Okay, doesn’t sound that appetising, but this went down a treat with a bottle of the excellent ginger-spiced Blandford Fly beer. I didn’t even grumble about the brown rice - it was totally like being back in a cafe in Bristol in the 1980s… Recipe adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery, BBC, 1982, serves 4.

• 200g red split lentils
• 1 litre water
• half teaspoon ground turmeric
• vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 250g finely chopped cabbage
• dried flaked chillies
• tomato puree
• half teaspoon dried ginger

Boil the lentils in the water, removing scum and add the turmeric. Cover and simmer gently until tender. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan and sizzle the cumin seeds. Add the garlic and onion, cabbage & chillies. Fry until cabbage starts to crisp. Add salt if you want. When the lentils are cooked, add the tomato puree and ginger and the cabbage mix. Simmer for 2-3 minutes and serve with brown basmati rice.

This has evolved from a recipe on the side of a packet of Marmite stock cubes. I don’t think you can get Marmite stock cubes any more - it probably dawned on people that you could just use ordinary Marmite in cooking instead. It’s a basic vegetable stew, made with whatever we have to hand.

• Lots of root vegetables - potatoes, parsnips, turnips, carrots etc
• celery
• garlic
• olive oil
• large onion
• tin of tomatoes
• tin of mixed beans - kidney beans, borlotti beans etc
• mushrooms, if you have them
• tomato puree
• slug of red wine
• teaspoon of Marmite
• dried mixed herbs
• bay leaf
• 2 handfulls of small pasta (such as ditali lisci no. 58)
• teaspoon of vegetable stock powder such as Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon.

Fry the onion and garlic in some olive oil. When well-cooked add the roughly chopped celery and root vegetables. Fry for a few minutes and add all the other ingredients, topping up with water as needed to cover the veg. Simmer on the stove or in the oven for an hour or so.