One of the most modest yet delicious meals I ever ate was a Saffron Risotto as part of a set meal in Sorrento, Italy. That little plate of bight yellow rice was just exquisite. Packed with flavor, just creamy enough and with no song and dance made about how incredible the first mouthful would taste, I’ve been a fan ever since.

Now I feel I don’t make it often enough as when we have it, it’s delicious. I usually serve this risotto with steamed seasonal green veggies or a salad on the side. It’s a fab light summer dinner or easy lunch for friends. It’s also a brilliant dish for kids to make as it’s happy with plenty of fussing and interaction! Mine are always keen to stir a risotto and watch for it needing more water while it’s cooking.

This is a brilliant store cupboard salad as it requires a limited number of fresh ingredients – and it’s also fab if you have guests and your fridge is full to bursting as you don’t need to loads of chilled produce!

I love this salad with the Freekeh and Quinoa Seed Salad as they complement each other so beautifully. This is certainly a go-to for BBQ’s and is also great side or filling with a baked sweet or regular potato. I love the creamy, salty feta but make it vegan by leaving this off and you will still have a delicious salad.

Couple of tips – I like to use the olive oil which the artichokes come in for the dressing and I buy a fig balsamic locally which has a beautiful sweetness and no colour. If you can’t get hold of this, use a straight forward balsamic instead. For convenience, I use the roasted red peppers in a jar, because they are lovely and soft and have a slightly sweet but sour tang too plus they come without any skin and the soft texture compliments the rest of the salad. If you have lots of red peppers you can always roast and remove the skins and seeds then slice. This salad looks best laid out on a platter but can of course be placed in a bowl.