Healthier brownies with a secret ingredient

A good brownie is a wonderful thing, but they can so easily be as disappointing as a broken promise. A dry, crumbly texture or stinginess with the chocolate are the most common failings. A brownie needs to be rich, with a big 'hit' of chocolate, and soft - perhaps even verging on gooey - in the middle.

Salad of peaches and cheese

I've recently been on a trip to Egypt. The food was simple but good - things like smokey baba ghanoush (or baba ghanoug as the Egyptians have it), and falafel (spicy and bright green inside due to being made from broad beans, rather than chick peas as is more common in other countries).

Flat Egyptian breads, slightly similar to pitta but round and usually made with a mixture of white and wholemeal flour, are consumed at every opportunity and are bought by the carrier bag full.

I was struck by the fruit, piled up in abundance at roadside stalls, in shops, on donkey carts, even on pavements.

Leek, mushroom and blue cheese pie

This is one of those dishes that you throw together from what's in the fridge - a few leeks, half a packet of filo pastry, some blue cheese - and it turns out to be unexpectedly delicious.

Like my previous recipe, leeks are the star of the show. I think these two dishes show what a versatile vegetable leeks are - from a light and elegant salad to rich and hearty pie.

Filo pastry is much lower in fat than other types of  pastry, so you can enjoy this pie, perhaps with some more vegetables on the side, and feel relatively virtuous at the same time.

Warm salad of leeks and tomatoes

I often use leeks in pies and risottos, but here's a more summery, Mediterranean way with leeks. This fairly humble vegetable pairs really well with the more bright and glamorous flavours of tomatoes and olives. Use cherry tomatoes if you can - I couldn't get hold of any on the day I made this dish.

This makes a nice side dish, or perhaps a light lunch with some crusty bread. Adding some new potatoes will make it more substantial.

How to get your 5-a-day in one go plus 5 ways to vary it

I'm trying hard to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables (especially the vegetables). This is partly because I prefer a positive approach to healthy eating - ie eat lots of good stuff, rather than obsessing about cutting out the bad stuff. Plus, as I mentioned recently, there's good evidence that eating vegetables and fruit is linked to a longer life - and that seven portions is better than five (five is the current UK official recommendation, based on the World Health Organisation.)

Very green pie

This is, as the title says, a very green pie. No wonder when it's filled with punchy wild garlic leaves, earthy spinach which adds some mellowness, and sweet peas to balance out the other flavours. And of course, some feta cheese, which isn't green but adds a salty, creamy tang.

Apologies if any of you are getting bored of my springtime wild garlic dishes - but fear not, you can use extra spinach if you don't have any wild garlic.

Four good things on a plate: eggs, cheese, garlic and rice

A year or two ago Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall published a recipe book called Three Good Things. His premise is that "three good things on a plate" is a kind of magic formula for good food, where the whole is more than the sum of its parts (as long as you get the combinations right, of course). I don't entirely disagree, but I find that for a complete main course, four is more often the minimum number for an interesting, sustaining plate of food.