Massive mushrooms stuffed with sundried tomato, pine nuts, basil and cheese

As the climate becomes more Mediterranean so should our diets! I don't mean to trivialise climate change, it's just that in the UK a slight climate change isn't such a terrible thing. Weather has never bean our strong point. So far this year it's been a lovely Spring  and today felt positively hot. Days like these I like to eat light food that makes me think of holidays in Italy or the South of France. These mushrooms are perfect for  sitting in your garden with a glass of wine and envisioning the glistening Mediterranean Sea, even if you're just staring into your murky pond.

Ingredients 

2 Portobello mushrooms or similar 

200g ricotta or another soft, white cheese

Handful fresh basil

5 sundried tomatoes

Handful pine nuts, toasted 

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 slices halloumi

Garlic clove

Salt and pepper to taste

Place the mushrooms upside down in a baking tray and put the oven on 150 degrees C. Fry the halloumi cheese for 3min each side or until golden. 

Blend the ricotta with the basil, sundried tomatoes, pine nuts and olive oil, reserving a few pine nuts and sundried tomato for topping. Season. Stuff the mushrooms with your ricotta mixture and top with the remaining bits: halloumi, sundried tomato and pine nuts. Bake for 25min. Serve on a bed of rocket and eat outside in the sunshine if at all possible.

Roasted purple carrot and sage soup, and earth-mothering

I am doing my own brand of earth-mothering right now. I can't quite bring myself to use cloth nappies, but I am washing my bubba in camomile water and using the most eco friendly, natural products possible. I'm probably not going to do prolonged breastfeeding, yet I am still doing it at 5 months and will try to keep going for the rest of the year (though that's not to say formula won't get introduced at some point too). I guess I am trying to be as much of an earth-mother as I can without making my life too inconvenient. I think that's a fair compromise. I do dream of living somewhere more green and growing my own organic fruit and vegetables, but for now this is just a dream while we survive our first year in busy Hackney. Luckily, we do have some (over-priced) organic shops here now. This is where I found my purple carrots for this earthy soup.

Roast the purple carrots with a handful of sage leaves, some rapeseed oil and Maldon sea salt on 200 degrees C for about 20min. Reserve a few crispy sage leaves for decoration and blend everything else with some good quality stock (I used chicken stock). Return to the pan and season with more sea salt, white pepper and mustard powder. Serve with a dollop of soured cream, some alfafa sprouts and those crispy sage leaves you put aside.

Ingredients (serves 2)

6 purple carrots

500ml chicken or vegetable stock 

Handful sage leaves

Rapeseed oil for roasting

1 teaspoon mustard powder

Sea salt and white pepper

Soured cream to serve

Alfafa sprouts to serve

Quinoa, spinach and almond salad with orange and cinnamon dressing

I spent my pregnancy cooking and eating Polish food: practicing my dumpling making; stuffing my face with caramel and cream and cookie dough; making many, many doughnuts (three times in the space of 2 months) and generally re-working my favourite recipes. The book is coming out in July, now there's a stubborn stone sitting on my hips and penance. But penance doesn't have to be unpleasant. I won't lie, the beginning is hard, but it becomes more enjoyable with time. Both the exercise and the food. Tracey Anderson is getting (marginally) easier to handle and I'm remembering my favourite healthy recipes. This crunchy salad has a Middle-Eastern flavour and doesn't make you feel like you are doing penance at all. Ok, so it's not cardamon-custard seductively wrapped in choux pastry (it's in the book, you'll love it), but it is flavour packed none-the-less.

Ingredients

300g cooked quinoa

Handful fresh spinach, chopped

50g almond flakes, toasted

1 carrot, grated

Dressing

Juice of 1 small orange
2 tablespoons olive oil

Large pinch of cinnamon

Salt and pepper to taste

Simple spinach soup

I always say that in food, as in life, simplicity is a virtue. Simple days, simple pleasures are the best. A baby's laugh, the sun coming out from behind a cloud, a flower in bloom, these are beautiful things we do not need to fight or struggle for, simply appreciate. A daily practise of gratitude (in whatever form) can make you more aware of wonderful, everyday pleasures. Something simple to eat does not mean grabbing a packet of crisps though. A simple soup takes little more effort and is infinitely warmer, more nurturing...

Whenever I roast a chicken I use the bones and leftovers to make a broth. I stick whatever I have lying around in there. This time it was an onion, a carrot and a chilli pepper. After about 3 hours of boiling these together with the chicken carcass and a sprinkle of Malden sea salt, I strained the liquid and distributed it among various vessels: some for immediate use, some for the fridge, some for the freezer. You could, of course, replace the chicken broth with a good quality chicken stock. To make this particular soup, I fried some garlic along with the spinach and (once cool) I blended it with the chicken broth. To thicken I added a tablespoon of rye flour and some ground flaxseeds. I brought this back to the boil, seasoned with salt and white pepper and served with spinach trottole and crumbled feta cheese for a healthy, filling and delicious dinner.

Ingredients 

500ml chicken broth (chicken carcass, onion, carrot, chilli pepper)

250g spinach

3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon rye flour
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds

50g cooked trottole pasta per serving 

50g feta per serving 

Rhubarb cake with meringue topping

I'm a big believer in openness. So much so that sometimes I worry that I overshare on this blog and try to tone down my natural tendencies. Yet I have been given some feedback recently from a few different people and apparently you, the reader, likes to get personal. Don't worry, I won't hit you with a bomb of over-personal information right away (or perhaps you'd enjoy that) but I can commit to slowly opening up once more, perhaps a bit more like I used to when I first started this blog. When I examine my approach, there was no conscious change, yet I think that with time I started holding back a little bit with the fear of being seen as an emotional car crash. I love receiving feedback because it alters my perspective. It gives me a chance to let go of any fears I have and grow more into  myself, even if sometimes that might be slightly dramatic or over-emotional. I am Slavic after all. And talking of those Slavic roots, here we have a cake based on my gran's old recipe, only with seasonal rhubarb...

There were a couple of mishaps while making this: firstly, I misunderstand my mum when she was reading the recipe aloud and put too much butter in the dough, so it was too soft. Secondly, my mum put it on too a high a temperature in the oven. No matter. It was delicious nevertheless. Here however I give you the correct quantities and temperature, so that yours will be even better still.

Ingredients 

500g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 egg yolks

350g of  caster sugar
2 tablespoons sour cream

800g rhubarb

150g raisins

1 teaspoon vanilla essence 

4 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks

- Make dough out of the flour, baking powder, 125g of sugar, sour cream and egg yolks

- Take a handful of dough and put in the freezer

- Put the remainder of the dough in a plastic bag in the fridge

- Peel the rhubarb, cut into chunks

- Mix the rhubarb with the raisins and 100g of sugar
- Butter a baking tray and roll the dough out to fit the bottom
- Place this in a pre-heated oven for 10min at 180 degrees C
- Add the rhubarb mix and put it back in the oven for another 10min
- Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
- Add vanilla essence and the remaining sugar tot he whites and keep blitzing until the mixture thickens
- Pour this over the top of the rhubarb.
- take the small dough ball out of the freezer and grate over the top
- Bake int he oven altogether for a further 35min at a reduced heat (about 160 degrees C)

Cheeky cod cheeks

The cod cheeks took me by surprise. You know those days when you know exactly what you're going to cook only to be thwarted at every step. You go to your favourite butcher to get quail. No quail. Ok wild rabbit then. No wild rabbit. So I bought pork, then remembered by partner doesn't eat it. Walked into three organic, specialist green grocers'... No sorrel anyone? Really? Luckily, I stumbled across these delicious cod cheeks while looking dejectedly around a fishmonger. 

Cod cheeks are cheap and absolutely delicious by the way. Two massive portions cost about £4. I fried them on some butter with chopped green chilli and garlic, and squeezed lemon on top. So easy. We ate them with butternut squash mash and a warm salad of yellow courgettes (zucchini), halloumi cheese and tomatoes over some salad leaves. I was informed that it could well be my "best yet". 

Nettles fried in chickpea beer batter

My garden mystifies me. Everything is in bloom and I don't know when it happened. Now the weeds are taking over and I'm not sure if I mind. I wish I knew what to do with dandelion, because I've heard it's very beneficial, but I don't feel confident with it. I get flashbacks to my childhood and being told not to lick my hands of that milky residue the dandelion flowers leave behind. They said it was poisonous. So for now the dandelion gets left alone. Nettles I am confident with however. Despite their aggressive personality, they've always held a fascination for me and I've been brought up to see them as "good". So today, while making a start on my garden, I picked some nettles, braised them in salted water, dipped them in batter, and fried them for a tasty snack.

Ingredients

12 Nettle leaves

75g chickpea flour

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

50ml light beer

50ml sparkling water

Runny honey and sea salt to serve

Simply mix the chickpea (gram) flour with the garlic salt the whisk while adding beer and sparkling water. Use tongs to dip the nettle leaves in the batter and fry. They're ready when golden, it should take about 3min each side. Serve drizzled with honey and sprinkled with sea salt.

Black quinoa with kale, walnuts, marinated peppers and sweetcorn

Today's post was going to be all about patience. About how life is always asking me to be patient and how nothing goes more against my very nature. But then everything happened all at once. Now I'm finding it hard to keep up and I've just managed to squeeze in a quick post about this salad I made when I still had time to do such things. It was delicious and I wish I had some now, working through lunch in my edit suite whilst keeping up with various emails and contracts. Yes contracts. Some of you may already know my exciting news, but for those that don't, I will reveal all when I have time to linger and enjoy each word.

I cooked the corn on the cob and quinoa the night before I made this salad. I also baked the kale with olive oil and sea salt, eating some kale chips as a snack and adding the rest to the quinoa. Then the next day all I had to do was take the corn off the cob, chop the marinated peppers, chilli and walnuts, soft boil the egg, make the vinaigrette and mix it all up.

Ingredients

150g Black quinoa, cooked
50g Curly Kale, roasted
Handful walnuts, chopped
2 marinated red peppers, chopped
1 green chilli, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper

Purple carrot celeriac salad with sprouts and the curse of washing up

Washing up feels like my curse. I cook a lot therefore there always seems to be a pile of dirty dishes waiting for me. One day I will have a dishwasher - this is the dream. Until that day comes I am forced to deal with it, unhappily. A couple of days ago I read this post on Zen Habits and it has inspired me to try to change the way I think about washing up. Perhaps I'm being lazy, perhaps it's too easy to think of washing up as a massive chore and myself as a modern-day Sisyphus doing the same action over and over again. For now, washing up is a necessary part of life for me, so perhaps I can learn something from it? I am more than happy to entertain these notions, yet I've noticed no change so far in how I feel about it. Today, the pile of washing up made me feel positively depressed. Still, I love to cook. In this book I'm reading Desikachar states that yoga teaches us that there is a positive and negative side to everything. Therefore, I must bear my burden with grace. This purple carrot celeriac salad was delicious, yet caused a massive purple mess and my hands looked bruised after peeling it. So much so that it gave me an idea for next year's Halloween costume. You can easily replace it with a normal carrot, I just wanted to see if there was any difference in taste (not much, it was a bit sweeter)

We ate it with roasted yellow courgettes with roast pumpkin oil and pumpkin seeds, black quinoa and frying halloumi cheese. Just grate the carrot and celeriac very finely, combine with the sprouts (I used a mixture of sprouts) and the sauce (soured cream and mayonnaise one-to-one with a little bit of mild olive oil). Season with salt, white pepper and some freshly grated nutmeg and mix really well. This should chill in the fridge for at least a couple of hour, to allow it to "bite together" as we say in Poland.

Ingredients:

Half a celeriac
Large carrot
Mixed sprouts
100ml soured cream
100ml mayonnaise
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and white pepper to taste

Sugar and gluten free yet delicious: lime tarts

"I've never used an avocado like this before". That's what I was thinking last night, when making the filling for these tarts. They've been pinned on my Pinterest Food board for months, because I love the way they look, yet the avocado filling stopped me from proceeding. The original recipe calls for just avocado, lime, honey and stevia. I changed this to avocado, lime, mascapone, vanilla and agave. So they're not dairy-free anymore, but all the more delicious for it. 

The original crust has also been altered. There's no shredded coconut (the coconut flavour comes from the coconut oil only so it's very subtle),  but there are pecans and ground almonds as well as walnuts. The combination of these nuts with the dates is a happy one. It gave me an idea for a sugar-free, chocolate truffle. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, this is how you make these: blitz all the base ingredients in the food processor, then put them all in a bowl and squish them all together with your hands. Grease a muffin tin with coconut oil and press the base into each bit. Blitz the filling ingredients and put the resulting, creamy filling on top. Finish off with a piece of kiwi and pop into the freezer for 1 hour, then you can keep these in the fridge.

Ingredients (makes 10)

Base

200g dates

50g pecans

50g walnuts

50g ground almonds

1 tablespoon coconut oil 

Filling

1 1/2 avocados 

100g mascapone

1 teaspoon good quality vanilla essence

Juice of 2 limes

Zest of 1 unwaxed lime
5 tablespoons agave nectar

Asparagus and walnut tagliatelle

You know that feeling when you could chew off your own arm, you're that hungry? When you worry you might faint if your chosen recipe takes longer than five minutes to cook... It really is a small miracle when at a time like this you create a dish that's actually worthy of a blog, yet this is what happened today...

I cooked some fresh pasta, you know the sort that takes about 3min to cook, and threw the chopped asparagus tips into the boiling, salted water for the final minute. In the meantime, I fried some lovely, French garlic and fresh chilli in olive oil, and crushed walnuts with the back of a knife. Threw them in, grated some lemon zest and fried it all for a further 2min. I drained the tagliatelle and asparagus and added these to the frying pan, squeezed in the lemon juice, and immediately started grating Parmesan into the mix. Season with plenty of celery salt and black pepper before serving. My neighbour tried to speak to me as I was carrying this into the garden to eat. I said "hello" in such a way that he immediately understood that I was very, very hungry

Nettle soup with chickpeas and feta

If your garden is anything like mine then you'll have plenty of stinging nettles in it at this time of year

This is in fact the ideal time of year to cook with them, as they are still young. Once they have flowered, they are too old

Pick them with gloves on, obviously, then pour some boiling water over them, and they're ready to use! I added mine to this refreshing, zingy soup, but you can use them in any recipes that require spinach or greens

For the soup, you will need to soak the chickpeas and peas over night (you can also use lentils instead of the peas), then simmer in a large pan of boiling water with some fresh ginger and the chopped red chilli for about an hour, taking any scum off the top when it starts bubbling up. At the same time, cook the rice. After about an hour, add the halved cherry tomatoes and the chopped nettles to the soup and squeeze in one of the limes. Season with fish sauce, black pepper and paprika and allow to simmer for another half an hour or until the tomatoes have completely disintegrated. To finish, squeeze in the remaining lime and serve on top of the rice, crumbling feta cheese on top. The amounts below are all approximate, use whatever you feel is appropriate to your tastes

Ingredients

200g dried chickpeas

50g dried peas or lentils

Large handful of nettles

100g cherry tomatoes

2 limes

Red chilli pepper, chopped finely

Tablespoon fish sauce

Inch of fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Black pepper to taste

200g feta

50-100g cooked rice per person

Amaranth porridge with berries

There's something that happens when I'm about to get on a plane. I always manage to either miss my flight or create some kind of unnecessary drama. Even when in other areas of my life I feel calm and content, the time comes to catch a flight and something inevitably goes wrong. I should be in Athens right now, but I'm not. I wouldn't say I'm London either. I'm occupying a space in between two worlds, neither solidly in one nor the other. Like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, I'm just not all there. Or here. Some would argue that this is a natural state of affairs for me and they'd have a point, yet at this moment in time this quality is so pronounced that I feel like parts of me could easily just disappear like they do to that cat. Yet like him, I'm quite enjoying it. I'm using this strange space to look at my life  objectively and make some small yet important changes, to experiment with how I normally do things. In my everyday life I'm often too busy in the action of doing to take a step back and reflect on how I could improve the process. There are infinite ways of doing things, why do we get stuck in one mode like machines I wonder... Some things just work so there is no need to change them, yes, but other things don't work, yet we get stuck in a habit - those are things I'm targeting right now. One habit that I have no intention of changing for the time being however, is porridge for breakfast. That's working out very well. There are so many variations that I can't see myself getting bored. I made this one with amaranth grains and berries the other day. It's a grain I've never used before and was a bit puzzled by, yet it turns out that it makes a brilliant porridge, less stodgy and sticky than oats

I cooked it first in lots of cold water. I'll be honest with you, I wanted to use it for a salad, yet I quickly noticed that it was turning into a porridge-like consistency and went out and bought some quinoa for the salad instead. I think the grains are actually too small for a salad and also I cooked them in too much water to allow them to separate. But for a porridge they were perfect. So the next morning I took a spoonful of the cooked amaranth and diluted it with plenty of almond milk. I allowed it to simmer, along with a handful of raspberries and blueberries, a pinch of salt and some honey for around 10min, until the raspberries disintegrated completely. Then I  added a bit more almond milk to reach a consistency I was happy with. Amaranth is completely new to me in this form (I've tried the leaves before), it has an unusual taste, neither sweet nor savoury, it's lost somewhere between the worlds just like me, so it needs strong, decided flavours that push it in either one direction or the other... I think I've just managed to empathize with a grain

A rowdy springtime salad

The sun is shining and London is in a good mood. This is the positive side of living somewhere where the weather in unpredictable - when the sun does come out, the whole city is on a natural high. My friend, Ash, tells me that in Australia, where she comes from, good weather is expected and because of this it makes no difference at all to peoples' mood... here, everyone is just so damn grateful for any bit of sunshine they can snatch, that when it does come out, and especially on a day when it is needed, during a picnic or barbeque, London acquires a festive atmosphere. Luckily, our sun dances worked last weekend and our star came to the annual cherry blossom picnic. This is the fourth year we congregate under the cherry blossoms in Victoria Park and do our version of Hanami

This year I made a spicy and colourful salad, which was dubbed "rowdy salad" by Ashley. It's the most fitting name for it considering the pink radish, purple carrots and fresh chillies. Did you know that all carrots used to be purple? This is something new that I learnt last weekend. I thought the carrots I bought were a hip novelty, in fact, they were a return to the old ways. The world works in spirals, everything is a continuation or a development, nothing is really lost - I like that

Ingredients

Quinoa, cooked

Alfafa and broccoli sprouts

Radishes, chopped finely

Fresh red chilli, chopped finely

Purple carrots (or normal carrots), grated

Avocado

Virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon of mayonnaise

Garlic salt

Black pepper

Roast rhubarb and strawberry pancakes

Pancakes are such a Sunday food. Easy to put together, they're ideal for a lazy brunch or even supper after a hard day of playing on the banks of the river Thames, looking for hidden treasures as I've been doing today (this is not a normal Sunday activity for me by the way). And, of course, they give you that special pancake feeling, you know the one - like "today is a special day"

This is the season for British rhubarb, that strange vegetable-in-disguise that many people don't really know what to do with it. I think that strawberries are it's ideal companion. It's also a good way to use up less-than-satisfactory strawberries, which is what I've been getting a lot of recently. I roasted the two with plenty of good honey for about half an hour, before putting on my pancakes with dollops of yoghurt. I made the pancakes with coconut milk instead of normal milk, and fried them on coconut oil, which is both delicious and super-healthy

Cucumber salad for a rustic bluebell barbeque

I'm going to start by saying something jaw-droppingly controversial: I don't think the weather has been that bad this Spring. There, I said it. OK, it's been massively changeable, we've had rain, we've had sun, and now I've actually caught a cold... but actually when it really mattered, for me at least, it's been nice. Please note that both Bank Holidays have been lovely, with rain either side. During the last one, I decided to have a small barbeque among the bluebells in my garden. I baked bread buns made from a Danish rye flour, mixed with fluffy white flour, bought meat from Ginger Pig, including that sausage spiral down here, and little, multi-coloured peppers that we grilled along with slices of hallumi cheese

And finally, I made an unusual version of the Polish "mizeria' salad, which was pretty great, even if I do say so myself

You slice the (peeled) cucumber paper thin, and cover in salt. After 10min squeeze out any excess water. Chop the onion very finely also and add to the cucumber slices. Blend the sour cream with the chopped dill and pour over the cucumbers. Mix together delicately but thoroughly (you may have noticed that there is an art to this). Crumble a block of feta on top. This salad is good with all meats or just crusty bread, tzaziki-style

We bathed in the sunshine, marveled at the bluebells, drank sangria as usual and stuffed our faces with charred meats, saying how "rustic" it all was and how very sophisticated. Then Mike asked me for a napkin and I handed him the bogroll. Not quite there yet then...

Ingredients

2 Cucumbers
1 red onion
250ml sour cream
Handful chopped fresh dill
Black of feta (250g)
Sea salt

Spicy springtime buckwheat with crunchy vegetables

Can you miss yourself? Because that's how I've felt recently. Tonight was the first proper,  whole evening I've had just chilling by myself for what feels like forever. In the past few months there's been a lot of work, city-travel, late nights, early mornings of coffee and writing,  evening fun with friends and family... but not much quality me-time. Probably also something to do with the fact that my friend Petey was staying on my couch for over two months. So this was the night. I wanted to cook the sort of meal that I enjoy cooking the most; wholesome, spicy, light. Followed by an evening of doing whatever the hell I felt like

There was hardly anything in the fridge and cupboards to cook with and I didn't want to waste my precious me-time in a supermarket, so it was always going to have to be simple. What came out was a dish I've made various versions of in the past, with various grains, vegetables and sauces... but never quite like this. It became a perfected, polished, cookbook-worthy version of itself. Hence, I share it with you. This is not something you'd cook for a dinner with friends, unless they're close enough friends to just chill with. That down there will make about 4 portions. All the vegetables need to be roughly chopped, the buckwheat needs to be cooked according to packet instructions, and we're off

Ingredients

300g (untoasted) buckwheat, cooked 
Small red onion, finely chopped
1 carrot
1 packet cauliflower/broccoli florets or a bit of each, chopped up (could also replace one or the other with a bit of cabbage)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of red kidney beans
3 tablespoons of peri-peri sauce, or another chilli sauce
1 tin of mackerel fillets (in tomato sauce)
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon mild curry spices
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Heat the oil on the biggest frying pan you can find and add the red onion. Fry while stirring. After a few minutes, chuck in the carrot, broccoli and cauliflower bits, then cover and allow to fry on a medium heat for about 6-8min, stirring occasionally. Add the mackerel and the spices. Stir together for a couple of minutes, before adding the tin of tomatoes. Now bring it all to the boil, then turn the heat right now. Cover and allow to simmer for 6-8min. Add the salt, pepper, honey, peri-peri sauce and buckwheat. Mix it all in very well, then cover and cook for a further 5min before serving

Quinoa blackberry porridge for the Spring/Summer breakfast in bed

During my long search for the perfect breakfast, I realized that my reasoning was inherently flawed. What is obvious to me now is that the perfect breakfast depends on the time of year, on where you are on the planet, and where you are in your mind. Whereas in the heat of Thailand the perfect breakfast might be a banana, some watermelon and pineapple with yoghurt and honey, in London in the midst of a long, damp Winter, nothing quite hits the spot for me on a day-to-day basis like congee. However, if you add a party night to mix, then my perfect breakfast suddenly turns into a BLT on ciabatta with mayo and a fresh OJ. As it gets warmer and the berries starting popping out, I start to crave red fruit with porridge or oats with yoghurt. In this in-between period that we have now, warm quinoa with berries is just perfect

The quinoa gives this a lightness that you don't get with oats, and the blackberries give it tang and that specific British flavour. You could just as easily replace them with another soft berry though. I cooked the quinoa in water, then when it was ready, added some goat's milk (I can't drink normal milk anymore), a pinch of salt, lots of honey and the blackberries. I cooked it all until the blackberries fell apart and the milk turned pink and frothy

The controversial picnic salad

Back when it was Spring, last Monday, we held our annual picnic under the cherry blossoms. The tradition started a couple of years ago with the Japanese Sakura as a model. In Japan they get a day off to relax, eat and drink under the cherry blossoms and this year it worked out that way here, for us, with the perfect day being Bank Holiday Monday. I made a cauliflower and courgette spicy salad with raisins, having no idea how many people object to either cauliflower or raisins in savoury food. Luckily, so many people came that my salad found it's takers (and lovers), but be warned that though delicious, this is the controversial picnic salad. If you have issues with needing approval and wanting everything you do to be liked, then perhaps this salad is not for you

Break the cauliflower into small cubes and use a potato peeler to slice the courgette very finely. Pour some olive oil over both, sprinkle some sea salt and grill, turning occasionally, until nicely browned for about 6-8min (depending on your grill). You want the vegetables to be ever so slightly charred. Remove from the grill and immediately add a tablespoon of mild curry powder (I used the Jamaican stuff), some raisins and squeeze a lemon over the top. Eat in the sun, washed down with sangria. Hula hoop optional

A delicious detox: Two well-turned-out salads

When you start craving salads instead of sweets or steak, you know it's time for a detox. Unfortuntely, being on a detox in Poland is really hard work. I've been trying to avoid butter and sugar - really not a huge ask - and yet these two rules have been broken again and again during this ten day stay in my homeland. However, I have been being running, doing my kundalini kriya and eating fish religiously, every day, so that's something. And since we've been in our house in Warsaw instead of a hotel in Sopot, I've been making salads. Massive, satiating, killer salads. I must have been inspired by Paris

For this one, you need to prep by: firstly, frying an onion in some olive oil for about 7-8min, adding the beans, salt,pepper and cinnamon and frying until warm; and secondly, grilling the red pepper with olive oil, salt and chilli flakes for about 6-7min. The salad bed is torn lettuce and basil leaves, chopped tomatoes (we call these rasberry tomatoes here in Poland, not sure what they're called in the UK, but the have a rasberry-coloured hue), and chopped feta. On top, we have a light vinaigrette of olive oil, apple vinegar and lemon juice mixed together, buckwheat honey (this is a dark, strong-tasting variety), salt and white pepper

And for the second one, cook the fresh asparagus for about 5min in boiling water, so that they are still firm and a little bit crunchy. If they are the fat ones like those up there, you should either cut a couple of inches of the end off, or peel the ends. The bed is a curly, crunchy type of lettuce, blue cheese, walnuts and hard-boiled quails eggs, and the vinaigrette is a sweet one with a mxture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, salt and freshly ground black pepper. With both the vinaigrettes the ratio of oil to vinegar is 3-1, and I use a jar to shake all the ingredients together