How to cook the light & easy way
Exploring and extolling the lifeenhancing effects of cooking and eating great food is what I do. And I’m increasingly convinced of a couple of things. Really delicious, satisfying food doesn’t have to be time-consuming and complicated. And it certainly doesn’t have to be rich and laden with fat. What’s more, healthy food doesn’t have to be ascetic, restrictive or centred around denial.
I think I’ve already proved this point with River Cottage Veg Every Day! It shows that lovely and exciting as good meat and fish are to cook with, they make us lazy in the kitchen. Put them aside – for a while, or for a few days each week – and a torrent of vegetable creativity will be released.
Now I want to encourage another gear change in your cooking and the phrase Light and Easy gets pretty much to the heart of the matter. I’m offering up a set of new recipes that are healthy and well balanced, straightforward to put together, but always, unfailingly, delicious.
I’m confident that they will amply demonstrate that healthy eating – the Light and Easy way – is not about denial or abstinence. On the contrary, reducing your dependence on wheat and dairy turns out to be a delicious voyage of discovery. New grains, new oils, new tastes, new combinations: it all adds up to a new zest for life.
River Cottage Light & Easy: Healthy Recipes For Every Day, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, with photography by Simon Wheeler, is published by Bloomsbury, priced £25.
Fish and tomato curry
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the onion to the pan and cook, stirring regularly, for 8-10 minutes until soft.
Now add the ginger, garlic, curry powder or paste and cinnamon stick, if using, and fry for a minute or two. Add the passata and coconut milk, the sugar, a pinch of salt and some pepper. Stir well and simmer, stirring from time to time, for about 10 minutes until rich and well blended.
Meanwhile, check the fish for pin bones, prising out any you find with tweezers, then cut into large pieces, about 4cm square. Add these to the sauce, bring back to a very gentle simmer and cook for 4-6 minutes until the fish is just cooked through, stirring very carefully a couple of times (you don’t want to break up the fish if you can help it). Remember it will continue to cook after you have taken it off the heat.
Stir in the lime juice, taste and add more salt or pepper if needed. Serve straight away with rice. Finish with a scattering of fresh coriander, and black onion seeds if you like.
Creamy Roasted Tomato Soup
Serves 4
Ingredients
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Cut the tomatoes in half and put them in a large roasting tray – they should fit fairly snugly. Scatter over the chopped garlic, trickle over the oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 25 minutes, then scatter the cashews over the tomatoes. Return to the oven for a further 20 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and pulpy and perhaps a little charred in places.
Scrape the tomatoes, cashews and all the garlicky pan juices into a blender. Add the stock or water and blitz to a purée. Pass this through a sieve, which will remove any pips, or stubborn bits of tomato skin.
When you’re ready to serve, reheat gently. You can add a little water if the soup seems very thick or the flavour is too intense. Season with more salt and pepper if needed, and add a pinch of sugar if you think the tomatoey acidity needs tempering slightly.
Ladle into warmed bowls and finish with a swirl of extra virgin oil, plus a few chopped cashews and a dusting of paprika if you like, and a generous sprinkling of pepper.
Variation This soup is also very good served cold. Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours, then finish it off with plenty of shredded fresh basil or mint leaves.
Spicy chicken livers on lemony cucumber
Serves 2
Ingredients
Method
Cut the chicken livers into 2-3cm pieces, giving them a final trim as you go. Put them in a bowl with the coriander, onion, garlic, lemon zest, oil and some salt and pepper. Mix gently and set aside while you prepare the cucumber.
Thinly slice the cucumber and arrange the slices over two plates. Trickle with extra virgin oil and some lemon juice, and add a pinch of sugar and a twist of pepper.
Heat a large frying pan over a high heat. Add a dash of oil followed by the chicken livers and all their marinade ingredients. Cook the livers for 3-4 minutes, turning frequently, until well coloured all over. Remove from the heat, add a good squeeze of lemon juice and toss well.
Allow the livers to rest for 5 minutes in the pan before spooning them over the cucumber. Serve sprinkled with the chopped parsley if you like.
I think I’ve already proved this point with River Cottage Veg Every Day! It shows that lovely and exciting as good meat and fish are to cook with, they make us lazy in the kitchen. Put them aside – for a while, or for a few days each week – and a torrent of vegetable creativity will be released.
Now I want to encourage another gear change in your cooking and the phrase Light and Easy gets pretty much to the heart of the matter. I’m offering up a set of new recipes that are healthy and well balanced, straightforward to put together, but always, unfailingly, delicious.
I’m confident that they will amply demonstrate that healthy eating – the Light and Easy way – is not about denial or abstinence. On the contrary, reducing your dependence on wheat and dairy turns out to be a delicious voyage of discovery. New grains, new oils, new tastes, new combinations: it all adds up to a new zest for life.
River Cottage Light & Easy: Healthy Recipes For Every Day, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, with photography by Simon Wheeler, is published by Bloomsbury, priced £25.
Fish and tomato curry
Serves 3-4 Ingredients
- 2 tbsp rapeseed or sunflower oil
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 2 tsp freshly grated ginger
- 3 garlic cloves, grated
- 1 tbsp medium curry powder, or paste
- 1 cinnamon stick (optional)
- 300ml tomato passata
- 100ml coconut milk
- ½ tsp sugar
- 500g white fish fillets, such as pollack, coley or sustainably caught haddock, skinned
- juice of ½ large lime
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- coriander leaves
- a few black onion (kalonji) seeds (optional)
Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the onion to the pan and cook, stirring regularly, for 8-10 minutes until soft.
Now add the ginger, garlic, curry powder or paste and cinnamon stick, if using, and fry for a minute or two. Add the passata and coconut milk, the sugar, a pinch of salt and some pepper. Stir well and simmer, stirring from time to time, for about 10 minutes until rich and well blended.
Meanwhile, check the fish for pin bones, prising out any you find with tweezers, then cut into large pieces, about 4cm square. Add these to the sauce, bring back to a very gentle simmer and cook for 4-6 minutes until the fish is just cooked through, stirring very carefully a couple of times (you don’t want to break up the fish if you can help it). Remember it will continue to cook after you have taken it off the heat.
Stir in the lime juice, taste and add more salt or pepper if needed. Serve straight away with rice. Finish with a scattering of fresh coriander, and black onion seeds if you like.
Creamy Roasted Tomato Soup
Serves 4 Ingredients
- 1.2kg tomatoes
- 4-5 garlic cloves, chopped
- 3 tbsp rapeseed or sunflower oil
- 75g cashew nuts, plus a few extra, to finish (optional)
- 200ml light vegetable stock or water
- a pinch of sugar (optional)
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- extra virgin hempseed or rapeseed oil
- a dusting of paprika (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Cut the tomatoes in half and put them in a large roasting tray – they should fit fairly snugly. Scatter over the chopped garlic, trickle over the oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 25 minutes, then scatter the cashews over the tomatoes. Return to the oven for a further 20 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and pulpy and perhaps a little charred in places.
Scrape the tomatoes, cashews and all the garlicky pan juices into a blender. Add the stock or water and blitz to a purée. Pass this through a sieve, which will remove any pips, or stubborn bits of tomato skin.
When you’re ready to serve, reheat gently. You can add a little water if the soup seems very thick or the flavour is too intense. Season with more salt and pepper if needed, and add a pinch of sugar if you think the tomatoey acidity needs tempering slightly.
Ladle into warmed bowls and finish with a swirl of extra virgin oil, plus a few chopped cashews and a dusting of paprika if you like, and a generous sprinkling of pepper.
Variation This soup is also very good served cold. Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours, then finish it off with plenty of shredded fresh basil or mint leaves.
Spicy chicken livers on lemony cucumber
Serves 2 Ingredients
- 200g fresh, free-range chicken livers, trimmed of any sinew or greenish parts
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- ½ small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
- finely grated zest and juice of ½ lemon
- 1 tbsp rapeseed or sunflower oil, plus a little extra for cooking
- ½ small cucumber (about 150g)
- extra virgin rapeseed or olive oil, to trickle
- a pinch of sugar
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- leaves from a small bunch of parsley, chopped, to finish (optional)
Method
Cut the chicken livers into 2-3cm pieces, giving them a final trim as you go. Put them in a bowl with the coriander, onion, garlic, lemon zest, oil and some salt and pepper. Mix gently and set aside while you prepare the cucumber.
Thinly slice the cucumber and arrange the slices over two plates. Trickle with extra virgin oil and some lemon juice, and add a pinch of sugar and a twist of pepper.
Heat a large frying pan over a high heat. Add a dash of oil followed by the chicken livers and all their marinade ingredients. Cook the livers for 3-4 minutes, turning frequently, until well coloured all over. Remove from the heat, add a good squeeze of lemon juice and toss well.
Allow the livers to rest for 5 minutes in the pan before spooning them over the cucumber. Serve sprinkled with the chopped parsley if you like.