Share your family's favourite recipes for the chance to win a Mumsnet Top Bananas! Recipe book. NOW CLOSED!

[AaronMumsnet]

Cooking dinner every night is something many of us dread, especially when you want to mix up your repertoire of go-to meals and please everyone. That’s why we collated all the best quick and tasty family recipes shared on Mumsnet, tried and tested by our lovely Mumsnet users to create our recipe book Top Bananas!

Here is a sneak peak of Top Bananas!

We’d like to keep up the tradition of sharing recipes on Mumsnet so do please let us know your family's favourite dishes and bakes that work every time and post your recipes below.

Everyone who posts below will be entered into a prize draw to win one of 5 Top Bananas! Recipe books.

Thanks and good luck!

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

[Cheekyandfreaky]

Pilau rice

Fry a finely chopped large onion until browned, add 3 green cardomom popped, 2 star anise and a cinnamon stick. Add 1 mug of basmati rice (which has been soaked for a good half an hour and washed 7 times). Fry the rice off until it starts to stick to the pan, then add about 1 and a half mugs of water and a dash of salt. Wait til it starts to bubble and then throw on some broccoli florets and chopped carrots. Boil for two minutes. Put the lid on and turn the heat down to low on your smallest hob ring. Do not touch for 10mins. Switch off, leave the lid on for a 5 minutes and you should have perfect pilau.

Dahl
Half a mug of red split lentils and the yellow mong lentils and wash 5 times. Bring to the boil with about 6 cups of water and then simmer for 30 mins. In a separate pan, dry fry some cumin and then add a good dash of oil, when hot add half a chopped onion, fry until light brown, add about a thumb of finely chopped ginger and a couple of chillis and 4 minced garlic cloves. Fry until starting to stick, add half a tin of plum tomatoes, cook on a low heat until paste like, add teaspoon of turmeric. Add the entire mixture to the Dahl with a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of Garam masala. When the lentils are soft and the whole thing should be consistency of tomato soup (add more water and cook until combined if too thick) then add a final punch with some chopped coriander.

[Onedaylikethi5]

Simple carbonara with eggs laid by our hens. Fry onions, mushrooms, celery, courgette and garlic in a pan. Get some pasta boiling. Mix 4 egg yolks with a handful of parmesan cheese. When the pasta is cooked add it to the pan with the vegetables, take off the heat and stir in the egg and cheese mixture. Yum! My toddlers absolute favourite.

[rach01pink]

Pasta, beans and cheese


A very quick simple meal which kids love, its cheap and can be made when you haven't been shopping in a while!

Cook some pasta and drain it, add a tin of baked beans and a handful of grated cheese... Serve with a dollop of mayo.. My son loves it... Can be made healthier by using brown pasta and different beans.. Maybe Philadelphia instead of hard cheese... Yum!

[CopperPan]

Chilli con carne in the slow cooker.

Fry off 500g minced beef and drain. Fry diced onion. Add chilli powder, ground cumin, 3 tbsp tomato puree, 150ml beef stock and tin of chopped tomatoes. Mix in the minced beef. Cook on low for 4.5 hrs. Stir in 25g dark chocolate, tin of kidney beans and fresh chopped coriander and season with salt and pepper. Serve with soured cream, grated cheese and rice.

[snowplop]

Om-rice or Om-soba. Om = omelette. Make fried rice or noodles with lots of veg, leftover roast meat or shrimp. Beat 2 eggs per person. Use a large frying pan to make a large, thin omelette. When the bottom is lightly cooked (it only takes a minute or so) put a large dollop of the fried rice or noodles onto the middle of the omelet and using a spatula flip the edges over onto the filling. Put a plate on top of the omelet and flip the frying pan over (not easy if your pan is very heavy!) Finally, drizzle ketchup, mayo or Sriracha artfully over the top. My kids love it.

[starlight36]

Sausage pasta

Choose a pack of any six sausages and get the kids to help squeeze the filling out. Meanwhile chop up two cloves of garlic and a sprig of rosemary. Heat some olive oil in a pan and when hot fry off the sausage near until it is brown - it should break up into little pieces, if not encourage it too so you don't end up with big lumps. Add in the garlic and rosemary and stir for a minute before adding two 400g tins of chopped tomatoes. (I sometimes blend these first as my DS is super fussy about chunks of tomato!). Leave to simmer for 25 minutes. Serve mixed with your pasta of choice. Really easy, my kids particularly like it with pork and caramelised onion sausages - probably because they are sweet.

[Royalsteph]

Beef pie
500g beef pieces
2 onions
4 carrots
1 leek
Handful of mushrooms
Throw together in a slow cooker, add water, paprika, garlic, gravy granules. Leave overnight or all day. Add ready made pastry to the top, stick in the oven for 30 mins. Prep veg and mash whilst pie is cooking. Easy dinner and feeds our family of 6 with a portion for the freezer.

[Ratbagratty]

Broccoli and stilton soup. One brocoli to slow cooker with a large potato and an onion. All roughly chopped. Add veg stock to cover and about half inch more. Season with black pepper. Leave for 6-8 hrs on high make sure broccoli stalk is soft. Add roughly chopped stilton about 250g. Leave an hr. Blitz to desired constency and serve.

[danigrace]

A super easy classic favourite in our house is:
Grill bacon chops, when cooked spoon over apple sauce and grated cheese and pop back under the grill until it's all nicely bubbling away. Serve with boiled potatoes and greens :-)

[del2929]

peri chicken bake

coat a full chicken in a nandos peri sauce and mayonaise mix.

sprinkle on salt pepper garlic granuels

chop up onions, peppers and scatter around the baking tray

add pre boiled potatoes on the side

throw in sweetcorn

add a generous knob of butter and whack in the oven till chicken os cooked

[4GreenApples]

One of the few meals all my DC like is tomato and red pepper soup.

2 small onions, chopped
2 red peppers, chopped
500g packet of tomato passata
Crushed garlic (we use about a teaspoon of the Lazy Garlic from a jar)
Around 500 - 600 ml Vegetable stock

Fry the onion and garlic in a bit of oil for a few minutes.
Add the red peppers and fry for another few minutes.
Pour in the tomato passata and vegetable stock and leave to simmer for an hour or so.
Blend soup until smooth and serve with lots of hot buttered toast.

Any leftover soup freezes well too.

[TwitterQueen1]

My recipe is so brilliant because you can call it what you like and put into it what you like!

Pizza Surprise!
Take whatever you have left over in the fridge & veg bowl, eg:
onion
potato (microwave for 4 mins, then cube)
mushrooms
baked beans
any veg, eg leeks, broccoli

fry all ingredients gently until softened and browned.

Take one or two sheets of ready-rolled puff pastry, put in oven for 10 minutes. Take out, prick all over, put all the cooked veg on top and sprinkle with grated cheddar or mozzarella pieces.

Return to oven for 15/20 mins until the pastry is cooked and the cheese melted and golden.

Add meat if required, eg cooked chicken pieces or left-over mince.

The surprise is that it's not a pizza at all, but kids love it and will eat any kind of veg if you tell them it's pizza

[itsonlysubterfuge]

My DD loves this smooth chilli I make. It makes a great bowl of chilli, but also really good as a sauce. For example chilli cheese fries, chilli cheese dogs, nachos, over pasta, over rice, etc.

I just use a food processor and finely mince all the veg. Peppers, carrots, mushrooms, leeks, and parsnips. I'll take half of the mushrooms and process them until they are a smooth paste. Take your beef mince, if using, and add to huge pot. Then add 2 cartons of passata and then add two passata cartons of water. Next get your hands in and squish and mix it all together until it's like a big soupy mess. Add the veg in. Add the seasoning which is cumin, chilli powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oregano. Add stock cubes, I use beef, if you wanted to make it vegan you can use veg stock cubes. Bring to the boil and simmer until the veg is soft, check for seasoning. I always add extra seasoning at the end, I just think it tastes better. Sometimes it needs some tomato paste as well for extra tomato flavor.

My DD is very fussy about texture which is why I make everything into such small bits, plus you can't really tell what is veg/meat so it's really easy to make this vegan and not worry about people looking for the meat. It tastes really yummy. DD likes to dip tortilla chips in it.

[avocadoadvantage]

My family love Lemon Chicken Casserole, which my mum still makes for me when I go home!

Brown a pack of chicken thighs in a casserole dish.

Add a sliced onion, and soften. Squeeze in the juice of 1-2 lemons and throw the empty skin of one in to the pot. Crumble in a chicken stock cube and enough water to cover. Bake for about an hour at 180c. Serve with rice and green beans. So comforting!

[Imgettingcheesefries]

Cowboy pie

Cooked sausages and beans in a dish, top with mashed potato and cheese and cook til the cheese is crispy

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Lime (not)cheese cake -

Crush ginger biscuits and mix in melted butter. Line flan tin with this mixture, and chill in fridge.

Take one large tin of condensed milk, and the same amount of double cream and mix. Add the juice and zest of at least three limes and whisk together (you may need more - I keep adding until I am happy with the taste). The lime juice will start to set the mixture. Pour onto the biscuit base and chill it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Easy raspberry and white chocolate ganache dessert.

Take equal amounts of double cream and white chocolate - about 300g of chocolate and 300 ml of cream will serve 4, I think.

Heat the cream until it is nearly boiling. Chop the white chocolate up and put in heat proof bowl. Remove the cream from the heat, and pour over the white chocolate, and stir until the chocolate has melted and mixed through (this is the ganache).

Put raspberries in the bottom of individual dishes, and pour over the white chocolate ganache. Chill in the fridge.

[Pigeonpost]

Not what you asked at all but I LOVE the Top Bananas cookbook. Cowgirl Stew is a firm favourite here as is the Salmon Espanol, the inauthentic Mexican chicken, the beef stifado, the lumberjack stew... Great book!!

[CheeseEMouse]

Beef and mushroom stew

Use a packet of stewing steak and seal it in a pan.

In an overproof pan sweat off an onion in oil. Finely chop a red pepper and add to the mix. Roughly chop a punnet and a half of mushrooms (chestnut works best) and add to the pan. Let that cook off. Add creme fraiche to the pan and stir through. Add about 300ml of stock. Mix a heaped teaspoon of cornflour with water and then add to the pan to thicken. Add the beef and stir through. Transfer to the oven at a low heat (160 fan) for 90mins. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve with either mash or rice.

[ButterflyOfFreedom]

Shepherds pie

Mince beef
Carrots
Peas
Onions
Stock

All thrown in a pan to cook - transfer to casserole dish & top with
Mashed potato - into then oven!

I sometimes add more veg in the mix too like parsnips or green beans.

Really easy to make and everyone eats it!!

[Iamthestorm]

Cheesy bacon pasta

Chop and sauté an onion and garlic
Add bacon lardons and fry till cooked
Add a tin of tomatoes and boil then simmer
Cook pasta
Add mozzarella to the bacon/tomato/onion combo and stir vigorously
Eat with pasta

[Quietvoiceplease]

I thought this was going to be to share your favourite banana recipes, because one of our favourite recipes is for banana bread, to use up bananas that have gone very soft. (I really, really dislike food waste, so just love any recipe designed to use up leftovers). It's also really easy to make, which is a win-win.
Ingredients:
2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp. baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 2 eggs, 3 brown bananas, 4 tbsp vegetable oil.
Method:
Mash the bananas in a bowl. Add the eggs, mix in the dry ingredients.
Pour into greased or lined loaf tin.
Bake for one hour at 180 degrees Celsius (Gas mark 4).
Enjoy!

[MoreProsecco]

Mushroom soup - so quick & easy:

3 x packets of chestnut mushrooms (chopped)
1 cup of frozen chopped onions
1/2 cup plain flour
100g butter
100mls single cream
1.5l veg stock

1. Melt butter in large pan, then fry frozen onions till soft & golden
2. Add in flour, then stock gradually
3. Add in mushrooms & boil for 15 mins
4. Take off heat for a few mins, blitz with a blender & add in cream.

Takes 20mins.

[zestyflavour]

Cheese frittata
2 spring onions
4 tbsps frozen peas
1 courgette
2 slices of ham
100g feta cheese
4 eggs

Grate the courgette, rip up ham and feta and throw in a bowl. Crack the eggs and whisk it all together. Put in to a fish and put in the oven for 30 minutes. 180C

[summeraupair]

Shepherd's pie - same recipe as someone uses above, but with a couple of cans of baked beans instead of peas and stock. Sounds weird, tastes oddly amazing!

[ncullinane]

Can't beat broccoli and Stilton soup.

Fry off one chopped onion with a little oil, then add in two heads of chopped broccoli and 2 diced potatoes. Cook until veg starts to release a bit of moisture then add in 1L of chicken stock bring to the boil and then let simmer for roughly 20mins. Then stir through roughly 100g Stilton, I usually add more to taste. Blitz in the blender until smooth. Yum!