A delicious collection of recipes from River Cottage Spring

A poached egg on toast becomes a rather glamorous supper dish with the addition of a sauce of wilted sorrel. This simple sauce is also excellent with pork and veal (hot or cold) and fish...

Lovage is a much under-rated herb that is easy to grow and gives a distinctive, savoury note with a hint of curry. It absolutely makes this soup, which is one of my all-time favourites...

If I had to name my favourite first harvest of the year, I think it would be the baby broad beans. After enjoying a few portions of lightly cooked beans with a little melted butter...

I don’t normally like stuffing a chicken, as it lengthens the cooking time and the breast meat is often dry by the time the stuffing is cooked...

I buy spider crabs straight off the boat of my fishmonger friend, Jack, in West Bay harbour. They are ridiculously cheap. I predict that in the coming years spider crabs...

The heady, muscat scent of elderflowers combines beautifully with the sharp tang of the first gooseberries ...

In Dorset, mackerel usually arrive in May or June, as they chase the sand eels and whitebait inshore, sometimes chasing them right up on to the beach.

If you don’t have an ice-cream machine, an easy way to make delicious fresh fruit ices is to freeze your sweetened fruit pulp solid in a tray and scratch it up into frosty shards with a strong fork just before serving.