What Sophie Said

Sometimes when it gets to teatime after a week of work, simplicity is the key. A few weeks ago I tried out this really simple chilli beef and bean tortillas recipe, which I originally spotted in Sainsbury’s magazine. With a couple of adaptations, here’s the meal we ate: To serve 2, you will need: 1 red onion, sliced Olive oil 1 small garlic clove, crushed 250g lean mince 400g kidney beans in chilli sauce 100ml water 4 flour tortillas Grated cheddar, and anything else you want to serve with In a large pan, fry the onion in a little olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and mince, stirring until the meat has browned. Add the kidney beans and 100ml water, turn the heat down and simmer the mince for 20 minutes. Towards the end of the 20 minutes, griddle both sides of the tortilla wraps. Serve the chilli topped with grated cheese, wrap into the tortillas and enjoy. This was beyond simple, and is so fi...

This is one of my complete go-to, easy recipes. It’s unbelievably quick, and tastes fresh and filling. Plus, it has feta cheese in it, which is just the best. The cheat is the use of the Tilda rice, which adds some extra flavour and saves more time. I initially found this on a site like Good Food using different rice and veg, and then have adapted it a little each time I’ve made it to suit my mood or the people eating it. To serve 2, you will need: 6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved Handful rocket leaves, and extra to serve 1tbsp olive oil 125g feta cheese – I tend to vary how much depending on how sticky I want it! 1 red pepper, diced Tilda lime and coriander rice (one of the ‘2mins in the microwave’ packs) 200g (1/2 can) of chickpeas, drained and rinsed Pour the olive oil into a deep non-stick frying pan over a gentle heat. Add the roughly chopped tomatoes and diced pepper and gently fry. Stir in a generous handful of rocket leaves. When ...

Next up, it’s another pasta recipe! A couple of weeks ago some of my girlfriends came round in the evening before one returned to uni, and I wanted to make something simple and tasty, that wouldn’t involve me standing over the stove and excluded from the general conversation. Everyone had had long days of work or uni, and so we needed something tasty. I have no idea where I got this initial recipe from, but I took the basis of it and threw in my own substitutions or alterations, and it seemed to go down well. I’ve got more into making sauces for pasta recently. It can be so cheap and easy to throw in a sauce that I had fallen into the trap of doing that, but it’s so inexpensive to make your own sauce, and it has an extra edge of tastiness. For this recipe, which serves about 4, you will need: 4 cloves garlic, crushed 400g can chopped tomatoes 12 cherry tomatoes, halved 400-450g amori pasta (twirls) 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1/2 tsp crushed chillies 2 courgettes, dice...

Andy and I are trying to eat a bit more healthily at the moment, and I’m trying to build up some tasty new dishes ready for when we can move back in together very soon. I made this one on a Friday night, and it’s full of flavour. I have no idea where the original recipe was from, I’ve had it written down for ages… although the final result doesn’t bear much resemblance to the original! Here’s the ingredients, to serve two: Juice of a lime 1tsp smoked paprika Salt and pepper ½ red pepper, chopped 4tbsp sweetcorn 200g chicken breast, sliced 1tsp chilli powder 1tsp tomato puree 1tsp sunflower oil Small bunch parsley, chopped 1 carrot, diced For the dressing: 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp olive oil Salt and pepper Put the chicken in a bowl with the lime juice, spices, tomato puree and salt and pepper. Leave to marinate for at least 10 minutes, the longer the better to enhance the flavour. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan and thoroug...