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It’s a French classic “Soup au Pistou” for which you gently cook very fresh summer vegetables in either water or stock, and stir in a paste (“pistou”) of basil, garlic, and tomatoes. This soup is similar to a light Italian minestrone, but without the white beans, and with a pistou “pesto” for flavor. It’s simple, light, healthy, and delicious. Clean eats that taste amazing! Dad makes the soup several times each summer, especially when the garden is producing a lot of summer squash and tomatoes....

The half-term holidays are over and what a week it’s been! Blazing sunshine every day. And you know what that means… BBQs, paddling pools, slightly sun burnt shoulders, listening to people complain that it’s too hot (psk!!), a truckful of ice cream for the kids, and these prosecco ice lollies for the grown-ups. Oh yeah, I had three of these on Sunday - amongst a couple of other boozy type recipes I was making for the blog (how much do I love my job!...

Most stews are braised in plenty of liquid for long slow cooking. This stew is barely “stewed”, and the main reason it comes together so quickly is that you are using top sirloin for the beef, a much more tender cut of beef than chuck, which is what is usually used in stews and requires long slow cooking to become tender. This recipe is updated from one I posted several years ago, with slight modifications to extract more flavor from the ingredients given the short cooking time....

This is an easy chicken taco recipe loaded with big, punchy Mexican flavours. No marinating, no fussing with a separate sauce, no need to go overboard with toppings. The only question is – soft tortillas or old school taco shells?? 🤔 Chicken Tacos This Chicken Taco recipe is intended to be a QUICK recipe with a 2-in-1 chicken plus taco sauce so there’s no need to make a separate sauce....

Cilantro Substitute: The cilantro can be replaced 1:1 with parsley. It will change the flavor a bit, but this would be perfect for anyone who can not stand cilantro. Spice Level of Rachel’s Green Sauce: You get to determine the spice level of this sauce based on how many jalapeños you use. De-seed your jalapeños to make them more mild if desired. Serving Suggestions: This is a versatile sauce that can be served over beef, chicken, pork, or even fish....

You know when you bite into a dessert, and that first tastes means you suddenly just want everything and everyone else to go away so you can luxuriate in every little morsel? So you can focus 100% of your attention of that perfect moment of enjoyment? That is what this Raspberry and Almond Pithivier does to you. Juicy, jammy raspberries, encased in soft almond frangipane, further encased in buttery golden pastry....

Ratatouille: French vegetable stew I’m not going to lie to you. I was never one to jump up and down with anticipation at the thought of Ratatouille. You’d never catch me ordering it at a restaurant, and it’s not the first thing I’d think of making using leftover vegetables. It just never sounded, well, exciting. How terribly wrong I’ve been all this time. It turns out I just never knew how to make it properly, and how good it can be when it is....

That day. What Is a Reuben Sandwich? “What is a Reuben sandwich?” you might ask. Corned beef, dark rye bread, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, with Russian dressing - grilled. According to Wikipedia, our national love affair with Reuben sandwiches has been going on since the 1920s, though the origin is disputed. 1/3 cup mayonnaise 1 1/2 tablespoons ketchup 1-1/2 teaspoons prepared horseradish 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce Freshly ground black pepper, to taste...

You won’t find any obtuse strawberries here trying to steal the show. I don’t even allow a double crust or crumb topping. This is just a simple pie with delightful bits of tart rhubarb enveloped in creamy, orange zest-infused custard. Just like rhubarb itself, this pie is humble, easy to love, and ready for you to take it anywhere! Sweet or Tart? I personally believe rhubarb pie should be tart....

After eating this, can you believe that Chris (with a large smile on his face) actually said these words: “I love you more when you make me pie”. Putting aside the tongue-in-cheek emotional blackmail, I’ve just got to say yum and double yum. No it doesn’t come with a couple of horns sticking out like your Desperate Dan classic, but it’s still a damn good meat and potato pie. This is no lightweight ‘pastry lid’ pie....

The chicken parts cook more evenly that way and the presentation is beautiful. Richard Olney wrote about this method for making ricotta stuffed chicken decades ago in his wonderful book Simple French Food (high recommend). We also found a similar recipe in a Weber grilling cookbook, which makes sense as the method of butterflying chicken makes it easy to grill a whole chicken. Butterflying a chicken is easier than you think!...

The Best Baby Carrots To Roast She uses the “Nantes” French-style carrots that Trader Joe’s carries or the bunched immature carrots from Whole Foods. Any small (4 to 5 inch) carrot will work; they are often sold in bunches with their greens still attached. By “baby” carrots we’re not referring to the small capsule-shaped carrots that are so popular to serve as a snack to kids (those are actually mature carrots cut to small shapes), but to carrots that are still young and not tough or woody....

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Our favorite way to eat them? Marinated with a little olive oil, vinegar, and salt. That’s all. Sort of like the traditional preparation of roasted red bell peppers, but with green chiles instead. Both Anaheim chiles (similar to New Mexico or Hatch green chiles) and poblanos are relatively mild chiles so they can usually be eaten straight as described below. Though once in a while you will get a HOT one....

I have a habit of buying perishables with the noblest of intentions, only to forget them in the sea of everyday distractions, until they’re good for nothing but compost. Fortunately for this root vegetable, inspiration arrived from a colleague who had made a sweet potato soup from a Donna Hay recipe. Easy Sweet Potato Soup The distinguishing elements of the original recipe were sweet potato, red onion, and cumin. I changed it a little bit, opting for shallots instead of red onions, using much less cumin (it’s a strong spice), adding some thyme, and finishing with a swirl of sour cream....

Some pan-seared fish can be on the table in the same amount of time it takes to set the table. But if you’re apprehensive about flipping fillets or being left with a lingering smell, baking fish is a great alternative. High-quality fish won’t have a strong fishy odor, but it’s worth noting that the tilapia here is mild in both aroma and flavor. The fillets are easy to handle, and they bake in about 30 minutes....

Souvla restaurant in San Francisco has a cult following. Regularly hailed as one of the “best places to eat in San Francisco”, my friend Kelly from A Side of Sweet took me there when I was in San Fran just over a week ago. Kelly is a San Fran based blogger who also happens to be an ER doctor. “How the heck do you manage to blog and work 20 hours shifts several times a week?...

It always amazes me that dad, who isn’t a patient man to begin with, and what little patience he had he lost raising six kids, will still make the effort to gently stuff dozens of pasta shells. Not to say there wasn’t any grumbling, but he knew the work was going to pay off, and it did. Jumbo pasta shells, stuffed with a mixture of Italian sausage, spinach, ricotta and Parmesan cheeses, surrounded by tomatoes and baked until bubbly, do you think there were any leftovers?...