Micky Brand

So basic and easy that anyone can make it. I did tweaked it a bit, though. I hate cloves, so I added crushed fresh garlic instead and used powdered vegetable stock instead as I'm a vegetarian and fried it it with the onions and garlic. Then I added the tomatoes, hot water and mixed herbs before simmering it for 20 minutes. Liquidized the whole lot, tomato skins and all. Making roux (or white sauce as we in South Africa call it) is one of my pet hates, so I added the butter to the liquidized soup, reheated it and added the flour to half a cup of water, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Just a word of advice : double the recipe. It's just to good and healthy not to indulge in large portions. Also serve with home baked bread. It's almost sacrilegious to desecrate such a lovely fresh, scratch-made soup with mass produced store bought bread.

This is the mosy delicious bean salad I've ever tasted! Plus it is quick, easy and inexpensive. Replaced the lima beans with butter beans and used red onion and raw sugar to make it a bit sweeter and it did the trick. Used fresh, steamed green beans instead of canned and tossed it straight from the steamer into the dressing - this helped to heat the sugar a bit to blend into the dressing more easily. Gorgeous! Cover the bowl with some cling film and it will help the absorbtion of the dressing. Just some caution: the dressing is quite acidic. Eat this salad with something starchy like pasta or panini to tone it down a notch.