Let’s talk skordalia – part sauce, part dip, and all kinds of delicious. The name comes from the Greek word skordo (σκόρδο), meaning garlic, which tells you everything you need to know… if you don’t like garlic, trust us when we tell you this isn’t for you so just jog on. Creamy, rich and punchy…

This recipe is our laid-back riff on fattoush, a zingy, crunchy Middle Eastern salad that’s packed with juicy veggies, crispy pita, and a tangy dressing. Fattoush usually features tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and capsicum, with the dressing kicked up with lemony sumac. We’re taking culinary liberties with…

The Cobb salad is the ultimate American summer classic – a hearty, throw-it-together kind of dish that’s become an icon. Legend has it that this salad was first whipped up back in the 1930’s at the famed Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood by owner Bob Cobb. And can we just take a moment to appreciate the poetic rhythm of this dude's name? Fabulous. The story goes...

We’re on a bit of a mezze kick this week, if you hadn’t noted. Full disclosure; we were hopeful of nicer weather to be able to take a light dinner outside but we should have known better. We’ve only lived here for most of our lives. Sigh. But when things do perk up in the warmth and sunshine department...

A real meal-in-a-bowl, you can easy scale this recipe up, increasing everything by a half or even doubling it. As the soup freezes well, you can then have plenty to pull out for an easy meal when time runs short to cook dinner. We like roasting our beets separately, adding them to the soup near the end of cooking...

These flatbreads are fun to put together and they’re versatile too. You could serve them as a side for a soup, or with a Middle-Eastern themed roast lamb dinner, or even as leftovers for breakfast, reheated in the oven until the bread-y part turns crisp. We like serving them as part of a mezze (also spelled ‘meze’) spread. We have an entire repertoire of veggie and pulse-based dips...

Yes, we’re on a medjool date bender. And why not; is there anyone who doesn’t adore these things? They’re so gooey and sweet, it’s hard to believe that something quite so lush is actually good for you, mountains of fructose aside. Oh and the carbs and the calories notwithstanding. Between the dates, the hints of maple syrup…

This concept is fabulous; eggplants cut like hasselback potatoes, the slits filled with a cheesy-savoury stuffing, then baked until the eggplant flesh is tender and the tops, golden. But after various attempts at baking them in a regular oven, using different types and cuts of eggplant…

L.A. spawned the OG chopped salad – the mighty Cobb. Still round today, the Cobb Salad is an artful arrangement of neatly chopped mixed lettuces, tomatoes, bacon, chicken, boiled egg, and blue cheese, set out neatly in rows, and doused in vinaigrette…

It had to happen sooner or later; cabbage has officially entered the zeitgeist. Remember when cauliflower was suddenly a thing? Then Brussel’s sprouts? No? Well they were and now it’s cabbage’s turn to have a little moment. Cabbage is suddenly all the rage..

We’re doing our best to slip in as many vibrant veggie-based dishes as we can before the dark days of winter set in. Not that we have anything against braises, pies, soups, root veggies and all that comfort food you generally hoover through in winter. (Did someone say ‘roasted kūmara’?)…

Loads of cuisines have their take on a fish cake; in Thailand they're called tod mun pla and are infused with red curry paste; in Malaysia they’re called otak otak and involve grinding fish to a paste with coconut milk and spices, wrapping in banana leaves, then grilling. Delish…

Bloody autocorrect. Ours has a field day with ingredient names we’d think it should jolly well know better. We’ve ‘butthurt’ our corn when it should have been buttered. We added ‘shitpotle’ not chipotle to our chilli, although this one was arguably more of a straight typo…

Potato salad. Just yum. We love us a classic version, complete with mayo, chopped boiled egg, a hint of powdered mustard and chopped chives/parsley – we don’t even mind if a smidge of very finely chopped celery finds its way in…

Why are baby carrots often called Dutch? That’s probably a question for our Eternal Questions team here at the LSC but off the top of our heads, we’d say it’s because the Dutch, bless ‘em, developed the modern orange carrot as we know it…

Russian is not a cuisine we pretend to know well but as our Summer Of Not Cooking progresses unabated, we’re trawling the globe for inspo. Enter… okróshka! It’s the tangy, crunchy, herby, potato-y and egg-laden cold soup you never knew you’d love…

Are they Greek? Are they Turkish? We’re not going to step into that particularly messy fray, but let’s just say we’ve eaten our fair share of these babies on Turkish soil as part of mezze spreads. Called mücver, we’ve yet to meet anyone who dislikes these fritters…

I’m flexing my mince muscles in anticipation of May, which I’m dubbing My Month of Mean. Or of Mince. Or of Misery. Or something. With the cost of everything going bananas and cash reserves shrinking (thanks, Reserve Bank!), I’m pulling my horns in. No more soothing retail, bye bye Binge account and see ya later exxie wine habit…

We love lamb, especially a roast leg, either cooked long, slow and on the bone, or boned, rolled, tied and blasted at 200C. This is a very simple take on a fast roasted boneless leg but for the sake of all that’s cute, woolly and goes ‘baaa’ when you pat it, do not overcook your lamb…