What's on our Plates
Tonight

After years of not making kimchi, I finally gave it another go with Oi Sobagi, Korean stuffed cucumber kimchi. I used the last gherkins from our allotment, stuffed them with a spicy filling of gochugaru, leek, daikon, garlic and ginger, and replaced the sugar with grated homegrown apple. The recipe promised kimchi ready in just three days, although I somehow managed to wait almost two weeks before opening the jar! Fresh, spicy, garlicky and wonderfully crunchy.

A twist on Dolly Parton’s Mother’s Banana Pudding, inspired by Dana Cree’s Hello, My Name Is Ice Cream. Very ripe bananas are infused into the milk overnight, then strained out before the custard is made, giving plenty of banana flavour without adding the fruit’s starch. Layered with vanilla biscuits and fresh bananas, then finished with golden meringue, it’s rich, nostalgic and wonderfully banana-forward.

A quick and simple Aegean-style pan-fried red mullet recipe, inspired by the small fish served in seaside meyhanes in Turkey. The fish are lightly coated in flour and salt, fried for around three minutes on each side until golden, then finished with a squeeze of lemon. Perfect served hot with a table of meze and, if you like, a glass of rakı for a little taste of the Aegean at home.

A crunchy, deeply aromatic dukkah adapted from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen. Hazelnuts, sesame, pumpkin seeds and whole spices are toasted separately for maximum flavour. I grind the spices finely first, then pulse everything else briefly so the nuts stay chunky. It’s the dukkah I keep coming back to, and one that has found its way into plenty of Ottolenghi-style dishes at home.

Inspired by BAO’s cult Peanut Milk and the traditional Taiwanese drink Mee Jiang, this creamy, nutty drink is surprisingly easy to make at home. I adapted BAO’s original recipe to use a slow juicer, extracting milk from soaked roasted peanuts before gently simmering it with oat milk, oat cream, muscovado sugar and vanilla. Served chilled over plenty of ice, it’s rich, refreshing and gently sweet.

Fresh sage picked from our London allotment travelled all the way to my parents’ kitchen in Turkey, where it inspired this comforting pasta. Based on Ottolenghi’s One-Pan Orecchiette with Sage and Hazelnuts, I adapted the recipe using homemade Turkish erişte, local pink onions from Karacabey and walnuts instead of hazelnuts. A simple one-pan meal that brings together seasonal allotment produce, Turkish cooking traditions and Mediterranean flavours.

What started as a tray of mixed lettuce seedlings turned into one of the biggest surprises we’ve had at the allotment. After weeks of debating whether our unusually bitter “lettuce” was really lettuce at all, it finally revealed itself as radicchio. To celebrate the discovery, I made this simple Venetian-inspired aperitivo from Polpo by Russell Norman, where radicchio is gently pickled in white wine, white wine vinegar and juniper berries before being served with grissini and

Discover how to make Sütlü Kadayıf, a delicious Turkish dessert combining crispy shredded pastry with rich hazelnuts and a light milk-infused syrup. This easy-to-follow recipe delivers a perfect balance of sweetness and texture, ideal for special occasions or everyday indulgence. Serve chilled for a refreshing treat that highlights traditional flavors with a modern twist.

There was a time when healthy eating seemed to mean making food as bland as possible. This Caramelised Fennel & Mushroom Pilaf is one of the few recipes from an old healthy-eating cookbook that has stayed with me for years. The original was simple but forgettable; over time I adapted it by properly caramelising the vegetables, adding more lemon and black pepper, and simplifying the ingredients. The result is a wholesome, flavourful one-pot meal that I still cook today.

When our onions started sending up flower stalks, I needed a way to use the steady harvest of onion scapes from the allotment. Inspired by spring onion fritters from Özlem Warren’s Sebze and herb and cheese fritters from Musa Dağdeviren’s The Turkish Cookbook, I created this allotment-friendly version. Packed with herbs, feta and eggs, these golden fritters are a delicious way to turn an often-discarded ingredient into something worth making again and again.