Vegetables and Pulses

It’s very often vegetables that dominate the leftover scene in the fridge. This is probably because meat has a firm use-by date and an associated anxiety with not letting it slip past that point. By contrast, it’s often the case that I open the fridge and will find quarter of a red pepper, half a cabbage, a shrivelling leek, a few sticks of floppy celery or some past-their-best beans languishing at the bottom of the veg drawer.

What I love about these ingredients is that I could come in from a two-week holiday and within 45 minutes could easily have three or four dishes on the table. They are the Dad’s Army of kitchen ingredients – stalwart, dormant and ready to spring into life-saving, colourful rescue.