A filling and sustaining chunky soup loaded with goodness and hearty ingredients. This chunky butternut squash and lentil soup is a meal-in-a-bowl which virtually becomes a stew as the liquid is almost entirely soaked up by the lentils, chickpeas and squash. The Indian influenced spices have come in to play, featuring a warming host of flavours which will warm your cockles even when the temperature's so cold that the central heating doesn't. It's so good that it's my lunch bowl for the next three weeks, yes, I've just made a triple batch of this, giving me a happy fridge and freezer full of lunchtime joy.

Chunky Butternut Squash and Lentil Soup

Gavin Wren Recipes, Soup, Vegan, Vegetarian

Today I’ve got a fantastically filling, Indian influenced, chunky butternut squash and lentil soup with chickpeas that will keep your tummy filled, your body fuelled and your cockles warmed throughout the coldest days of the winter. Fantastic India. I’ve just returned from a truly beautiful holiday in Goa, India, where I spent three weeks doing yoga, laying by the sea, reading and travelling across the width of the country to the eastern city of Ranchi, …

Should I eat meat?

Should I Eat Meat?

Gavin Wren Food Education, Food Opinion Pieces, Writing

Background. I’m having an existential crisis. The foundations of my culinary world are being rocked to their core, because asked myself the question “should I eat meat?”. The best way to describe my diet is flexitarian. I eat everything, however almost every meal I prepare at home is vegetarian, I rarely ever cook meat and buy fish once a week. If I try new recipes from cookbooks or blogs, they are almost exclusively vegetarian and …

Melanzane in Saor is an amazing vegetarian and vegan aubergine (eggplant) dish in a sweet and slightly sour sauce, which is unique to Venice and follows a proud history of Italian food using love, respect and time to get the best of the ingredients. It's a serious make ahead dish, needing 2 days to mature but worth the wait for those fantastic flavours and perfect for buffet spreads or picnics.

Melanzane in Saor (aubergine)

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

Today I’m recounting an amazing Italian dish called ‘melanzane in saor’, or aubergine ‘in Saor’. It’s a very simple yet beautifully balanced Italian dish that has sweet and sour flavours that work just beautifully together. The age is the important thing, you need to make this dish well in advance to let the flavours develop, it’s perfect to make a day ahead for a buffet spread or to take along to a picnic, but don’t …

Make celeriac the most popular side dish on the table this year with my honey glazed celeriac recipe which sees this vegetable dish dripping with honey and rich, dark caramelised colours. Easily cooked in one pan on the stove, this vegetarian dish is just as good served up next to a piece of fish or meat.

Honey Glazed Celeriac

Gavin Wren Recipes, Side dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Today I’m having a reflective look at my life before launching into the recipe of the day which is honey glazed celeriac. This is a true barnstormer of a recipe that passed my unfailing recipe test… can I eat the whole lot in one go. Without doubt, yes. It’s also an incredibly easy way to make this ugly root become the most popular dish on the table, just chuck it in the pan and leave …

An amazingly wholesome supergreen wholegrain miso soup rammed full of hearty, warming, nutritious wholegrains and micronutrients, it’s a fully rounded one-pot meal in a bowl that gives you all the energy you need to live a healthy, happy life. It makes the prefect vegetarian lunch or dinner meal soup for autumn and winter when the mornings are cold and you need something to look forward to, plus it's an easy make, you just need to leave it simmering away while you go about your life. Find the full recipe on brainfoodstudio.com

Supergreen Wholegrain Miso Soup

Gavin Wren Recipes, Soup, Vegan, Vegetarian

I hope you’re ready for the most wholesome, healthy, winter-warmer, one-bowl-meal of a recipe I’ve ever published. This recipe is packed full of supergreens plus it’s a wholegrain miso soup, taking the often light miso soup and making into a hearty, balanced meal soup. It even looks healthy! Just looking at this recipe makes you lose a few kilograms, making and eating it is the equivalent of visiting Lourdes whilst running a marathon and getting …

Hot, crunchy, soft, doughy balls of deliciousness, cooked in the oven alongside a perfect homemade spelt pizza. Dipping duties are handed over to a simple thick and creamy garlic coconut butter dip all ready to plunge these spelt dough balls into as soon as they're out of the oven.

Spelt Dough Balls with Garlic Coconut Butter Dip

Gavin Wren Recipes, Side dishes, Small Bites, Spelt & ancient grains, Starters, Vegetarian

Today’s post is about some hot, crunchy, soft, doughy balls of deliciousness, cooked in the oven alongside a perfect homemade spelt pizza. Dipping duties are handed over to a simple thick and creamy garlic coconut butter dip all ready to plunge these spelt dough balls into as soon as they’re out of the oven. Cook With Your Heart. Cook with your heart, not your head. Sage advice. Somebody once said to me “when you cook …