• Half a white cabbage
• 5 carrots
• 4 spring onions
• 6 radishes
• half a red onion
• 3 small apples
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 large fresh green chilli, seeded
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp plain low fat yogurt
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• salt & pepper

Shred the veg in a food processor. Mix the wet ingredients in a jar, shake and combine with the veg. Treat with caution. But you’ll be back for more.

You will need:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 2 small red chillis
• 1 potato, peeled and chopped
• 450g carrots, peeled and chopped
• small piece of fresh ginger, finely diced
• 1  litre vegetable stock
• knob of creamed coconut
• small amount of fresh coriander, chopped

Fry the onion in some oil for 5 minutes. Add the potato, one of the red chillis, chopped with seeds and all,  fresh ginger and ground coriander. Fry for about 10 minutes. Add the carrots and vegetable stock. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add a knob of creamed coconut, let it melt then blitz in a blender. Season to taste.

Sprinkle some slices of red chilli and fresh coriander on top when you serve. Hot, spicy and delicious.

This is a great, easy, delicious stew – just fry some onions and sage in a casserole, bung in some diced stewing beef, root vegetables (I use parsnips, swede, carrots, potatoes), red wine and beef stock. Cook for an hour ar 160C, then leave in the oven for a few hours on a low heat, say just over 100C. Melty meat, warms the soul. I make a veggie version too – replace the meat with some beans, and the beef stock with veggie stock.

• Half a dozen small potatoes, chopped
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced
• 1 leaf of curly kale
• small wedge of pumpkin, chopped
• 600ml chicken stock (or veg if you must)
• stick of celery, sliced

Fry the onion in a bit of olive oil, then add the veg and fry until starting to go soft. Add the stock, some salt and plenty of black pepper. Simmer for about 40 minutes and blitz with a hand-blender or in a Magimix. Serve with freshly-baked soda bread.

It all went. William had thirds – though I may have been a bit economical with the truth when it came to the ingredients…

• Large pumpkin
• 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
• large knob of butter
• 4 large carrots
• 2 large onions
• cumin seeds
• ground cinnamon
• ground ginger
• nutmeg

Scoop the inside of the pumpkin with an ice-cream scoop. Keep the seeds to one side and chop the pumpkin flesh. Save the empty pumpkin either for use as a soup tureen or to make a lantern.

Fry the onions gently in the butter for 5 minutes with a few cumin seeds, taking care not to brown the onions. Add the chopped carrots, pumpkin and stock. Add salt, pepper, ground ginger and cinnamon to taste – I used about a quarter of a teaspoon of ginger & cinnamon – a bit more would probably have been even nicer. Simmer on a low heat, lid on for about half an hour. Whizz up with a hand blender or food processor and serve with crusty bread, grating nutmeg on top. Perfect after an autumn walk in the park!

For the seeds… put the oven on a low heat – no more than 125 centigrade. Wash the seeds removing any flesh or stringy bits, pat dry with kitchen roll. Place on a baking tray in the oven until quite dry – took about half an hour. You can then put them in salads, or do what I did – toss them in a little sunflower oil and lots of sea-salt – deeeelishous!

- 1 head of celery.
- 1 large carrot.
- 1 large onion.
- 1 and a half pints (900ml) vegetable stock
- 75g grated cheddar cheese
- 100g grated stilton cheese

Trim the celery (optionally leave one or two stalks aside for later). Peel and chop the carrot and onion and place in a saucepan with the stock (I just use a veggie Oxo cube) and season.

Let it come to the boil and then simmer for about an hour.

Give the soup a whirr with a blender. Reheat in the pan and add the grated cheese.

If you decided to save some celery stalks now is the time to chop them into slices. Add them to the bowls when you serve to give the soup a bit of crunch.

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.