A fresh take on seasonal favourites adds Middle Eastern spice and cleverly accommodates leftover hot cross buns for afters

The daffodils are out, parading their annual magnificence, and I can’t help but be enchanted by the beauty of spring. While I’m not religious, I also can’t help but revel in the festivities of Easter. Eggs, lamb and hot cross buns are all traditional, but these fuss-free recipes give them a new lease of life. Buy in some flatbreads and pickles to serve alongside the meat, so you aren’t stuck in the kitchen for the whole day. After all, there are more important things to do – such as hunting for chocolate eggs!

Continue reading...

A hearty barley and vegetable soup with a cheesy topping and a quick miso- and ginger-coated chicken traybake on a bed of chard

Like any cook, I love it when people enjoy my food, and I get even greater pleasure when it’s also easy for me to make (and with minimal washing-up). I often turn to these one-pot recipes, which empty the pantry and make something comforting – a hearty, vegetable-filled soup and a speedy, miso- and ginger-coated chicken.

Yasmin Fahr is a US food and travel writer and the author of three cookbooks . Keeping it Simple, by Yasmin Fahr, is published by Hardie Grant Books (UK) at £16.99. To order a copy for £15.46, go to guardian.bookshop.com

Continue reading...

Tweak the accompaniments as you like for this simple, light meal

Toast 4 slices of thick sourdough bread on both sides. Scatter a handful of flaked almonds into a shallow pan then toast lightly over a moderate heat until crisp and pale gold in colour. Bring 750ml of good vegetable or chicken stock to the boil in a deep, medium-sized saucepan. Finely grate the zest from a small lemon and a small blood orange then halve and squeeze both.

Remove the toughest of the stems from about 250g of purple sprouting broccoli , leaving the more tender ones in place. Plunge into the hot stock and boil for 3-4 minutes till tender.

Continue reading...

Cleverly using just one size of cake tin for all her recipes, the baker and author has come up with a stunning array of beautiful cakes. Here, we pick five of our favourites from her new cookbook

Before I moved to the UK, my love for lemons was limited to savoury dishes, lemonade and shikanji, an Indian lemon drink. It wasn’t until 2001 – on the third day of my new life in the UK – that I tried lemon cake. I didn’t know then that it would become my favourite.

Continue reading...

Perfect for a light lunch, starter or snack: asparagus and artichoke fritters with herby yoghurt, and leek fritters with a lemony, green yoghurt sauce

Just three days to go, people! Three days until the equinox when, at 11.06pm, the sun sits directly over the Earth’s equator as it moves northwards. With both hemispheres sharing the sun’s rays equally, night and day are roughly the same length and the season officially, finally, changes. For those of us who look to our plates as much as we look to the sky, this change in season in the UK is marked, unofficially, by the arrival of one wonderful thing: asparagus! It’s here, and we can all boil it and char it and steam, grill or bake it as much as we can during its short season. I’m never one to miss out on the opportunity to make fritters, so frying is going to be first up in my kitchen, not least because it’s also at long last time to open the kitchen window.

Continue reading...

An appletini with the ingenious addition of a homemade celery syrup

This is a revitalising cocktail with a (slightly) healthy twist, making it ideal for those with a mindful palate as we finally enter spring.

João Chitas, bar manager, Octagon Bar at Sopwell House , St Albans, Hertfordshire

Continue reading...

See off winter with hazelnut cake and spring rhubarb, and comforting, spiced sweet potatoes

A slice of tender cake, a few fallen crumbs at its side, a spoonful of whipped cream and a little puddle of fruit. I ask for nothing more at tea time at the weekend and am happy if such crumbs of comfort are offered up as a dessert on other occasions.

There is a cake and fruit for every season. On an early summer’s day, an almond sponge with a pool of cherries; in autumn, stewed damsons, their purple juice bleeding into a triangle of fudgy vanilla cheesecake. At this point in winter-spring, a soft-crumbed hazelnut cake, a pink tangle of rhubarb and a small mound of whipped cream – perhaps flecked with vanilla – will fit the bill. If there is no fruit, I will eat my cake with apricot jam, warmed in a small saucepan then trickled over, sticky and glowing.

Continue reading...

A light, easy meal for a chilly spring day

Any dish that features chicken and tarragon feels spring-like to me, but this one – light, yet substantial enough for a chilly day – feels especially so.

Cut 2 large bone-in chicken breasts in half and season them with salt and black pepper. Warm a little olive oil in a sauté pan, add the chicken and let it brown lightly on both sides. Add 150g of small mushrooms , such as shimeji or little button mushrooms, and let them cook for 5 minutes in the chicken’s cooking juices.

Continue reading...