Here are some places I go for culinary inspiration. Have a read and check them out!
Foodgawker – A real surprise I actually managed to graduate university considering I spent about 3/4 of all my lectures just on this website. It is essentially a picture index of lots of different recipes from a variety of blogs and websites, and you can search through these by selecting cuisines you’re interested in/ingredients you may have to hand and so on. A great spot to kill some time and soak in some foodie inspiration.
BBC Good Food – This website holds an absolutely mammoth collection of recipes, featuring recipes by famous chefs and also has many thematic food collections, such as Halloween and valentines day.
Delia online – The woman is an inspiration, and her word is gospel. Really, no more should be said on the matter! Easy to follow recipes, this website contains almost all my favorite recipes out of her cookbooks, including some of her classic collections, such as the summer and winter books.
Nom nom paleo – While I don’t advocate any strict form of diet/lifestyle that is completely restrictive of certain food groups, the paleo diet caught my attention due to its close affiliation to CrossFit. If the words paleo and CrossFit are totally alien, see my post on energy balls for more info on CrossFit and go here for an explanation of paleo. In short, it is a diet that is highly compatible with the CrossFit dietary ethos of eating meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Sadly this contains no mention of cake, pasta or delicious bread, and quite frankly for me life is too short to rule these things out entirely. That said, being the carnivore I am with a love for all fruit and veg, a lot of paleo recipes appeal to me. This blog, in particular, has some incredible recipes, and a particular favourite has to be the green chicken. So if you’re interested in paleo at all, or just want to try some damn tasty chicken, this blog is definitely worth a look.
How to cook the perfect… – For me, sheer joy would be the prospect of cooking for friends, choosing some form of a classic recipe, and then reading up on it on this page. Writing for The Guardian, Felicity Cloake takes various recipes from different chefs and eventually lands on what she deems to be the perfect recipe for these classic dishes. A great way to read up on different chefs recipes, it’s also a chance to learn about the background of some of our best-loved meals.
Jamie Oliver – A bit like marmite, I get the feeling people either love him or hate him. Yet I find myself somewhere in between. Yes, he can be slightly annoying, but he’s done great things in regards to educating people about the importance of home cooking and real food, and for this he wins points with me. His website contains a whole host of recipes and there really does seem to be something for every occasion.
Ottolenghi – Yotam Ottolenghi is a genius. An Israeli-born chef, his recipes are creative, often a little bit fiddly, but completely worth it. The flavours he combines are truly delicious, and while some of the ingredients may be slightly harder to source, a lot of them can be found in international supermarkets these days – give one of his dishes a go, and I guarantee you’ll return to them again and again. The website only contains a few recipes, but if you’re interested the cookbooks are a real treat.
Nigel Slater – Described as ‘a cook who writes’, I am a huge fan of Nigel Slater. He really is a great writer, and here I’ve attached a link to his page at The Guardian, which includes not only his recipes but a lot of his columns too. His book Eat is brilliant and contains so many recipes which can all be whipped up quickly at the end of a long day…there’s no excuse for beans on toast for dinner ever again.
Steak and Sprinkles – The wonderful blog of my gorgeous friend Bella Sullivan, Steak and Sprinkles offers some great recipes and also is a way of Bella chronicling some of her foodie days and dinners out. Bella helped me get finally get my blog going, and for that I will be forever in her debt!