Pippa Kendrick - The Intolerant Gourmet - Free-from Recipes for Everyone

Cover loosely with foil and cook in the oven for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and discard the foil. Scatter the cannellini beans over the leeks and gently mix together. Stir the sugar into the stock and pour over the lamb, leeks and beans, then return to the oven for 20–25 minutes or until the lamb is cooked through and tender.

Scatter the chopped parsley over a chopping board, then transfer the lamb chops or cutlets to the board, gently rolling the outside rim of each chop in the parsley to coat it. Serve the lamb resting on a large pile of the leeks and cannellini beans with the juices from the tin drizzled over.

Honey-baked Leg of Lamb

This is such a glorious recipe, the lamb coated in a creamy spiced marinade that soaks into the meat and chars on cooking, producing the most divine combination of flavours. It's a great dish to serve friends and family as it looks so wonderfully generous placed on the table and carved for each person. You could serve it for a dinner party or as part of a more relaxed spread. The Persian Jewelled Quinoa lends just the right body and texture to the overall dish. Add a green salad and a large bowl of houmous and I, for one, am in heaven!

Serves 4

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5 cloves of garlic

250ml/9fl oz oat cream, chilled

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp chilli flakes

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp runny honey

1 x 1kg/2lb 3oz boned leg of lamb

Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7.

Begin by crushing the garlic, then make the marinade by mixing this with the oat cream, lemon juice, chilli, cumin, sea salt, olive oil and honey. (It helps if the oat cream has been chilled first as it thickens up and acts like yoghurt.)

Lay the boned leg out flat, fat side down to begin with. Using a sharp knife, trim the lamb to make it level, scoring and cutting the joint if necessary, so that you end up with a flat piece of meat, reasonably even in thickness. Spread the marinade over both sides of the meat, working it into all the corners and cuts.

Lay the lamb on a rack in a large roasting tin and bake in the oven for 30–35 minutes. This will produce meat that is slightly pink in the middle, so cook it for an extra 5–10 minutes if you prefer it well done. The spiced cream will make a fragrant crust which may scorch during cooking, but don’t worry as this only adds to the flavour.

Once cooked, remove from the oven, cover loosely with foil and allow to rest for 15 minutes, then slice into thick wedges and serve with the Persian Jewelled Quinoa.

Chicken and Apricot Tagine

Like most spiced dishes, tagines benefit from being made the day before and then heated through the following day, allowing time for their flavour to develop properly. ‘Tagine’ refers both to the earthenware pot – a traditional north African cooking vessel with a distinctive conical lid – and to the food cooked in it, the spices and juices of the ingredients amalgamating to produce meat that is intensely flavoured and meltingly tender. If you don’t possess a tagine, then a casserole dish with a fitted lid will do just as well.

Serves 4

Contains nuts

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30g/1¼oz pine nuts

2 red onions

150g/5oz soft dried apricots

A bunch of coriander

4 skinless chicken breasts

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground cinnamon

425ml/15fl oz chicken or vegetable stock

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

You will need a tagine or heavy-based casserole dish with a lid for this recipe

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Scatter the pine nuts on a baking tray and toast in the oven, turning them occasionally to make sure they don’t burn, for 5–6 minutes or until golden brown, then remove and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, halve the onions, slicing them into thin half-moons, then halve the dried apricots and finely chop the coriander. Cut up the chicken breasts into 2.5cm/1in cubes.

Heat the olive oil in the tagine or casserole dish and gently fry the onions over a medium heat for 5–6 minutes or until softened but not browned. Turn the heat up slightly and add the spices and the diced chicken. Season with salt and pepper and stir to coat evenly, cooking for a minute or so before pouring over the stock.

Cover with a lid and bring to the boil, then transfer to the oven to cook for 15 minutes. Add the apricots and continue to cook for a further 10 minutes. Remove the lid and stir well, then return to the oven and continue to cook for another 5 minutes or until the chicken and the apricots are tender and the sauce has reduced to a thickened gravy. When ready to serve, sprinkle with the chopped coriander and toasted pine nuts before spooning on top of the Herb Quinoa.

Persian Jewelled Quinoa

So called for its Middle Eastern origins and the jewel-like, sweet sultanas it contains, this dish makes a delicious accompaniment to roasted meats or served cold as part of a selection of salads. I have used golden sultanas in this recipe but replacing them with dried apricots, chopped to roughly the same size as the sultanas, works equally well.

Serves 4

Contains nuts

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50g/1¾oz pine nuts

50g/1¾oz golden sultanas or chopped dried apricots

175g/6oz quinoa

500ml/18fl oz vegetable stock

A bunch of coriander

A bunch of mint

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a heavy-based frying pan, dry-fry the pine nuts over a medium– high heat for 3–4 minutes or until golden, shaking the pan regularly to ensure that they don’t burn. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Cover the sultanas in boiling water and leave for 20 minutes – this will soften them and remove any yeast that may be on the outside. When softened, drain and set aside. If you are using apricots, then you don’t need to soak them.

Place the quinoa in a large saucepan and pour over the stock, then cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for about 15 minutes or until the quinoa has absorbed all the stock.

Finely chop the coriander and mint. Using a fork, fluff up the cooked quinoa, then place in a large serving bowl, add all the remaining ingredients, season with salt and pepper and mix together.

Herb Quinoa

Bursting with flavour, this dish is perfect for serving with the Chicken and Apricot Tagine, but it also works equally well as an accompaniment to grilled meats or mixed with roasted vegetables. Feel free to use a combination of different herbs in this salad; almost anything works, except perhaps the woodier herbs such as rosemary and thyme.

Serves 4

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175g/6oz quinoa

500ml/18fl oz vegetable or chicken stock

A bunch of fresh coriander

A bunch of fresh parsley

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Add the quinoa to a large saucepan and pour over the stock, then cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the stock has been completely absorbed.

While the quinoa is cooking, finely chop the fresh herbs and set aside. Fluff up the cooked quinoa with a fork and then add the chopped herbs, season with salt and pepper and mix together thoroughly. Serve while hot.

Lamb Korma

This curry has a mild flavour and, although not heavy on the chilli, the blend of spices gives it a real intensity, while the ground cashew nuts produce an amazingly velvety and light sauce. I love the combination of lamb with this sauce, but chicken would work just as well. Equally, it really lends itself to being converted to a vegetarian version – potatoes or butternut squash with cauliflower, spinach and peas. Like all good curries, it is best made the day before so that the flavours have a chance to really develop. Simply heat through when you are ready to eat and add the fresh coriander to serve.