You know my feelings about oats. They are far too modest to say so themselves, but how many other foods are wholegrain, low GI and more than usually endowed with cholesterol mopping soluble fibre?  And so versatile in the kitchen too.  I’m always pleased to find another excuse to include them in my week and hence my delight at having these spinach, cottage cheese and oat pancakes as a new savoury oaty option.

I know some people pooh-pooh cottage cheese but if you buy the normal stuff it’s actually rather nice and creamy. I think it was all the extra low fat cottage cheese (very watery and lumpy) and those strange additions like prawns and pineapple that did for its reputation. That, and all those flavour free, soul-destroying diets of the 1970s and 1980s.  But if you’re still sceptical about the merits of cottage cheese then give this Baked cottage cheese french toast with a courgette and corn salsa a whirl as a stepping stone to moving on to these pancakes (honestly, I dare you not to like them).

Those savoury oat, spinach and cottage cheese pancakes combine both of these ingredients and are literally a case of blitz and cook.  Credit where it’s due to the awesome Shauna for spotting the sheer simplicity of this recipe. We like these as brunch and making a savoury twist on the original fruity recipe makes it really easy to fit in some extra portions of fruit and veg alongside the pancakes (today a heap of salad leaves and some roast cherry tomatoes).

People with problems absorbing lactose be aware that cottage cheese has much more lactose in it than hard cheeses.

Many more ideas for including more oats in your diet over here, plus a whole host of cheese and egg recipes.

I hated fruit salad when I was a kid. Hated it. And then I grew up and started to enjoy eating fruit, but strangely the dislike of fruit salad persisted. It’s only in the last few years that I’ve realised the the secret to making fruit salad enjoyable. Only use fruit that you enjoy!  D’uh. I know this sounds obvious but it’s taken me so many years to realise that feel that I should pass the message on in case somebody else hasn’t realised.

For me a fruit salad should never be tainted by the smell of a banana, nor the grind of kiwi seeds. And it should definitely have some of the sweet softness of berries to complement the crisp and fresh. But that’s the beauty of making your own, you can cater to all of your own little iodiosyncracies regarding texture and taste, not to mention saving the planet by buying local and seasonal fruit.

A big batch of fruit salad is an indispensable tool for fitting in your five-a-day. Twenty minutes prep at the weekend and you have instant delectable, flexible fruit to hand for the next four or five days.  A fruit salad will live happily in the fridge for the best part of the week ready to be eaten at a moments notice:

• with yogurt
• on porridge or quinoa
• as an impromptu dessert, eton mess style
• naked
• on pancakes or sweet incarnation of this baked cottage cheese French toast

This combination of nectarines, berries and orange zest is how I like my fruit salad in the summer – you can design your own or copy mine.

Scrambled eggs are home-cooking at its most glorious. Quick, delicious, comforting, frugal, familiar.  And almost never nice when eaten out, with catering establishment incarnations ranging from watery through to bouncy. And then there are those diet police versions, throwing away yolks and with them a whole load of flavour, protein, Vitamin D, iron and beta carotene.

This meal is a regular in our house thanks to our girls. Cooking the eggs like this is a good way of enjoying your scrambled eggs while introducing a little healthy monounsatured oil and vegetable.  We use olive oil to cook the eggs and then a little knob of butter to finish them off with that silky texture. Zucchini are mild enough to let the taste of the eggs shine and cutting them into thin ribbons lets the vegetable meld into the soft scramble, rather than introducing unpleasant lumps.  I add the merest hint of a mint for a little whisper of freshness (any more and it will be overpowering).

Anyone who is a gardener has an abundance of courgettes this month.  Even I have one plant, despite drastically reduced home growing this summer in deference the aforementioned house move.  If I can recommend one piece of equipment to you it would be a julienne peeler – thin courgette strips have myriad of uses and a peeler is a doddle to use and clean, plus much less dangerous than a mandoline (I don’t think my cuisipro peeler is available any more, but you’re looking for something along these lines).

More ideas to use up zucchini / courgette

• Baked cottage cheese french toast with a courgette and corn salsa
• Ricotta, courgette, lemon and mint summer sandwich
• Chicken with courgette, halloumi and honey
• Spaghetti with courgette, lemon and goats cheese
• Aubergine, courgette and tomato stew with quinoa and feta

I don’t seem to be able to make up my mind what to call them. I’m starting to prefer using the word zucchini instead of courgette –  wonder if this is down to the hours spent hanging out in this multicultural space, or a nod to the fact courgette were probably my most hated vegetable as a child, whereas I really rather like them now. You’ll have to excuse me for the to-ing and fro-ing between the two for now.

Cooking pasta by the absorption method (risotto style) was all the rage in the food blog world a couple of years back.  A recent revisit has uncovered that it works really well with wholewheat pasta, especially when its combined with the bounties of summer (the sweetest tomatoes, fresh green beans and grassy pea shoots).

The absorption method is a pretty handy way to get a soft, savoury pasta sauce without the calories and fat of your alfredos and carbonaras. The starch released by the pasta is captured in the cooking liquor giving the pasta a silky quality and taking it a step beyond summer’s simpler pasta salads.  The aim here is to cook the pasta just as you would cook a risotto, gently adding liquid and stirring regularly.  The only real potential for error with this technique is if you add the liquid too quickly and on too ferocious a heat, creating a pasta with a soggy outside and hard uncooked centre. This is even more important to watch out for  when you’re using wholewheat pasta but that’s OK, treat this as a chance to slow down for a while and line up a cup of tea or a podcast or a book or just sit and stir.

This year has bought us a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes (red alert and gardeners delight for you garden geeks).  I’ve been making oven dried tomatoes using Wendy’s method which produces something soft and sweet more like a sun blush tomato, not one of those nasty leathery sun dried offerings.

There’s no need to buy pea shoots especially if you don’t grow them. They do have a lovely fresh grassy note but are expensive to buy and not always easy to get hold of.  Any other tender green leaves that you have in the fridge will do such as rocket, baby spinach, watercress.

A word about the stock

Even if you only dabble in growing your own vegetables, chances are that you grow a few radish here and there.  Few crops are as reliable or quick, speeding from sowing to serving in as little as three weeks. Our garden alternates between the mild, multi-coloured globe shaped radish that were my first ever crop and the hotter, torpedo shaped french breakfast radish.

This raita was inspired by a memorable keralan dinner cooked for us by friends, inspired in turn by their recent trip to India.  All of the food was vegetarian and included a dish that looked like a regular cucumber yogurt raita.  The first taste was cooling yogurt and cucumber, but swiftly followed by an unexpected and warming kick of ginger.  The same concept works equally well with the modest radish, which is also much easier to grow in the UK (though I am tempted to have a bash at propogating supermarket ginger indoors).

Like tzatziki and cucumber raita, this dish doesn’t keep terribly elegantly.  It’s not that it goes off overly quickly, just that the vegetables steadily seep water which separates from the yogurt.  You can easily drain off the excess liquid give it a good stir, but as the whole thing only takes five minutes to pull together I just tend to make a batch as I need it.  We use this as an accompaniment to veggie dishes (like the spicy chickpeas in the photo), simply cooked fish and barbecued or griddled meats.  If you fancy it you can add some finely chopped ginger for extra heat.

Other people’s radish

• Spicy Heirloom Radish Salad, with swoonworthy photos from Penny de los Santos
• Pickled radish from Lucy at Nourish Me
• Sarah Raven’s Radish top pasta, for the leafy part
• An Asian radish slaw, from Tea of Tea and Cookies

There’s something about the mention of a frittata that brings to mind Summer, maybe because the word itself is so utterly Mediterranean?  Don’t let these temperate thoughts distract you though – a frittata is actually a perfect quick supper dish whatever the season and a great way to get in a couple of portions of vegetables in one dish.  So while just a few months ago we were cooking courgette, broad bean and feta frittatas, for the past few weeks the same basic recipe has taken on a much more wintery note with variations like this parsnip, kale and red onion frittata.

Potatoes are the traditional starchy addition to frittatas and tortilla but unless you have the pre-requisite “handful of leftover boiled potatoes” lingering in your fridge (we never do), including potatoes can add an unwanted extra stage to the cooking.  Parsnips are quicker to cook and much tastier than spuds and more importantly allow the frittata to keeps its allure as a one pan supper.

I’ve used Gouda which has a caramel sweetness that complements the parsnips and red onion beautifully but most types of cheese that you might have in your fridge would work.  All types of wintery leafy green can be substituted including chard, savoy cabbage or even thinly sliced brussels sprouts.

The quantities below provide a good sized meal for two people with no more than a green salad needed on the side. Smaller portions are ideal for a lighter meal and leftovers are very good indeed cold (perfect for a packed lunch). We’ve taken the leftovers with us for a long car journey before now, wrapped in baking parchment and with a thermos of pumpkin soup on the side (yes, the food at British motorway service stations really is that bad).

Other parsnip recipes on Mostly Eating
Chestnut, parsnip and orange soup
Spring chicken cottage pie (not strictly a parsnip recipe, but delicious with a half potato / half parsnip topping)
(raw) Parsnip, chickpea and goats cheese salad

Pan-friend parsnips with cottage cheese and seeds

Alongside the lush new greens growing in  my garden are some productive older residents including  damson, apple, fig and plum trees. Most of the fruit bounty from the trees is taken care of between eating, passing on to friends and freezing (with just enough sugar). It’s the damsons that need a bit more thought; they are delicious in their own way, but not really all that good eaten au naturel.  

The first batch of purple blue damsons were made into a tub of decadent full fat, cream and sugar ice-cream, courtesy of Nigel Slater. The second batch were destined for Madalene’s Bullace and Conference Pear Breakfast Muffins. And so it turned out were the third batch.  Now before I get on to talking about the muffins, if you haven’t seen it already you should take a look at Madalene’s blog, The British Larder. Her photography is mouth-watering and her recipes are always inspiring me to try out more traditional British produce such as cobnuts, bullace and greengages.

This recipe produces wholesome, unpretentious muffins – the sort you’d have for breakfast or to tide you over until a late dinner.  And there are hidden treasures within the muffins; the damson pieces form little crimson, caramelised nuggets and the cereal flakes become chewy and malty.

My version has a few differences to Madalene’s including vegetable oil (also known as rapeseed or canola oil) for more monounsaturated fats, yogurt with a splash of milk in place of buttermilk (which I can never find to buy), and a touch of allspice (for that autumnal feel).  We don’t tend to have bran flakes in stock so my muffins use an unsweetened cereal flake made from a combination of buckwheat and rice.  Don’t think you can’t try the recipe without access to a supply of damsons either – I’m confident plums would work in their place.

If you’re in the mood for more baking ideas check out this earlier post on How to Make a Healthier Muffin.

Isn’t this purple cauliflower amazing? I was prepared for disappointment with this cauliflower, having had my heart broken a couple of summers back by the amazing purple beans that turn dirty green as soon as they hit water.  Even the lady who grew said cauliflower warned that it would turn an unflattering mucky colour on cooking.  But no, happy days; the cauliflower turned a glorious, unnatural looking blue-tinged lilac.  Maybe it was the steaming that did it?

Cauliflower has been given a bad rap by those for whom its characteristic smell brings back memories of school dinner and also by those who believe no beige food could ever be nutritionally worthy. This is totally unjustified – all of the fruits and vegetables that you can squeeze into your diet count and it is definitely worth having variety as your mantra where veg are concerned as they all have their own hidden talents.  The humble, beige (and purple) cauliflower is packed with glucosinolates, a group of chemicals that seem to help cells repair their DNA and so reducing the risk of cancer-causing damage.  Glucosinolates (found in cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower) incidentally contain sulphur, hence the classic brassica smell.

I was after something a little more substantial than cauliflower mash and so added a can of drained butter beans (almost certainly an idea that had wormed deep into my sub-conscious after reading Kathryn’s excellent cauliflower mash recipe in An Honest Kitchen Winter recipe collection – there are as many new recipes in the world as there are songs).  Tahini brings out the nuttiness of both the cauli and the beans. Chives add that little something that all of the onion family bring to the table with non of the bother of cooking or harshness of the raw.  This puree is delicious as a side dish or slathered onto a piece of garlic-rubbed toast (if you’re adventurous I’m sure you could even turn it into some sort of soup). Unlike mashed potato, which doesn’t count at all, a portion of this puree counts as two servings of veg.

Skirlie is an old-fashioned savoury oat dish from Scotland made with oats and onions cooked in butter or dripping.  I’ve been experimenting with this again recently made with olive oil, fresh herbs and a few extra veggies.  It’s ridiculously easy to make, healthy and far easier to wash up than porridge.

Skirlie has a different texture to porridge; it’s a little moist but also chewy, more like the consistency of cooked brown rice. Ergo, if you aren’t keen on porridge in all its gloopiness you may find that you enjoy skirlie. Likewise die hard porridge fans may find it takes a few mouthfuls to get used to.

That gelatinous wobble of properly made porridge comes from the beta glucan in the oats, a type of soluble fibre that becomes jelly-like when moist.  Large amounts of this soluble fibre is root of many of those health benefits ascribed to oats.  It can keep you feeling full through an ability to swell up dramatically when moist and also because it causes the energy from the oats to be released very slowly into your bloodstream (oats are low GI) .  Soluble fibre also seems to assist your body in getting rid of excess cholesterol, helping to protect against cardiovascular disease (and in case you wanted to know but didn’t like to ask, yes soluble fibre helps to keep you regular too).  Skirlie contains just as much of this beta glucan as porridge, it’s just that it is less physically apparent than in porrdige because the dish contains so much less liquid.  Instead all of that that expansion of the oats will happen inside your stomach instead making skirlie a fairly filling prospect.

Oats love the temperate UK climate, growing over the winter months with about half of the crop going for human consumption and half for animal feed (there’s more info on UK arable crops from DEFRA if you’re interested).

Like so many vegetarian dishes, top it with a poached egg and you have a complete meal (brunch perhaps?). I also use skirlie as a side dish to oily fish or roast chicken (it’s even better with meals that have a little gravy or sauce alongside).  You could also try using it as a stuffing or stirring it into mash.  The flavourings and vegetables you use can be swopped and changed, for example on other days I’ve made skirlie with orange zest, lemon thyme and skinny ribbons of leek.

Making a quick lunch from your larder needn’t be a big deal.  As a food fanatic it’s easy to fall into the trap of over-thinking your next meal, deliberating what to make for so long that eventually you are so hungry you’ll eat anything.  Sometimes it’s good to remember that you are just getting yourself something to eat, grab a few nutritious ingredients and get on with it.

Everybody has (or can plan to have) some combination of these ingredients in stock and use them to knock up a quick lunch. Unlike most stir-fries, this is a true one-pan meal because it doesn’t require you to cook a separate grain (thanks goes to Nigella Lawson for the nifty idea of using a can of drained beans instead of cooking rice or noodles). With the step of boiling water neatly side-stepped, your lunch really can be ready in ten minutes.

This recipe is just a template, a broad list of foods into which you can substitute whatever you have available.  The recipe given is a template from which you can experiment and find your own favourite combination:

Frozen meat substitute

Quorn, seitain, tofu, vegetarian “stir fry strips”, “chicken style pieces”

All of these ingredients are a good source of protein, lower in saturated fat than most meats and can be cooked straight from the freezer.

Canned legumes

Chickpeas (garbanzo), butter beans, red kidney beans, cannellini beans, flageolet beans, borlotti beans, mixed pulses.

Legumes provide fibre, carbohydrate and protein as well as providing a useful vegetarian source of iron. Contributes towards your five a day.

A flavoursome paste

Thai curry pastes, indian curry pastes, sun dried tomato paste, pesto, tapenade

These ingredients can be high in fat but a small amount can provide heaps of flavour.

Fresh green leaves

Baby spinach, kale, rocket, green cabbages, watercress, chard, spring greens
Rich in vitamins, minerals and fibre, counts towards your five a day.

A crunchy, quick cooking vegetable

Bell pepper, courgette (zucchini)
Rich in vitamins, minerals and fibre, counts towards your five a day.

A cooking oil

Olive oil, rapeseed (vegetable) oil

These oils are high in monounsaturated fats, thought to be beneficial for heart health.

Between the beans, green leafy veg and peppers a portion of this stir-fry provides at least two of your five a day.

Instead of the thai flavours in the recipe below, how about making an indian version with chickpeas, garam masala curry paste and spinach, or a more Italian affair with borlotti beans, tapenade and kale?

Other storecupboard customisations on Mostly Eating
A ‘mix and match’ recipe for a wholegrain lunchtime salad
How to make a healthier muffin
Easy ingredients to make your smoothies nutritious and delicious