Preserved lemon tapenade on a cracker and in a bowl

Preserved lemon tapenade

Gavin Wren Recipes, Side dishes, Spreads & Dips

In my fantasy dream kitchen, the cupboards and fridge would be stocked at random by a stranger who chooses regularly changing ingredients, on top of the usual store cupboard staples. This kitchen would also be large, slick and cleaned nightly by a team who sneak in and shine it to perfection whilst I’m asleep, like little kitchen elves. Oddly, that makes my ideal kitchen sound a little bit like the set for ‘Ready, steady, cook’. …

sun dried tomato tapenade

Sun dried tomato tapenade

Gavin Wren Recipes, Side dishes, Spreads & Dips, Starters, Vegetarian

Tapenade used to be one of those ‘things’ that I didn’t understand. It smells and tastes beautiful, and evokes romantic visions of lazy mediterranean lunches, but I never really knew what to do with it. Showing a stereotypical Britishness, I was confused because it’s not a chutney or a pickle, it’s not a jam and it’s not Marmite. I would see it on supermarket shelves and in delis, but leave it behind. I’d see it …

Paprika sweet potato wedges with feta mint yoghurt

Paprika sweet potato wedges with minted feta yoghurt

Gavin Wren Main Dishes, Recipes, Side dishes, Spreads & Dips, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Back at the wheel. I’m back! Although you probably hadn’t noticed, I’ve been away for a little while. Not away ‘away’, but away from the blog. And what’s the event that has caused me to temporarily desert (mmmm, dessert) my beloved blog? Surely it must be something awful, heartrendingly terrible or existentially disastrous to pry my frantic fingertips from the surface of my keyboard? The good news is that nothing bad has happened. It was …

Baba Ghanoush aubergine dip

Baba ghanoush – the food of the gods

Gavin Wren Recipes, Side dishes, Spreads & Dips, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Ambrosia is an often overused word, hastily thrown around with levity to elevate the status of a particular food. It’s a very serious word (to me, anyway) which means ‘food of the gods’, and religious denominations aside I try to be reserved in it’s use simply out of respect. So, it’s with a certain amount of reticence that I’m considering using it in the description here. Baba Ghanoush, Mutabal or Moutabal, are some of the …

Griddled asparagus with preserved lemons

Asparagus with preserved lemons

Gavin Wren Recipes, Side dishes, Starters, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Today’s recipe is so simple, it’s hard to think of a reason not to try it. If you were already planning to cook some of the lovely fresh asparagus that’s in season at the moment, then this simple addition adds a cheery extra dimension yet almost no extra work. And if you can’t get preserved lemons, even though the ‘cooks selection’ at many supermarkets now stock, they’re incredibly easy to make, so you could have …