Recipes to prep at the weekend for the week ahead – again, a really practical approach based on how we really live our busy lives. This teriyaki aubergine traybake makes an easy, healthy midweek dinner, with very little washing up involved. Adjust the heat according to taste! Drizzle with a generous amount of the tahini dressing and scatter over the mint leaves. Toast the flatbreads or pitta breads in a dry frying pan and serve immediately. Add the wine, turn up the heat to high and bring to the boil. Use a spatula to scrape up all the flavour from the bottom of the pan and stir well. Add the bay leaves, tinned tomatoes, passata, lentils, oregano and pul biber.

Cut the leeks lengthways and then into ½-cm slices. Wash the leeks well in a bowl of warm water, then rinse and repeat.Like most vegetables, aubergine can be fried, grilled, roasted, steamed or even boiled. It’s also happily stuffed, or, blitzed – there are SO many ways to make this bulbous vegetable sing. Most commonly, it is fried or roasted, though we’ve included recipes which see them boiled below (Thai green curry we love you). Aubergine can also be cooked directly on a flame, and then peeled and mashed up to create the delightfully smoky dip baba ghanoush, or in South Asia, the baingan bharta – a heavenly spicy mashed aubergine side dish. I always put potato into my regular egg frittatas, but the gram flour used here (to make this dish protein-rich for vegans) can be quite dense so keeping the filling potato-free makes it a little lighter. Timings Elly is passionate about Bristol and supporting the independent businesses and friends that have supported her and that have become regulars both as suppliers and customers at The Pear Cafe. She will continue to live in Bristol and split her time between there and London for work and play. She is a judge on numerous panels in 2018, including Veggie Magazine Awards, Great British Food Awards (alongside Raymond Blanc, Michael Roux, Nathan Outlaw, Mark Hix, Rosemary Shrager, Dan Doherty and more) and a head judge for the highly regarded Great Taste Awards. Meanwhile, prepare the veg for the noodles. Cut a small slice off the base of the pak choi to separate the leaves. Wash and shake dry. Leave smaller leaves whole and slice the bigger leaves widthways into 2cm-wide pieces. Thinly slice the red pepper. When the tofu is close to the endof its cooking time, place a wok over a high heat until very hot, drizzle in the oil, add the prepared vegetables and toss for 2 minutes or until slightly softened but still retaining a bit of bite.

Which variety? Go for the classic teardrop shaped aubergine for this recipe – it gives you the optimum space for stuffing and a half makes a perfect sized portion for 1. Which variety? Go for regular globe aubergines for this one, to give you plenty of room to score without piercing the skin.You haven’t lived until you’ve mixed miso and tahini to make one rich, nutty, creamy dressing…Ooh it’s so good! Which variety? Globe aubergines will give you the best envelopes for your aubergine parcels in this recipe. This classic pasta dish from Sicily is a joy in summertime. The traditional cheese used for the dish is ricotta salata – which is an aged, salted ricotta – but if you can’t find it pecorino performs the job just fine! What I thought: Like everyone else I know, I struggle to keep coming up with simple but tasty midweek meal ideas, so I was instantly drawn to the Weekday section of Elly Pear’s book. I love the concept of her Freezer Food recipes. You make one base dish in a quantity big enough to allow you to freeze some of it. Then there are various ways to use that base dish to whip up enticing but incredibly easy meals when you get home from work and don’t have the time or energy to cook something complicated. I love this approach as it fits perfectly with our busy family schedule. Which variety You can use any of the globe varieties of aubergine in this recipe, but the large round aubergines sometimes found in Chinese supermarkets (almost identical to the round Italian variety but with a paler skin) offer an ideal creaminess here. Alternatively the thinner and paler Chinese variety are another great option.

What do you get if you combine an aubergine parmigiana with everyone’s favourite Calabrian hot and spicy sausage paste? This aubergine al forno with ‘nduja! It’s clever: the milky mozzarella cools the hot and intense sausage beautifully. Which variety You can use either the globe or large round varieties of aubergine in this recipe. You’ll need either one large round aubergine or 2 globe aubergines. Which variety? Any of the Italian globe varieties will be lovely here: purple, white, or zebra striped.It’s really very easy to spend your time and money with small, independent businesses in this part of the world, and I love it for that, and so many more reasons.