Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights. Sophie Dahl

Wash the spinach and watercress leaves and put in a salad bowl. Peel the hardboiled eggs, add them to your leaves and mix in the goat’s cheese. Mix the harissa with the olive oil to form a dressing. Scatter the pumpkin seeds on top of the leaves and dress.

      

      Easy peasy!

       French onion soup

       SERVES 4 GENEROUSLY

      3 large yellow onions

      1 tablespoon of butter

      Slug of olive oil

      2 litres/8 cups of stock—I used 4 cups of chicken stock, 4 of vegetable. Beef is the traditional choice, but I think this is as good

      1 tablespoon of good aged syrupy balsamic vinegar

      Salt and pepper

      100g/1 cup of grated cheese—Gruyère is delicious, but Parmesan will do as well

      Purists will argue this is nothing like the real thing, which should be made with beef stock and have a great molten island of bread and cheese on top. I use vegetable stock and lose the bread—it’s not as heavy, yet still as decadent and comforting. The trick is slooooooooow cooking the onions, so they impart their rich caramelly flavour to the soup. A drizzle of good balsamic vinegar also gives it a rich enigmatic taste, perfect for a blowsy autumn day.

      

      Roughly chop the onions. In a large pot (I use a heavy-bottomed Le Creuset), melt the butter with a few glugs of olive oil on a low heat. You don’t want it to burn. Make sure the bottom of the pan is covered, by swishing it around.

      

      Pour in the onions, mix them into the oil with a wooden spoon and sweat gently for about 40 minutes. If your heat is kept to the lowest setting they won’t need more oil. Sometimes this is helped by using a heat diffuser pad. Towards the end of the cooking, turn up the heat a bit; you want the onions to brown and caramelize, not to be charred to a crisp.

      

      When the onions look golden and browned round the edges, pour in the stock. Turn down the heat to low again, stir, and add the balsamic vinegar. I don’t know why, but this gives the soup a mellow, sweet earthiness. Let it simmer for another 15 minutes, taste, add salt and pepper if needed and then, using a ladle, pour into bowls.

      

      Pour the cheese in when you are about to serve.

       Squid salad with chargrilled peppers and coriander/cilantro dressing

       SERVES 4-6

      1 large red pepper, chopped into four lengthways, seeds removed

      1 large yellow pepper, chopped into four lengthways, seeds removed

      Olive oil

      Roughly 100g/4 cups of cleaned baby squid

       For the dressing

      1 bunch of fresh chopped coriander/cilantro

      A few basil leaves

      4 tablespoons of olive oil

      ¹/₂ a clove of garlic, peeled and chopped

      Juice of 1 lime

      One of the best lunches I ever had was on a small boat in Greece, where the mother of the captain dived into the sea in an enormous swimming costume, surfacing triumphant holding a wiggling bag of squid. She fried them with lemon and olive oil. It was heaven. This is a tribute to her.

      

      Chargrill the peppers (or ‘bell’ peppers, if you’re in the US) in a grill pan with some olive oil. Once they are grilled and cooled slightly, cut them into thinner strips.

      

      Chop the squid into rings, but leave the tentacles whole. Sauté in a hot frying pan with a little more olive oil until they are lightly golden: 2-3 minutes. Pour onto a plate and mix with the peppers.

      

      Put the coriander/cilantro, basil, oil, garlic and lime juice into the blender and blend on high. If necessary, add a bit more lime juice. Pour over the squid and peppers and serve.

       Baked eggs with Swiss chard

       SERVES 2

      Butter for greasing

      2 tablespoons of olive oil

      160g/1 cup of chopped red onions

      75g/1 cup of chopped Swiss chard

      2 eggs

      110g/¹/₂ a cup of crumbled goat’s cheese

      There is something redolent of the nursery tea about baked eggs. They are so easy and are a miniature cosy meal in themselves. Mix with Swiss chard—nutty, more-ish, and oh so good for you.

      

      Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4.

      

      Butter two large ramekins (or a large dish if you want to bake the eggs together). Heat the olive oil in a pan until hot. Add the onions and caramelize for about 10-15 minutes, being careful not to let them burn. Mix the onions with the Swiss chard and divide between the ramekins. Break an egg into each ramekin carefully, so it sits on top of the Swiss chard/onion mixture. Bake in the bottom of the oven for 10 minutes.

      

      Preheat the grill. Remove the ramekins from the oven, scatter the goat’s cheese on top and put under the grill until the cheese is bubbling.

       Chicken and halloumi kebabs with chanterelles

       SERVES 2

      2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, each one cut into four

      Olive oil

      1 packet of halloumi, cut into eight cubes

      4 kebab skewers (either metal or wooden soaked in water)

      Salt and pepper

      225g/3 cups of chanterelles

       For the marinade

      1 bunch of mixed herbs, such as parsley and mint, chopped

      1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

      4-5 tablespoons of olive oil

       For the dressing (optional)

      Olive oil

      Juice of 1 lemon

      I am obsessed with halloumi cheese. I love its sharp, slightly rubbery soul, and I love it grilled and in salads. If you don’t eat meat you