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Butter-poached eggs with spinach
11 ratings
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Butter-poached eggs with spinach
This great technique of steam-poaching, using the juices from vegetables and a little butter, is easy to adapt to what’s around or in season, and is useful for a fridge-foraging lunch or supper as well as a healthy big breakfast. This is a high-protein breakfast that will really fill you up, but as it is quite high in calories it should be paired with lower calorie lunch and/or dinner on a diet day.

Each serving provides 457 kcal, 23g protein, 42g carbohydrates (of which 5g sugars), 20g fat (of which 8g saturates), 9g fibre and 1.6g salt.


By Hattie Ellis
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Preparation time

less than 30 mins

Cooking time

less than 10 mins

Serves

Serves 2

Dietary


Vegetarian

Ingredients
20g/¾oz butter
1 tsp olive oil
250g/9oz baby spinach
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 large free-range eggs
½ lemon, juice only
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 x 100g/3½oz slices wholegrain bread, to serve
How-to-videos
Method
Melt three-quarters the butter with the oil in a small frying pan over a medium heat. Add the spinach and tomatoes and season. Stir, cover with a lid, turn down the heat and cook for 2–3 minutes, or until the spinach has wilted.

Push the vegetables around the edge of the pan into a wide ring with a gap in the middle for the eggs, like a nest.

Melt the remaining butter in the centre of the pan and let it mix with some of the juices that have come out of the vegetables. Break the eggs into the middle. Cover and cook until the eggs are done to your liking (3–4 minutes for a runny yolk and 5–6 minutes for firm).

Meanwhile, toast the bread on both sides.

Season the egg and squeeze over the lemon juice. Serve immediately with the toast.

Black lentil tarka salad
5 ratings
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Black lentil tarka salad
15 minutes and a raid of your store cupboard is all you need to make this hearty lentil and chickpea salad, dressed in an aromatic spiced tarka.


By John Whaite
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Preparation time

less than 30 mins

Cooking time

less than 10 mins

Serves

Serves 2–4

Dietary


Vegetarian

Ingredients
For the salad
400g tin chickpeas (preferably black chickpeas), drained
400g tin black beans, drained
250g pouch cooked beluga lentils, drained
small handful coriander, roughly chopped
½ lime, juice only
For the tarka
50ml/2fl oz sunflower oil
1 green chilli, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
30g/1oz fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp nigella seeds
10 dried curry leaves
1 tsp fine sea salt
Method
To make the salad, toss all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

To make the tarka, heat the oil in a medium saucepan over a high heat. Once hot, add all the ingredients except the salt. Fry, stirring, until the seeds just start to pop violently – this should take about 1 minute.

Pour the tarka straight into the bowl with the beans, season with the salt and stir together.

Black Forest gâteau
8 ratings
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Black Forest gâteau
Make a genoise sponge for the lightest, fluffiest Black Forest gâteau filled with cherries and cream. Absolutely classic.


By Giorgio Locatelli
From Family Cooking Showdown
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Preparation time

less than 30 mins

Cooking time

30 mins to 1 hour

Serves

Serves 8

Dietary


Vegetarian

Ingredients
6 free-range eggs
250g/9oz caster sugar
100g/3½oz plain flour
60g/2¼oz cocoa powder
150g/5½oz butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for greasing
100g/3½oz morello cherry jam
425g tin pitted black cherries, drained
500ml/18fl oz double cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
100g/3½oz dark chocolate, to decorate
How-to-videos
Method
Preheat oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line the base of three 20cm/8in sandwich tins with baking paper.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar with an electric hand whisk until very light and fluffy. The mixture should leave a visible trail when you lift the whisk (ribbon stage). This will take around 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour and cocoa powder together before folding it into the egg mixture, being very gentle so as not to knock the air out.

Gently pour in the cooled melted butter down the inside of the bowl and carefully fold it in.

Divide the mixture equally between the three tins and bake for 20–25 minutes, until springy to the touch. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack, peeling off the baking paper, and allow to cool completely.

Heat the jam in a small saucepan to melt. Reserve eight of the tinned cherries for the top of the cake, then mix the remainder into the jam. Set aside to cool completely.

Whisk the cream and icing sugar together until soft peaks form. Set aside in the fridge until you are ready to assemble.

When the cake is completely cool, place the whipped cream in a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe a small amount of cream onto the first layer of sponge and spread evenly. Then pipe a ring around the edge and fill the middle with half the cherry mixture. Place the second layer of sponge on top and repeat the process.

Pipe eight swirls of cream on top of the cake, topping each with a reserved cherry.

Use a vegetable peeler to shave the dark chocolate into curls over the top (alternatively, grate the chocolate and sprinkle over). This cake is best eaten on the day it’s made.