Family recipes
Free family recipes, from weeknight fakeaways to Sunday roasts and proper puddings: each with the full method, and how to adjust it for vegetarians, allergies and fussy eaters.
- Ratatouille with crusty bread: A big pot of slow-cooked Provençal vegetables, vegan and cheap. Make extra for jacket potatoes.
- Ready-made lasagne with garlic bread: A family lasagne from the chiller with garlic bread and salad.
- Red lentil bolognese: A thrifty, hearty bolognese built on red lentils and veg that melt into a thick, rich tomato sauce. Even confirmed meat-eaters go back for s...
- Red lentil dal with sizzling tarka: A comforting, mild pot of soft lentils, finished with a sizzle of spiced ghee. Costs next to nothing.
- Red red: Ghanaian black-eyed bean stew with fried plantain: Named for its colour, red red is a Ghanaian favourite: black-eyed beans in a rich tomato and ginger sauce, served with sweet, caramelised fr...
- Roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings: A golden roast chicken with crunchy roast potatoes, carrots and peas, sage and onion stuffing balls, Yorkshire puddings and a jug of proper...
- Roast lamb with mint sauce and roast potatoes: A leg of lamb studded with garlic and rosemary, roasted until blushing in the middle, with crisp roast potatoes, carrots and green beans, gr...
- Roasted veg and mozzarella pasta bake: Sweet roasted courgette and peppers in tomato sauce, with a golden mozzarella top.
- Saag paneer with rice: Soft spinach in a mild, creamy curry with golden cubes of paneer. A proper vegetarian main, not a side.
- Salmon and potato fishcakes with peas: Thrifty fishcakes made from a couple of tins of salmon and some mash. Make a double batch: they freeze brilliantly for a lazy night.
- Salmon tikka with lemon rice and cucumber raita: Salmon fillets in a tangy tikka marinade, roasted until charred at the edges, with turmeric lemon rice and a cooling raita.
- Salt and pepper chicken: Crunchy cornflour-coated chicken tossed with peppers, spring onions and chillies. Hot-ish: leave the chilli for the grown-ups' bowls.
- Sausage and egg muffins: Breakfast for dinner: toasted muffins stacked with a sausage patty, a fried egg and melting cheese, with crispy hash browns and beans on the...
- Sausage casserole with creamy mash: Sausages and bacon in a sticky, smoky tomato and bean sauce, served with a mound of mash.
- Sausage meat wraps: Sausage meat spread thin over a wrap and fried until crisp. Squeezing it out of ordinary sausages is cheaper than buying sausage meat, but e...
- Sausages, chips and beans: Proper sausages, oven chips and a pan of beans. The weeknight tea most of us grew up on.
- Scampi, chips and peas: Breaded scampi from the freezer, oven chips, buttery peas and a dollop of tartare sauce. A pub classic with no washing up to speak of.
- Scotch broth: A thick, hearty lamb and barley soup packed with root veg and cabbage. One big pot that's a meal in a bowl, and even better the next day.
- Scouse: Liverpool's famous stew: beef, onions, carrots and lots of potato cooked slowly until some of the potato falls apart and thickens everything...
- Senegalese chicken yassa: Chicken marinated in lemon, mustard and garlic, then simmered with a mountain of slowly sweetened onions until tangy, savoury and soft. A na...
- Shakshuka: Eggs poached in a rich, spiced tomato and pepper sauce, served with bread for scooping.
- Shepherd's pie: Savoury lamb mince with carrots and peas under a golden ridged mash lid: the classic British family pie, and it freezes beautifully.
- Shiro: Ethiopian chickpea stew with flatbreads: Shiro is a silky, spiced chickpea-flour stew eaten all over Ethiopia, especially on fasting days. Served here with a turmeric cabbage and po...
- Shogayaki: Japanese ginger pork with rice and shredded cabbage: Thin slices of pork quickly fried and glazed in a sweet, gingery soy sauce, served the Tokyo canteen way with a heap of crisp shredded cabba...