Smoky lentil stew - Vegan, DF and GF

This is a half hour vege-packed stew with big flavour - garlic, smoked paprika, balsamic vinegar, cumin and cayenne all pile in with the onions, carrots, celery and red lentils  and lemon. It's a good hearty thing to have with bread or baked potato  - or whatever really!

Pakora - Vegan, DF and GF

This version of pakora uses cauliflower and onion, but you can also use other vegetables such as capsicum, slices of potato, carrot or kumara, mushrooms...  any or all will work superbly! The batter is a simple mix of chickpea flour, spices, minced garlic and water. It's super quick and a very low-barrier way of presenting vegetables...

Blackbean hotpot - Vegan, DF and GF

Once again, this is a super quick midweek meal with all the colours. There's protein (blackbeans), greens, red and orange veg as well. It's the kind of soup you eat with a fork...

Twice rice and chickpeas - Vegan, DF and GF

Twice rice because it has red rice and basmati, each cooked slightly differently at the same time. This is one of those stepped recipes - do this, then do this, then do this... which is preferable to having three things happening at once i reckon! As well as ground spices (Middle eastern flavours) there are currants and fresh chopped parsley added at the end for texture and colour contrasts.

Baked rice with pork belly - DF and GF

This is a Spanish dish with small chunks of pork belly and bacon end, capsicum, cannelini beans, herbs, tomato paste and smoked paprika with a hit of chilli as well... Once everything else is in the wide pan, the rice is added and it all goes into the oven - think "Paella" but oven instead of slow wood fire...

Chicken and peanut stew - DF and GF

then we take a short ferry ride across the Mediterranean Sea... to land in North African flavours for this recipe. This would work with cashews if you have peanut allergies in your household, but obviously the flavour would be a bit different. This is a very substantial meal in itself, with all of the colours incorporated in the stew - along with bayleaves, ginger, chilli, peppercorns, potato, tomato, kale...and peanuts.