Nutritious soups make everything better. Having a few homemade soup recipes is an easy way to get your five a day and make the most of the seasons’ vegetables. This recipe is a delicious Greek Cypriot soup made with yellow split peas called Louvana.

“True strength is when you can break a bar of chocolate into four pieces with your bare hands – then just eat one.” – Unknown

For chocolate lovers, the struggle between balancing your cravings for more versus what you really should eat can be a little frustrating. Since my boys discovered the enchanting world of chocolate, it’s been a constant challenge to try and make all things chocolate a little healthier.

They say learning something new is good for your brain as well as your self-confidence. In celebration of World Food Day, I decided to learn a new recipe using as many locally or regionally sourced ingredients as I could find. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization hopes to achieve zero hunger by wasting less, eating healthier and adopting a more sustainable lifestyle. The recipe, Ratatouille, is ideal as the ingredients are very simple and inexpensive. Fortunately one of my neighbour’s, whose family lives in South of France, was willing to teach me her family’s version of this classic dish.

An old school orange olive oil bundt cake with a few modern ingredients. This dairy-free cake has plenty of flavour and yet still moist inside.

One of my favourite Cypriot meat-free meals from my childhood, is Fages. This humble dish, also known as Moutzentra or Fagi as my mother called it, is a Greek pilaf traditionally cooked with green lentils and white long grain rice. Some families add other vegetables to the dish like carrots, others make it saucier (with more water or stock).

Whole almonds, dried figs and a hint of sweet vanilla balance out the flavours in this easy and healthy granola recipe.

With ingredients like spelt four, real butter and coconut sugar, these cookies will please both kids and adults alike and are ideal for anytime of the year treats.

Turmeric, a powerful anti-inflammatory and gut-healthy spice known for its mild earthy flavour and vibrant yellow colour is lightly dusted onto olive oil tossed potato wedges to make a delicious golden healthier chip alternative.

“Egg-lemon” soup may not sound like an appetising soup based on the direct translation from the Greek “Avgolemono”. The soup is actually a humble chicken and rice soup, thickened with egg and flavoured with freshly squeezed lemon. It's comforting and satisfying without being too heavy.

Baba Ganoush is a very popular Middle Eastern eggplant dip. Eggplants, or aubergines, are grown year round in the region and often used in the local cuisine.

If you like making your own condiments as I do, then you'll need to know how to sterilise your bottles and jars to keep your natural products from spoiling too soon.

Have you ever wondered what ingredients go into your condiments?  A product like ketchup is so quick and easy to make, and yet we find it easier to reach for a bottle of the ready made stuff.  I made a batch of this aromatic tomato ketchup this morning and you just can't compare store bought quality to the real thing.

A few days before the Orthodox Easter, Greek-Cypriots start their traditional Easter baking and dying of eggs. The eggs are dyed in various colours, red being the most commonly used colour.  I wanted to try a few new colours other than the usual red eggs using food as the colouring.  Brown onion skins always work very well but you can also use spices and vegetables to create other shades.  I tested ground turmeric for yellow eggs, red cabbage for blue eggs (yes blue!) and beetroot for red eggs. 

Based on a classic French chocolate cake recipe, this cake is beautifully moist with added beetroot purée for a dense, bitter-sweet chocolate dessert.

A sublime combination of seasonal sweet pumpkin, immune boosting garlic and ginger, and finished off with creamy coconut milk.

Eggs are not only an inexpensive way to add healthy nutrients and protein to your diet, but are also used in many Mediterranean dishes.