Lydia Gerratt | From bland to miraculous food

Lydia Gerratt

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.

Fennel, orange, black olive and caper salad

Feb 27, 2018
1 min

Fennel, orange, black olive and caper salad

Move aside food glitterati, this is one seriously seasonal winter salad. All the ingredients are at their peak when it’s freezing outside. This is the only time of year I like eating oranges (Spanish Navals are a favourite) because they taste fabulous; sweet and plump. Fennel is crisp with mild aniseed flavours and both olives and capers have finished maturing in brine after the October harvest. This salad is particularly brilliant with roast fish (sea bass!). Miraculous in

Courgette, mozzarella and Parma ham salad

Jul 3, 2017
1 min

Courgette, mozzarella and Parma ham salad

This is such a lovely summer dish, especially when the courgettes that start arriving in the supermarket are British. There is something about our warm soggy summer climate that works for courgettes – when eaten raw they taste creamy and sweet. If you have a beautiful bottle of extra virgin olive oil and have been keeping it for a special eating occasion, now is the time to use it……liberally! Mozzarella needs salt to bring out the flavour, but go easy as Parma ham is fairly

Roast vegetable warm salad with a yoghurt tahini dressing

May 5, 2017
2 min

Roast vegetable warm salad with a yoghurt tahini dressing

Roast butternut squash, aubergine, red peppers, onions and garlic are brilliant as a warm salad on soft green lettuce leaves with huge dollops of yoghurt tahini dressing. Miraculous ingredients: fresh rosemary, soft round green lettuce, full fat whole milk Greek yoghurt, tahini Roast vegetable warm salad with a yoghurt tahini dressing Ingredients ½ butternut squash, seeds and skin removed and chopped into large chunks 1 red pepper, seeded and cut into 6 slices 1 aubergine, c

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

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

Spinach, smoked bacon, pine nut and Parmesan warm salad

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

Warm salad with chicken livers, garlic and sherry vinegar

Jun 2, 2015
2 min

Warm salad with chicken livers, garlic and sherry vinegar

The first time I ate this warm salad was in Café Rouge on the Chiswick High Road years and years ago – I remember thinking how totally lush it was, why had never eaten chicken livers before and how could I cook it for myself??! It took me a long time to perfect the recipe and the hardest part to get right was the vinegar. The chicken livers are so rich that you need a lot more vinegar and lemon juice than you think. Most of the vinegars I tried were too sharp, but a lovely

Endive (chicory) & avocado salad with a French dressing

Dec 29, 2014
2 min

Endive (chicory) & avocado salad with a French dressing

This winter salad recipe discovery happened in Paris. I took my brand new shiny husband (we’d only been married a year) to stay with a family I had grown up with; The Douillets have taught me almost everything I know about French food (Elizabeth David, the best food writer ever, filled in the blanks). They made a simple meal of Quiche Lorraine, Tarte tomate à la moutarde and an endive & avocado salad. I knew the salad would be good as I love avocado, but I had no expectatio

Raw fennel salad with lemon juice & extra virgin olive oil

Dec 17, 2014
2 min

Raw fennel salad with lemon juice & extra virgin olive oil

The first time I visited my Italian friend, Patrizia, at her home on Italy’s Liguria coast, her mother made a beautiful winter meal of prawns, chilli, rosemary and garlic pasta followed by a salad of paper thin raw fennel, lightly dressed with lemon juice, local Ligurian extra virgin olive oil and coarse flakes of sea salt. I have such a vivid picture in my head of that dinner, sitting around the tiny kitchen table with Patrizia and her family, adding the fennel salad to my p