Advice & Inspiration For Your Garden

Pumpkin cornbread

Serve this delicious savoury bread with soup or strong cheeses, such as Stilton, mature Cheddar or a hard goats’ or ewes’ cheese. The bread is lovely toasted and freezes well.Makes 1 x 450g loaf250g p

Sweet potato, ginger and coconut gratin

This is a massive family favourite. We might eat it as a main course one day with a green salad, and then often have the leftovers as a side veg the next day, delicious alongside chicken or fish.For 4

Mushrooms with polenta

Anything with a strong flavour and a soft texture is good with polenta. I love polenta with braised chicory and it’s wonderful with mushrooms. You can use a real mix of mushrooms for this, the more va

Cauliflower couscous

This so-called ‘couscous’ made from nearly-raw cauliflower is an excellent side dish to have with any of the chillies or curries. It looks great with multi-coloured cauliflower, often at its best at t

Squash and Feta Filo Parcels

One of our favourite things to serve for our Garden Open café lunches, filled with squash, courgettes, spinach, chard, grated beetroot, fennel, or a mixture of veg. You can make these in batches and f

Basil oil

I enjoy making a few bottles of basil oil at this time of year just before the basil goes black with the colder nights. It makes a brilliant present, and gives invaluable summery flavour to autumn and

smoked haddock and beetroot gratin

serves 6 600g beetroot (we used mixed colours) 2 tbsp oil Salt and pepper 200g finely chopped leek 425ml full fat milk (or almond milk) 500g undyed smoked haddock 50g butter (or set

roasted tomato soup

serves 6 as a main course, 8 as a starter 1kg ripe tomatoes 2 roughly chopped fennel bulbs (about 400g) 2 large quartered onions 3 tbsp cold-pressed rapeseed oil 3 crushed garlic cloves2 tbsp (ab

griddled fennel aubergine recipe

This tasty aubergine dish is an excellent easy late summer/autumn lunch or starter for dinner. At lunch, serve it with a pile of green salad.serves 6 (or 2 if you like it strong) 3 aubergine

kale and chickpea curry recipe

My sister Jane gave me this good Oriental-tasting and healthy curry recipe. She discovered it while on a detox, but now cooks it all the time. It's one of my children's favourite meals. The mush

stuffed butternut squash recipe

This is a simple butternut squash recipe that we often cook for lunch in the autumn, when there are lots of them about. You can use any squash, but with butternut, it's perfect. for 2

squash and cumin soup with squash chips recipe

This is one of the best autumn soups for pumpkin or squash. The flavour improves if you cook it some time before. It also freezes well.for 4 3 teaspoons cumin seeds 1 teaspoon coriander se

green pawpaw, carrot and cashew salad

A classic Thai street food salad, based on pawpaw at its unripe, green stage, when it has all its anti-inflammatory and digestion-aiding properties, but none of the big sugar hit. The cashews en

grape jelly recipe

Home-grown grapes in this country tend to be small, not all of them ripen and they can be thick with pips. You can eat a few with cheese and make jelly with the rest. This is lovely on bread or

spiced aubergine salad recipe

This salad is lovely served warm as a first course with cucumber raita and flatbread.Serves 6-8 3 large-to-medium-sized aubergines (about 1kg) 3 tablespoons good extra virgin olive oil 1

sloe gin (or damson vodka) recipe

This sloe gin or damson vodka recipe can be adapted to the fruit you have to hand. Damsons left after the vodka is strained are perfect to eat with ice cream or yogurt. This makes a pe