The following five meals are fast, meat-free and completely delicious. They bridge the seasonal change with ease, bringing equal parts comfort and freshness. Drawing heavily on cupboard staples and easy ingredients, you’ll find yourself revisiting them again and again.

Life-changing pumpkin pasta

I would roast pumpkins and hoard the caramelised flesh in the back of the fridge, just so I could pull this off at a moment’s notice. I’ve had so many mouth-cloying pumpkin, sage and cheese pastas in my time that have been nothing but disappointment, until this iteration. It is utterly dependable and completely satiating.

Rich without being overbearing, it still tastes of pumpkin, and the sage and parmesan complement rather than override the flavour of the sauce. It has midweek dinner success written all over it.

Ingredients

• ¾ cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil
• 1 brown onion, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 6-10 sage leaves, finely sliced
• 2 cups roasted pumpkin (from about 1kg raw pumpkin; or 2 cups unsweetened pumpkin puree)
• 400g can finely chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 200ml creme fraiche
• 500g tagliatelle, bucatini or spaghetti

To serve

• 3 tbsp butter
• sage leaves
• parmesan

Method

1. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and a few tablespoons of the oil they come in to a frying pan with the onion and garlic. Cook over low-medium heat until the onion has completely softened, and everything is very fragrant and soft. Add the sliced sage leaves and cook for another minute before adding the pumpkin, tinned tomatoes and vegetable stock. Stir to combine and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes. Add the creme fraiche and stir through. Using a handheld blender give everything a blitz in the pot to make a smooth sauce.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to packet instructions, until al dente. Strain quickly and add to the pumpkin sauce – any residual cooking water on the pasta is fine and encouraged as it simply becomes part of the sauce. Gently turn to coat in the pumpkin mixture.
3. Add the butter to a small frying pan over medium heat. When melted and beginning to bubble, add the sage leaves and cook until crisp.
4. Serve the pasta in bowls. Top with the fried sage leaves and pour over any of the residual butter – it will be dark and nutty; this is what we want. Grate some parmesan over the pasta, then season generously with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Serves 4-6

Harissa-fried butter beans, yoghurt and herbs

The key here is trepidation. Add the harissa slowly – there is so much variability in heat across brands – it’s easy to add, but you can’t take it away. But once you get the heat right, this is one of the quickest, tastiest and cheapest dishes to make right now. Any leftovers make for an epic breakfast spooned over some toast and topped with a fried or poached egg.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large red onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• zest of 2 lemons
• 1-2 tbsp harissa (or to taste)
• 1½ cups mixed soft herbs, chopped (such as mint, coriander, basil, parsley)
• 2 x 400g cans butter beans, rinsed thoroughly
• 1-2 cups Greek-style yoghurt

Method

1. Place a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the oil and once hot, add the diced onion and cook until soft but not taking on any colour, about 1-2 minutes. Add the garlic, half the lemon zest and the harissa, stirring constantly to prevent catching.
2. Turn the heat to low and add most of the herbs, reserving a few tablespoons for serving. Stir the onion-harissa mixture until the herbs soften and are distributed throughout. Add the beans and cook until warmed through (about 3 minutes).
3. Smear the yoghurt across the base of a serving bowl and top with the bean mixture, scooping everything, even the oily bits, from the pan. Scatter over remaining zest and herbs. Season with salt and pepper.

Serves 4 as a light meal

Miso eggplant noodles

Speedy, tasty and filling: the trifecta of needs any fast dinner must meet, and this one has it in spades. It’s quick to make, full of wholesome ingredients and so delicious. Proof that you don’t need much to put together an excellent meal.

Ingredients

• 270g packet soba noodles
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 large eggplant, trimmed and cut into 1cm dice
• 3 tbsp white miso
• 4 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3 tbsp cooking sake
• crunchy chilli oil, to serve
• sliced spring onions, to serve

Method

1. Place a frying pan over medium heat. Add the oils and once hot, add the eggplant and cook, stirring regularly, until the eggplant has cooked through, about 4 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the noodles according to packet instructions.
3. Add the miso, mirin, honey and sake to a small bowl and whisk with a fork. Pour over the eggplant and cook for another minute until it coats the eggplant thoroughly.
4. Strain the noodles and divide between bowls. Top immediately with the eggplant, scooping over any residual sauce (there won’t be much). Add a spoon or two of crunchy chilli oil, scatter with onion and serve.

Serves 2-3 as a light meal

Quick and easy creme fraiche and lemon pasta

I love the simplicity of this dish. The efficiency of the cooking makes it a must-do recipe for busy days. The sauce takes as long to prepare as the pasta takes to cook, and it redefines putting something gloriously simple yet tasty on the table. The optional slices of charred lemon are for cream-cutting, mouth-puckering goodness.

You can swap the creme fraiche for ricotta, I just love the silky result from using the former.

Ingredients

• 5 tbsp olive oil
• knob of butter
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp capers
• 200ml creme fraiche (or ricotta)
• juice and zest of 2 lemons
• ½ cup finely grated parmesan
• 400g pasta (spaghetti, fettuccine, bucatini all work well here)
• optional to serve: a few charred lemon slices, lemon thyme leaves, chilli flakes, crusty bread

Method

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil.
2. Add the olive oil and butter to a high-sided frying pan over medium heat. Once melted and sizzling, add the onion, garlic and capers. Turn the heat to very low, barely a simmer, and let this soften and become fragrant – we don’t want it to take on any colour here (about 5 minutes).
3. Once the water has boiled, add your pasta and cook according to packet instructions. When just al dente, add the creme fraiche, parmesan, lemon zest and half the juice to the onion mixture and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon − this is to ensure an even sauce and prevent the cheese from clumping together. Season generously with salt and pepper.
4. Using a slotted spoon, slosh the pasta straight from the pot of water into the sauce – don’t worry about shaking off any excess cooking water, we want this forming the sauce. Using tongs, turn the pasta to coat it generously in the sauce. Season to taste with the remaining lemon juice and add to serving plates.
5. You can top with a slice or two of charred lemon here if you felt like it, and a smattering of lemon thyme. Season again with salt and pepper, sprinkle with chilli flakes, if using, and serve piping hot. Some crusty bread wouldn’t be out of place.

Serves 4

Speedy one-pan chickpeas and kale in spicy pomodoro sauce

We’re cheating for flavour in minimum time here, so it’s worth finely dicing your onion and adding the sun-dried tomatoes – both will work together to create depth and intensity of flavour that you can’t normally achieve in a 20-minute window.

Before you object to my using only a quarter of a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, why not make my life-changing pumpkin pasta (recipe above) to use them up?

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 brown onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 4 tbsp oregano leaves, finely chopped
• 75g sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 400g can finely chopped tomatoes
• generous pinch chilli flakes, plus extra to serve
• 2 x 400g cans chickpeas, rinsed thoroughly
• 1-2 handfuls of cavolo nero (smaller leaves are best; strip the stems from larger leaves as these tend to be too coarse)
• shaved parmesan, to serve

Method

1. Place a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the oil and once hot, add the onion and cook until softened, about 1-2 minutes. Add the chopped garlic, oregano leaves and sun-dried tomatoes, and simmer until fragrant and the tomatoes are soft, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the tinned tomatoes and a heft of chilli flakes and let simmer for about 10 minutes.
3. Add the chickpeas and cavolo nero. Cook until the chickpeas have warmed through and the leaves have softened. Season to taste and add more chilli flakes for heat. Top with parmesan and serve.

Serves 4-6