What does a cheesemonger do in London?
When a cheesemonger visits London, Neal’s Yard Dairy is pretty much up there with the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace as places to visit
From Peas to Philosophy: The Art of the Tweak
There’s a school of thought that treats recipes as sacred texts — immutable, untouchable, to be followed exactly lest your dinner collapse in shame. I am not enrolled at that school. I transferred long ago to the far more chaotic (and frankly more fun) institution of Recipes as Templates.
Recipes, to me, are suggestions. They’re starting points. Sure, you can follow the score to the letter, but where’s the joy in that?
We tweak, we substitute, we experiment — sometimes out of creativity, sometimes out of necessity, and sometimes because the supermarket has let us down. How can they be out of feta again?
The Salad That Started It All
Case in point: a salad we ate this week. The recipe began as a Pea, Mint & Feta number; a light, green, ideal for that spring/summer liminal space.
- handful of sugar snap peas
- handful of snow peas
- handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 tsp salt
- 100 g feta
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp dried mint
Substitutions easily made:
- Sugar snap & snow peas: asparagus, green beans, fresh peas, edamame
- Cherry tomatoes: raw tomatoes, firm plums
- Feta: soft goat cheese, diced young pecorino, or (my favourite) little fried halloumi nubbins
- Dried mint: fresh mint, chervil, basil, parsley
And that, dear reader, is where the philosophical question pops up like a mint leaf in your teeth:
How far can you change a recipe before it’s no longer the same recipe?
If I swap the feta for halloumi, and the mint for basil, and the tomatoes for plum, am I still making Pea, Mint & Feta Salad? Or have I birthed a new creation entirely?
Somewhere, the ghost of the ship of Theseus (and possibly a few cookbook authors) is having a quiet existential crisis.
The Logic Behind the Freestyle
It’s not just about tossing in whatever’s rolling around in the crisper drawer. There’s a kind of logic to making good swaps.
Texture: Think about crunch vs creaminess vs chew. If the original recipe calls for fresh tomatoes, don’t sub in tinned ones unless you like a sad, mushy salad. Each ingredient has a role: crisp peas, juicy tomatoes, crumbly feta — it’s a textural party.
Visuals: This salad is a postcard from early summer — all greens and reds and creamy whites. If you sub too far away from that palette, you lose part of the charm. That said, if you end up with something purple and fabulous, who am I to stop you?
Flavour profile: Sweetness, acidity, freshness — that’s the holy trinity here. If you’re swapping, aim for cousins, not strangers. Basil instead of mint? Great. Coriander instead? Bit of a wildcard, but maybe you’re feeling brave.
Recipes as Permission Slips
I think of recipes as permission slips rather than rulebooks. They give you the structure to start, but the freedom to wander.
Sometimes you scale up for a crowd. Sometimes you scale down because you live alone and can’t handle leftovers again. Sometimes you swap ingredients because of allergies, or budgets, or just because you forgot something and can’t face another grocery run.
The point isn’t perfection. It’s play. Cooking should feel like a conversation between you and the food — a little give, a little take, a mutual understanding that neither of you is set in stone.
So go forth. Sub the feta. Trade the herbs. Live your culinary truth. And if anyone asks what you’re making, just smile mysteriously and say, “Well, it started as a salad…”
Halloumi, Grapes & Mint
Halloumi just begs to be grilled or fried and paired with many delicious things. Here it dressed with sweet grapes and two types of mint.
Cabbage, Mint, Pecorino Salad
There’s so little to this recipe, it’s barely a recipe at all. It’s great with anything fried, schnitzel in particular.