Orzo pasta with seeded pea pesto: spring on a plate, and a good option for the kids, too

This dish manages to be simultaneously spring-like and comforting, thanks to the intense flavour from the pea pesto. Telling you to stir whole peas through orzo feels a bit too much like nursery food, but if you are serving this to small children who are amenable to pesto pasta (mine are not), I’d suggest finely blitzing the pumpkin seeds before adding them to the pesto, because they’re quite large pieces otherwise. Top with seasonal asparagus and this is the perfect dinner to eat outdoors on a warm spring evening.

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A seafood pasta laced with butter and Malaysian flavours, and gloriously squidgy lasagne ‘noodles’ tossed with spiced lamb mince

My mum always says our love of pasta comes from the noodle culture we grew up with, and she’s spot on. Sometimes, I crave a buttery bowl of carbs, but one that’s layered with the bold, fishy flavours of Malaysia. This bucatini with prawns is one of my favourite meals when no one is watching. And when I’m short on time but craving squidgy carbs tangled with spiced lamb mince, the cuminy noodles are my self-loving pleasure. Completely incorrect in its origins, but undeniably delicious.

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A colourfully jewelled and relatively faff-free weeknight spring meal inspired by the Camargue region of southern France

Many moons ago, I went to the Camargue region of southern France, where wild white horses roam, the salt lakes are pink and the rice is red. This rice is sweet, nutty and robust, and so good that you can hang a meal around it. You can’t really go wrong, but, for this recipe, I’ve added cannellini beans and feta for creaminess, green beans for freshness and a pomegranate molasses and lime dressing to keep things bright and zingy.

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Spring into action with new season asparagus in a punchy hazelnut dressing, and a quickfire cheesy gratin with white beans and vegetables

Coming as I do from a family with a colourful array of dietary requirements, I can verify that these veg-forward dishes seriously perform on both the texture and flavour fronts, as well as being achievable crowdpleasers. British asparagus swoops in around now, offering bright green relief from winter’s hardier vegetables, while the jarred and frozen veg in the gratin save on prep time and keep everything light.

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Once you learn how straightforward it is to make these flatbreads, they’ll be in your culinary arsenal for ever – perfect for lunch topped with smoked salmon and cream cheese

Yoghurt flatbreads make a weekly appearance in our kitchen, because they are so effortless and versatile. If I have forgotten to pick up a loaf, I will often panic-make them for breakfast or packed lunches. While they are great on the side of stews, soups and curries (or on the barbecue, if that’s the way the weather is going), I’ve made them the hero in this elegant but easy brunch/lunch-style setup. You can make one flatbread per person (as instructed), or you could make multiple mini ones that are almost like little herby pancakes. The dill-spiked cream cheese, however, is a must with smoked salmon.

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Three ways to enjoy this prince of the brassicas: in a pie with ricotta and preserved lemon, with sausage and noodles in a spicy sesame sauce, and charred with cheesy polenta and anchovies

Before we start swooning over asparagus and jersey royals, let’s take a moment to appreciate the robust appeal of purple sprouting broccoli. Like its regular calabrese cousin, it’s packed full of nutrients, but the taste is nuttier and more complex, while the texture has a wonderful, satisfying bite. Steamed, boiled, stir-fried or roasted, PSB will stand up to all sorts of punchy flavours, from briny anchovies to bold Asian condiments.

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Make a big batch of this highly customisable dish and keep some for the week ahead

You can use lots of different spice blends here; I like baharat, but for ease you could substitute that with Indian spices or smoked paprika. I sometimes use purple sweet potato, but you get a nicer colour contrast with the bog-standard orange variety. The beetroot will still have a little bite after 30 minutes in the oven, so if you prefer it completely soft, cut it into smaller chunks or use precooked instead.

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A big, delicious, melting mush of creamy, garlicky aubergine (even if it does resemble a wet dishcloth)

I have joked in the past about the peeled flesh of a baked aubergine and how, when sitting in a sieve balanced over the sink, it looks like a damp, grubby dishcloth. Well, a week or so ago, I lived this joke when I reached for a dishcloth that was, rather oddly, sitting on a plate, and for a nanosecond I thought that things really had reached a low for the cloth to be not just grubby, but slimy. That was before I realised I was about to pick up an aubergine and future baba ganoush.

Other things occurred that evening, too, and in the end the aubergine was put in Tupperware with some peeled cloves of garlic and a squeeze of lemon (which I hoped might preserve it), and the box put in the fridge. It should not be a confession for a food writer whose job is to be resourceful, but I am going to admit it anyway: every time I put sealed Tupperware in the fridge, I wonder if it will get out in time. Quite often, it doesn’t, which also confirms a friend’s observation that putting Tupperware in the fridge is the equivalent of telling someone you will call them back, then forgetting. Happily, this box did come out in time (the very next day, in fact), and the contents – which still looked like a dishcloth, but a welcome one – had almost become baba ganoush.

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The comfort-food staple has been given a culinary glow-up and is suddenly the toast of the town. What’s not to like?

A dispatch from the menus of the capital’s fancier pubs, Instagram restaurants and wine bars: there’s a new favourite dish in town. Though maybe “new” is the wrong word. Cropping up in the types of establishments where you’ll easily pay a fiver for olives is the humble but universally beloved cheese toastie.

I’d call it a renaissance, but that would ignore the fact that the toastie is and has been for decades a staple of busy lunches, sick days and CBA dinners, when all you’re after is instant satisfaction. Let’s say instead, then, that the cheese toastie has had a bit of a culinary glow-up.

Lauren O’Neill is a culture writer

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