As soon as i saw the title of this recipe I knew I had to try it. This is a no-bake cheesecake that sets in the refrigerator once assembled. The mascarpone, white chocolate, cream and amaretto flavours work well together, though I did find it to be a bit too sweet. It is also very rich so it's best eaten in small portions.

This was delicious and full of flavour. Neither my husband or I missed the presence of chicken or chorizo or any other meat products. The author suggested adding boiled potatoes to the dish for extra heartiness, but we both found it quite hearty enough. I had enough leftovers for three days' worth of lunch, which I am looking forward to.

An easy no-cook cheesecake which everyone I served to seemed to love. I didn't actually make the raspberry topping but just served it with fresh raspberries on the side, which worked quite well.

A slightly healthier recipe for meatballs, using turkey instead of pork or beef. This is easy to make, though it takes a bit of time to roll all of the 50 tiny meatballs Nigella says you can eke out of the ingredients. I find this to be slightly on the bland side, but it's comfort food which I usually eat with rice, which soaks up the tomato sauce well.

Although this made a substantial lunch, along with a salad and some rice, I was a bit disappointed and surprised that these meatballs did not have as much flavour as I was expecting, especially given I've had very good results with other Hairy Dieters recipes in the past. The meatballs were slightly dry and a bit too crunchy with the use of panko crumbs. The garlic sauce definitely saved this dish for me as it gave a contrast of flavour and texture to what was otherwise a fairly lacklustre dish.

I made this last night and as I was only serving two I halved the ingredients and it still worked really well. I probably didn't marinate the chicken for as long as I should/could have due to lack of time, but it was still very flavourful and I would definitely make this again as a tasty weekday dinner. It went very well with basmati rice on the side.

I'll admit straight away that although I like it, I am not generally the biggest fan of macaroni and cheese as I generally find it to be too heavy. That said, I was intrigued enough to give this recipe a try for the interesting combination of sweet potatoes and feta cheese in the mix. Although this, like other mac and cheeses, was rather heavy and a big laggy, the contrast of the sharp feta to the sweet potatoes was very good and there was an overall more creaminess to the texture which I liked. I think it could have used a bit more English mustard or paprika (or a bit more of both) as it still felt a little lacking in taste, but still was quite enjoyable. It also made for a hefty amount of leftovers for lunch the next couple of days and was quite good eaten cold.

This was hearty and delicious and is good for an autumn/winter night. I like that this is healthy and also reheated well for lunch the next day. I used korma curry paste but you could probably use whatever type you prefer.

ETA 06/01/2015: I've upgraded this to 5 stars as I've made this many times since and always enjoy it as a dish to look forward to both for dinner and then for lunch the next day at work.

This is a very simple lentil stew, but it's good and comforting as a healthy, hearty mid-week meal.

This is a very nice low fat dessert which is good for dinner parties. It was easy to prepare a few hours in advance and let it chill in the fridge until ready to serve. My only misgiving is that the completely fat free Greek yoghurt left a slight aftertaste, but that was easily remedied by a coffee soon afterwards.

This was edible but kind of boring. I did have Thai basil in the house, but unfortunately it had gone off by the time I was ready to make this recipe. To be honest, I'm kind of glad it did, otherwise I wouldn't have added the dried mixed herbs that I did when I started stir-frying the chicken, which at least gave it some more flavour. Ultimately, though, it was just stir-fried chicken strips with pepper strips and a tinge of garlic. Meh.

A very nice, quick rice dish for week nights. I used my instant pot to cook the brown rice, which helped to save time. I think I may add sliced mushrooms next time to make the dish a bit "meatier" but overall it was really good.

A nice way of making mushrooms the star in a that comes together quickly. A bit on the sweet side, and I also added some tenderstem broccoli as a side dish to make this a fuller meal, but great for a weeknight.

This was very easy to prepare and much less fiddly than the usual roast potatoes. The garlic roasted nicely with the potatoes and were easily devoured by all.

Very good, healthy vegan pasta recipe. This involves some chopping up to prep but then is one of those recipes you can leave simmering on the hob for an hour while you do other things. This yielded quite a lot and reheated well for lunch over the next couple of days.

This is a quick way of frying up turkey or pork escalopes. The flavour is maximised with spices, garlic and lemon and is a really good mid-week meal accompanied by salad and potatoes of your choice.

A quick and easy midweek pasta dish. I didn't have spaghettini but used normal old spaghetti which was fine. The sunblush tomatoes, rocket and prawns made for a very colourful, pretty dish and the chilli flakes added a nice kick. I think if i made this again, though, I wouldn't use all of the oil of the sunblush tomatoes as instructed as it made the dish a bit *too* oily for my tastes, especially towards the end, but overall this was nice.

I'll admit that I'm lazy and usually make a quick spag bol using sauce from a jar and it's usually ready in about 20 minutes. I thought I'd try this as I'm trying to be healthier. If I do it again I'd do it on a weekend and not midweek as there was quite a bit of prep to do and as I am just cooking for two it seemed a bit of a faff. I tasted the sauce as I was going along and as it was a bit bland I added balsamic vinegar and tomato purée, which helped and didn't add any points. I'm not sure if it was really worth making this recipe over using a "light" jarred Bolognese sauce, but it was edible and filling and tasted okay with the aforementioned adjustments.

I thought I would miss the tahini in this but I didn't at all. I used sweet smoked paprika and cumin and left out the cayenne pepper as I don't like things very spicy and it was delicious.

This is healthy and tasty and does not take a long time to cook, making it good for a weeknight. I did find getting the timings between the two pans on the go to be a bit of a balancing act as there was always something going on in both, but I suppose as the book is called "how to be a better cook," it is a good lesson in timing! I halved this recipe as I was just cooking for two, though I might not halve the sauce ingredients so much next time as it was a bit light on the sauce front. I didn't add chilli and ginger to my rice as I prefer my rice plain, although I can see how it would be good.

This is a very good, simple and quick way of preparing a healthy main course of sea bass for two. There was lots of flavour in the sauce, mostly made up of store-cupboard essentials like tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, dried herbs, capers and white wine, making it an easy recipe to fall back on with short notice. I served it with new potatoes and roast vegetables and will definitely be doing so again when I want something healthy but tasty for dinner.

This was okay, but I wish I'd followed the advice of weaponxgirl in her previous review. I did this according to the recipe, expecting the red onions covered in brown sugar, olive oil, red wine vinegar and season to get more caramelised and the sauce to go syrupy. That didn't really happen and the sauce was very thin. The onions tasted nice and went well with the sausages, as did the extra ingredient of parmesan in my mash, but this wasn't particularly memorable.

A nice, simple supper of sausages and beans with a bit of a kick in the sauce from harissa paste, Dijon mustard and English mustard. I wasn't sure about it at first but the flavours grew on me with each bite. It did take about 15 minutes longer for the sausages to be cooked to my liking than the 20-25 minutes suggested, but I can see making this again in the winter for a hearty, warming meal.

This was an excellent, easy recipe for an Easter main course and side. Following the timing guidelines suggested by Nigella, the lamb was tender, juicy and pink and full of flavour. The potatoes were also delicious and easy to prepare alongside the lamb. I had never roasted a whole leg of lamb before and this was the perfect recipe to start with.

I was looking for a change from my usual Jamie Oliver recipe of salmon topped with pesto and roasted in the oven in foil, which my spouse is a bit sick of...and then ended up finding this, which is almost the same thing, but with cheese and breadcrumbs on top as well! Spouse admitted that it was good and the crunchy cheesiness made it more interesting. I liked it and would make it again as it's another easy weekday way of eating some oily fish.

The preparation for this dish couldn't be simpler and the results are really delicious. Unlike in the photo in the book, I roasted the sweet potatoes and the poussins in separate trays in the oven (which is how Nigella instructs in the actual recipe). Although I find poussin a bit fiddly to eat, this was very juicy. I absolutely love the flavour of the sweet potatoes which is roasted in garlic oil and cumin (my favourite spice). This has become a regular way of preparing sweet potatoes even with other dishes.

This is a terrific main dish to make for a dinner party. After some initial, easy prep, the lamb shanks and some other bits are left to stew in the oven in a wine and balsamic vinegar-flavoured sauce for three hours (with the chorizo and veg added after two hours). This was flavourful and went well with mashed potatoes. Lorraine gives instructions on how to reduce down the sauce for a thicker gravy but I didn't find that necessary.

I really liked this. The sweet potato took a little longer than the 15 minutes suggested, which made the butternut squash go a bit mushy, but despite that the flavour of everything combined was really good. I wasn't sure how well the mango would go, but the sweetness added a nice contrast. I used pre-cooked prawns, which worked fine and served the whole thing with basmati rice. I wish now I had taken a photo as the whole dish was very pink and pale orange!

This is a quick cheat's way to small roast potatoes using, of all things, gnocchi. Having watched Nigella enthusiastically rave about this revelation of hers on her programme I figured I had to try it. Maybe it was because I baked mine (which is an option) instead of pan-frying them, but these came out way too crunchy and hard for me. I think I'll stick to new potatoes or small roast potatoes from now on, thanks.

This was really very good and I was very pleased with the results. The chicken, which was marinaded in sweet chilli sauce, curry powder, cumin, garlic and stem ginger syrup had a wonderful slightly sweet/slightly spicy flavour which came out perfectly. The rice was cooked with the absorption method, which I had never tried before and was very happy to get good results with. It was still slightly wet so could have probably used a few minutes more of standing and steaming, but I was just happy that it didn't stick to the bottom of the pan! The turmeric gave it a lovely bright yellow colour which went well with the brightly coloured tomatoes and peas which were mixed in.

I figured I'd try this as I usually like dishes with meatballs (heck, I pretty much like anything with ground meat) and as this calls for turkey mince it is fairly low in fat. As friederike mentioned that it seemed a bit like kids' food I took that to mean she thought it was kind of bland, so I used smoked paprika instead of normal paprika. Unfortunately I added a bit too much by accident and the dish came out a bit spicier than I intended. Oops! Thankfully I had some half fat creme fraiche in the fridge which my OH and I added to our plates to cool things down a bit. This was simple to make, though I think the, "quick," in the recipe title is a bit misleading, as it's quick once it's bubbling away on the stove, but you still have to spend a fair amount of time chopping the veggies and preparing the meatballs before they all get to the pan.

I thought this was surprisingly really good and much better than it had a right to be considering how much of a cheat's recipe it is. Instead of stewing for an hour or more, this chilli can be cooked for less than half an hour due to the flavour added to it from chorizo, sweet chili sauce and a blend of spices as well as jarred pasta sauce. I didn't add extra chilli flakes as recommended as I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to spices and I found the mild kick of the sweet chilli sauce to be enough for me. I'll definitely be making this one again when I fancy a hearty midweek meal, especially in winter.

This is a perfectly serviceable vegetable stew for an easy mid-week meal, though it didn't knock my socks off. I did find the use of soy milk, arrowroot and coconut extract to be a clever, low-fat alternative to a light coconut milk, though I do think it would have still tasted nicer with the latter instead. I made this using carrots, snow peas, edamame beans and water chestnuts. I think if I try it again I might use cauliflower, green beans and maybe some cooked new potatoes for a bit more heartiness.

This is a nice and simple but tasty dish that is perfect for a mid-week meal and for using up some prawns I had languishing in the freezer. The rocket dressed with lemon added a fresh zing to the pasta.

The sauce is lovely and overall this is a very nice, healthy meal with fresh flavours. My only drawback is, as with many of these recipes, that although the prep is fairly fast, the amount of washing up it creates (pan for the sauce, pan for the pork, pan for the rice, food processor, etc.) is quite a lot for what is supposed to be a quick midweek meal!

A quick way of making hunter's chicken as a mid-week meal. This is hearty, comfort food that goes down well in the winter. Although the recipe uses cannellini beans as an option, after the first attempt I took Nigella's advice and served it with rice instead as a personal preference, which absorbed the sauce well and proved to be comforting and satisfying.

I'd never used vodka in cooking before so I was really intrigued as to how this would taste. It ended up being a very flavourful sauce which went very well with pasta. I didn't have fresh basil unfortunately, but I used dried and added lots of black pepper, which gave it a nice kick. My only minor complaint is that I ended up halving the ingredients as I was only serving my OH and myself and there was still way too much sauce for just the two of us. However, I would definitely make this again as the sauce itself was delicious and it was a quick and easy midweek meal.

This is a perfect recipe for when you don't have a lot of time on your hands but you need a dinner that is warm and soothing and easy to make. Similar to the flavours of a quick linguine recipe from Nigella Bites, this is easy to eat comfort food using orzo pasta instead of risotto rice.

Yuck. I really wanted to like this. I'm determined to see what's so great about Nigel Slater as so many people rave about him, but so far I find his recipes to be very hit and miss. The chicken itself, which was just chicken breasts coated the normal way in egg and breadcrumbs mixed with Parmesan cheese and parsley, and then grilled was really tasty, tender and juicy. However, what ruined this dish for me was the sauce, which consisted of anchovies, capers, lemon juice, parsley, Dijon mustard, olive oil, etc. which was way too pungent and sour for my liking. I had the feeling it might be when I made it, but instead of serving it on the side as I probably should have, I poured it straight over the chicken when served, thereby ruining my dinner. I'm giving this two stars because the chicken by itself would have been fine, I just won't ever make this sauce again.

This was simple enough to make and consisted of ingredients that give good flavour (chorizo, lemon and thyme for example), but overall, although it was nice, it was very basic and nothing very special. I didn't really see the point of topping the fish with most of the chorizo and some lemon zest, only to add the rest of those two ingredients for another five minutes at the end.

This is the only recipe I've tried so far from this book that I didn't like. This may be due to my using a curry power that was too spicy for my tastebuds, but I found the actual cooking of the cod in the pan to be a bit messy and really did not enjoy the end results. Oh well!

I never thought I would say this about a Nigella baking recipe, but I was so disappointed with these brownies. The idea of a Nutella brownie sounded amazing, and what was even more amazing that the only ingredients were Nutella and eggs (and a bit of sea salt). I followed the instructions and weight measurements exactly, but these ended up tasting mostly just of chewy eggs.

This was simple and quick to make and it was nice trying a potato salad without mayonnaise. There was lots of flavour due to the dressing, which consisted of olive oil honey, wholegrain and Dijon mustard as well as tarragon, parsley and chives. I definitely didn't miss the mayonnaise. I could see this going well with many dishes.

I made this one time for my parents when they were visiting (they're from NY and I live in London) as cheesecake is one of their favourite desserts. They're used to the more traditional vanilla-flavoured type, but this has a twist of lime which adds a refreshing tang. Overall, I liked it, though I have to admit that I didn't make the meringue topping as I just don't find toppings very necessary with cheesecake.

This is a really nice dish for a Sunday lunch. Warm and hearty and it smells wonderful while cooking - just like my grandmother's chicken soup! I followed the basic recipe as this was my first time making this, but may try following one of Nigella's variations next time as I did find this ever so slightly bland. Still, the chicken was so soft and juicy that it was falling off of the bones as I lifted it out of the pan. I'm looking forward to the leftovers.

I love making risotto in the instant pot! It is so ridiculously easy and comes out well every time. The author gives instructions for the basic risotto recipe and then different variations. This mushroom variation worked well and I really liked the inclusion of chopped rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes. I do think it could have done maybe with a little bit of extra flavour, maybe in the form of a splash of white wine or some vegan butter (or both?), but I will definitely be making this again. Leftovers reheated well for lunch the next day.

I really wanted to like this as salmon is one of my favourite foods and the idea of a sticky glaze with it sounded great. Unfortunately I actually found the mirin glaze a bit too sickly sweet and was disappointed both times I attempted this recipe.

Good, easy comfort food for a cold winter night. The chorizo gave this good flavour and the mozzarella added at the end gave it a comforting richness of texture.

I was really excited about getting the Pioneer Woman book and this was the first (and so far, only) recipe I tried. Unfortunately I found this to be very disappointing. Good meatloaf is one of my favourite comfort foods, but this version uses bread and milk as binders for the loaf and when I made it, it came out way too soggy and wet for my liking. I've concluded that I much prefer using dried breadcrumbs and eggs. I also don't think baking it on a grill as suggested is the best idea as it makes it incredibly hard to slice and serve.

I was amazed by how well this worked. Quick and easy and can be used in place of real mayonnaise for so many things. I used this to mix into chickpea tuna, but would work very well as a sandwich spread as well or anything else you might need or want mayonnaise for.