Rachel Roddy’s recipe for courgette, goat’s cheese and lemon risotto | A kitchen in Rome

As Venice braced itself recently for another wedding, I had been thinking back to last September, when Adriana and Thom exchanged vows in the cavernous cool of the boathouse belonging to Burano’s rowing club. Following the ceremony, the double doors were opened wide, so friends and family could line the ramp all the way to the edge of the lagoon. There, standing majestically at the end of a green gondola, was Adriana’s childhood friend Giulia, a champion of voga Veneta, or Venetian rowing, ready to take the couple to the other side of the island for lunch.While Giulia rowed Adriana and Thom around the island, the rest of us walked across it to Trattoria Da Romano, where Adriana’s family have celebrated for lifetimes, and it was completely given over to our euphoric wedding party. I am sure I would remember all seven courses (several of which involved more than one dish) even if I didn’t have the menu memento stuck to our fridge with a cat magnet

How to turn fruit and veg scraps into a delicious cake – recipe | Waste not

To celebrate 10 years of writing for the Guardian and seven years of this column, I thought it would be fitting to bake a cake inspired by where Waste Not began: my food compost bin. I looked through the fridge and raw compost bin, and found some squash, carrots, apples, cucumber ends, a knob of ginger and a woody stick of lemongrass; I even considered a red cabbage leaf, but decided that brassicas are best kept out of the baking tin. The compost bin is more than a place for leftovers, it’s a source of inspiration, as well as a way to reflect on what we waste; it can even guide us towards cooking more resourcefully and creatively.This is a fun riff on the classic carrot or courgette cake, designed to use up scraps of sweet fruit and veg. Be inventive but discerning with what you include, so think beetroot, squash, apple or citrus zest, and leave the garlic and red onion for another day

From crunchy chaat and yoghurt to spicy peanut butter: Ravinder Bhogal’s recipes for alternative potato salads

We are a family of potato lovers, so a summer salad made of tender spuds bound together with something creamy, something acidic and a handful of herbs is a perennial favourite. While I would never throw a classic out of bed, every now andd then I like to swerve the mayonnaise and do something a little more exuberant. Today’s potato salads are a riot of texture and flavour, and pack a serious punch. They are satisfying enough on their own, but serve them at your next barbecue and you are bound to please the potato pleasure-seekers in your life.You can find nylon sev in good Indian supermarkets or online, but if you can’t get hold of any, fistfuls of your favourite bombay mix will do just fine

Coffee, tea or … yaupon? Will Trump’s tariffs force Americans back to their home-grown brew?

North America’s only native caffeinated plant was big among beverages in the 18th century. Is Ilex vomitoria about to make a comeback?Name: Yaupon.Age: Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) is North America’s only native caffeinated plant. It was long used by Indigenous people pre-colonisation.Appearance: A variety of holly, evergreen, can grow to 10m tall, mostly found in the southern US …Wait, Ilex vomitoria, you say? Sounds sick! (Old meaning

Why homemade stir-fry sauces are always better than bought in ones | Kitchen aide

Most stir-fry sauces are sweet, dense and cloying. Any lighter, fresher alternatives?Louis, Falmouth If Julie Lin, author of Sama Sama: Comfort Food from my Malaysian-Scottish Kitchen, were to hazard a guess, it would be that Louis is buying shop-bought sauces: “They’re always sweet and dense,” she says. “There’s a phrase we use in Malaysia, agak agak, which means to season until you know that it’s good for you.” And that’s only ever going to come from making it yourself, which for Lin often means her “master wok” sauce. To make a bottle, she combines 75g white sugar, three teaspoons of MSG, and 75ml rice-wine vinegar, and whisks until the sugar dissolves

‘Don’t ever assume there’s anything to eat!’ 29 tips for perfect vegan holidays, from where to go to how to order

Nowhere should be out of bounds just because you have a plant-based diet. Seasoned travellers explain how to stay happy and hunger-free, whether you’re trekking in Thailand or on a mini-break in BerlinThis spring, I spent five weeks travelling around Mexico – my longest time away from home since becoming a vegan two and a half years ago. It was a learning experience: lots of incredible vegan food, gallons of fall-back guacamole and the odd cheese-related disaster. This is what I found out about being a vegan on holiday, and the advice I received from more seasoned vegan travellers.“I have been completely blown away by the difference in attitude and progressiveness of places,” says Alexis Gauthier, a Michelin-starred vegan chef