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.

Asparagus and Cheese Pastry Parcels

Three asparagus and pastry recipes. Choose from goats cheese and spinach, Taleggio and mushroom, or Gruyère. All are quite simple and ideal for a light lunch or supper – or make in advance for a party or a picnic.

Braised Lamb Belly

‘Here’s one of Dad’s more elaborate dishes from a while back – in true Dad fashion he buries himself in the kitchen experimenting with new techniques. Five hours later out come these little gems…’

Asparagus and Morecambe Bay Potted Shrimp

Asparagus and shellfish have an affinity with one another – prawns and crab are known as being particularly good partners…

Watermelon and Prawn Salad with Chilli Dressing

Make the most of watermelon season and the hot weather with a watermelon salad. It’s make a perfect starter – especially for a Mexican meal.

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.

San Joaquin Battered Asparagus

In San Joaquin County, at Stockton California they stage an Asparagus Festival in April. Stockton is the centre of asparagus growing in California so it makes sense to celebrate the crop…

Asparagus Fondue

Asparagus goes well with Parmesan cheese. Asparagus also goes well with Taleggio and Gruyèr. It seems we can assume that asparagus works with cheese generally – so why not a fondue?

Parma Ham and Asparagus

A great flavour combination and presented here as a main meal salad or antipasto.

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.

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.

A Kerfuffle of Parma Ham…

Whilst shopping at the farm shop, I went to the delicatessen counter to buy some Parma ham for an antipasto. But there was a problem…

Top 10 Classic Family Meals

A list of our top family meals we used to have together when the children were growing up.

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.

Why You Should Try Octopus: A Pro Octopus Blog Post by Dad

Octopus will divide your audience – it’s a ‘Marmite’ type of food: you either love it or hate it. But why all the fuss? We eat all manner of odd things from the sea. So here’s why you should try octopus…



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