Tahini with roast aubergine, the classic lentils with rice and caramelised onions , and a creamy mashed courgette salad

When I close my eyes and try to think of a dish that says home, mujadara is usually the one that comes to mind. Mind you, the same probably goes for most Palestinians: this humble yet hugely satisfying meal was easily the most requested recipe on my radio show, Ramblings of a Chef , which I started during the pandemic. Mafghoussa , meanwhile, is a refreshing side for grilled meats or to serve by itself with bread as a light meal – the word means “squashed” in Arabic, and the name of the dish came about because the vegetables involved are mashed during or after cooking and served as a cold salad.

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Char it, grill it, even soupify it – our panel of cooks lets us in on secret ways to enjoy lettuce

• Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

How to use up a whole head of lettuce before it turns – no salad, please
We’re talking about how to apply heat here, because raw lettuce is all about salad (unless you’re using the leaves to cradle mince or mushrooms, which is also an excellent shout). Braising is as good a place to start as any, says Farokh Talati , head chef at St John Bread and Wine in London. Cut the lettuce in half through the root and season, and get a cast-iron pan on the heat. “If I was doing this at the restaurant,” Talati says, “I’d use beef dripping, but you could fry bacon in vegetable oil instead, then lift it out and use the fat left in the pan; or, for vegetarians, just use olive oil.” Once the fat is smoking hot, pop in the lettuce cut side down, cook until well charred – “We’re talking dark ” – then take out of the pan. Talati would then fry chestnut mushrooms or poached sweetbreads and smoked bacon, before returning the lettuce to the pan with a little chicken or porcini stock, and perhaps some thyme and crushed garlic. Cover, simmer until you have “a lovely rich sauce”, and finish with a splash of balsamic or sherry vinegar.

For a thrill from the grill, Olly Oakley, head chef at the Harcourt Arms in Oxfordshire, barbecues lettuce whole. “It ends up with a nice, smoky, warm middle,” he says, making it ideal for serving with a caesar-type dressing or anchovy butter, plus a smattering of pangrattato to “hearten things up”. Alternatively, Talati adds, rub seasoned lettuce wedges with extra-virgin olive oil and harissa. “Really work them into the leaves, then get it on the barbecue and cook, turning every three minutes, until wilted.” Transfer to a tray and “rest whatever else you’re grilling, be that sausages, pork chops or steak, on top of the lettuce, so all the resting juices drip on to it”.

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

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Trini-style soft pillows of fried bread sandwiching spiced chickpeas and served with a punchy cucumber chutney

Doubles are a delicious and popular Caribbean street food. They’re made up of two soft, puffy fried breads (or baras ), hence the name doubles, stuffed with a filling of tasty chickpeas and eaten with chutney (cucumber, in today’s case). Unless you’ve tried them, however, it’s hard to do them justice – it’s a bit like telling someone who has never heard of Elton John that he’s a great pop star. So may I make a suggestion? Please stop by one of the UK’s many roti shops and order one (some?), then pop back here at a later date to make these.

Discover this recipe and over 1,000 more from your favourite cooks on the new Guardian Feast app , with smart features to make everyday cooking easier and more fun

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A grilled salad of onions and shallots with boiled eggs and tarragon yoghurt, and a hearty chive and challah bread pudding

It’s the oldest trick in the book: get some onions and garlic on the stove, cook them until they’re smelling lovely, and everyone will assume that dinner is just around the corner. One way to fast-track that process is to make those alliums the stars of the show, rather than just a background note. From shallots to spring onions and chives to calçots, onions and garlic are just two players in the vast and varied allium family. Unlike other vegetables, alliums accumulate energy stores in chains of fructose sugars, rather than starch, and cooking transforms them from harsh to super-soft and sweet. So, instead of making everyone think of supper, think of onions themselves as supper!

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When you’re hankering after something starchy and satisfying, this soupy spring rice delight will definitely please the tastebuds

I don’t know whether I prefer saying risi e bisi or eating this Venetian springtime speciality, which is traditionally made to celebrate the feast of St Mark, the city’s patron saint, on 25 April. That said, this deliciously soupy, starchy dish ticks a lot of boxes for me at this time of year, not least because even I can amuse myself in a terrible Italian accent for only so long.

Prep 15 min
Cook 1 hr
Serves 4

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Celebrate the freshness of a new season with ricotta gnocchi with raw pea pesto, fennel sausage penne and broccoli orecchiette

Prep 20 min
Cook 1 hr 25 min
Serves 4

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Crunchy with fennel, lettuce and green beans, with soft boiled potatoes, this tuna salad comes with the double whammy of a tuna-laced sauce

My parents live in Mallorca, and one of my favourite things to eat when I visit them is the most simple ensalada mixta . The best ones are just a mountain of lettuce, white asparagus, a mound of tinned tuna and some capers. As a child, I’d eat all the tuna first, so here is my favourite tuna salad: tuna with tuna dressing, which is inspired by Italian tonnato sauce. A double tuna salad! To me, that’s perfect.

Make More with Less: Foolproof Recipes to Make Your Food go Further by Kitty Coles is published by Hardie Grant (£22). To buy a copy for £19.36, go to guardianbookshop.com

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A spring soup-stew known as scafata and typical of Lazio, featuring chard, potatoes, artichokes and new-season broad beans

Broad beans are back – long, green fingers with the odd black nail. And so are the warning signs, for those who suffer favism (a rare but acute haemolytic syndrome), as well as for those, such as my neighbour, who think that fave are an abomination. For fans, the first young beans are good raw, with pecorino or cheddar. In Lazio and central Italy, scafa is dialect for a broad bean pod, and scafare the verb for removing the beans from their pods; therefore, scafata is a dish involving podded beans. As you might expect from a dish shared by different regions, scafata has as many variations as cooks that make it, but, broadly speaking, it can be described as somewhere between a brothy stew and a dense soup involving broad beans and other spring vegetables, such as chard, onions, potatoes and artichokes.

The cooking method is what I think of as a steamy braise, which is also a possible chapter title for an as-yet-unwritten detective story. One steamy braise might start with a letter containing a feather and a ring. The other – this one – starts by cooking vegetables in a generous amount of olive oil. Once they are just starting to soften, liquid is added and the pan half covered, allowing the vegetables to soften further in both the liquid and steam, which (having done its job) evaporates, leaving behind a vegetable liquor and an olive oil broth.

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Welcome to a win-win vegetarian Italian classic: it’s simple, delicious and makes clever use of old bread

Today’s easy recipe for Italian vegetarian “meatballs” is a great way to use up stale bread in a tasty yet economical way. I like them gently fried, then mixed with tomato sauce and spaghetti, but they’re also great coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried or baked until crisp and delicious. They’re good with steamed seasonal greens, too. Other variations on the theme include placing a cube of mozzarella in the middle of each ball and taking this dish to the next level. Unless I’m feeling flush, though, I prefer to keep things simple with just breadcrumbs flavoured with parmesan or a vegetarian alternative (or whatever cheese I have to hand).

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