Elly Pear’s Let’s Eat: Simple, Delicious Food for Everyone, Every Day

Copyright

Thorsons

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by Thorsons 2017

FIRST EDITION

© Elly Curshen 2017

Photography © Martin Poole except where indicated otherwise.

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers

Elly Curshen asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Food styling: Marina Filippelli

Props styling: Jo Harris

Hair and make-up: Frances Done

All recipes are based on fan-assisted oven temperatures. If you are using a conventional oven, raise the temperature 20°C higher than stated in recipes.

The author and publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors and omissions that may be found in the text, or any actions that may be taken by a reader as a result of any reliance on the information contained in the text, which is taken entirely at the reader’s own risk.

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Source ISBN: ISBN 9780008219512

Ebook Edition © April 2017 ISBN: 9780008219529

Version: 2017-05-24

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Storecupboard and Staples

1: Freeze for Ease

Lentil, tomato and coconut dhal

Mean feat no-meat meatballs

Tuscan-style cannellini bean stew

Black beans – refried if you like

Mushroom, lentil and walnut ragù

2: Building Blocks

10-minute flatbreads

Labneh

Bread pudding

Marinated peppers

Satay dressing

Poached salmon

Green harissa

Roasted butternut squash

Roasted spiced plums

3: Menus

Baby shower brunch for a crowd with breast-feeding mums who could eat a horse

Lunch for six when sandwiches just won’t do

Dinner for four when you want to show off a bit but not stress

Kitchen table dinner for four, thinking of Jerez

Romantic dinner for two when you’re just sussing each other out

Dinner for two when you need to eat now and there’s no time for prep

Weekend brunch for four people with slightly sore heads

Family lunch for six – eat your greens or there’s no pud

List of searchable terms

Acknowledgements

List of Recipes

About the Publisher

Introduction

Let’s Eat! celebrates simple, delicious food. The sort of food I cook day in, day out. Food that brings me joy. It’s nutritious (along with some stuff that can barely make claims on the nutrition front but makes me happy). It’s centred on vegetables, pulses, grains and dairy with small amounts of fish and seafood. It’s inspired by world cooking and the seasons.

This is also, on the whole, quick food, I hate washing up with a passion so I’ve tried to use as little equipment as possible. I don’t have a stand mixer or a microwave or a giant flashy food processor so none of these recipes will require you to have them either. You’ll rarely need to put the oven on either – most of these recipes are cooked on the hob. A knife, a chopping board, a mixing bowl, one big saucepan, one small saucepan, a frying pan and a baking tray – that’s pretty much it.

It’s modern food for the way I live and I hope it fits into your lives too. My two best mates have kids now and spending time with them, cooking together and getting an insight into how this has affected the way they cook, has taught me so much. I think there are lots of recipes here that will be useful if you, too, have the demands of a young family.

My approach to food has been consistent for as long as I can remember – from when I first started cooking as a kid. Deliciousness and joy are my driving force. Texture and flavour, my main concerns. Ease and satisfaction, my aims. None of this has changed, so, add to this useful methods of planning and creating dishes I’ve picked up along the way, and the result is here … Let’s Eat!

I am much more adept at making dinner quickly without sacrificing deliciousness – by far the most important factor in any meal.

I’m sitting at my kitchen table in Bristol and the last few months have been full of cooking, recipe development, eating, writing, washing up and endless trips to the greengrocer. My thoughts have been dominated by applying the learning from my first book, Fast Days & Feast Days, and all my readers’ feedback and making this the best, most useful book possible. Let’s Eat! is the next step for anyone who has enjoyed Fast Days & Feast Days, but this book will also stand alone for those of you who didn’t buy it. (What the hell? – sort that out right away.)

Although you won’t find any recipes labelled as ‘fast day’ dishes in this book, if you are following the 5:2, you can use the skills you learnt from my first book to calculate the calorie counts, if you want to