For your next kitchen supper, casual entertaining, friends get-together or ‘come round for a bite’, here’s a collection of really easy recipes for dishes that will look like you’ve slaved in the kitchen for hours.
In the UK we don’t often employ the concept of ‘potluck’, very popular across the Atlantic, where everyone brings a dish to a gathering, so the British hostess must be with the mostest. But do we want to prep for days, then precariously balance the timings of all the cooking elements, sweating over the hob while the guests are on the third porn star martini? Or, worse, congregated around the kitchen island (so over!) watching your spatula dance frantically?
Nah. Definitely not. Here’s a bunch of very good, easy and impressive recipes, starting with starters and ending with puddings.
Padron peppers are the most laid-back starter, also to prepare. Wash them and pat dry, then drop into a dry hot pan and toss around nonchalantly every now and then, until blistered and amazingly fragrant. And there’s no waste because you eat them whole.
Another pepper starter, which takes a little longer to cook but almost completely hands-off. The meltingly soft, unctuous mass of vibrant peppers only needs some sliced baguette for company.
This one is a classic but also such a crowd pleased it will never be boring. Smoked salmon and melon slices, with a drizzle of balsamic dressing and some fresh mint leaves. Simple and exquisite.
Smoked salmon and melon salad
RECIPE
What an unbelievably gorgeous combination! If you get hold of ripe figs and ripe tomatoes, simply slice them into a salad with crumbled blue cheese and balsamic dressing. Sweet figs, ripe tomatoes with a salty tang of blue cheese make up an incredible burst of flavours.
Watermelon and feta salad is another summery classic, and watermelon can be swapped for melon. It’s the salty-sweet combo in the most refreshing form. Whole or half a watermelon is really easy to prepare and much better value than prepacked tubs.
For a great and less common main, consider guinea fowl: not quite game, not quite chicken. It should be on our plates all the time as it’s free range and inexpensive. With wild fungi in season, pan fried guinea fowl breast is the epitome of an autumnal dish. And a feast fit for the gods!
Guinea fowl breast with mushrooms
RECIPE
Pork fillet aka tenderloin is so easy to work with, it’s the dream dinner party material. This recipe presents it stuffed with medjool dates and drizzled with hot honey glaze. Plain buttered pasta on the side or crushed new potatoes will go well.
Pork fillet with dates and hot honey
RECIPE
Venison – another sustainable and ethical meat we should eat more of, and it makes a super impressive roast dish when served with chocolate sauce and some steamed greens.
Venison loin with chocolate sauce
RECIPE
Admittedly this one is a little more involved but it’s truly an ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ inducing dish. Haddock, turbot or sole fillets baked au gratin, covered with delicious mushroom sauce topped with crisp breadcrumbs. It looks impressive and is absolutely delicious.
Fish with mushroom gratin
RECIPE
No denying: chicken breast is an easy way out. But it needn’t be boring: chicken saltimbocca inspired by an Italian veal classic is flattened chicken breast topped with prosciutto, sage and grated Parmesan. It’s pan fried and perfectly easy to prepare in advance.
Another chicken staple, prepare and assembled earlier and then simply slipped into the oven for about forty minutes. Chicken breast or thigh chunks together with an array of Mediterranean vegetables make a colourful and appetising centrepiece. Plain rice on the side, or just good crusty bread.
And a classic again: scaloppine al vino bianco, veal escalope in white wine sauce which is fit for the smartest dinner party. It’s the dish that illustrates the expression ‘easy fine cooking’!
Scaloppine al vino bianco
RECIPE
For the meatless crowd, and good enough to tempt any meat eater too: a tray bake of cherry tomatoes, tinned chickpeas and feta cheese squares. So easy, so delicious, spiced and sweet with honey and chillies.
Tomato and chickpea tray bake
RECIPE
Quinoa is not the only grain: bulgur wheat is my firm preference. It is nutritiously superior and can be prepared like rice, only easier to cook. This delicious pilaf with onions, red peppers and raisins is spiced with Middle Eastern flavours, and ready in barely half an hour.
Even if you don’t think celeriac is awfully flavoursome, you can’t deny this is a showstopper of a vegetarian dish. But you might be surprised how nice it is cooked like this: pleasantly earthy, a little sweet and it’s meltingly soft. Plus, so much fun to eat!
Salt crust baked celeriac
RECIPE
Coming onto desserts and this is definitely one to chalk up. Polish Carpathian Mountain cake is two layers of choux pastry which is about Year 8 skill level, sandwiching Chantilly cream filling, like a giant éclair sandwich cake.
If you look for something healthier and not so sweet for afters, and figs are in season, you have a winner in baked figs with blue cheese. And it can also double up as a starter – not necessarily on the same occasion though.
Baked figs with blue cheese
RECIPE
Boil cream with lemon juice and this is what happens, as they say on TikTok. But seriously, the traditional and delicious English dessert, lemon posset, involves barely more than that and is unfailingly popular with guests.
South African and traditional at Christmas to boot, but there is no reason not to serve Malva pudding all year round. Warm and a little like sticky toffee, it’s perfect for those who like proper, warm pudding that goes with ice cream or custard – and for everybody else too.
And finally, a proper cake albeit one that is baked ahead, then blasted under the grill with blissfully lovely, caramelised almond topping. It’s Swedish and easy enough to make at home to save you from a trip to IKEA.