Miguel Barclay - Miguel Barclay’s FAST & FRESH One Pound Meals

In true One Pound Meals style, this book has a laid back approach with no chapters. So just get stuck in, flick through my recipes and see what grabs your attention. I have listed every recipe here and thrown in a few helpful hashtags too.

WOW! The response to my first book, One Pound Meals , really took me by surprise, so a big thank you to everyone who has helped make my ultra-simple and budget-friendly style of cooking a real alternative to some of the overcomplicated cookbooks out there.

It was so much fun to see One Pound Meals in the book charts alongside some of the biggest chefs in the world. Who could have imagined that? Some guy in his kitchen in Camden, cooking to a 1 budget, making paella with long-grain rice and a chicken stock cube, taking photos on his phone and uploading them to Instagram. Its definitely not the conventional way to do it.

So, heres my second book. Im still working to a 1 budget, but Ive moved with the seasons and this is a book for the warmer months. Ive gone FAST & FRESH with my One Pound Meals: my focus is on making you feel good with delicious, quick and simple dishes that are light and vibrant, hitting that 1 budget without compromising on flavour.

Enjoy,

The feedback you gave me from One Pound Meals was that you guys loved the speed and simplicity of my recipes, so Ive turned this up a notch for you and have created even more super-fast recipes for this book. Ive also devised more of my characteristic One Pound Meals shortcuts to get you cooking fun and exciting dishes every day of the week without spending hours in the kitchen.

I was inspired by all the amazing food from around the globe, especially the street food in Thailand and the refreshing noodle and rice dishes from China. And then, from Europe, Ive gone once again to the Mediterranean, taking inspiration from their simple, rustic fish dishes that I love so much. These guys adore their food and live in glorious sunshine, so they know how to balance flavours to create light and uplifting summer dishes.

Choose seasonal foods, because they are way cheaper. For me, the most exciting food season in the UK is definitely when asparagus arrives. Its a real celebration of British produce and because the shop shelves are stacked with bunches at low prices, its a great chance to make all these amazingly fresh asparagus dishes without blowing the budget. However, as soon as the season is over, prices rocket as they are flown in from around the globe (and quality plummets), so this is when you have to get clever by substituting asparagus with other vegetables such as Tenderstem broccoli, green beans or even roasted carrots, to bring the dish back under 1.

To create fast and fresh food with a more summery vibe, I found myself leaning more on frozen food, particularly frozen veg. Picked at their peak and then quickly frozen, the peas and broad beans I use in this book are really fresh and vibrant, and create zero waste because you only use what you need and the rest keeps for months in the freezer. This is key to saving money. It doesnt matter if an ingredient is fantastic value; if you throw away half the packet, then it has actually cost you double.

My other top tip is to cook with frozen fish. This is a game-changer for anyone who wants to eat healthier food on a budget frozen fillets are amazing value, really easy to cook and so versatile. With one packet of fillets, I have created some vastly different fish dishes for this book.

Youll recognise my signature One Pound Meals style by how easily these recipes will fit in with your daily life. Its Tuesday, youve had a hard day at work, you peek into your fridge, then 20 minutes later youre sitting down to a fun and exciting plate of food.

Thats the point of One Pound Meals, and this is how I created my Fast & Fresh collection:

By cooking on such a tight budget, you only need the core ingredients that provide the essential flavours to a dish, and this eliminates so many steps in both preparation and cooking. One Pound Meals are quicker, easier and create less mess than typical cookbook recipes. But, for this book, I wanted to take this one step further and create hassle-free recipes that contained only one or two simple steps, with loads of shortcuts, to create delicious meals with bold flavours that you can cook every day of the week.

Focusing on using more fresh produce means dishes with brighter colours, packed with vegetables, full of zingy flavours and with faster cooking times. This fresh style of cooking maximises the taste of these ingredients, creating vivid summery dishes that celebrate healthy eating. By cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients you can control exactly what you eat, giving processed food and preservatives a miss.

My aim is to motivate you to cook as many recipes as possible by making them as irresistible as I can. I want you to keep cooking from my books, discovering one recipe after another, using up ingredients as you go along.

My simple steps to amazing meals will give you the confidence to get into the kitchen and start creating fun and interesting food. With One Pound Meals its easy to create dishes youve never eaten before, and by using familiar techniques, Ive ensured youll still be well inside your comfort zone while making dishes as exotic as Tom Yum Soup.

As with my first book, One Pound Meals , I have focused on my usual group of core ingredients that youll find in most supermarkets, so you can switch from one book to the other when you have leftover ingredients to use up. The core ingredients are normal everyday staples that form the building blocks of many dishes, like onions, carrots and chicken. These are ingredients you will already be familiar with and comfortable with preparing, and youll probably already have them in your fridge. So, I hope that if you are new to One Pound Meals, jumping into the mind-set is only a minor adjustment to your normal everyday routine.

Remember that all my recipes are for one person.

MORE THAN ONE PERSON?

Just multiply the ingredients because they are so straightforward, its no trouble at all to calculate.