How to cook through a third lockdown

Cooking can be a form of therapy: it’s grounding and positive, and enlightening and rewarding when you learn something new.

It’s a way to bring people together, and it’s pure satisfaction when you eat something that tastes really delicious.

Some might use these dark lockdown evenings to mix it up in the kitchen and learn new culinary skills, perhaps a new recipe or veg hack, or switching on the radio and immersing yourself in an evening of fragrant marmalade-making.

On the contrary, there will also be many people who are feeling incredibly fed up and flat by now, and that’s okay. If you’re feeling like that, perhaps try making a big batch of soup when you feel up to it; it will continue to provide you with hot, veg-packed food for days.

Carrot prep — Find solace in the kitchen during lockdown three.

You also can’t beat the comfort of a simlple bowl of pasta, a hot, steaming jacket potato, or a five-minute dinner of beans on buttery toast.

Lockdown cooking suggestions:

Work your way through a cookbook over the coming weeks and months (Ottolenghi’s new book Flavour is wonderful). Set yourself the challenge of trying every recipe and making notes on each to make it your own.

Spend a day in the kitchen preparing a two or three course meal. Put podcasts or music on, take your time and enjoy the process.

Dig out forgotten cookbooks and try something you’ve not cooked before

Enjoy an afternoon making Seville marmalade. Put the radio on, get peeling, slicing and simmering, and fill your house with the distinctive bittersweet aroma. It will keep for the year and you can give some away. Riverford’s organic marmalade kits are available now and come with everything you need.

Bake treats for friends or family. Leave them on their doorstep if they live close by, or make something that would survive postage (i.e fudge).

Make a nostalgic recipe, perhaps one from your childhood or one that reminds you of a particular time or place.

Try cooking a recipe from a cuisine that’s new to you and out of your comfort zone

Banana bread – only joking! Think we all overdid that in lockdown number one.