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.

Five-Spice Glazed Gammon with Five-Spice Sauce

Pete always liked my Asian-flavoured sweet glazed ham. So here is a version based on five-spice flavourings.

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.

Goat’s Cheese, Beetroot and Poppy Seed Salad

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

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 Spring Roll

Spring rolls never fail to impress or delight. These rolls are designed to celebrate the asparagus season and although they taste deliciously Asian, you really can taste the asparagus. It works a treat.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Shanks, Hocks, Knuckles, Shins and Legs

We all know about lamb shanks – they’ve been mandatory dishes on gastropub menus for years. But what about the same joint in pork and beef?

10 Coffee Shops to Stop by on your Foodie Travels

We’ve been searching for the top foodie streets in London, but all that walking around requires a coffee break (or two)! Here’s What Dad Cooked’s top 10 favourite coffee shops.

The Art of Perfection

Japanese cultural behaviours are steeped in ancient Japanese traditions. One of these traditions is ‘kaizen’…



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