Spring

Recipe from Basics to Brilliance by Donna Hay.

Once you have made this recipe, try it in Donna’s Feel-Good Chicken Soup.

This true favourite in The Legbar at our Cotswolds farm. We love ice cold and served with salted MARCONA ALMONDS and NOCELLARA OLIVES. 

Vibrant, bright and full of the flavours of spring, this quick risotto is made with nourishing ancient grains and plenty of greens.

The combination of fennel seeds, fresh rosemary and thyme in this recipe is the perfect complement to our pasture fed organic lamb.

An extract from Donna Hay’s book Basics to Brilliance using the basic Asian-style poached chicken recipe here.

Perfect for hosting a deliciously warming seasonal supper or to bring a new twist to Sunday lunch - Chef Thomas Straker shares his roast chicken recipe using our truly free-range, organic whole chicken and fresh produce from our Market Garden. 

This side dish makes the most of fresh, seasonal flavours. It is particularly good with lamb and makes a good addition to summer barbecues

Recipe from Simply Good For You by Amelia Freer.

"This is an ‘instant’ soup. Simply blend the raw ingredients together in a decent blender, and it’s ready. No cooking required."

"There is little more refreshing in the summer months than the cool clinking of ice cubes in a jugful of homemade elderflower cordial."

This iced tea recipe from Kirthanaa Naidu is so good we recommend having a jugful at hand to enjoy throughout the day. Kirthanaa has added our Daylesford Oxfordshire honey to make this iced tea not only delicious but free from refined sugars. It's simple to make, perfect for a hot day and easy to make in advance when hosting friends or family.

Steaming broth brings instant comfort to the airways, while quality chicken broth is revered as an antiviral remedy to support the immune system around the world.

A recipe to celebrate the quintessential taste of spring: British asparagus. The perfect, fresh and seasonal supper from our Cookery School.

It’s the Valentine’s sugar-pink of the rhubarb, blushing under a blanket of melted Cheddar, that makes this feel like romantic food for me; though it’s the flavour – rhubarb’s intense earthy sourness counterbalanced by rich buttery pastry and melting cheese – that makes me long to eat it. As much as you might associate rhubarb with puddings and nursery fare, don’t be fooled: this is very much a savoury business and also very much a ‘grown-up’ dish. I’ll be honest: the portions here are more than generous for two, but to make half a tart seems mean, and this is one of those dishes that everyone always eats more of than seems sensible, so I prefer to err on the side of plenty. And while it really does taste its very best warm straight from the oven, the cheese melting in your mouth, I nonetheless always look forward to leftovers.

To go with it, you only need a salad: I can’t resist pairing this with a similarly pastel- hued salad of blush-pink radicchio rosa or dark red bitter chicory. Too much? Or just enough? One warning: this works best with long, thin, furiously pink rhubarb stems rather than the fatter ones, which take longer to cook and can taste a little too sharp.

A Table Full of Love by Skye McAlpine is published by Bloomsbury, £26.

Photography by Skye McAlpine

Skye is hosting a supper club upstairs at Daylesford in Pimlico on Thursday 29th June 2023. Spaces are limited and booking is essential; last few places remaining. Find out more.

This is a dish that can be enjoyed year-round. Quick to make, it creates minimal need for washing up and delivers on flavour.

There are recipes in this book that i love because they are interesting, there are those that I love for their simplicity, and there are those that I find myself making again and again. This is the latter, a great roast chicken, the heart of home cooking and one of life’s great pleasures. I relish the ritual, my family’s fight over the wings, the secret chef ’s treats of the oysters, the leftover sandwiches and bubbling stocks. There is no meal that makes me feel more at home. In my mind, there are three keys to a good roast chicken . . . juicy meat, brown salty skin and most importantly a ton of sauce. And it’s the sauce of this chicken that really sets it apart: handfuls of tarragon, lashings of cream and a proper dollop of mustard, which when combined with the cooking juices, garlic and wine creates a truly epic mouthful.

Extracted from The Farm Table by Julius Roberts (Ebury Press, £27). Photography by Elena Heatherwick.

This is an amalgamation of two classics: mayonnaise and salsa verde, the famous Italian green sauce, full of herbs with capers and anchovy.

A recipe from our Art of Afternoon Tea course at our Cookery School. These macarons are perfect for enjoying after a dinner party or with a cup of tea or coffee. 

This is a favourite of head chef Gaven Fuller: “A lovely, rustic, slow-cooked and warming stew that really showcases the lamb."

“Wild salmon comes into season at the start of the summer, so this dish is based around pairing it with other seasonal ingredients. The accompaniment is a twist on the classic French dish, ‘petit pois à la française’, something I’m quite partial to, in which peas and lettuce are braised in stock and butter. My husband likes the addition of the bacon, but you could happily leave it out to make it a meat-free dish.”

Carole Bamford

The classic Bakewell Tart filling is almond frangipane with raspberry jam, but we’ve used our new gooseberry & elderflower jam here for a seasonal variation. Feel free to play with this base recipe - hazelnuts with plum jam would be delicious in the autumn, for example. 

Discover more recipes like this and pick up essential skills in the kitchen at our Cookery School's Cakes & Bakes course.

We serve a version of this dish in the restaurants and on the food to go menus at Daylesford year-round. 

We’ve used our new peanut butter in this dressing but cashew butter is also excellent. Make extra and use the dressing to add punchy flavour to other dishes such as salads, grain bowls, noodles, fish and chicken.  

For the slaw, feel free to vary the ingredients depending on what’s in season, or what you have handy.  

Chorizo, fresh organic eggs and new season asparagus – a trio made even better when served with crispy chunks of sourdough too. 

This delicious recipe offers a lighter take on traditional lamb dishes and is full of the delicate flavours of summer.

Though it may look as though this recipe requires a number of steps, it is incredibly easy and provides a fresh approach to the Sunday roast.

This traditional recipe makes the most of our organic lamb or mutton and is a wonderful family meal.

Recipe from From the Veg Patch by Kathy Slack.

“When I worked at Daylesford Organic Farm, the bakery made chocolate brownies that were out of this world. They were dark, fudgy and flecked with nuggets of white chocolate. I would buy one at the end of my shift in the kitchen garden, unable to resist tucking in straight away despite my mud-engrained fingers. They have been my brownie benchmark ever since, and so when I came to this recipe (beetroot and chocolate, after all, being a classic combination I could not omit), I knew mine too must be broodingly dark and have those signature morsels of solid chocolate hidden within. The result is a grown-up brownie, almost savoury, thanks to the beetroot and tahini. Good for dessert with a dollop of sour crème fraîche as contrast.”

Recipe from Simply Good For You by Amelia Freer.

Few sounds are more satisfying than a spoon cracking through the scorched golden top of a crème brûlée to reveal the creamiest vanilla custard core. This is one you need in your entertaining bag of tricks.

Extracted from Even More Basics to Brilliance by Donna Hay (Fourth Estate, £28)

A great dinner party dish that combines different textures of raw and butter roasted asparagus with sauce gribiche, a classic French sauce that is both rich and sharp.

Discover more seasonal recipes and cooking skills at our Cookery School.

A delicous seasonal alternative to classic eggs benedict.

In cookery, hollandaise is a ‘mother’ sauce and has many variants which will add to your repertoire, while knowing how to poach an egg is a key skill.

Discover more seasonal recipes and cooking skills at our Cookery School.

A juicy steak is the ultimate carnivorous treat when you are craving something meaty.

We have paired the perfectly cooked steak with a piquant, herb-rich sauce that combines elements of salsa verde and chimichurri. When wild garlic is in season, this is a beautiful addition.

A Cookery School favourite, we love to serve this as a protein-rich breakfast, a first course at a dinner party or as a light spring lunch.

Make the most of springtime’s bright green shoots in this recipe which combines heady wild garlic and tender nettle leaves.

These super fluffy no-knead flatbreads will change your mind about making bread at home. They're the ultimate minimum-fuss flex, perfect for dipping, mopping or ferrying those tasty toppings.

Extracted from Even More Basics to Brilliance by Donna Hay (Fourth Estate, £28)

This is the only carrot cake you need in your life! Layers of super soft cake are warmly (but not overly) spiced and studded with nuts, then coated in the dreamiest lemony cream cheese frosting.

Extracted from Even More Basics to Brilliance by Donna Hay (Fourth Estate, £28)

When it comes to the garden’s ingredients, spring is the most uplifting time of year with the arrival of asparagus and Jersey Royals.

For those seeking an indulgent seasonal centrepiece or an alternative to classic cauliflower cheese - chef Thomas Straker envelops purple sprouting broccoli, fresh from our Market Garden in the whole milk, butter, Adelstrop and Cheddar cheeses straight from our creamery on Daylesford farm.

A guest recipe by Thomasina Miers.

This high protein overnight oats recipe is a great start to the day and will leave you feeling fuller for longer.

This creamy tart balances sweet, mellow leeks with the punch of our semi-soft Adlestrop cheese and the decadence of truffles.

This recipe is inspired by a dish served in our cafés.

Everyone’s favourite comfort dish, a good mashed potato is always a winner at supper time. 

This classic Easter recipe for Hot Cross Buns is a firm Daylesford favourite. Lots of fun to make, especially for children who can help stir the mixture, shape the dough and pipe the crosses.

Make a big batch of the compote to serve with your pancakes and store any extra in your fridge to enjoy with porridge, yoghurt or shortbread. 

Thomas Straker shares a white bean, pancetta and spring garden vegetable broth to nurture and warm the soul which is as delicious as it is nutritious - using freshly picked, seasonal produce from our organic Market Garden.