Author: chefalice

Spelt is just another type of wheat and it’s easier to digest and better for you than regular wheat. It’s used to make flour, but you can also buy packets of pre-cooked wholegrain spelt in supermarkets and it’s a great ingredient to have on hand for a quick salad like this one. The little grains have a nice firm texture and a slightly sweet flavour that goes beautifully with the pesto. The blue cheese makes the perfect finishing touch. Love it.

Tamarind sauce is a sweet and sour sauce with a spicy flavor; a raw type of the classical Thai sauce.

This dessert has a perfect balance of flavours: spicy, sticky gingerbread, sweet pears and slightly sour crème fraîche. The pears are poached in the West Country pear cider called perry. Be sure to use a dry perry – many available now are very sweet.

At every children’s party there will be jelly and ice cream, and we have found that big children (i.e. adults) love it too. Of course, making the jelly with fresh fruit gives a fabulous, more ‘sophisticated’ flavour, so much better than those jelly blocks – which we all used to like to eat raw.

Delightful and different; this one packs an energizing wallop.

This is a great choice for lunch; light, fresh and fabulous.

Thai stuffed omelette is a classic street food, traditionally stuffed with minced pork. I decided to try a vegan version using a chickpea/gram flour batter and the results were utterly delicious and well worth sharing. Keep the batter mixture quite thin to make a more foldable pancake.