#30minuterecipes

ABOUT ME

During my travels as a Food Buyer for Waitrose I learnt so much from farmers, growers, food producers, chefs and food lovers.

Through them I developed the knowledge and expertise to find the most flavoursome good quality ingredients at the right time of year from the best countries to create the tastiest meals.

Smoked trout, butter bean, spring onion and tomato salad with a yoghurt, horseradish and wild rocket

Lydia Gerratt

Nov 11, 2016
2 min

Smoked trout, butter bean, spring onion and tomato salad with a yoghurt, horseradish and wild rocket

I love smoked trout fillets. They taste even better when eaten with a little yoghurt, spicy rocket leaf and horseradish sauce. To make it into a decent size meal, I add some salad, fresh coriander and a few butter beans. When I’m working from home this salad is the best. It has all those seriously healthy ingredients I try and eat; smoked trout = OMEGA 3, butter beans = protein, full fat yoghurt and salad = all the right vitamins, minerals and fats. But, best of all the f

Pasta with fresh sage, garlic and butter

Lydia Gerratt

Nov 1, 2016
2 min

Pasta with fresh sage, garlic and butter

This is a truly lovely fragrant simple dish. An Italian classic. It’s brilliant when made with fresh egg pasta for a ridiculously quick lunch or I use it as a side dish instead of potatoes or rice to eat with meat (rib eye steak, tender grilled chicken or seared marinated pork fillet). I was happily surprised when I first gave my children this pasta dish when they were very little, I didn’t know if they would be keen on sage, but they loved it! Miraculous ingredient: Unsalte

Lydia Gerratt

Oct 10, 2016
2 min

Potato latkes (potato rosti)

My mum used to make piles of potato latkes for me, my sisters and brother when we were little. She could never make enough as we loved them so much and ate them as fast as possible to make sure we got the most (that is the constant dinner time problem when you are one of four). Potato latkes are so more-ish that it’s worth doubling up the quantities in my recipe so you have some left over for breakfast to be topped with a fried egg! Miraculous ingredient: Maris Piper potato

Lydia Gerratt

Jul 20, 2016
3 min

Pork ragù with spaghetti

This is one of those recipes that is worth keeping up your sleeve when you are all out of ideas and need to get ridiculously tasty food on the table for your hungry family. Pork ragù is like a Bolognese sauce but made with pork instead of beef and is on the table within 30 minutes. The pork makes this ragù much lighter as it naturally contains less fat than beef. Plus pork is cheaper so it’s worth trading up to free range or organic (it really does taste better) as it’s alm

Pan fried courgettes with garlic and mint

Lydia Gerratt

Jul 8, 2016
2 min

Pan fried courgettes with garlic and mint

Hey everybody, British courgettes are in the shops! They are so fresh as they were probably harvested the day before and as you would expect from seasonal vegetables, nice and cheap. Pan fried courgettes with lots of garlic, mint and extra virgin olive oil take 15 minutes from start to finish. They are super delicious and are yet another recipe in your armoury of getting your children to eat more vegetables (and love them!). Miraculous ingredients: British courgettes when

Prawns (shrimps) with garlic, parsley and chilli

Lydia Gerratt

Jul 5, 2016
2 min

Prawns (shrimps) with garlic, parsley and chilli

I think that this recipe is truly the loveliest and most delicious way to cook prawns. It’s the classic combination of garlic and parsley with the sweetness of prawns. A little chilli works amazingly well too, though I have to add the chilli to my portion separately once cooked as my little boys shout at me if the food is too spicy! Did you know it’s actually the prawn shells that release the savoury seafood taste which works so well with the sweetness of the prawn meat? P

Rib eye steak with tarragon, parsley and garlic butter

Lydia Gerratt

Jun 8, 2016
2 min

Rib eye steak with tarragon, parsley and garlic butter

There is nothing better in this world than a big fat hairy steak. My favourite cut is rib eye, lots of marbled fat makes it deliciously tender, juicy and very flavoursome. I also love Béarnaise sauce with steak, but when I can’t be bothered to make the sauce from scratch (shop bought ones are awful), then a butter flavoured with tarragon, parsley and garlic makes for a heavenly meal. I usually make a lot of the herb butter and then keep it in the freezer – the amount in the

Vegetables jardinière with bacon lardons

Lydia Gerratt

May 27, 2016
2 min

Vegetables jardinière with bacon lardons

Why are the French so flipping brilliant at making seriously tasty vegetable dishes?! I’m sure it’s because they don’t worry whether something is vegetarian or not, they just put the right flavours together to scale those vegetables from downright bland to miraculous. We stayed with our family friends in Paris last weekend and lunch was roast chicken (from a rotisserie – the French are good at making cooking easy too!) with a huge platter of vegetables jardinière and bacon.

Pennette pasta with baby plum tomatoes, aubergines, mozzarella di bufala and basil

Lydia Gerratt

May 9, 2016
3 min

Pennette pasta with baby plum tomatoes, aubergines, mozzarella di bufala and basil

I flipping love aubergines. Once grilled, baked or barbecued these purple beauties transform from a strange tasting sponge to melt-in-the-mouth creamy deliciousness. I also love instagram – it has brought me into a new world of brilliant foodies. I always thought aubergines need to be fried in lots of oil to get the best flavour, but a few Middle Eastern food instagrammers I follow grill or bake their slices of aubergine to cut down on the amount of oil. If it works for th

Beef tagliata with rocket and parmesan (Tagliata di manzo)

Lydia Gerratt

Apr 24, 2016
3 min

Beef tagliata with rocket and parmesan (Tagliata di manzo)

I ate (well, devoured really) this dish in Florence years ago while pregnant with my first son. This was one of the few meals I loved as pregnancy hormones kept messing around with my taste buds – one minute everything was delicious and the next, not so good…… Tagliata in Italian means cut or sliced, as in a sliced steak. When I ordered Tagliata di manzo from the menu I thought it wouldn’t be that taxing for my poor taste buds as a good steak is good. But the seriously pep

Lydia Gerratt

Apr 13, 2016
2 min

Miso blackened, caramelised salmon

It would be rude of me not to warn you that even though this recipe is super simple (it literally takes 15mins to cook) you do have to marinate the salmon overnight to get the best flavour. But I promise, it’s totally worth it. I came across this recipe in my all time favourite food magazine, Cook’s Illustrated. The first time I tried it out on my little boys I didn’t have any sake so I substituted with brandy (which is always in my cupboard) – it was very good, but a littl

Coconut beef with spring onions and shiitake mushrooms

Lydia Gerratt

Mar 30, 2016
2 min

Coconut beef with spring onions and shiitake mushrooms

Why does coconut cream always make everything taste that much better? Two bunches of spring onions sounds like a lot, but go with it and even though you don’t cook them for long, they sweeten and soften. If you like your beef super tender, use sirloin steaks, but rump steaks work really well too and keep the price on an even keel. I always have to add the chilli at the end of cooking just to my dish as my 5 year old is not a fan – it still works though and gives a decent amo

Lydia Gerratt

Mar 23, 2016
2 min

Beef fillet steaks with salsa verde

Beef fillet steaks are a serious treat, it doesn’t happen often in my kitchen, but when I do get my hands on some soft buttery fillet steaks I want them rare on the inside, charred on the outside, ridiculously tender and made all the more tasty with a little bit of super piquant salsa verde sauce. I know you’re hesitating as you scan the ingredients for the salsa verde and wondering if you should ruin your expensive steak with some strongly flavoured anchovy and capers – igno

Sea bass with lemon, garlic and olive oil

Lydia Gerratt

Mar 15, 2016
2 min

Sea bass with lemon, garlic and olive oil

I don’t think I could give you a more simple fish recipe if I tried…..no excuse for not eating more fish with your children (they need the brain food, parents!!). My mum is from Montenegro and that is where I, my sisters and brother spent every summer when we were young. I could write pages about the phenomenal food with its Venetian and Ottoman influences, but the shining light of all the dishes from this Eastern side of the Adriatic is the stark simplicity of its grilled f

Spinach, smoked bacon, pine nut and Parmesan warm salad

Lydia Gerratt

Feb 29, 2016
2 min

Spinach, smoked bacon, pine nut and Parmesan warm salad

I know that winter is all about soul nourishing hot food, but sometimes I just want a salad to lift my spirits. A warm salad made with new season baby spinach leaves (well, so new season that they were actually grown in Spain where it’s just that much warmer and lighter than here), crispy fried bacon, pine nuts and loads of Parmigiano reggiano. The hot extra virgin olive oil wilts the leaves making the leaves slightly softer to eat. Grownups will love it (salty bacon and pa

Lydia Gerratt

Feb 12, 2016
2 min

Porcini and chestnut mushroom pasta

I’ve been trying to recreate the classic Italian porcini mushroom pasta……but, I’ve encountered one huge problem, it’s impossible to buy fresh porcini mushrooms and if by some amazing luck you find one, they are unbelievably expensive (£10 for one mushroom!!). Or, if you’re brave enough (I am definitely not) you can do a spot of mushroom foraging as, apparently, porcini do grow in British woodlands, who knew?! So what better to use than dried porcini mushrooms. You can get t

Chorizo, gruyere and mustard puff pastry bites

Lydia Gerratt

Dec 13, 2015
2 min

Chorizo, gruyere and mustard puff pastry bites

Bite size puffs filled with chorizo, gruyere cheese and hot mustard – what’s not to love?! This recipe is from one of my favourite food writers, Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa), though I have slightly adapted it with ingredients that are easy to find in the UK. When Atticus (my first son, now 5 years old) was a baby, I used to sit with him watching Ina cook on tv. Her beautiful soft voice, rhythmical cooking and shots of delicious food would calm him down ready for his sl

Lydia Gerratt

Dec 2, 2015
2 min

Pan fried duck breast

Duck is one of my all time favourites. I especially love pan fried duck breasts (medium rare) that have been made extra juicy and tender from the to-die-for duck juices and rich duck fat which are gradually released from the duck during the slow cooking technique I use. Duck breasts are not cheap, so when you decide to splash out on this seriously delicious meat you want to make sure it tastes wonderful when you take your first bite. To get a super crispy brown skin, melt aw

Lydia Gerratt

Nov 22, 2015
2 min

Pasta with prosciutto, peas and cream

This pasta sauce would normally be made in the summer when peas are in season, but when frozen peas are a million times better than fresh this dish tastes fabulous all year round. Ham with peas and cream is a classic Italian pasta sauce. Though as with all Italian recipes I found a lot of variations with the type of ham you can use. Many insist on prosciutto, but quite few use lovely chunks of fresh ham – use whatever you prefer. The whole dish is done once the pasta is coo

Lydia Gerratt

Nov 2, 2015
3 min

Spicy ginger pork noodles with pak choy

I came across this recipe in ‘The New York Times Cooking’ and tested it out on the little boys last week – they LOVED it. Noodle dishes are the best sort of family meals as they combine all the foods that you are constantly told to eat and feed your children in just the right amounts…….some meat for protein, lots of vegetables for minerals and vitamins, noodles for carbohydrate and loads of flavoursome ingredients to make it taste phenomenal. I’ve upped the quantities of some

LYDIA GERRATT

Inspiring you to transform your food from bland to miraculous

ABOUT ME