Introduction

As a food stylist, I’m surrounded by food on photo shoots all day, ranging from the simplest of salads and pastas to the most complicated dishes, like one chef’s interpretation of a roast dinner involving six-hour confit of the bird’s legs, a stock from the bones, and a brine for the crown involving six different types of peppercorn. And that’s before the four deconstructed side dishes. But from my experience around all of these different types of food and working in the food industry, I have found that come lunchtime, when we stop to try the dishes from the morning, it’s the simplest things that people enjoy the most. It’s those dishes that people want the recipe for, and that I’ll make at home on the weekend. I am therefore a signed-up advocate for simple food.

In accordance with this, more often than not, I turn to one tin cooking at home. One tin dishes which need a minimal stint in the oven are even better, because I am greedy and want dinner to prepare itself quickly and without my attendance. We all have busy lives and things to do when we get home before we’ve thought about what to cook but I strongly believe that having time constraints in the kitchen doesn’t mean that you have to compromise on flavour, texture or interest in your food. That’s why this collection of roasting tin recipes maintains the trademark vibrancy of my first two cookbooks, but I’ve developed recipes here which can all be cooked in the oven within 30 minutes (and many in even less time). There’s 10 minutes or so of light prep and then you’ll have up to 30 minutes, while dinner looks after itself, to supervise homework, watch something on Netflix or take a nice hot bath.

You can find all the ingredients for the recipes in a big supermarket, because that makes up the majority of what’s in my cupboard. Luckily, that doesn’t exclude too many interesting options, thanks to stellar cookbook authors who’ve made varied types of cooking accessible. About three quarters of the recipes in this book are vegetarian or vegan, which I think reflects the way that many people cook nowadays. While there’s plenty for omnivores, many of the recipes involve bacon, pancetta, chorizo or ham hock as a flavouring rather than as the main ingredient, so they can be easily left out, and replaced with my go-to goat’s cheese, halloumi or feta.

The chapters in this book are organised by occasion. The first is full of simple dishes that you can put together on a weeknight after work, with largely storecupboard ingredients plus one or two bits grabbed from the supermarket on the way home. The crispy thyme roasted leek & mushroom pasta bake (page 24) and Kerala prawn curry (page 32) are already favourites among my friends.

The next chapter of the book is on family favourites, because one of the nicest things to come out of the first two Roasting Tin books is the number of new parents who have written to me to say how helpful the recipes are when juggling babies and zooming toddlers and even for baby-lead weaning. The tins in this chapter are designed to ideally feed both you and your children, on the basis of a very scientific straw poll among parent friends and colleagues as to what their children will and won’t eat. As you’ll see from the chapter, there was an overwhelming ‘yes’ to peas, a surprising positive on broccoli, and a loud ‘no’ to mushrooms. I apologise if your children disagree, but feel free to mix and match ingredients according to their tastes and if they still object, all the more in the tin for you to eat. The quick meatball pizza (page 58) is a good one to cook if you have helpers with small hands, and the baked gnocchi with crispy ham hock & peas (page 50) is an instant staple.

As I love recipes that make enough for dinner as well as a couple of lunches during the week, the third chapter is dedicated to make ahead lunchboxes, packed with easy, grain based dishes that you can batch cook at the weekend, like the tikka-spiced paneer salad with chickpeas, mint & naan croutons (page 90), or the super quick orzo gardiniera with courgettes, chilli and lemon (page 96).

The date night chapter is full of visually beautiful, delicious one tin recipes which have slightly more special ingredients, but take no more effort to make than any other one tin dish.

Chapter five focuses on easy entertaining: roasting tin dishes that you can scale up to feed a crowd. I’ve been making more Indian food recently, so this chapter includes tandoori-style salmon with spiced, roasted sweet potatoes, tomatoes & red onion (page 146) and masala roasted corn with quick coriander chutney (page 156), which I could happily eat every day.

Lazy weekend cooking makes up chapter six. Your tins will still take 30 minutes in the oven, but if you have time for a little contemplative food production, you’ll find the delicious pork, juniper & pink peppercorn meatballs with leeks and Puy lentils (page 188), along with my proudest creation, a crisp cheddar-topped bread cobbler with chilli spiked greens (page 176). Finally, there’s a chapter on desserts, because I do like a pudding, and there’s enough here to sort you for a weekend baking session or to finish off a dinner party.

This is my favourite collection of roasting tin recipes to date, not only because the dishes have already become staples, but also because I think that good food should be achievable however little time you have. As with my other Roasting Tin books, this cookbook is for people who like good food, without any hassle. Pick your recipe, do a bit of light chopping and an interesting, flavourful dinner will be ready in 30 minutes or less. It’s minimum effort, maximum return cooking.