In the summertime, I literally can’t live without this bright green sauce made from fresh basil leaves, pine kernels, garlic olive oil and parmesan cheese. I can eat it daily, spread on fresh white bread, tossed with pasta or gnocchi. Pesto originated in Geona, the capital city of Liguria, the region in Italy and was traditionally made in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle. I find making the pesto easier and faster by using a food processor. Don’t be tempted by a ready sauce from the store, The ingredients are available all year round, and any other ready-to-eat sauce can’t be compared to a homemade version. This recipe shows you how to make pesto at home. Here...

I like to keep it simple: a ripe avocado mixed with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice. But you can add whatever you like: hot peppers such as jalapeño or serrano, finely chopped onion, coriander and tomatoes. The secret of good guacamole is a perfectly ripe avocado smashed with the fork or pestle in the mortar. It's best eaten right after being prepared because the avocado oxidizes and turns brown. Guacamole can be prepared in advance but must be refrigerated in an airtight container, sprinkled with lemon juice, and covered with a piece of plastic wrap. Find the recipe here

This is a type of relish-like salsa commonly used in Mexican cuisine. A simple combination of fresh tomatoes and onion, serrano or jalapeno chilli peppers, lime juice and coriander, generously seasoned with salt, is also called salsa fresca, salsa Mexicana or salsa cruda. You can enjoy Pico de Gallo with tortilla crisps, Totopos, tacos or quesadilla. Make it a few hours in advance to let all-natural juices combine and marinate together, providing the salsa with more flavour.  For those who can’t stand fresh coriander - use parsley instead. Find the recipe here...

The secret of excellent gazpacho is fresh, natural vegetables at their season’s peak: yellow tomatoes, melon, bell pepper and cucumber. You can keep the gazpacho wholly vegetarian, and vegan using only olives and diced vegetables as a garnish or serve it with chorizo, cured ham and shrimps. The chunky soup is easy to make; it comes together quickly in the food processor. Refreshing chilled Golden Gazpacho is perfect for lunch on hot summer days. Find the recipe here…

This smooth and creamy dip of vivid green colour pairs well with a variety of dippers such as tortilla crisps, crackers or crudités. It’s not at all like the chunky guacamole most people love. It’s excellent as a salad dressing for fresh lettuce, spread for sandwiches and toast, or dolloping onto nachos, burritos, quesadillas and tacos. The avocado dip is simple to make, with just a few ingredients and the aid of a food processor; it only requires very ripe avocados. You can spice the dip up by adding, e.g. cayenne pepper, chilli pepper or chipotle paste, finely chopped spring onion or coriander. Find the recipe here...

Ratatouille is a traditional Provençal vegetable stew, fragrant with garlic and thyme. It is excellent to have it on hand for a quick lunch or as a side dish for dinner. You can serve it warm or cold, on rice, with roast meat or a baguette. Aubergine, courgette, onion and pepper must be cooked separately in olive oil before being combined with diced tomatoes, tomato paste, chopped garlic, and herbs and stewed until all vegetables are tender. Use the vegetable at the peak of the season; then, you will get the perfect flavourful Ratatouille. Find the recipe here

Dried Fruits Beverage is one of 12 traditional dishes served on Christmas Eve in Poland. This is a naturally sweet drink, which distinctive flavour comes from dried apples, pears, apricot, prunes and fragrant spices: cinnamon, cloves and star anise. Dried fruits, prunes, in particular, give the kompot enough natural sweetness; however, if you need to have it sweeter, add honey to the cool mixture. My Dried Fruit Beverage also contains thick slices of fresh orange, making this traditional drink even more Christmasy and citrusy. Serve cold with cooked fruits on the side. Find the recipe here...

Three primary ingredients - black chickpea, black garlic, and black tahini- create this dip's distinctive earthy flavour and odd colour. Kala Chana, a black cousin of yellow chickpea, make a nutty and firm-textured base. Black tahini from unhulled sesame seeds, adds a slight bitterness and toasty flavour, black garlic- a bit of sweetness. The  Black Chickpea Hummus calls for raw garlic and lemon juice like traditional hummus, but unlike it needs a splash of olive oil and a pinch of cumin to develop the flavour. Spooky Black Hummus can be served with flat bread, but it's excellent with raw vegetables or crispbread.  Find the recipe here…

This is not quite a usual spread. It makes a beautiful and elegant starter if served as a canapé with crispbread or sourdough crackers. It can also be eaten as a meal, for breakfast or small lunch, with warm toast or freshly baked bun. Smoked Trout Pâté is rich in flavour - creamy, lemony, with a hint of smokiness and a quite amount of fresh dill. And although you can find the pâté in every supermarket today, don’t buy it. It’s simple and quick to make – you need only 5 minutes to whip it up. Find the recipe here…

Crisp bottoms and juicy filling, these Vegetable and Mushroom Potstickers are my favourite dumplings. They're stuffed with carrot, Chinese leaves, Shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots and fresh ginger filling that burst in the flavours of the sweetness combined with spiciness. The potstickers are pan-fried and steamed at the same time; thus, they're moist and crispy. Serve with a potsticker dipping sauce consisting of Chinese black vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and minced garlic, spiced up with a sriracha dash for an extra kick. Find the recipe here…

It’s great to serve as the starter to share with friends or a healthy snack, but we eat it for breakfast as a spread with our homemade sourdough wholemeal or rye bread slices. Smoked mackerel pâté requires a few ingredients finely diced and chopped but is easy to whizz up and cost very little. The smokiness of mackerel, sharp flavour of lemon juice and tangy capers make the perfect balance enriched by aromatic springs of dill. The Pâté must be kept in the fridge and lasts chilled for a few days in an airtight container. It’s best a day after it's made. Find the recipe here…

If you are a rye fan, for a real treat try this double rye sourdough bread. It contains dark and light rye flour as well as bread flour to give light texture. Double rye requires overnight sponge made of light rye flour starter and some amount of dark rye flour, but on a baking day, it needs only 3 hours to be ready to pop in the hot oven. The bread is delicious, moist, sweet and tastes great next day if kept in the container. Great served with herring tartare or pickled herring. Find the recipe here… 

This is dark, moist and dense bread with a hint of sweetness - a bit in Lithuanian-style. Barley malt syrup and a little of honey give this beautiful colour of the crumb and a caramelized crust. My recipe uses light rye sourdough starter and a mix of bread and dark rye flour. It requires patience as the sponge needs to be prepared a day before and give it time to rise. But as a reward, the final rise of bread takes only two hours. Malt and Honey Dark Rye Bread is the perfect winter bread which tastes amazing with hard cheese, pickled herring or paté. Find the recipe here…

The trick to this salad is to julienne vegetables thinly – the thinner stalks, the better taste - and homemade whole-egg mayonnaise sauce, free from unhealthy ingredients. Winter Root Vegetable Slaw is crunchy, flavourful and its sweetness comes from rich in minerals carrot, parsnip, celeriac and beetroot, so there is no need to add extra sugar. It’s delicious to serve with meat, burgers and sandwiches. For a vegan version of the salad, use vegan mayonnaise. Who says you can only make a coleslaw with a cabbage? Find the recipe here…

They are the wonderfully vibrant condiment that goes with pretty much anything savoury – burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, salads, slow-cooked meats and fish. They add piquancy and a sharp finish to Mexican tacos, tostadas or quesadillas but their flavour doesn’t overpower the dishes. Tangy- sweet Red Pickled Onions are super easy to make and ready to eat in 4 hours. Keep them cold in the fridge up to a week. Use only red onions because they have a more mild flavour. Find the recipe here…

Pepper semi-confit is exceptionally versatile in the kitchen. It can be used as a topping for toast and as crostini spread, in sandwiches, omelettes, pasta sauces, tarts and quiche. It’s great over grilled fish and with roasted meat or potatoes. Pepper semi-confit is sweet and very aromatic because the olive oil used for this condiment is infused with thyme and garlic. Confit should be refrigerated before serving and can be kept in the frige for 2 weeks. Find the recipe here….

Marinated feta cheese is a king of toppings. It’s served on salads and open toasts, with grilled meat and fried vegetables but also makes amazing finger food to serve for entertaining. Marinated cubes have a beautiful texture and fresh aromatic flavour which comes from spices, herbs and lemon. They taste as delightful as they look so I use them - along with pickled cucumber and black olives to make colourful easy-to-grab cocktail skewers. Find the recipe here…

We can’t imagine wintertime without homemade tomato passata. It forms the base of many delicious recipes, can be turned into comforting soups or pasta sauces. Tomatoes are in season now – sweet and fragrant, so this is the best time to capture them and close in bottles. The best passata is made from San Marzano tomatoes (obviously!) which come from the Campania region in Italy but they are quite expensive and difficult to spot. Ripe red Plum and Roma tomatoes are good as well as Polish tomatoes which are low in water content and rich in flavour. Making tomato passata at home takes a lot of effort and time but it’s definitely worth because its flavour can’t be compared to any store-bought puree. Find the recipe here…

Perfect hummus is not a five-minute job. You have to put a little work in to get a marvellous result. Dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight and then cooked, are essential and can never be replaced by canned ones. There are no substitutes for fresh garlic and freshly squeezed lemon juice, giving the hummus a citrusy flavour. Nutty and lightly bitter Tahini should be as fresh as possible, and its flavour in the mixture is only perceptible. Fresh hummus with paprika sprinkles and olive oil drizzle is the best. Serve with flatbread, crusty toasts or as a dip for fresh vegs. Find the recipe here…

Beetroot soured juice, also called beet kvass is naturally fermented liquid, slightly sweet, salty and tangy, a little earthy. This very nutritious and health-boosting drink is famous for its cleansing properties. Beet kvass is also the main ingredient of red borscht (in Polish barszcz) – traditional Polish soup served at Christmas Eve's Supper. Easy to make at home red beet kvass calls only for firm beetroots, salt and water, however requires a bit of patience because the fermentation process lasts at least one week. Natural, healthy and extremely delicious, free from sugar and preservatives red liquid makes barszcz the best Christmassy soup in the world. Find the recipe here...

Seville oranges are perfect for marmalade because are rich in pectin and very aromatic. Thick skinned, sour like a lemon with a high level of bitterness fruits are grown in Seville and Malaga in southern Spain and available in the UK only for a few weeks in a year - from mid-January to February. I read they are currently harvested in Spain from November onwards so maybe you can spot them somewhere before Christmas.  I usually use the oranges which are close at hand now - Navellina or Navel are most common in shops. But whichever oranges you choose, homemade marmalade made from fresh fruits is always a treat. Find the recipe here...

This is my everyday bread. Very comforting, healthy, delicious and far different from what is mostly available now in local shops. You can buy the sourdough loaves in many artisan bakeries across London, they are decent but unfortunately pretty expensive. Making the sourdough bread at home is neither costly nor difficult however requires a bit of patience, effort and experience. You can read a lot of recipes on the Internet and in cook books but the sourdough bread is something you learn by doing. Anyway, you need to start somehow so let’s get started together. Find the recipe here...

Granola and Granula. Both names were used in the 19th century in the United States for foods which contained whole grain products crumbled and baked until crisp. Then this breakfast meal consisted of Graham flour and was formed into sheets, baked twice and broken up into smaller pieces. It was edible only when soaked in milk overnight. Fruits and nuts were added in the 1960s and the first mass-market granola was introduced in 1972. Today most of the store-bought granola is high in sugar, unhealthy oils, artificial flavourings, some unnecessary ingredients and it isn’t healthy anymore. But amazingly delicious and healthy cereals can be made at home from the ingredients we know and like. Home made granola is absurdly easy to make. Find the recipe here...