With temperatures falling constantly and the first dumps hitting central Europe, it is obvious that BBQ season is really over now and with it the days of nice and easy food supplies. But don’t worry, we prepared some nice recipes for you to indulge in yourself on a cozy weekend or warm up your guests if they come over for dinner in the cold and dark winter evenings. Enjoy.

Recipes by Gemma Taylor, chef and tutor on the Well Seasoned chalet cookery course and author of the Well Seasoned food blog

Squash, sesame & noodle soup

This soup is a hearty one pot meal which when dressed up with the colourful garnish has the wow factor for your friends, whilst also combining lots of vegetables some of which you’re bound to have lying around! This recipe is great as you can experiment and substitute the vegetables in the recipe with ones you already have.

What you need (2-4 serves):

100g rice or ramen noodles
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
½ inch piece of fresh ginger
½ small squash, Australian Blue, Acorn, Kuri, Butternut or similar
1 small yellow or green courgette
8 button mushrooms
Handful of mange tout or sliced peppers
1 litre of good quality chicken stock

To garnish:
2 fresh red chillies
2 tbsp sesame seeds
Handful of fresh coriander

In a large pan add the two oils and warm on a medium heat. Peel and finely chop the onion, garlic and ginger, then peel, deseed and chop the squash into small cubes approximately 1cm dice. Add the onions, garlic & ginger to the pan and once they have started to soften add the squash and sauté gently for 10 minutes.

In the meantime prepare the rest of the vegetables by chopping them into small evenly sized pieces roughly the same size as the cubes of squash. Add to the pan and continue to cook for a few minutes until they too begin to soften.

Add the chicken stock to the pan, turn the heat up and bring to the boil then turn down the heat so the soup is simmering and cook for a further 5 minutes. The soup is ready once all the vegetables are cooked through, the squash will take the longest so check a piece to make sure.

To prepare the noodles cook according to packet instructions which normally takes about five minutes in boiling water, then rinse thoroughly in cold water and set aside.

Finely slice the red chillies and roughly chop the coriander ready to use as a garnish.

To serve firstly divide the noodles between the bowls. Then on top of the noodles add a generous serving of the vegetable soup, and lastly garnish with plenty of fresh coriander, red chillies and sesame seeds.

At this time of year for me thoughts turn to warming soups and sticky cakes. This recipe for treacly Parkin is a northern Bonfire night tradition and is best left for a few days in a cake tin to turn nice and sticky before eating, if you can wait that long! Don’t let the fact this cake has a longer list of ingredients than the average sponge put you off, its quick and easy to put together and well worth the effort!

Bonfire Night Parkin

What you need:

100g butter
100g soft brown sugar
100g black treacle or molasses
100g golden syrup
150g rolled oats or oatbran
150g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
3 teaspoons of ground ginger
Large pinch of grated nutmeg
Small pinch of salt
2 medium eggs
2 tablespoons of milk

Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper and preheat your oven to 150˚C.

Use a heavy based saucepan to melt together the sugar, butter, treacle & syrup, if you have electric scales its easiest to measure the ingredients directly into the pan. Use a low heat so the ingredients melt together without coming to the boil, once melted remove from the heat and set aside.

In a large bowl mix together the oats, flour, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg & salt, then pour in the warm liquids from the pan and mix gently to combine.

In a small bowl whisk the eggs and milk then add into the large bowl little at a time and again mix thoroughly. Pour the mixture into the lined baking tin and place in the middle of the oven for 30-45 minutes until the cake is firm to the touch.

There you go, told you it was easy! Once cooked, leave to cool before placing in a tin or airtight container where the cake will keep for up to a week.

All recipes & images copyright Well Seasoned.

Got your appetite whet and want more? Get yourself into a cooking course with Gemma, she’s even giving you a 10% discount if you book over her website and add the discount code COOLER10