Whether it's comfort food, inspiration for family dinners or excellent baking ideas you're after, Nadiya Hussain's recipe portfolio has everything. In celebration of The Great British Bake Off 2015 winner's latest release, Nadiya’s Simple Spices, we’ve put together a collection of her best ever dishes, including three brilliant recipes from her new cookbook: a sensational saag aloo chicken jalfrezi, inspired mango salad and an utterly moreish flapjack-fudge hybrid. Read on for some delicious cooking inspiration (and some serious show-stoppers, too).
There’s hardly any prep work required to whip up this saag aloo-inspired dish, which makes a star of store cupboard ingredients and uses a few clever shortcuts along the way (think cream of tomato soup in the sauce). The result is a tasty, hugely flavourful curry that can be on the table in well under an hour – just the thing for a busy weeknight.
Bright, beautiful and brimming with exotic flavours, this charred mango rice salad makes a great addition to a buffet or party spread, works well as a side dish to accompany chicken and fish, or can simply be enjoyed as is. Charring the mango makes all the differences here – doing so really brings out the tropical flavour of the fruit, while also adding an underlying smokiness to this vibrant dish.
Two delicious sweet treats combine is this recipe, which sees Nadiya bringing together a couple of her favourite bakes: chewy, syrupy flapjacks and the fragrant Indian-style milk fudge, barfi. There’s a few different steps involved, but don’t let that put you off; the processes are simple and the results are well worth the effort. Cut into bite-size pieces, these little delights are delicious enjoyed with a cup of tea, and would make an elegant after-dinner nibble too.
This gorgeously presented dish makes for a seriously impressive dinner party centrepiece. A whole side of salmon is topped with a punchy, vibrant salsa verde, before being baked on a tangle of onions drizzled with ghee and miso paste. The salmon skin, meanwhile, is cooked to crunchy, crispy perfection and crumbled over the fish just before serving.
A Nadiya twist on a takeaway classic, this dish is fast, flavourful and full of amazing colours and textures. A proper midweek hero, the prawns are lightly coated in a simple batter, before being fried until golden, crisp and crunchy. Juicy tinned pineapple, red onions and peppers are meanwhile cooked in a hot pan with a simple sweet and sour sauce made from ketchup and vinegar. Served topped with coriander and spring onions alongside a big bowl of noodles, this is a guaranteed family favourite.
A guaranteed crowd-pleaser, Nadiya’s fun take on mac 'n' cheese is made extra special (and child-friendly) thanks to a few secret ingredients. The evaporated milk adds a lovely richness to the sauce, while a spoonful of yeast extract (such as Marmite) gives it depth of flavour and a savoury tang. Best of all, though, the addition of finely crushed cheese puffs to the topping brings a vibrant orange colour and extra cheesiness to the dish.
This is an instant classic that's great for when you want something light, quick and low-effort. This soothing soup uses handy shortcuts in the form of roasted red peppers from a jar and shop-bought Thai red curry paste, yet still delivers flavour in spades.
Inspired by Caribbean flavours, this dish is hearty and spicy enough to see you through colder days, but it's not so heavy that you'll find yourself in a carb coma afterwards. The jerk seasoning works brilliantly with the fish, while the onions, pepper, tomatoes and Scotch bonnet chilli make this a rice salad to remember. Bonus: it'll be ready in under an hour.
Get the recipe for jerk haddock and jollof rice-inspired salad here
Sausage rolls are upgraded with a (simple) gourmet twist for this recipe. These beef Wellington-inspired sausage rolls are filled with a mix of beef sausagemeat and mushrooms, with wholegrain mustard and Worcestershire sauce adding extra flavour. They’re great for snacking on hot from the oven or adding to packed lunches, and are also perfect served as pre-dinner nibbles with drinks. This recipe makes 30, and any extras freeze brilliantly.
This recipe has all the elements of a Niçoise salad – tuna, olives, green beans, potatoes, anchovies and egg – but the ingredients are topped with Parmesan and baked in the oven, making the dish altogether heartier and more filling than the original. It's also a one-pot meal that feeds four, so is perfect for midweek eating.
Combining chewy, lightly browned halloumi cheese with a creamy, fragrant curry base, this simple recipe is another instant classic. Served with fluffy white rice and a spicy coconut sambal, it makes for a brilliantly easy yet interesting (and very tasty) dinner dish.
Muffins aren't just a sweet treat – they make for super-satisfying savoury snacks too. These feta and dill muffins take very little time to prep and cook and you can freeze them once baked, ready to reheat in a warm oven. Enjoy them as is, or slice in half and smother with cream cheese and layers of smoked salmon for a lovely lunch.
Nadiya’s granola sqaures are an absolute dream: easy to make, packed with prunes and oats and seriously delicious. Bake a batch at the weekend, stash them in an airtight container and then dive in whenever the craving for something sweet hits (or when you need breakfast to be ready, pronto).
You'd never guess, but this decadent ice cream cheesecake is vegan – the filling is made with frozen bananas which are blended into a thick cream. The base uses oats, nuts and golden syrup, but if you don't need your cake to be vegan, you could swap it for a traditional biscuit base. For a show-stopping finish, the cheesecake is topped with a fruity blueberry compote (either fresh or frozen berries are fine).
With a layer of coffee-infused, dark chocolate brownie at the bottom, dulce de leche and toasted hazelnuts in the middle and orange and almond baked cheesecake on top, Nadiya’s triple chocolate cheesecake brownies are incredibly rich and seriously tasty. A treat worthy of a Hollywood handshake, no less. Be warned: these little beauties are likely to be devoured in seconds.
Get the recipe for triple chocolate cheesecake brownies here
This cake takes inspiration from ras malai, a Bengali dessert of milk dumplings soaked in sweet, gently spiced milk. Fragrant with saffron, the beautiful two-layer bake is covered with a cardamom-infused buttercream and finished with an elegant chopped pistachio and edible rose petal border. If you’re out to make an impact with your next cake, look no further.
It doesn’t get much more indulgent that this dessert. A classic biscuit base is layered with rosemary-infused caramel, before being topped with sliced bananas and a mass of whipped cream. The aromatic rosemary helps prevent the whole thing from being too sweet and sprinkling a few rosemary sprigs over the top to finish looks impressive too.
Bringing real wow factor to the table, this recipes takes banana bread to a whole new level. Featuring a banana-rich sponge topped with peanut butter icing and crunchy shards of homemade honeycomb, it’s the sort of bake that really gets people talking. While it does take a bit of time and effort, the stunning end result speaks for itself.
A foolproof recipe for a potentially tricky dessert, these chocolate fondants are melt-in-the-middle sensations. The small cakes are perfectly crusty on the outside, warm and gooey on the inside, have a lovely star anise aroma about them and, best of all, can be made within half an hour. What are you waiting for?
Laced with crystallised ginger, almonds and orange zest, these delicate, brandy snap-like biscuits make for perfect edible gifts (do ensure you save a few for yourself). Once cooked and cooled, they’re dipped in a mixture of white and milk chocolate to create a stunning marbled effect.
A cake that’s fit for a queen; this is the recipe for the bake Nadiya made for Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday celebrations in 2016. Obviously this is a scaled-down, simpler version of the actual recipe, but it’s just as tasty. Thanks to the orange sponge, drizzle and buttercream it’s wonderfully citrussy and perfect served with a cup of tea. It’s up to you whether you go all out with the purple fondant icing and sugar paste roses, or simply leave unadorned and serve as a classic drizzle cake.