Meera Sodha

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Meera Sodha

My favourite breakfast is sliced tomatoes on rye bread sprinkled with sea salt. The best bit is neither the tomato flesh nor the bread, it’s the salted tomato water that runs down the back of my hands and threatens to meet my elbows. It’s liquid electricity and one of my favourite earthly flavours. It could make a great stock, or a delicious martini, perhaps even a marinade for ceviche, but here it’s thrown in at the end to refresh a dish of gently cooked tomatoes, beans and dill.

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Meera Sodha

I’m a subscriber to The Imperfectionist, Oliver Burkeman’s newsletter on building a meaningful life, in which he recently wrote about navigating life via “aliveness”, which he describes as “a subtle electrical charge”. I chase that feeling a lot in the kitchen, and it’s how I feel when I eat a great salad, all vibrant and energised, as if I’ve just cycled through gorgeous countryside or been on a hike.

4 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Meera Sodha

Being in the business of recipe writing means I am always seeking the new, always moving on and rarely resting on a single dish. Until summer starts knocking, that is. The sun makes me want to slow down, and I find myself wanting a variation of vegetables agrodolce on repeat. Agrodolce is Italian for sour (agro) and sweet (dolce), which in my kitchen translates to a pile of meltingly soft vegetables, all slick with olive oil, sweet with onions, and cut with vinegar and capers.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Meera Sodha

Here are two things about aubergines that you may not know: first, they are giant berries (!) and, second, they’re roughly 92% water. The latter is important, because to get this mighty berry to reach its delicious potential, we need to dehydrate it (that is, remove as much water as possible and then hit it with lots of flavour). You could fry it, but, when the weather is lovely, I prefer hands-free cooking, which means roasting it.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Meera Sodha

This is exactly my kind of recipe. It’s easy, flavourful and, as a bonus, it’s crisp, too. In fact, it’s so simple, you could make the mixture with your eyes closed or, better still, give it to a six-year-old to do (they could also make it with their eyes closed). The key is the black beans, because they crisp up perfectly, and the condiments, which supercharge the flavour. There is one small catch, though: the onions need caramelising until they’re jammy, and ready to top the patty.