Poached Pears in Spiced Red Wine

Ingredients

• 1 vanilla pod
• 1 bottle red wine
• 225g caster sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick , halved
• fresh thyme sprig , plus sprigs to seve
• 6 pears , peeled, but kept whole with stalk intact

1. Halve the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the black seeds and put in a large saucepan with the wine, sugar, cinnamon and thyme. Cut each piece of pod into three long thin strips, add to pan, then lower in the pears.
2. Poach the pears, covered, for 20-30 mins, making sure they are covered in the wine. The cooking time will very much depend on the ripeness of your pears - they should be tender all the way through when pierced with a cocktail stick. You can make these up to 2 days ahead and chill.
3. Take the pears from the pan, then boil the liquid to reduce it by half so that it's syrupy. Serve each pear with the cooled syrup, a strip of vanilla, a piece of cinnamon and a small thyme sprig.

Per serving

235 kcalories, protein 0g, carbohydrate 51g, fat 0 g, saturated fat 0g, fibre 2g, sugar 51g, salt 0.3 g

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

• 1-1.25kg/2lb 4oz-2lb 12oz ripetomatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 1 small carrot
• 1 celery stick
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 squirts of tomato purée (about 2 tsp)
• a good pinch of sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1.2l hot vegetable stock (made with boiling water and 4 rounded tsp bouillon powder or 2 stock cubes)

1. Firstly, prepare your vegetables. If the tomatoes are on their vines, pull them off. The green stalky bits should come off at the same time, but if they don't, just pull or twist them off afterwards. Throw the vines and green bits away and wash the tomatoes. Now cut each tomato into quarters and slice off any hard cores (they don't soften during cooking and you'd get hard bits in the soup at the end). Peel the onion and carrot and chop them into small pieces. Chop the celery roughly the same size.
2. Spoon the oil into a large heavy-based pan and heat it over a low heat. Hold your hand over the pan until you can feel the heat rising from the oil, then tip in the onion, carrot and celery and mix them together with a wooden spoon. Still with the heat low, cook the vegetables until they're soft and faintly coloured. This should take about 10 minutes and you should stir them two or three times so they cook evenly and don't stick to the bottom of the pan.
3. Holding the tube over the pan, squirt in about 2 tsp of tomato purée, then stir it around so it turns the vegetables red. Shoot the tomatoes in off the chopping board, sprinkle in a good pinch of sugar and grind in a little black pepper, then tear each bay leaf into a few pieces and throw them into the pan. Stir to mix everything together, put the lid on the pan and let the tomatoes stew over a low heat for 10 minutes until they shrink down in the pan and their juices flow nicely. From time to time, give the pan a good shake - this will keep everything well mixed.
4. Slowly pour in the stock, stirring at the same time to mix it with the vegetables. Turn up the heat as high as it will go and wait until everything is bubbling, then turn the heat down to low again and put the lid back on the pan. Cook gently for 25 minutes, stirring a couple of times. At the end of cooking the tomatoes will have broken down and be very slushy looking.
5. Remove the pan from the heat, take the lid off and stand back for a few seconds or so while the steam escapes, then fish out the pieces of bay leaf and throw them away. Ladle the soup into your blender until it's about three-quarters full, fit the lid on tightly and turn the machine on full. Blitz until the soup's smooth (stop the machine and lift the lid to check after about 30 seconds), then pour the puréed soup into a large bowl. Repeat with the soup that's left in the pan. (The soup may now be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost before reheating.)
6. Pour the puréed soup back into the pan and reheat it over a medium heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until you can see bubbles breaking gently on the surface. Taste a spoonful and add a pinch or two of salt if you think the soup needs it, plus more pepper and sugar if you like. If the colour's not a deep enough red for you, plop in another teaspoon of tomato purée and stir until it dissolves. Ladle into bowls and serve. Or sieve and serve chilled with some cream swirled in. For other serving suggestions, see opposite.

Choosing the best tomatoes

The best British tomatoes for making soup are Elegance, a deep-red classic tomato (often sold on the vine) with a thin skin and sweet, juicy flesh. Aranca are good on-the-vine cocktail tomatoes with a superb flavour and aroma, but if you prefer the larger beefsteak variety, go for Jack Hawkins. Plum tomatoes to watch out for include Santa, Jester, Mona Lisa and Baby Sweetheart.

Nutrition per serving for four

123 kcalories, protein 4g, carbohydrate 13g, fat 7 g, saturated fat 1g, fibre 4g, sugar 1g, salt 1.08 g

Vanilla Poached Peaches

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 large, ripe peaches
• 425ml sweet white wine
• 2 tbsp clear honey
• 1 vanilla pod , split

1. Put the kettle on, and fill a large bowl with iced water. Place the peaches in another large bowl and pour over enough boiling water to cover. Leave for 30 secs, then remove the peaches with a slotted spoon and plunge them into the cold water. The skins should now peel away easily.
2. Place the wine, honey and vanilla pod in a pan large enough to hold all the peaches, then gently heat until the honey has dissolved. Lower the peaches into the pan, cover and simmer gently for 15-20 mins until tender but not overly soft. Using two wooden spoons, turn the fruit 3 or 4 times while cooking and frequently baste with the syrup. Remove the cooked peaches from the pan and set to one side in a large bowl.
3. Boil the syrup hard until it has reduced by half (this will take about 10 mins). Spoon over the peaches, then set aside to cool. The peaches will keep for up to 2 days, covered and in the fridge. Serve the peaches and syrup at room temperature, warm or chilled with spoonfuls of clotted cream, if you like.

162 kcalories, protein 1g, carbohydrate 21g, fat 0 g, saturated fat 0g, fibre 2g, sugar 6g, salt 0.04 g

Chocolate Sorbet

Ingredients

• 200g caster sugar
• 50g cocoa
• 50g dark chocolate , finely chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Tip the sugar into a bowl, sift in the cocoa and stir. Bring 600ml water to the boil in a medium saucepan. Whisk in the sugar and cocoa and return to a gentle simmer. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 mins, whisking occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate and vanilla until the chocolate has melted.
2. Cool the mixture, then put in the fridge for several hrs or overnight until well chilled. Make the sorbet in an ice-cream machine or pour into a rigid plastic container, preferably bowl shaped, and freeze until frozen 3cm from the edges. Whisk to break down the ice crystals, then freeze again for 1 hr more. Whisk and freeze again one more time, then leave until completely frozen.
3. Before serving, transfer to the fridge for 30 mins to make scooping easier.

221 kcalories, protein 1g, carbohydrate 46g, fat 5 g, saturated fat 2g, fibre 1g, sugar 42g, salt 0.05 g

Apple and Mint Sorbet

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp sugar
• a small bunch mint
• 6-8 apples , quartered and juiced to make 850ml
• ½ lemon , juiced

1. Put the sugar in a small pan with 150ml water. Heat until the sugar has dissolved then add the mint. Leave to infuse for 20 minutes. Strain and add to the apple and lemon juice.
2. Pour into an ice-cream maker and churn to a sorbet consistency

45 kcalories, protein 0.1g, carbohydrate 11.6g, fat 0.1 g, saturated fat 0g, fibre 0g, salt 0 g

Minestrone Soup

ngredients

• 3 large carrots , roughly chopped
• 1 large onion , roughly chopped
• 4 celery sticks, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves , crushed
• 2 large potatoes , cut into small dice
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 2l vegetable stock
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 400g can butter or cannellini beans
• 140g spaghetti , snapped into short lengths
• 1⁄2 head savoy cabbage , shredded
• crusty bread , to serve

1. In a food processor, whizz the carrots, onion and celery into small pieces. Heat the oil in a pan, add the processed vegetables, garlic and potatoes, then cook over a high heat for 5 mins until softened.
2. Stir in the tomato purée, stock and tomatoes. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 mins.
3. Tip in the beans and pasta, then cook for a further 10 mins, adding the cabbage for the final 2 mins. Season to taste and serve with crusty bread.

Per serving

420 kcalories, protein 18g, carbohydrate 79g, fat 6 g, saturated fat 1g, fibre 16g, sugar 24g, salt 1.11 g

Self Saucing Jaffa Pudding

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 100g butter , melted, plus a little extra for the dish
• 250g self-raising flour
• 140g caster sugar
• 50g cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• zest and juice 1 orange
• 3 eggs
• 150ml milk
• 100g orange milk chocolate or milk chocolate, broken into chunks (we used Divine orange milk chocolate)
• single cream or ice cream, to serve

• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 25g cocoa

1. Butter a 2-litre baking dish and heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Put the kettle on. Put the flour, caster sugar, 50g cocoa, baking powder, orange zest and a pinch of salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the orange juice and any pulp left in the juicer, the eggs, melted butter and milk, then pour onto the dry ingredients and mix together until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chunks and scrape everything into the baking dish.
2. Mix 300ml boiling water from the kettle with the sugar and cocoa for the sauce, then pour this all over the pudding batter - don't worry, it will look very strange at this stage! Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 mins until the surface looks firm, risen and crisp. As you scoop spoonfuls into serving bowls, you should find a glossy, rich chocolate sauce underneath the sponge. Eat immediately with vanilla ice cream or single cream.

Per serving

522 kcalories, protein 8g, carbohydrate 82g, fat 21 g, saturated fat 11g, fibre 2g, sugar 54g, salt 0.86 g

Chocolate Brownies

Pumpkin and Sage Pot Pies

• 1 small onion , cut into thin wedges
• 1 garlic clove , finely chopped
• 400g pumpkins or butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
• a small bunch of sage leaves, roughly torn
• olive oil
• 5 tbsp dry white wine
• 150g mascarpone
• 150ml vegetable stock , fresh, cube or concentrate
• 1 beaten egg , for glazing

Pastry

• 150g plain flour
• 75g butter , chilled and diced

1. Heat the oven to 200C/fan 170C/gas 5. For the pastry, sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a large bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingers to form breadcrumbs. Stir in 4-5 tsp cold water to make a soft dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill.
2. Put the onion, garlic, pumpkin and sage in a large roasting tin. Season. Mix in 2 tbsp olive oil. Spread out in a single layer then roast for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Sit the roasting tin on the hob over a medium heat and pour in the wine. Simmer until reduced by half, then stir in the mascarpone until melted. Stir in the vegetable stock and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat.
4. Roll out the pastry and cut 2 discs slightly larger than the tops of 2 individual pie dishes. Divide the filling between the dishes and brush the rims with egg. Lay the pastry over the filling and crimp the edges. Brush the pastry with beaten egg and bake for 20-25 mins.

To save time

Use bought shortcrust for the pies. All-butter versions have a better flavour.

Per serving

1068 kcalories, protein 14.1g, carbohydrate 70.7g, fat 80 g, saturated fat 43.3g, fibre 4.8g, salt 1.2 g