Sweet potato, mozzarella, chilli & basil

This is a lovely easy recipe that you can make quickly and either eat at home if you're not in the office, or put in Tupperware to take with you. I absolutely love the fresh flavours of this dish - I could eat it everyday!

Ingredients

Serves 2

• 1 sweet potato

• 100g buffalo mozzarella, sliced

• 1/2 red chilli, thinly sliced, or chopped finely

• Juice of 1/2 lemon juice

• Drizzle of olive oil

• Basil leaves, ripped

• Salt and pepper

• Salad leaves & / roasted red pepper slices

  Method

• Roast a sweet potato on a baking tray in the oven at 180ºc for about 45 minutes depending on size. You can test with a skewer to see if is soft right the way through.

• Prep and plate the salad - have any combination you like, I like leaves and roasted red pepper (from a jar - easy!), but you could add grated carrot, red onion, raw peppers, cucumber - any salad you like.

• Cut the potato in half lengthways and top with mozzarella and chilli, then add a drizzle of olive oil and finish with a good squeeze of lemon.

Tip

• Keep a jar of roasted red peppers in your cupbaord as they’re great for quickly improving a salad or making sauces or dips like romesco or muhammara.

spicy chicken marinade

I made this chicken over the weekend for an impromptu BBQ when the sun was shining, and even though I say so myself, it was really bloody good! Early in the afternoon, I had a look in the fridge and found chicken thighs, Greek yogurt, and all the spices I needed in my cupboard.  I even had some leftover BBQ coals from last year. A minor miracle to organise a spontaneous BBQ and find you have all the things you need without making a dash to the supermarket.

I decided to make a couple of marinades, one spicy and one the kids could handle. Having a massive pot of yoghurt in the fridge I made this the basis for both.

I love using yoghurt to marinade meat. Its natural active bacteria breaks down the protein making the chicken moist and tender. The lactic acid in yoghurt also acts as a gentle tenderiser. It is much milder than citric acid and works a little slower, but this means it is unlikely to act too strongly making the meat mushy. You can leave the meat in the marinade for longer to gain flavour, but not lose texture.

As you can see from the photo, I made a simple salad with a yogurt and dill dressing, red cabbage slaw, roasted red peppers, and a squeeze of fresh lime.

Ingredients

• 6 chicken thighs (mine were skinless, but it doesn’t matter either way)

• 5 tablespoons of plain yoghurt (I used greek-style)

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 teaspoon Ras al Hanout

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• ½ teaspoon ground coriander

• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (you can leave this out if you don’t like it hot)

• 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes

• Juice of 1 lemon, slice up the remains

• Large pinch of black pepper

Method

Get a large mixing bowl and put all the marinade ingredients into it, mixing thoroughly, including the lemon slices. Add the chicken and leave to marinate in the fridge for up to 12 hours. The longer the better, basically, but after 3 hours mine was really good.

Either fire up the BBQ and grill these outdoors, or use an iron griddle or frying pan to cook indoors if need be. My chicken thighs were quite small, so they only took about 6 minutes a side to cook. To be on the safe side, I always slice open one piece of chicken to make sure it is cooked through.

Tip

Serve with a Moroccan roasted red pepper and a green salad, red cabbage slaw and some sunshine.

If the weather is bad, these chicken thighs can be cooked on an iron griddle or frying pan; this method works equally well. Cooking times are the same.