Easy Recipe Collections – The Flexible Chef's Complete Hub Guide
Cooking should fit the life you actually live — not some idealised version of it. These recipe collections grew out of years of cooking in a village house in rural Andalucía and on a two-ring gas hob in a Fiat Ducato campervan. Each hub brings together recipes by ingredient or theme, with the flexibility to adapt, scale, and make them your own.
Browse by collection below for easy recipe ideas and flexible recipes you can adapt to the kitchen you actually have. Everything here has been cooked, tested, and eaten — mostly by me, occasionally with company, always with a glass of something alongside.
New here? Start with Spanish recipes, Campervan cooking or the Nearly Series.
Jump to:
Meat & fish: Chicken · Chicken wings · Beef & veal · Lamb & goat · Pork · Game · Fish & seafood
Veg, pulses & meat-free: Veg, fruit & pulses · Veggie & vegan · Tofu · Mushroom · Chickpea · Black bean · Potato · Cheese
Dishes & basics: Soup · Pasta · Pies · Bread · Curry · Pâté & rillettes · Stock & gravy · Sauces, salsas & dressings · Spice blends & condiments · Nearly Series
By cuisine: Spanish · Greek · French · North African · Scottish · Cooking through history
Ways of cooking & themes: Campervan cooking · Slow cooking · Autumn recipes · Winter recipes · Fermentation · Gut health · Resistant starch · Family kitchen
Meat & Fish
Chicken Recipes
This collection covers everything from slow-braised Andalucían dishes to quick weeknight curries, roasts, and van life suppers cooked on a two-ring hob.
Moorish Orange and Honey Roast Chicken
Chicken Wings Recipes
Chicken wings deserve far more respect than they usually get. Cheap, endlessly versatile, and brilliant for absorbing bold flavours — whether you're cooking in a proper kitchen or on a single gas burner in a van somewhere on the Spanish coast. Oven baked, deep fried, slow cooker, and van life one-burner — this is every wings recipe on The Flexible Chef, organised by how you're cooking them.
Vivek Singh's Firecracker Chicken Wings
Browse all chicken wings recipes →
Beef & Veal Recipes
Beef in Spain means something different to beef in Britain. The cuts are different, the names are different, and the butcher will look at you with mild curiosity if you ask for something he doesn't recognise. This collection covers everything from slow-braised veal to spiced beef mince, classic European dishes, and the occasional steak cooked in a campervan in the mountains with nothing but a gas hob and a good view.
Steak, Shade and Sanity in the Sierra de Gredos
Browse all beef and veal recipes →
Lamb & Goat Recipes
Lamb is woven into the fabric of rural Andalucía — grazed on dry hillsides, sold at local markets, and cooked with a simplicity that lets the meat speak for itself. Goat too, which is underused and underappreciated in British cooking but deserves a place on every table. This collection covers slow braises, grilled chops, Moroccan-influenced dishes, and a few recipes cooked over a gas hob with a vineyard view.
Lamb Chops in the Campervan – Vineyard Views, Thunderous Flavours
Browse all lamb and goat recipes →
Pork Recipes
If you live in Spain, pork is not really a choice — it is part of the landscape. Jamón hangs in every bar, chorizo appears in everything, and the Ibérico pig is treated with a reverence that borders on religious. This collection runs from slow-braised Spanish classics to ribs with an Asian glaze, van life chops cooked on a plancha, and everything in between.
Ribs recipes: char siu, hoisin, baked, Korean and more →
Game Recipes
Wild, seasonal, and deeply satisfying — game and wild meat deserve a place at every serious cook's table. This collection covers duck confit, rabbit in all its forms, quail, partridge, and guinea fowl — cooked at Casa Adora in rural Andalucía, in the campervan, and wherever the road has taken me.
Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory – Chocolate-Basted Partridge
Fish & Seafood Recipes
Spain is a nation of serious fish eaters — and living inland in Andalucía makes you appreciate just how good the supply chain is. Fresh fish arrives in the village twice a week and the variety is extraordinary. This collection covers everything from simple weeknight fish suppers to whole roasted sea bass, salt cod, seafood stews, and the occasional recipe that has no business being as good as it is.
Vietnamese Monkfish with Chilli Sauce
Browse all fish and seafood recipes →
Cod recipes: baked, pan-fried, confit and fish cakes →
Sea bass recipes: pan-seared, baked, salt baked and more →
Tuna steak recipes: seared, crusted and spiced →
Smoked salmon recipes: starters, pâté, pasta and smoked trout →
Prawn recipes: curries, tapas, pasta, soups and more →
Tinned fish recipes: sardines, mackerel, tuna, anchovies, cockles, mussels and squid →
Veg, Pulses & Meat-Free
Veg, Fruit & Pulses Recipes
Vegetables, fruit and pulses don't always get top billing — but they carry plenty of their own flavour, colour and comfort. This collection brings together stuffed peppers, roasted tomato tarts, bean salads, chickpea bowls, and the odd tagine, cooked at Casa Adora and on the road in Spain. Proper produce, done properly.
Browse all vegetable, fruit and pulses recipes →
Veggie & Vegan Recipes
Vegetarian and vegan dishes built on proper flavour, not compromise — fermented breakfast jars, slow oven braises, one-pan noodle bowls, and chickpea bread proved overnight. Some are vegan. Some are vegetarian. All of them are properly good.
Browse all veggie & vegan recipes →
Tofu Recipes
Tofu gets a bad reputation it doesn't deserve. This collection covers the techniques that actually make it work — crispy pan-fried, silken scrambled, slow-braised in black bean sauce, and a Hungarian-style goulash that has no business being as good as it is. Each recipe a different method, each one cooked at Casa Adora.
Mushroom Recipes
Porcini and girolles from the Limousin, setas from the Andalucían markets, and a small, extravagant bag of trompette de la mort in the cupboard. Wild and vegetarian mushroom recipes — soups, coarse French pâtés, pasta for one, rich gravies for meat and game, and one honest account of trying to grow shiitake.
Chickpea Recipes
In Spain they are garbanzos, and they turn up in stews, soups and salads all over the country. Jarred organic chickpeas are my go-to now, and this collection is what came out of that cupboard: hummus and pâté, stews and one-pot suppers, curries, chicken and lamb dishes, salads, falafel and chickpea flour breads. Cooked at Casa Adora and in Florie the van.
Homemade Hummus Recipe (Houmous for One)
Black Bean Recipes
There are two kinds of black bean recipes, and they start with two completely different ingredients — the tinned cooked black turtle bean of Cuban and Caribbean cooking, and the fermented salted black soybean behind Chinese black bean sauce. This collection covers both traditions: from a gut-health breakfast to a Cuban-inspired soup, a beetroot burger to a homemade black bean sauce that comes closer to Lee Kum Kee than it has any right to.
Browse all black bean recipes →
Potato Recipes
The potato is one of the great unsung heroes of the kitchen — cheap, versatile, and capable of being extraordinary with very little effort. This collection covers the full range, from perfect mashed potato to Spanish patatas bravas, fondant potatoes, Welsh tatws pum munud, and a few things that don't fit neatly into any category but are worth making anyway. Proper spuds, done properly.
Perfect Mashed Potato – Creamy, Fluffy, Properly Done
Cheese Recipes
Cheese barely featured in my South London childhood — a block of Cheddar for toast and my dad's Red Leicester. Then Lancashire happened, then France, then Denmark, then Spain, and somewhere along the way cheese became one of the great constants in this kitchen. This collection covers the full range: bubbling baked Camembert, crumbly Lancashire on toast, a Savoyard tartiflette built for a village gathering, fresh feta tumbled through salads, and a Fromage Fort that the French have been making for centuries. Melted, baked, crumbled, and spread — proper cheese, done properly.
Dishes & Basics
Soup Recipes
Soup is one of the great flexible dishes – a fridge raid made elegant, a leftover transformed, a cold Andalucían morning made considerably more bearable. This collection ranges from classic European soups to Spanish regional recipes, chilled summer gazpachos, and hearty one-pot warmers cooked on a two-ring hob in the van. A wide-ranging collection and a few more on the way.
Pasta Recipes
Pasta is one of those ingredients that rewards flexibility — a different sauce, a different shape, a different combination of whatever is in the fridge, and you have an entirely new dish. This collection leans into that spirit. Italian classics sit alongside more adventurous combinations, van life pasta suppers cooked on a two-ring hob, and a few recipes that have no particular nationality but are completely worth making.
Farfalle with Smoked Salmon, Prawns, Butternut Squash and Tangy Tomato Sauce
Pie Recipes
A pie can be a puff pastry lid over a slow-cooked filling, a mash-topped cottage or fish pie, or a tart you slice warm from the tin. This collection sorts the pies by what goes on top, from a steak and ale pie and a vegetarian homity pie to shepherd's pies, a vegan lentil version, and savoury tarts. Many are cooked for one.
Bread Recipes
There is something deeply satisfying about making bread — the process as much as the result. This collection grew out of lockdown sourdough experiments, a long-standing interest in fermentation, and the simple pleasure of pulling a loaf from the oven in a village house in Andalucía. From sourdough and flatbreads to enriched doughs and quick no-knead loaves, there is something here for every level of baker.
The World's Easiest Sourdough Bread
Curry Recipes
Curry has been part of my cooking life since the late 1960s – from the first Indian restaurants appearing on British high streets to thirty-two days on trains across India and now a kitchen in rural Andalucía where the spice jars are always full. This is the largest collection on the site and the one closest to my heart. Classic British curry house favourites, regional Indian dishes, Thai curries, and homemade pastes and bases.
Easy Prawn and Mango Red Thai Curry
Pâté & Rillettes Recipes
From a luxurious chicken liver parfait flambéed in cognac to a five-minute no-cook piquillo pepper spread, this collection covers the full spectrum — French classics from the Limousin, Spanish-influenced fish pâtés, and a handful of vegetable and cheese versions that need nothing more than a blender and five minutes.
Pâté de Pimientos del Piquillo y Almendras
Browse all pâté & rillettes recipes →
Stock & Gravy Recipes
A good gravy starts with a good stock — that's not negotiable. This collection covers the foundations: proper homemade stocks from chicken, beef, and brown roasted bones, and the gravies built on them. Classic British onion, red wine, chicken, and giblet gravies, alongside mushroom gravies and pan-juice reductions. The gravy boat on the shelf at Casa Adora gets used regularly. This is why.
Browse all stock and gravy recipes →
Sauces, Salsas & Dressings
A sauce and a salsa are really the same idea in different moods — one simmered slowly, the other thrown together fresh in five minutes flat. This collection brings together homemade cooked sauces, fresh salsas, coulis, and the dressings that finish a dish properly.
Browse all sauces, salsas and dressings →
Spice Blends & Condiments
Some of the most useful things in a kitchen come in small jars. This collection brings together homemade spice blends, dips, and rubs — Persian advieh, Syrian muhammara, Georgian khmeli-suneli, a BBQ rub born from a Bon Appétit feature, and more. Each one made from scratch, each one better than its shop-bought equivalent.
Browse all spice blends and condiments →
Nearly Series – Homemade Condiment Recipes
Some condiments are so specific, so tied to memory and place, that nothing from a supermarket shelf ever quite measures up. The Nearly Series is an attempt to get close — homemade versions of the bottles and jars that shaped the way a generation of British people eat. Henderson's Relish, Branston Pickle, Heinz Tomato Soup, Huy Fong Sriracha and more. Not exact replicas. Something better — made in your own kitchen, with your own ingredients, to your own taste.
Nearly Henderson's Relish – The Sheffield Affair
Browse all Nearly Series recipes →
By Cuisine
Spanish Recipes
Easy Spanish recipes to cook at home — from a kitchen in rural Andalucía. Tapas, cold soups, fish, slow braises, rice and regional classics from years of living and cooking in Spain. Rabo de toro, salmorejo, tortilla de patatas, gambas al pil-pil and many more recipes cooked, tested and eaten here.
Greek Recipes
Greek food as I first ate it in small family tavernas in Athens and Piraeus: a plate of beans, a bowl of lemony soup, something grilled, and a lot of olive oil. Now cooked at Casa Adora and in Florie the van — lemon chicken and potatoes, souvlaki without skewers, meatballs, a quick pot of giant beans, and a soup thickened with egg and lemon.
Quick Gigantes Plaki – Greek Giant Beans in Tomato
French Recipes
French recipes from a former Limousin restaurateur — confit, slow braises, fish en papillote, gratins and pâtés, cooked at Casa Adora, in Florie the van, and occasionally in the memory of a Limousin kitchen.
Coq au Chardonnay — Van Life Version
North African Recipes
North African recipes from a kitchen in Andalucía — Moroccan tagines, Tunisian harissa, Libyan stews and the Moorish food culture that shaped this corner of Spain.
Browse all North African recipes →
Scottish Recipes
From Agnes Isabella's ham stock and braised cabbage to a Burns Night 2,000km from Scotland — traditional Scottish recipes built on good bones, reconstructed from memory, and adapted for a kitchen in Andalucía.
Cooking Through History
From Mesopotamian flatbreads to Medieval English pottage — recipes from the ancient and medieval world, all cooked in a modern kitchen with honesty and respect for the original. Some of the oldest recorded recipes in the world, given a flexible makeover.
Browse all Cooking Through History recipes →
Ways of Cooking & Themes
Campervan Cooking Recipes
Life in Florie, the Fiat Ducato, runs on a two-ring gas hob and a RidgeMonkey — and this collection brings together every recipe that's actually been cooked on the road, tested for real rather than adapted for the idea of van life. Grouped by kit rather than protein, from RidgeMonkey favourites to no-cook quick assemblies for a lay-by lunch.
One-Pan Mediterranean Chicken & Veg
Browse all campervan cooking recipes →
Slow Cooker & Slow Cooking Recipes
From a Crock-Pot full of Spanish beef stew to duck confit in the RidgeMonkey and braised lamb shanks in a Le Creuset at Casa Adora — this collection brings together every slow cooker recipe and slow-cooked dish on The Flexible Chef, organised by method and cut. Braises, one-pot casseroles, confit, and slow roasts. Low heat. Long time. Proper results.
Browse all slow cooker & slow cooking recipes →
Autumn Recipes
Autumn is when the cooking changes: mushrooms, game, squash and roots, long braises, pies and jars of chutney. This collection brings together the savoury autumn recipes on The Flexible Chef, organised by dish type, from soups and slow braises to preserves. Many are cooked for one, and some were made in the campervan.
Campervan Mushroom and Chickpea Stew
Winter Recipes
Winter is when the cooking slows down: soups and broths, long stews and casseroles, pies, roasts, curries, and the dishes of Christmas, New Year and Burns Night. This collection brings together the savoury winter recipes on The Flexible Chef, organised by dish type. Many are cooked for one.
Slow Cooker Spanish Beef Stew, a Winter Warmer
Fermentation Recipes
Fermentation is one of the oldest forms of food preservation — and one of the most rewarding. This collection grew out of curiosity, a well-stocked spice rack, and the discovery that a jar of bubbling vegetables on a Casa Adora windowsill is a deeply satisfying thing. Hot sauces, fermented pastes, pickles, kimchi-inspired experiments, and a sourdough starter that has survived more than one van trip across the Iberian Peninsula.
Sunstrike Habanero – My First Fermented Hot Sauce
Browse all fermentation recipes →
Gut Health Recipes
What you eat matters for gut health, and it doesn't have to mean supplements, powders, or anything that comes in a sachet. This collection brings together fermented foods, high-fibre pulses, wholegrains, and prebiotic-rich ingredients cooked the way they should be — as proper food, from a rural Andalucían kitchen.
Browse all gut health recipes →
Resistant Starch Recipes
Cook it, cool it, use it again. Cooling cooked starch turns some of it into resistant starch, which feeds your gut bacteria rather than being digested for energy. Potatoes, rice, barley, oats — this collection brings together the recipes on The Flexible Chef where cooking and cooling is part of the method. Simple food, cooked ahead.
Browse all resistant starch recipes →
From the Family Kitchen
Not every good recipe comes from a professional kitchen — some of the best come from ordinary households where people cook because they love to eat. This collection brings together recipes from the Morrison family table: Debbie and Andy cooking in Rochdale and Gran Alacant, Danny sourcing fish from Grimsby market, and Chris firing up the Gozney Dome in Ramsbottom. Proper food, proper family.
Browse all family kitchen recipes →
The recipe archive is always growing, and if you've enjoyed it you can buy me a coffee ☕ — it helps keep the site going.
Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures – The Flexible Chef
