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!

Be Inspired
Seasonal Favourites

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

Bao Buns with Char Sui Pork and Pickled Vegetables

Bao buns seem to be the latest thing. But don’t just make them to be trendy – they’re fun and good to eat.

Plum Soba, Prawns and Shiso Salad

This is inspired by a recipe in the book, ‘Salad’ by Amy Nathan (1985).

Grilled Asparagus

This is not really a recipe, more a method for grilling or griddling your asparagus.

Dad’s Japanese style Asparagus Tempura Soba

This is a classic Japanese way with soba and tempura. Strickly speaking the asparagus tempura is kaki-age, made like a tempura fritter rather than individual spears coated in tempura. But such academic details seem trivial when it comes to tempura – any tempura is amazing – especially asparagus!

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.

Asparagus and Potato Samosas

This is an asparagus spin on a pea and potato samosa. I’ve held back on some of the spices to allow the asparagus to shine through.

Asparagus Filo Tartlets

These little quiches are full of spring vegetables, served with a salad they would make a brilliant lunch or light supper.

Asparagus and Potato Samosas

This is an asparagus spin on a pea and potato samosa. I’ve held back on some of the spices to allow the asparagus to shine through.

Asparagus Pizza

This recipe matches asparagus with a deconstructed puttanesca sauce. Surprisingly, this really works – the asparagus stands up well to the robust pizza flavours.

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.

Who Remembers a Time Before Houmous?

When I was at school, the only way to eat houmous was either by going to Greece on holiday, or visiting a Greek restaurant…

Annatto, the Most Versatile – and Unknown – Seed in the World

Annatto is a jewel of a seed. It’s used for just about everything and red as red can be…

Wagamama and the Rise of Katsu Curry

The Wagamama in Wigmore Street opened in 1998 and was the chain’s third London restaurant.

Sweet Corn Memories

Growing up in Southern California in the 60s, our family was fussy about its corn…



ADVERTISEMENT
© What Dad Cooked, 2026. Privacy Policy. Terms and Conditions. Twitter Instagram