Recipes

Pinole is a traditional Mexican flour made from roasted ground corn, which is often sold combined with things like chia seeds, cinnamon and cocoa. It’s easy enough to source online in Europe. Pinole can be mixed with water or milk for porridge, added to smoothies or - in this case - used in baking. It’s a nutritious complex carb, so great for running fuel. These need an oven and a food processor, but will last 4-5 days in an airtight container. This is adapted from a recipe found in the book Born To Run 2, which in turn borrowed it from trail runner called Andrew Olson. ...

This recipe is a campervan favourite, and nicer than the meat equivalent. I usually transfer it to another saucepan once made to simmer/rest while I make the rice in the same pressure cooker afterwards. Ingredients: 1 onion, 1 pepper, 1 carrot, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 mug dried beans, soaked overnight (mix of kidney, black & mung), 1 tin chopped tomatoes, 1 tablespoon tomato puree, 1 tablespoon dried oregano, 1 tablespoon cumin, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika. 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder, 1 teaspoon miso paste (optional), 1 square dark chocolate ...

This is a fast camper van crowdpleaser, because it uses pre-cooked chickpeas and the sauce is naturally creamy and thick thanks to the combination of peanut butter and coconut milk. The lime is a nice addition because it adds an unusual and complementary sharpness at the end. Ingredients: 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon curry powder, 1 tin full-fat coconut milk, 4 tablespoons peanut butter, 2 tablespoons tomato puree, 2 tins chickpeas (drained), 1 veg stock cube, 1 lime ...

A simple curry that we never get bored of. For us, if you’re going to try to avoid meat, you should replace it with things like beans and pulses, so dishes like this feature pretty much daily on our menu. Ingredients: 1 onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 medium red pepper, 1 medium sweet potato, 1 tablespoon curry powder, 1 mug red lentils, 1 tin chopped tomatoes, 1 tin coconut milk. Optional: Small bunch of coriander, thumb of ginger, 1 tsp nigella seeds, juice of half a lemon. ...

It’s not really a risotto due to the pressure cooking of course (see below), but it works for us. It’s filling, tasty and highly nutritious, and thus a great one-pot meal both for van life and for carb loading before long runs etc. Ingredients: 1 small onion, 3 cloves garlic, 1.5 mugs any short-grain rice, large splash of white wine (optional), 4 mugs water, 2 veg stock cubes, 250g mushrooms, 2 large handfuls spinach, 1/2 mug grated parmesan, big knob of butter (optional) ...

I’ve been ‘in charge’ of food for our household ever since Faye and I met, when I DJed at weekends, Faye worked in the week, and so it fell to me to make the weekday evening meals. We’ve made every mistake, tried all diets, and honestly you couldn’t make up some of what we’ve done/been through (how about being diagnosed coeliac and living gluten-free for 8 years, only to figure out that the diagnosis was wrong?). Over the decades, we’ve boiled out ‘food philosophy’ down to these few rules to live by: ...