Assemble it all, put the oven on to preheat (180C, Gas mark 4):

Warm the oil in a non-stick pan. Chop the onion (medium/fine) and add it to the oil. Chop the chilli, or get a teaspoon of chilli powder/flakes (you know how spicy you like it), and add to the onion and oil. Warm on a medium-low heat for 5 – 10 minutes:

Meanwhile, drain and rinse the kidney beans, and then roughly mash them in a bowl with a fork or potato masher:

Add them to the onion and chilli, stir to combine. Heat for another 5 minutes:

Grate the cheese. On this occasion I used a combination of cheddar and mozzarella:

The refried beans will become a bit gooier (sp?):

Split the french stick lengthways, and cut into appropriate sized sections. The original recipe suggests tearing some of the bread out of the middle if your french stick is too fat, but on this occasion that didn’t seem necessary. Spread the refried beans evenly over the bread:

Add the cheese:

add more cheese…

Put them in the oven until the cheese is golden brown:

Serve with salad, guacamole, soured cream, salsa:

These go particularly well with a Portuguese red wine, preferably an Alentejo.

Look how simple:

Put water on to boil for the pasta, and melt the butter in a pan:

For this particular version, I added some dried chilli flakes to the butter at this stage.

Add the cream to the butter, then bring to the boil, and turn down to simmer for 4 minutes.

Put the pasta to cook as per the instructions on the packet.

Add the grated parmesan to the butter and cream, plus a good few twists of black pepper:

Stir the parmesan in, and it will disappear, as if by magic (or by melting, one of the two).

Drain the pasta, then chuck it into the cream sauce and stir in until covered.

For this version I then stirred in the rocket:

Serve with extra grated parmesan and a side salad. ‘Cos, you know, this meal needs some more vegetables, really.

A wine recommendation for this? A smooth, medium-bodied Portuguese red, like an Alentejo.

Here’s what you’ll need. You’ll notice I didn’t have as much broccoli left over this evening, so I threw in a few petit pois to make up the quantity of greens.

Get everything ready, thus: chop the broccoli into florets, peel the garlic, get crusher to hand, prepare stock, chop the chilli. It all comes together pretty quickly this one.

Warm two glugs of olive oil in a small pan over a low heat, and add the chilli and garlic.

Put the pasta on to boil in salted water, with a few drops of oil, just in case that stops it sticking together. Tonight I went for conchiglie, which worked well. With six minutes to go add the brocoli florets, and, in this case, the peas.

The odd thing in this recipe is the very small quantity of stock to be added – but it does make a difference. (Make sure you don’t make it too weak as it’s such a small amount.) Add it to the chilli and garlic, and simmer.

Warm the pine nuts in a pan. Keep moving them in the pan from time to time.

Drain the pasta and broccoli and put back into the warm pan, keep it over as low a heat as possible. Add the chilli and garlic and then the yoghurt, stir round to combine it all.

When the pine nuts are about this toasted…

…turn off the heat. Divide the pasta into two warmed bowls, and sprinkle with the pine nuts.

Serve with a rocket salad, parmesan shavings and, maybe, freshly baked ciabatta. And a decent Portuguese Alentejo red wine.

It kind of feels thrown together rather than a recipe, but talking about it to my friends Zoe & Lou at Christmas made me think this was worth posting. Think of it as a guide rather than a recipe. It’s vegan until the grated cheese and sour cream are added later.

So, you will need: A lot of veg. It’s different every time I do it, but this is a (pepper-heavy) example.

Chop everything. Rinse the kidney beans in a sieve. Put three or four tbsp of olive oil in a large non-stick pan, over a low heat.

Throw in the carrot, then the onion, then the garlic. (If using fresh chilli, chop and add now.) Sometimes I put in mustard seeds here, too.

Stir round and fry for a few minutes until the onion is softening. Then add peppers, then courgette. (If not using peppers, I’ll put in more kidney beans, plus borlotti beans).

Turn up the heat, fry and stir for five minutes or so. Add the kidney beans.

Stir/fry for another 5 minutes. Add the oregano (I use a lot, as I like oregano – probably two heaped tsps), a handful of the basil leaves, torn, two bay leaves and the tinned tomatoes.

Add 4 or 5 big dashes of Henderson’s Relish (or a tsp of Marmite, or a stock cube), and the dried chilli or chilli powder. How much chilli/powder – depends on how spicy you want it and how strong your chilli/powder is. On this occasion, I used this much dried, crushed chillis:

But it was a bit old, so this wasn’t enough, and I added more later.

Cover, turn the heat right down, and simmer for at least 20 minutes.

After 20 – 30 minutes, uncover and cook for another 20 – 30 minutes (stirring occasionally) to let the chilli reduce. Basically, the longer you can cook it for, the better. I  prefer to simmer for an hour covered, then uncovered for at least 30 minutes. Allowed to cool then reheated the next day – it’s even better.

To go with it…

This is Madhur Jaffrey’s rice rinsing technique, and Nigel Slater’s cooking method. Weigh out the rice, then transfer to a measuring jug  – check what it is in ml. Then put the rice in a bowl (or pan). Run it under cold/luke warm water, and rub between your fingers until the water is cloudy. Drain the water and repeat the washing until the water is pretty clear. This should be 4 or 5 rinses.

Put the rice in a pan, along with double its volume in cold water. Bring the water to the boil, then turn the heat right down, cover the pan, and simmer for 12 minutes.

After 12 minutes, fluff the rice with a fork. If there is still water in the pan, cook for a minute or two longer, uncovered.

Warm the fajita wraps in a dry pan, or in the microwave, according to the instructions. Grate the cheddar, dish up the sour cream and guacamole.

Cunningly combine like so:

Or serve with chunks of bread, or fried potatoes, or salad. Or put in wraps, cover in cheese and bake in the oven to make it into an enchilada. Or have with chips the next day. (Yes, do that. Really.) It freezes well – I usually make far too much, then divide the leftovers into individual portions, put some in the fridge for a couple of days later, freeze the rest for the following week.

Serve with cold lager and/or a medium/full bodied red wine, preferably a Portuguese Alentejo.

Prep Time: 10 mins | Servings: Serves 8 | Nutrition per serving: 55 kcal, 4g carbs, 3g fat, 1g protein

To make, put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, season and mix thoroughly. SIMPLE AS THAT.

Prep Time: 20 | Cook Time: 35 | Servings: 10 at 300-350g per serving. This soup makes 3000g of soup. FYI. I weighed it.

Ingredients:
I like the wobbly potato.