Pasta e fågioli is really good. Substitute the sausage for some TVP and deodorised coconut oil (not extra virgin coconut oil) with a pinch of smoked paprika.

Channa masala is top-tier. You really want to get amchur for this to elevate the dish.

You can also make Mexican black beans super easily. Get your beans, rinse, throw into a pot with one or more halved onions and a few smashed garlic cloves. Add in generous amounts of cumin, dried chilli, oregano (Mexican oregano is worth it if you can find it), salt, pepper, broth or broth powder, smoked or sweet paprika, liquid smoke, chipotle in adobo, bay leaves etc. If you have some capsicum laying around you can cut it up and throw it in too. You want it to taste like a fairly strong flavoured soup that tastes distinctly like Mexican food.

Then the next step is to simmer the beans until they are tender. From there you can either scoop the beans out of the liquor for use in salads or wraps where you don't want to drench the dish in liquid, or you can simmer it down, maybe throw in some tomato or tomato paste, and then smoosh a few beans and stir this well to thicken it up. You can then serve the beans with the liquor alongside rice or similar to do a burrito bowl sorta thing. You will want to remove the halved onion and the bashed garlic cloves though.

This is the kind of recipe where you can follow your heart. If you like a lot of onion you can throw more in or dice/grate it into the pot to avoid food waste. If you have some celery or carrot that you need to use, throw it in. There are really only three things to keep in mind with when you're making this recipe:

• Don't let the pot boil dry

• Be a bit sparing with salt, especially if you're using commercial broth or broth powder because if you intend to simmer down the liquor as this will concentrate the salt

• You can add extra seasoning or spices at the end of the cooking process if the flavour is a bit lacking