few other ingredients

 

1. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan.
2. Cut the peppers into very thin strips and fry gently in the oil until they start to blacken a little at the edges -- about 5 minutes.
3. Add the pasta to a pan of boiling, salted water and set the timer for 3  minutes shorter than the cooking time given on the packet.
4. Chop the sundried tomatoes into very small pieces.
5. Cut the cherry tomatoes into a mixture of halves and quarters.
6. Add the prawns to the pan with the peppers and stir fry till pink and cooked through (about 4 minutes).
7. Drain the pasta and blanch with boiling water, reserving a tiny amount of the cooking water in a cup.
8. Put the pasta back in the saucepan, mix together with the peppers, prawns and tomatoes; season.
9. Add a little chilli oil, a little reserved cooking liquid and the rocket.
10. Toss until the rocket has wilted.
11. Serve with a little lemon rind grated over.

More pasta recipes:

Spag bol

Macaroni cheese

Macaroni cheese

Believe it or not, macaroni cheese is O’s desert island meal. I normally refuse to make it at weekends when I have time to cook something that takes more than 20 minutes. Today, however, I have relented. The addition of cauliflower and broccoli bumps up your vegetable intake for the day, but you can leave these out if you want.

This version is perfect for a quick weekday supper, and if you make a little extra you have tomorrow’s lunch for free sorted too. It is lower fat than most versions as it uses 0% fat Greek yoghurt for the sauce. To stop the macaroni cheese from drying out when you reheat it in the microwave add a little more olive oil and a couple more cherry tomatoes before reheating.

Macaroni cheese ingredients

I have no idea about precise quantities but the rough quantities given below will work as is or scaled up.

Serves 2 generously, with enough left over for a free lunch at work the next day.

• Dried macaroni – measure about one third dried pasta of the bowl you want to fill. Penne works too but not as well as short pasta such as macaroni. 
• About half a cauliflower and the same quantity broccoli
• A 170g tub 0% Greek yoghurt
• A handful grated mature cheddar
• About 1/3 teaspoon English mustard
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• 2 or 3 rasher streaky bacon, cut into small pieces (omit for a veggie version)
• A small handful breadcrumbs
• Linseeds, a scattering
• Parmesan
• Cherry or pomodorino tomatoes – a small punnet

How to make macaroni cheese

1. Boil the kettle, then empty into a large saucepan. I don’t understand people who boil water for pasta in the saucepan; it takes forever and I am convinced a kettle is more energy-efficient.
2. Add a pinch of salt to the water then add the pasta. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a simmer.
3. Dry-fry the bacon in a frying pan till crisp.
4. Cut the cauliflower and broccoli into small florets.
5. Tip the Greek yoghurt into a shallow dish. Add the mustard and stir to mix.
   Mustard enhances the flavour of cheese, so you don’t need to use quite as much.
6. Add the grated cheese to the dish and mix with the yoghurt.
7. About 8 minutes before the pasta is ready, put a bamboo steamer over the pan and add the cauliflower to the steamer. Cover with the steamer lid.
8. About 5 minutes before the pasta is ready, add the broccoli to the steamer.
9. Put the kettle on to boil.
10. Heat the grill to high (about 230C)
11. About 3 minutes before the pasta is ready according to the packet instructions, remove the pan from the heat.
12. Drain the pasta, reserving some of the cooking liquid in a cup.
13. Pour boiling water over the pasta and shake any excess off.
14. Mix the pasta with the yoghurt and cheese.
15. Add a little of the reserved cooking liquid to give a loose sauce.
16. Add the fried bacon, chopped spring onions and black pepper.
17. Place the cauliflower, broccoli and tomatoes over the pasta.
18. Grate over a little Parmesan, then sprinkle with the linseeds and breadcrumbs. This will make a crunchy topping.
19. Whack under the grill for about 5 minutes, till the top is golden brown and the tomatoes have burst.