Sue Marchant acquired her love of food and cooking from her grandmother, who was famous for her ability to feed a crowd at the drop of a hat without prior warning. After school, Sue decided to study geology, using her cooking skills merely to feed her flatmates. But when she found herself with a vegetarian athlete husband, those kitchens skills were challenged once more. Nutrition is important for any athlete and as neither she nor her husband like the traditional 'meat replacements' often offered to vegetarians, Sue concentrated on devising delicious dishes based on a variety of vegetables.
She lives in England and divides her time between engineering, writing, cooking and riding tandem.

Tip: Pick Your Own Wild Garlic

In spring, follow your nose and pick wild garlic leaves. They are usually found in shady hedgerows or under trees. Chop the leaves and mix with softened butter for really superior garlic butter. Or peel an orange and whizz in the food processor with a handful of wild garlic leaves. Reduce the resulting slush over a low heat until it reaches a jam-like consistency. Mix this will an equal amount of softened butter - wonderful on a grilled steak!

Tip: Grow Your Own Garlic

Growing garlic at home is very easy. Clear a small space in your garden or fill a few large pots with compost. Take a head of garlic and separate it into cloves. Push the cloves into the compost, pointy end up, to twice the depth of the height of the clove. Smooth over the compost and water gently. If you planted the garlic in your garden, mark the spot with a few sticks.

In large parts of the northern hemisphere, summer is not long enough to ripen garlic properly. To overcome this handicap, plant your garlic bulbs in late October or November. They can handle the frost and will reward you with full-size, sweet-tasting garlic come June or July.

Tip: Waste Not ... Leftover Vegetables

If you count a waffle iron among your kitchen utensils, you can quickly turn leftover vegetables into a tasty snack or side dish. Make a savory waffle batter from milk, egg and flower and add the mashed vegetables of your choice. Season and bake according to the instructions of your waffle iron.
This works well with all root vegetables, broccoli and cauliflower.

Tip: How To Store Tomatoes

Never store tomatoes in the fridge. They will lose all their flavor. The best place to store tomatoes is on a sunny windowsill. Line a bowl with kitchen paper and place the tomatoes side by side, being careful not to bruise them. Keep them in the sun until you need them.

Tip: Waste Not ... Beetroot Leaves

If you buy your vegetables at a farmers market, you will often find beetroot sold with the leaves still attached. They are a good indicator of the freshness of the beetroot - only buy if the leaves are dark green. But when you get your purchase home, don’t throw the leaves and stalks away. Washed and chopped, they can be used just like spinach, make an excellent pasta sauce and are a good source of iron and folic acid.

Tip: Waste Not ... Vegetable Peelings

Don't throw away vegetable peelings like onion skins, carrot tops and skins, chard stalks, leek tops etc. Put them in a pan of cold water with a bayleaf and some peppercorns, bring to the boil and simmer for about an hour to make stock. Add chilli or herbs to taste. Use straight away or cool and fill into ice cube trays. Freeze solid, then unmold and store in plastic bags in the freezer, use when needed.
Don't add potato peelings, as you will end up with cloudy stock.

Tip: Keeping Asparagus Fresh

Buy asparagus when the stems are green and smooth and the buds tightly closed. Keep upright in a jar of cold water, in a cool room, out of direct sunlight for a couple of days.

Tip: Ways With Watercress

Watercress is a good source of iron and very tasty too. Try it with roast beef and horseradish in sandwiches or chopped and stirred into soft cheese such as ricotta as a dip. Teamed with sliced ripe pears, toasted walnuts and soft goats cheese it makes a fantastic salad or light starter to a more substantial meal. And if you're lucky enough to have a glut of it, you could do worse than stirring a mountain of chopped watercress into a deeply savory vegetable or chicken stock, and adding a handful of noodles, for an almost instant warming, de-stressing lunch.

Tip: Easy Ways With Butternut Squash

Butternut Squash is one of the most wonderful vegetables to cook with. It can be baked, roasted, steamed and even microwaved - but I would recommend keeping it away from water as that leaches the flavour.
Peel your squash and cut it into cubes. Mix with a little olive oil and season with salt, paprika, chilli flakes and a few squashed garlic cloves. Roast in a medium oven until soft (30-40 minutes approx), then serve on a bed of watercress with toasted walnuts and fresh soft goats cheese crumbled over.
Blend leftover squash with a little stock or milk to make a quick and tasty soup.

Tip: Never Run Out Of Salad Leaves Again

A small patch of garden or a large shallow bowl is all you need to grow your own salad. The bowl can sit on a sunny windowsill and has the advantage of being out of the way of slugs and snails that have a taste for fresh lettuce. No more the careful planting and re-planting of tiny seedlings, as now gardeners have developed the ultimate ‘cut-and-come-again’ salad. In the UK, the seeds go by the brand of ‘Salad bowl’ and come in a variety of mixes; green leaves, red leaves or both.
Sow your seeds carefully and keep them moist. A week later your lettuce starts to make an appearance. Move the bowl into a sunny position and start cutting the leaves as soon as they’re big enough.
The best thing about salad bowl lettuce: the more you cut it, the more it grows.