Healthy
Roast cauliflower bolognese
I'm a fan of cauliflower bolognese. A groupie. I'd follow it around on tour and buy the shirt. Yes, the dish has strayed a long way from its origins but the flavour, texture and enjoyment are full and immediate. Everyone it was fed to, including other peoples' children, neighbours and my own intense critics, demolished it.
- 1-2 hrs
- Katrina Meynink
Adam Liaw's American spinach salad
The classic American spinach salad includes bacon, boiled eggs and raw mushrooms, plus a warm dressing made from the rendered bacon fat.
- < 30 mins
- Adam Liaw
Snapper sandwich with red curry, dill and ginger
Melbourne's Magic Mountain Saloon executive chef Karen Batson marries Thai flavours with a healthy, wholefood philosophy. The snapper sandwich with red curry, dill and gingerbased dish is based on a traditional dish from North-East Thailand (ngob pla). Here's an even simpler version you can make at home. You can use shop-bought curry paste (see note below) and grill or bake the fish in your oven.
- 30 mins - 1 hr
- Karen Batson
Tapenade flatbreads with white bean puree and fried capers
Amp up the classic 'bread and dip'. These flatbreads have a spiral of black tapenade through them, and are excellent with more subtly flavoured dips like this bean puree. To cook the flatbreads, you'll need a solid iron or steel griddle, or an uncoated old-fashioned frying pan, as the non-stick finishes aren't to be used over very high heats.
- 1-2 hrs
- Dan Lepard
Asparagus recipe: Asparagus and hazelnut salad with creamy dressing
I love this time of year, with asparagus coming into season. It's perfect in salads, sauteed or as a side dish. You can even chuck it on the barbie for a few minutes. If even that seems too much like hard work, don't forget it's a perfect vegetable to eat raw. Try pairing this asparagus number with a homemade beef pie.
- < 30 mins
- Neil Perry
Coconut, chicken and bunya bunya nut salad
It's a little-known fact that the Attica figurehead started out with dreams of emulating David Thompson's Thai-inspired cuisine. He decided he didn't want to be pigeon-holed to one cuisine, and today his dishes are a little bit harder to pin down.
- < 30 mins
- Ben Shewry
Farro with mushrooms and silverbeet
This recipe was inspired by Skye Gyngell's visit to the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. It makes a lovely side, lunch or a simple midweek dinner. Farro is a grain that has been traditionally used in Italian cooking and is available at gourmet supermarkets and Mediterranean food stores. Mushrooms are a wonderful source of B vitamins and antioxidants, a rich source of folate and potassium.
- 30 mins - 1 hr
- Caroline Velik
Baked spinach eggs
It's easy to get stuck in a rut when it comes to the first meal of the day, but I like to keep breakfast interesting. I might invent a different topping for the Sunday morning pancakes, or try something unusual with eggs, such as this baked recipe with spinach sauce. For a more rustic dish, instead of pureeing the spinach chop it by hand, blanch it and squeeze out the water, then mix it with the fried onion.
- 30 mins - 1 hr
- Frank Camorra
Helen Goh's yoghurt pudding with mango and medjool dates
I had set out to make a cheesecake with yoghurt and mango, but halfway through when I stopped to taste it, I realised it was delicious just as it was, eaten with a spoon. I did make one further change, though, which was to strain the yoghurt in the style of the luscious Indian dessert, shrikhand. Serve this family-style by placing it all in one large dish at the centre of the table, or for a more elegant presentation, dish it up individually in coupe glasses.
- 1-2 hrs
- Helen Goh
Salmon salad with green tahini dressing
You have to love a recipe when you look down the list of ingredients and everything is good for you. Full of green vegetables, good fats and omega-3s, the fact that this salad is also filling and delicious is a bonus.
- < 30 mins
- Adam Liaw