Not wishing to minimise time in the kitchen and having a genuine proclivity for drama, I don’t energetically seek out recipes solely based on how easy and quick they are as a rule. But I also won’t say no. With that in mind, it’s possible I can’t quite be trusted when I claim a recipe is both easy and quick — though I’m very, very confident that this recipe for Buttered Greens with Basil fits that bill. Easily. It is, in fact, so work-of-moments that it’s more of an idea, really — just a bit of light chopping and a few turns in a hot pan and it’s ready to become your next established side dish.

This recipe is inspired by a pea and lettuce soup from Nigella Lawson’s seminal text How To Eat, one of the first recipes I tried from its pages in 2006, an application so calmly unconventional — hot lettuce! — and indicative of the book’s appeal as a whole, with its way of making everyday actions and ingredients seem sumptuous, beguiling, part of a framework of self-directed lavishness, so, yes! Hot lettuce it is: here wilted in buttery, syrupy stock, the curves of its leaves clinging to edamame and peas like hands gripping spilled beads from a broken necklace. It has to be cos; robust of structure and mild of flavour, not unused to rich bedfellows and able to withstand a little heat despite being 99.99% water.

Simple result, simple method: you’re barely softening the spring onions — which grow almost fluorescent against the pan’s heat — and warming through the frozen peas and beans. There’s a splash of stock and it doesn’t matter if it mostly evaporates or if you’re left with a pool of heavenly broth. You could consider adding long green beans — possibly steaming them separately, depending on how well-done you want them — or half a pack of spinach leaves, although their iron-bitterness might detract from the other more delicate greens — and you could swap the basil with mint, both equally summery in fragrance — or use flat leaf parsley, or nothing at all. You could also consider softening a lot of chopped fresh garlic with the spring onions. And though I’ve stated 30g butter for two servings I have absolutely added more butter and eaten the entire recipe in one sitting and recommend doing the same.

Although this is a terrific side dish, it’s also a great under-something main: a gently fried egg with chilli oil, a snowy crumbling of feta, a coral slab of salmon. a roasted plank of cauliflower.

If you’re after more recipes where vegetables are cool and front and centre, I’d suggest these Vegetables À La Grecque, my Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Agrodolce and Feta, my Cauliflower Marbella, and my Green Pesto Risotto.

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PS: If you’re after a way to support a local charity who are doing their level best to get in on the ground and provide aid to people in Palestine, despite nonstop setbacks and ongoing atrocities, ReliefAid are doing amazing work.

Buttered Greens with Basil

Beyond simple, a perfect side dish. Or, slide a fried or poached egg and some chilli oil on top for supper. Recipe by myself, inspired by the Pea and Lettuce Soup in Nigella Lawson’s How To Eat.

• 3 spring onions
• 30g butter
• 150g frozen peas
• 150g frozen, shelled edamame beans
• 60ml chicken stock or vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 medium cos lettuce
• A handful of fresh basil leaves

1: Slice the three spring onions, both the white and the green parts. Melt half the butter in a wide saucepan and stir the spring onions over a low heat, letting them soften but not brown.

2: Tumble in the 150g each frozen peas and edamame, along with the 60ml stock and teaspoon of sugar. Raise the heat and let the stock bubble away and reduce slightly, stirring all the while.

3: Trim the base from the cos lettuce and roughly slice the leaves. Drop them into the pan, stirring till they wilt a little into the other greens. Remove from the heat.

4: Tear the handful of basil leaves and stir through, along with the remaining butter.

Serves two as a substantial side, or four as the kind of side you have just a spoonful of.

Notes:
150g is about one cup of frozen peas or beans, and 60ml is 1/4 cup. If you only have two spring onions or you want to use four, that’s fine with me.

music lately:

Coming Back by Food, an obscure band who released but one flagrantly psychedelic album in 1969 and then peaced out leaving that slender but stunning body of work; the whole album is so good but I love the sunshine-warm The Real Thing-esque soul of the melody against the sinister vocals in this song, plus that deep exhalation of a tempo change near the end with the reappearance of those Penny Lane horns. Wherever Food are now — accountants? Session musicians? — I thank them!

Last Train to Satansville by Swervedriver, that opening riff is so satisfying and the rest does not let it down! I’m always fascinated by songs that unwittingly sound like they could have come from ten or so years hence, this is one such song and yes, I first heard it on the Road Rash soundtrack, there were so few avenues for a curious young mind back then and I’m glad I found this one!

Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic, I only learned relatively recently that one person — Ya Kid K — did the entire run of the vocals, the knowledge of which elevates this song from merely perfect to stratospheric.

Look at Me Now by Idina Menzel, from the 2001 Off-Broadway cast recording of The Wild Party; there is without exaggeration a clear before and after in my life from when I first heard this song, hitherto I did not know that music could do that.