Method:

1. Combine cabbage, cucumber, carrot, capsicum, bean sprouts, spring onion, mint and coriander leaves in a salad bowl and gently toss to combine.

2. To make dressing, shake ingredients in a jar until combined. Taste and adjust to your liking. Pour over salad and toss together.

3. Sprinkle with chilli and serve.

*GLUTEN FREE OPTION – ensure soy sauce is gluten free.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a 20 cm × 20 cm baking dish or loaf tin. Lightly whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a bowl or jug and put aside.

2. Combine pumpkin, onion and spinach in the prepared dish making sure the spinach winds in and around the pumpkin. Pour egg mixture over the top, crumble with cheese and cook in oven for 30 minutes. To check if it is ready, give it a wobble or touch the top in the centre of the dish. If not set, give it another 5 minutes and check again.

3. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

Method:

1. Add onion, egg, creamed corn, flour, baking powder, coriander leaves and coriander stalks, salt and pepper in a food processor bowl and process until it forms a batter. Add the drained corn and pulse a few times, just until the corn kernels are mixed through. Set aside for a few minutes while you smash the avo.

2. Mash the avocado in a small bowl, make it as smooth or as chunky as you like. Mix in lime juice, spring onions, coriander leaves, salt and pepper.

3. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat, and when hot, drop large tablespoons of mixture into the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes each side, until golden. When cooked drain on paper towel while you continue cooking the remaining mixture.

4. Serve fritters topped with smashed avocado and sprinkled with chilli.

5. Optional: great with Capsicum Relish

* GLUTEN FREE OPTION – ensure flour and baking powder are gluten free

Tip: On the weekend, I prefer to cook these on the BBQ as I can cook the whole batch at the same time.

Method:

1. Place noodles in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to soften for 5 minutes, then rinse with cold water and drain thoroughly. You want the noodles to still have some bite. Set aside.

2. Mix all sauce ingredients together in a small bowl or jug and set aside.

3. Add sesame oil to the wok and over high heat, cook beaten eggs for 20–30 seconds. Swish the egg around the wok so you end up with a thin omelette, then roll it up and remove. Slice thinly and set aside.

4. Heat ½ tablespoon of coconut oil in wok over medium-high heat, cook tofu cubes for 5 minutes or until brown. Remove and set aside.

5. Add remaining coconut oil to wok and cook chilli, garlic, capsicum, carrot and cabbage until wilted, then add sauce mixture with noodles to the wok and toss together so the sauce is evenly distributed throughout the noodles and vegetables. Add snap peas and stir for a further 2 minutes.

6. Finally return the egg, tofu and prawns to the wok together with spring onions and sprouts. Toss for a minute to heat through then remove from heat.

7. Serve in individual bowls with a lime wedge and sprinkled with nuts.

*GLUTEN FREE OPTION – make sure the noodles, soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce are gluten free

Tip: Tamarind is sour and I think has similar taste in cooking as lime. Tamarind puree is a very sticky dark brown paste, it comes in a jar and can be found in most supermarkets (usually the international and Asian aisle).

Method:

1. Toss tuna with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce in a bowl. Leave to soak while preparing salad.

2. In a bowl, stir sugar and rice wine vinegar until sugar is dissolved. Then add cucumber and leave to pickle (for as long as you can, but the longer the better). Toss occasionally.

3. Combine all dipping sauce ingredients in a jug and stir to combine. Set aside.

4. Mix white and black sesames seeds on a dinner plate, and coat each piece of tuna in the seeds. Press down to make sure they stick.

5. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Cook tuna for 1 minute on each side or until cooked to your liking. Remove tuna from frying pan and slice.

6. Toss spring onions and bean sprouts with cucumber

7. Serve tuna with the pickled cucumber salad and dipping sauce on the side. Sprinkle the cucumber salad with additional teaspoon of sesame oil.

*GLUTEN FREE OPTION: ensure the soy sauce is gluten free.

Method:

1. Place noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to soften for 3–5 minutes, rinse with cold water then drain thoroughly.

2. To make the dipping sauce, place sugar and hot water into a jar and shake until sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool a little, then add fish sauce, garlic and chilli, and when cool add lime juice. Shake again to combine.

3. Chop all ingredients and have them lined up in front of you so you can operate an assembly line and don’t forget to add anything. When you are ready to assemble the rolls, lay a damp cloth on the bench (this helps stop the wrappers from sticking).

4. Fill a shallow dish with warm water. Dip rice paper wrappers one at a time into the water for 15–30 seconds, holding a small part of the wrapper. When soft, place on the damp cloth. Place some pork along the middle of the wrapper. Top with a pinch of softened noodles, and a few slices of capsicum, carrot, cucumber, spring onion and bean sprouts. Add a mint leaf and coriander.

5. Fold end in and roll up firmly to enclose filling. Repeat with the remaining rice paper wrappers. Serve with Vietnamese Dipping Sauce.

6. These are best made just before you serve them. You can make them ahead of time, but to avoid them drying out cover with a damp tea towel and then wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Variation: replace pork with cooked chicken, cooked prawns or ramp up the veg to go vegetarian.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Cut the sweet potato into wedges and roast on a lined oven tray for 30 minutes until soft and cooked through.

3. While waiting for the sweet potato to bake, make the tomato sauce. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium–high heat and add onion, cooking for a few minutes until softened, then add garlic and cook for a further 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10–15 minutes until sauce thickens. Stir through basil and remove from heat.

4. When the sweet potato has cooked and cooled a little, mash it with a fork or in a food processor and add to a large bowl, together with goats cheese, parmesan cheese, salt and nutmeg. Stir to combine.

5. Slowly add ½ a cup of flour at a time until you have a soft dough. You may not need all of the flour or you may need more, it depends on the consistency of the sweet potato mix. It should be light, firm and not sticky. When you have the correct consistency, tip the dough out onto a floured board and divide the mixture into 8 portions.

6. Take one portion at a time and roll it between your palms and the board until you have a snake about 2cm in diameter. Sprinkle with more flour if needed, then using a knife, cut the snake into gnocchi size pieces about 2cm each. After a few, this process will become quite quick - cut and flick, cut and flick… If you want to be fancy, you can roll each piece over the tines of a fork.

7. Bring a large pot of water to boil with a teaspoon of salt. Working in batches, boil gnocchi until tender. It’s ready when they stop bobbing around in the middle and hang on the surface around the sides, about 2-3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from the surface of the water and transfer to a lined baking tray.

8. Toss gnocchi with tomato sauce and serve with an extra sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

Tip: If you wish to fry off the gnocchi, allow it to cool completely, before frying in butter or oil over a medium-high heat for a few minutes. Delicious but extra time and pans are needed.

Tip: If you want to use leftover sweet potato mash, just pop it on a tray and in the oven for 20 minutes or so. The mixture needs to have as little liquid as possible. The more liquid, the more flour and the heavier the gnocchi will be.

Tip: I prefer to use goat’s cheese but it does have a strong flavour, so use ricotta if you prefer a more subtle flavour. Just be sure to drain it thoroughly - place ricotta in a sieve lined with paper towel over a large bowl and drain for an hour or so to remove as much liquid as possible. This is not necessary if using goat’s cheese.