How to turn cheese ends into a comforting root vegetable pie – recipe | Waste not

Today’s comforting pie is super-adaptable and brilliant for using up any leftover bits of cheese. The classic homity pie filling of potatoes, onions and cream works beautifully with a jumble of cheese ends – cheddar, stilton, taleggio or whatever pungent blocks and rinds are lurking in your fridge drawer; it’s also a fantastic base for using up other root vegetables besides potatoes – celeriac, for example, bring earthiness, beetroot turns the entire filling a vibrant purple, while salsify adds a nutty note. Use whatever you have to hand, and waste nothing.This is a long-time family favourite. Mum used to make it for me as a kid and now I make it for my own children

Pasta and pesto, broth and dumplings, pancakes and chutney: Ravinder Bhogal’s pea recipes

My earliest memory of kitchen duties is sitting on a stool in our courtyard in Kenya with a sack of peas that was bigger than me. I spent hours coaxing them from their pods, munching as I went; the result was a red plastic bucket brimming with peas like gleaming green marbles. As with asparagus, they have a short season, so grab them while you can: throw them whole into salads, broths and curries, or grind them down and use their starchy goodness to make pestos, pancakes and fritters.These herbal dumplings are made from the sturdiness of stale bread, cheese and sweet peas. I’ve used pecorino, but you could use parmesan or a hard goat’s cheese instead

Zest is best: mandarins and navel oranges among Australia’s best-value fruit and veg for May

“We’re getting into a lot of citrus lines,” says Tony Polistina, co-owner of Forestway Fresh in Sydney’s Terrey Hills. “Australian navels started this week.”Navel oranges are about $5.50 a kilo for now, but Imperial mandarins from Queensland are about to hit their peak, already as low as $3 a kilo.That means it’s the perfect time to make Anna Jones’s mandarin compote – spread it on toast or use it in her delectable queen of puddings, which she makes every Mother’s Day

Beyond boiling and steaming: alternative ways of cooking asparagus | Kitchen aide

What unexpected things can I make with asparagus? “The goal is to do as little as possible to it,” says Ben Lippett, author of How I Cook (published in September). “If you start dressing up asparagus with fancy cooking techniques, you lose its magic.” That’s not to say you should just boil the spears and be done with it, mind: “Try pairing them with relatively high-impact flavours, but nothing that will steal the show,” Lippett says. “Much as with a salad dressing, you want something with richness, fragrance, acidity and salinity.” Instead of a gribiche-style sauce, for example, sub in Kewpie (Japanese mayo), pickled ginger, chives, sesame seeds and frozen peas “to make a spoonable condiment”

Georgina Hayden’s recipe for spring onion and spinach pakoras

One of my favourite ways of celebrating whatever vegetable is in season is by turning it into pakoras. Cooking them quickly allows the vegetable to sing, and a simple pakora batter is light enough to let spring onions and spinach do just that. With just enough gently spiced chickpea flour to bind the chopped veg, there is no claggy coating here. Serve as is with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of sea salt, or with this addictive, punchy coriander and peanut chutney.Prep 15 min Cook 25 min Makes 12-161 bunch coriander, roughly chopped2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped30g peanuts, or almonds1 tsp caster sugarJuice of 1 lemon 2 green chillies, finely chopped (remove the pith and seeds if you want less heat)Sea salt and black pepper1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and cut into 1cm pieces1 large handful baby spinach, roughly chopped3cm piece ginger, peeled and finely grated½ tsp ground turmeric 1 tsp garam masala 160g gram flour 1 litre vegetable oil, for deep-fryingFirst make the chutney

Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for crispy chicken with zhoug and jersey royals | Quick and easy

You can’t go wrong with crisp, panko-fried chicken, and this version with zhoug is an absolute winner. You could describe zhoug as a green chilli sauce, but that wouldn’t quite do justice to this amazing Yemeni condiment, which is packed with flavour from preserved lemons, cardamom and garlic. Use some to stir through the hot, just-cooked jersey royals, then serve the rest as a sauce for the chicken. The only accompaniment you then need is a light green salad: a handful of whatever leaves are to hand, some finely sliced fennel and a few pumpkin seeds, all dressed with lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt.Prep 20 min Cook 16 min Serves 2350g jersey royals, cleaned and halved2 chicken breasts 4 heaped tbsp plain flour 2 tsp za’atar (optional)1½ tsp flaky sea salt 1 egg 75g panko breadcrumbs Olive oil, for fryingGreen salad, to serveFor the zhoug 50g coriander (if you dislike coriander, use an extra 50g parsley)15g flat-leaf parsley 1 preserved lemon, skin and flesh roughly sliced1 small garlic clove, peeled6 green cardamom pods, seeds only2 green chillies, pith and seeds removed if you prefer less heat½ tsp caster sugar ½ tsp ground cumin 50ml olive oilCook the potatoes in a large pan of boiling water for 10 minutes, until cooked through