Crab and cashew warm rice salad

I know it's not quite the time of year for salads, but sometimes you want something a bit lighter than the seasonal hearty warming dishes, and this fits the bill as a nice quick light supper (or lunch).

1 dressed crab/ cooked meat of one crab
small handful cashew nuts (unsalted ideally - if using salted, be careful with your seasoning at the end)
150g cooked rice, cooled
handful of fine beans, blanched and halved
1 medium size shallot, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 chilli, seeded
splash of white wine vinegar
handful of whatever fresh herbs are to hand (chives, flat leaf parsley, a bit of mint even)
Rapeseed oil
salt and pepper to taste
salad leaves to serve
lemon juice to finish

Heat a good heavy frying pan and add a good lug of rapeseed oil. Fry off the shallots, garlic and chilli, then add the red pepper and cashews. Add a splash of white wine vinegar and deglaze any nice caramelised bits of shallot that have caught on the pan. Add the rice and fine beans and mix so the rice is nicely coated in the cooking juices. Then add the crab meat and mix all together. Check seasoning, and serve with some salad greenery and a squeeze of lemon to taste.

Balsamic glazed roast peppers

I know the title of this one sounds a bit retro 90s, but it's a lovely handy thing to make a batch of and keep in the fridge as an antipasto and use however you want - chuck into pasta, on pizzas, salads, sandwiches, whatever. The quantity here will fill two roasting trays. Do more if you've got more than two oven shelves!

3 bell peppers, deseeded and torn into big chunks one or two shallots, sliced lengthways 1 dsp muscavado sugar Couple of big splashes of (not too expensive) balsamic vinegar salt and freshly ground black pepper Couple of lugs of olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 120C. Put all the ingredients except the olive oil in your roasting trays, and rub together well so everything's coated nicely. Then drizzle the olive oil over the top, mix together again gently and pop in the oven for 45 minutes or so, until starting to caramelise but so they're still juicy. About half way through, take them out and give them a quick mix around, scraping any gooey caramelised goodness off the bottom of the tray and mixing it back into the peppers. When they're done, they'll have shrunk down quite a bit and all the flavour will have concentrated. Let them cool uncovered so they don't steam and go soggy.