Recipes

Nigella Lawson

Here is my Italian version, you could say, of creamed spinach. Actually, it tastes rather like the ricotta and spinach mixture that

Nigella Lawson

This is one of my favourite salads: superb with salmon; wonderful alone. If you don

Nigella Lawson

This is an almost instant, super soothing supper made easily from store cupboard ingredients. I have stipulated two tablespoons of Thai green curry paste, but do be prepared to add more if you like a bit more fire. If you want to adjust this a little, consider adding some little cooked prawns; just make sure they’re heated through before serving. The chopped red chilli I add on serving is not obligatory, but I like the glossy red confetti! And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

While this started off as a little something to pick at over drinks when friends came over, it has long since escaped those confines in my house, for it makes a rather lovely lunch (or indeed supper) in the normal run of things. Of course there’s nothing to stop you just popping each plumptious patty into your mouth just as it is, but I like to wrap mine in a crisp lettuce leaf, like a juicy edible parcel. And there is also nothing to stop you wrapping them in warmed flatbread, pitta, a couple of pieces of bread or a bun along with anything else you’d like; and do check out the Lamb Patties and Fried Chicken Sandwich for inspiration! You may need to be rather brutal with the lettuce as you tear the leaves off to provide the edible wrappers for the patties, so I suggest you need one to two icebergs. If you want to perk the leaves up a little, making sure they curve into appropriate respositories for later, leave them in a big bowlful of very cold water (throw in ice cubes too) for 20 minutes or so, or plunge them in before you make the patties, then make sure you drain them well before piling them up on their plate.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Summer

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Express

This is a beautiful condiment to eat with roast ham, hot or cold, and I love it with cheese too.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

This is one of the recipes that is in constant rotation in my house: no matter how often I eat it, I never tire of it. The scorched sweetness of leeks and red peppers, the brightness of tomatoes and pepperiness of radishes give this a rich complexity, for all that it is relaxingly straightforward to make. And the bulgur wheat is the perfect foil. While it’s enough for 3-4, I am happy enough to cook full quantities for two, to have leftovers in the fridge to be eaten cold (or rather, at room temperature) with a little olive oil and lemon juice stirred in later, though of course you can simply reheat it. It happens to be vegan, should this be of concern, but even if it isn’t, it is a dish that brightens up even the darkest day.

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

For me the only turkey is a brined one. Not only does it tenderize and add subtle spiciness, but it makes carving the turkey incredibly much easier. You have only to try this method to be utterly convinced. And I mean to say: how hard is it to fill a pan or large plastic bin or bucket with water and spices and lower a turkey into it? At this time of year, it’s fine just to leave it in a very cold place. Before I had a garden, I put mine by an open window in the kitchen. It does mean everyone freezes, but who am I going to put first — my turkey or my family? Out in the garden if you’re lucky enough to have one would also be fine, though the pan must be securely covered: if I’ve got a bucket or bin out in the open, I cover it twice with foil and then put my son’s skateboard on top to prevent foxy foraging. And, though you might find it hard to believe sight unseen, a raw turkey covered in brine — with its oranges, cinnamon sticks, and scattering of spices — looks so beautiful as it steeps that I can never help lifting the lid for quick, blissfully reassuring peeks. And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding.

Nigella Lawson

This recipe could hardly be easier, and requires no complication, nor any effort to keep it simple. Good fish, lightly dredged in spiced flour then flash-fried, is an old-fashioned pleasure, and one to be savoured. Here I use gluten-free flour in preference to regular plain flour to coat the fish. I had wanted the slight grittiness of rice flour, but had none in the house, and gluten-free flour (which I did have) contains rice flour and worked fabulously. Obviously, you can use plain flour if you wish. And while the verdiglorious accompaniment may look like old-time mushy peas, it is, in fact, broccoli, blitzed with a stick blender. I use frozen broccoli simply because I find that, cooked in this way, the taste is — counterintuitively — fresher and needs no more added to it than a little salt and pepper to taste, along with the mildest, yet emphatically creamy, hit of coconut. If you cringe at the idea of coconuttiness, however delicate, then use butter or a really good extra-virgin olive oil instead.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

The amount of pesto-like sauce you

Nigella Lawson

I keep a stock of mixed seafood in the deep-freeze so I have the wherewithal to make this at a moment’s notice. And you need nothing else with it than some crusty bread to dip into the juices.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

You’re unlikely to get very far in Amsterdam without coming across these festively spiced and beautiful biscuits, and nor would you want to. They are the perfect Christmas cookie. Traditionally — and it’s how bakeries still sell them, though they’re made less and less at home — they’re made by pressing the dough onto carved wooden moulds, which give the biscuits the look of edible Christmas cameos, but you don’t have to ‘print’ them (as it’s called) but can cheerily roll out the dough and turn them into biscuits with a cookie cutter. This, indeed, is what I do. Some time ago, I got my hands on some cookie cutters in the shape of those narrow 17th century houses that line the canals of Amsterdam, and this was too good an opportunity to miss. (It might interest you to know that the narrowness of the houses wasn’t a purely decorative architectural feature, but due to the fact that the wider the frontage, the more tax was levied on it.) I also have a special tulip cutter in my collection, and I cut out some Speculaas with these, too. But any Christmassy shape will look charming, and hearts always look lovely. Strictly speaking, these shouldn’t be iced, but if I don’t try and do some sort of basic window shapes with a tube of squeezy white icing on the biscuits made with my Amsterdam-house cutters, they do rather look like gingerbread tombstones. So I ice — if sketchily — the biscuits shaped like Amsterdam houses (using instant royal icing powder, though you can find a recipe for royal icing here and leave the tulip ones bare and beautiful, not least because these Speculaas just so happen to make cheese biscuits of utter, unparalleled gorgeousness.

Nigella Lawson