The Flexible Chef

Easy Recipe Collections – The Flexible Chef's Complete Hub Guide

April 20, 2026

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, on a two-ring gas hob in a Fiat Ducato campervan, and everywhere in between. Each hub brings together recipes by ingredient or theme, with the flexibility to adapt, scale, and make them your own.

Browse by collection below. Everything here has been cooked, tested, and eaten — mostly by me, occasionally with company, always with a glass of something alongside.

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.

A vibrant Red Thai Prawn Curry with fresh mango slices, green beans, and red chillies served in a shallow white bowl.
Prawn and Mango Red Thai Curry – The Flexible Chef

Easy Prawn and Mango Red Thai Curry

Browse all curry recipes →

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.

Golden pan-fried monkfish lettuce wraps with tropical sunset chilli sauce — monkfish recipe — The Flexible Chef
Vietnamese monkfish lettuce wraps with Tropical Sunset chilli sauce — Casa Adora

Vietnamese Monkfish with Chilli Sauce

Browse all fish and seafood recipes →

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. A growing collection with something for every occasion.

Roast chicken cooked in spices and orange on a baking sheet. Just out of the oven - Moorish chicken recipe.
Moorish Orange and Honey Roast Chicken – The Flexible Chef

Moorish Orange and Honey Roast Chicken

Browse all chicken recipes →

Chicken Wings Recipes — The Flexible Chef's Complete Collection

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 firecracker chicken wings on a white plate — The Flexible Chef
Vivek Singh's firecracker chicken wings — fiery, crispy and ready for dipping

Vivek Singh's Firecracker Chicken Wings

Browse all Chicken Wings Recipes →

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.

 Courgette and feta gazpacho – The Flexible Chef
Courgette and Feta Gazpacho – The Flexible Chef

Courgette and Feta Gazpacho

Browse all soup 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.

Cooking lamb chops in the campervan with vineyard views – The Flexible Chef
Lamb Chops in the Campervan – The Flexible Chef

Lamb Chops in the Campervan – Vineyard Views, Thunderous Flavours

Browse all lamb and goat 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.

One pan steak cooked in the campervan, Sierra de Gredos, Spain – The Flexible Chef
Steak in the Sierra de Gredos – The Flexible Chef

Steak, Shade and Sanity in the Sierra de Gredos

Browse all beef and veal 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 embraces all of it — from slow-braised Spanish classics to ribs with an Asian glaze, van life chops cooked on a plancha, and everything in between.

Cooked Char Siu Pork Ribs on a white plate smothered in hoisin sauce.
Char Siu Style Pork Ribs – The Flexible Chef

Char Siu Style Pork Ribs

Browse all pork recipes →

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.

Two golden sourdough loaves cooling on a wire rack — easy sourdough bread — The Flexible Chef
Two sourdough loaves fresh from the Dutch oven — Casa Adora

The World's Easiest Sourdough Bread

Browse all bread 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.

Steaming perfect mashed potato in a blue Le Creuset pot with a melting pat of butter on top, surrounded by unpeeled potatoes on a dark surface
Easy potato recipes from Casa Adora — perfect mashed potato with butter — The Flexible Chef

Perfect Mashed Potato – Creamy, Fluffy, Properly Done

Browse all potato recipes →

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.

A jar of freshly blended, bright orange fermented habanero hot sauce next to an empty glass jar on a dark kitchen counter.
From the blender to the bottle. That glowing, sun-struck orange is the hallmark of a homemade fermented habanero hot sauce—no filters needed when nature does the work.

Sunstrike Habanero – My First Fermented Hot Sauce

Browse all fermentation recipes →

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 pasta with smoked salmon, prawns, butternut squash and tangy tomato sauce – The Flexible Chef
Farfalle with Smoked Salmon, Prawns and Tangy Tomato Sauce – The Flexible Chef

Farfalle with Smoked Salmon, Prawns, Butternut Squash and Tangy Tomato Sauce

Browse all pasta recipes →

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.

A glass jar with a red gingham lid and a handwritten label that reads "Nearly Hendo's" on a rustic wooden background.
My homemade Henderson’s Relish recipe alternative, a.k.a. "Nearly Hendo's," cooling on the Spanish patio - The Flexible Chef

Nearly Henderson's Relish – The Sheffield Affair

Browse all Nearly Series recipes →

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.

Two wedges of Lancashire cheese — crumbly and creamy — on a wooden chopping board with cherry tomatoes, Ramsbottom
Lancashire crumbly and creamy.

Repas de Village Tartiflette

Browse all cheese recipes →


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.

Chocolate-basted partridge wrapped in pancetta with caramelised shallots, thyme and dark gravy on a white plate — Casa Adora
Chocolate-Basted Partridge — Willie Harcourt-Cooze Recipe — The Flexible Chef

Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory – Chocolate-Basted Partridge

Browse all game recipes →


Homemade muhammara in a blue ceramic bowl on granite worktop — Syrian red pepper dip — The Flexible Chef
Homemade muhammara — Casa Adora

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 →


Granny's Idris pattern gravy boat filled with rich brown British gravy on the black granite worktop at Casa Adora – The Flexible Chef
The Idris gravy boat — W.H. Grindley, c.1900–1910 — still in service at Casa Adora

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.

Raspberry coulis in a white bowl
Raspberry Coulis - Casa Adora

Browse all sauces, salsas and dressings →

Veg, Fruit & Pulses Hub

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.

Illustrated Flexible Chef and his greyhound surrounded by vegetable, fruit and pulses recipes ingredients — stuffed peppers, tomatoes, aubergine, chickpeas and butternut squash
The Flexible Chef with a fresh haul of vegetable, fruit and pulses recipes ingredients — proper produce, ready for the pot.

Browse all vegetable, fruit and pulses recipes →

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.

RidgeMonkey campervan cooking recipes — Mediterranean chicken and vegetables on a two-ring gas hob with almond blossom orchard view
One-Pan Mediterranean Chicken in the RidgeMonkey — almond blossom outside Florie's window, Andalucía.

One-Pan Mediterranean Chicken & Veg

Browse all campervan cooking recipes →

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.

Piquillo pepper pâté in a terracotta dish with a spoon — The Flexible Chef
Piquillo pepper pâté in a terracotta dish — The Flexible Chef

Pâté de Pimientos del Piquillo y Almendras

Browse all pâté & rillettes 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.

Rabo de Toro — four stages of the recipe: browning oxtails, sautéed vegetables, simmering stew and the finished dish in its blended sauce, Córdoba province
Rabo de Toro at every stage — from browning to the finished sauce, Córdoba province.

Rabo de Toro

Browse all slow cooker & slow cooking recipes →

Cooking Through History — Historical Recipes

From Mesopotamian flatbreads to Medieval English pottage — six civilisations, twelve recipes, all cooked in a modern kitchen with honesty and respect for the original. The oldest recipes in the world, given a flexible makeover.

Ancient Roman moretum herb and cheese paste spread on flatbread on a black granite worktop
Cooking Through History — historical recipes from the ancient world — The Flexible Chef

Browse all Cooking Through History recipes →

Scottish Recipes — The Flexible Chef's Scottish Collection

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.

Haggis neeps and tatties — sliced haggis with golden mashed swede and smooth white mashed potato on a large white plate on a black speckled granite worktop
Haggis Neeps and Tatties - The Flexible Chef


Browse all Scottish recipes →

Gut Health Recipes

Good gut health starts with what you eat — 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.

Green juice for gut health — vivid green kale, spinach, kiwi and ginger juice in a glass on a black speckled granite worktop at Casa Adora
Green Juice for Gut Health — Kale, Kiwi and Ginger - Casa Adora

Browse all gut health recipes →


Resistant Starch Recipes — Cook It, Cool It, Use Again

Cooling cooked starch transforms it into food for your gut bacteria rather than fuel for you. Potatoes, rice, barley, oats — this collection brings together every recipe on The Flexible Chef where the cook-it-cool-it principle is part of what makes it work. Simple food. Better science.

Ancient spelt flatbread recipe — two charred flatbreads with flour dusting on black granite worktop
Ancient Spelt Flatbread Recipe — The Flexible Chef

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.

Prawn frittata golden and set in a wide pan — Debbie's tortilla-frittata, Rochdale
Prawn frittata — Debbie & Andy's Kitchen | The Flexible Chef

Browse all family kitchen recipes →

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.

Homemade black bean sauce in a glass jar with handwritten label on a dark granite worktop — Nearly Lee Kum Kee, The Flexible Chef
Nearly Lee Kum Kee — Homemade Black Bean Sauce

Browse all black bean recipes →

Spanish Recipes — The Flexible Chef's Complete Collection

Easy Spanish recipes to cook at home — from a kitchen in rural Andalucía. Tapas, cold soups, fish, slow braises, rice and regional classics from thirteen years of living and cooking in Spain. Rabo de toro, salmorejo, tortilla de patatas, gambas al pil-pil and seventy more recipes cooked, tested and eaten here.

Garbanzos a la Riojana — Spanish chickpea and chorizo stew in a rustic bowl with sauce splashes on the plate
Easy Spanish recipes from Casa Adora Garbanzos a la Riojana — Spanish Chickpea and Chorizo Stew – The Flexible Chef

Browse all Spanish recipes →

Tofu Recipes — The Flexible Chef's Casa Adora Collection

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.

Black bean tofu with courgette, carrot and red pepper over pearl barley in a white bowl on black speckled granite
Black Bean Tofu Recipe — The Flexible Chef

Browse all tofu recipes →

Veggie & Vegan Recipes — The Flexible Chef's Casa Adora Collection

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.

A bowl of Sichuan black bean soba noodles recipe with tofu, white cabbage and a glossy black bean sauce
Sichuan black bean soba noodles with crispy tofu and white cabbage — one pan, properly vegan

Browse all veggie & vegan recipes →

North African Recipes — From the Moorish Kitchen at Casa Adora

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. Six countries, one collection.

North African recipes from a kitchen closer to Marrakech than to Madrid — The Flexible Chef

Beef meatball tagine with tomato sauce and olives in a Moroccan tagine dish
Beef Meatball Tagine with Tomato Sauce – The Flexible Chef

Browse all North African recipes →

French Recipes — From Casa Adora and the Road

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.

The Flexible Chef in a Bordeaux red apron and string of onions, with a Marseilles blue Le Creuset, Camembert, duck leg confit, and thyme — French recipes hub illustration
French Recipes Hub - The Flexible Chef

Coq au Chardonnay — Van Life Version

Browse all French recipes →

Mushroom Recipes — Wild, Vegetarian and Everyday

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.

The Flexible Chef in the Casa Adora kitchen with a basket of porcini, girolles and chestnut mushrooms – mushroom recipes from Andalucía
AI images, my stories – The Flexible Chef

Chestnut and Mushroom Pâté

Browse all mushroom recipes →

More Collections Coming

The recipe archive at The Flexible Chef is always growing. Check back – there is always something new on the worktop.

Browse all recipe collections at The Flexible Chef's Complete Hub Guide.

Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures – The Flexible Chef

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