What Dad Cooked is a collection of our dad’s recipes, thoughts, tips and cooking hacks that simply need to be shared with all you foodies!

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Seasonal Favourites

Some delicious seasonal summer family recipes to choose from the What Dad Cooked repertoire.

Dad’s Californian Salad with Artichokes and Fresh Vegetables

A delicious salad of fresh vegetables, typical of those grown in my childhood home!

Artichoke Pesto with Orecchiette

This vegetarian artichoke pesto-style sauce is perfect with oreccihette pasta shapes. It works a treat.

Apple and Blackberry Pie

Now this is an after dinner treat. Picked by mum and dad at local farms and maybe neighbours houses — it’s the perfect after dinner treat.

Quick and Easy 30 Minute Thai Fish Cakes

Mild Thai fish cakes that can be made without a processor or deep fryer! One of a series of easy and flavoursome half hour family recipes using 10 ingredients.

Latest recipes

Check out Dad's latest homecooked dishes and recipes below. Or click recipes in the menu to browse through 6+ years of Dad's homecooking recipes for families.

Cassoulet de Toulouse à la Pappa

A perfect winter warmer – Cassoulet!

The Laughing Cow Lightest Loaded Quesadilla

Try Dad’s loaded low-fat salsa quesadillas with The Laughing Cow Lightest x8 cheese.

Melanzane Parmigiana with Dolmio 7 Vegetables Sun Ripened Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce

An excellent way to turn a popular Italian slow food standard into an easy and quicker family classic.

Pumpkin Pie

My best pumpkin pie yet!

Asaparagus

A seasonal favourite ingredient of Dad's, so much so he made a 30 recipe series about the green spears! Try these recipes whilst asparagus can still be found locally.

White Asparagus, Butter Sauce, and Prawns

This is a spring asparagus dish – but not as we know it…

Asparagus Vinaigrette with Soft Egg and Parmesan

A really easy and tasty starter or light lunch or supper. Make during summer when home-grown asparagus might still be available.

Asparagus Bruschetta

Most asparagus bruschetta recipes use goats cheese. I tried this and it’s okay but unremarkable, so I made a artichoke and cannellini bean puree to replace the cheese – it’s much better.

Asparagus Vignarola

This is an Italian stew made from spring vegetables including artichokes, broad beans, peas.

Dad's Food Journal

Dad loves to write about food. Whether it's discovering a new road local to London or Surrey, where the treasures of foodie stores and independent shops delight—or Dad's macro observations in the world of food. Dad's articles (and foodie stories to his recipes) are a funny and knowledgable journey through the lense of how pops views the world.

Notes on Quick and Easy Cooking

I’ve recently posted a series of ‘quick and easy’ 30 minute recipes which have unexpectedly made me think again about the hyped-up online food industry – and my own cooking.

25 Go Mad in Franco Manca, Richmond

A new Franco Manca restaurant has just opened in Richmond. WDC was invited, with around 20 other influencers, to the soft launch.

An Insight into Recipe Copyright Law: Who Owns Piedmont Peppers?

Can you own a recipe? What is recipe copyright? Mr WDC looks into the confusing world or recipe copyright law in a quest to find out who owns piedmont peppers.

Our Favourite German Snack, Are Pretzels Unhealthy?

I was enjoying my ‘pretzel moment’ when it occurred to me that my lunch was actually quite salty. Can a pretzel have too much salt?



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