Chances are, you’ll have your favourite recipes stored in many places! From old recipe books, to bookmarked websites and saved Instagram Reels, it’s easy to lose track of our go-to recipes. Luckily, Exaactly makes finding – and sharing – them simple.
Curate your recipe collection
In a few easy steps, you can curate your recipe collection with Exaactly:
Step 1 – Set up a free Exaactly account
Firstly, set up an Exaactly account if you don’t already have one, using the ‘Sign up’ section on the website. You’ll be asked to choose a username, for example, ‘nigella’. Once you’ve set up your account you’ll have access to your digital locker, a secure place to store all your digital content.
Step 2 – Create an Exaactly address
Create an Exaactly address, which can be linked to a collection of content in your digital locker. Each address is made up of a ‘tag’, the ‘@@’ symbol and a ‘domain/username’. For example, cook@@nigella or recipes@@nigella. Exaactly addresses can also be turned into QR codes.
Step 3 – Upload your favourite recipes
Next, upload your recipes to your digital locker. You can add a huge variety of content to your locker, including text, photos, location pins, documents and external links. Content can be uploaded in a variety of file formats, including Word, JPGs and PDFs.
Step 4 – Share your recipes
Why not share your recipes with friends and family too? Every Exaactly address can be made public (open for anyone with a link, Exaactly address or QR code to view), private (password protected) or dormant (in draft stage). Nobody has access to your entire digital locker, only the content linked to a specific address you choose to share. Send your Exaactly address or QR code (plus a password if it’s private) to loved ones, so they can enjoy all your recipes too.
Recipe storage ideas
There are so many ways to store your recipes with Exaactly. Here are some suggestions:
- Create themed recipe collections, e.g., ‘delicious desserts’ or ‘autumn eats’. Include pictures of you and your loved ones enjoying your culinary creations.
- Ask family and friends for their favourite recipes too and create a collection of everyone’s recipes.
- If you’ve got old family recipes written down, scan and upload them to your locker, where they can be preserved for years to come.
- If you’re going on holiday, upload pictures of meals you enjoy, along with location tags. Why not ask eateries for the recipes too? You can add them to your locker and try them at home to recreate holiday memories.
Autumnal recipes to try
Here are some autumnal recipes from our friends at Better Food, Meze Publishing and Yeo Valley Organic, to get you started!
To Start
Radicchio wrapped in pancetta
Radicchio di Treviso is a beautiful leafy vegetable that’s prized in north Italian cooking. In hard times, locals would head to the fields and hills to forage the plants, which became key ingredients in their traditional regional diets. When cooked, the vegetable develops a soft texture and a bitter edge, which matches perfectly with pancetta.
Preparation time
10 minutes
Cooking time
20 minutes
Serves
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 head radicchio di Treviso
4 slices pancetta
Drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Method
Preheat your oven to 200°c (gas mark 6/ (180ºc fan).
Wash the radicchio well and cut the base of its stem into quarters. Next, gently tear the radicchio’s leaves upwards to create four bunches that are even sized.
Wrap each bunch in a slice of pancetta and place everything on a baking tray.
Drizzle olive oil over the pancetta-wrapped radicchio and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Bake everything for 15-20 minutes, or alternatively place under a hot grill. Make sure you keep an eye on the pancetta’s colour. When it turns golden, remove it from the heat and serve.
Notes
Unsmoked streaky bacon can be used as a substitute for pancetta.
Radicchio wrapped in pancetta can be prepared in advance and reheated in a hot oven for five minutes.
The dish can also be barbecued on an open fire, until the pancetta is cooked through.
If you can’t find radicchio di Treviso, sliced fennel bulb or chicory can be used as alternatives.
Radicchio wrapped in pancetta is from ‘Appetito’, a recipe book that delivers the life, soul and tastes of Italy. Alison Ranwell’s book is packed with recipes that are sure to delight everyone at the dinner table. ‘Appetito’ is available to purchase from sellers such as Amazon and Waterstones, and publisher Meze Publishing.
The main event
Bechamel who? Switch things up with Yeo Valley Organic’s light but luxurious take on this Italian classic.
Preparation and cooking time
1 hour 20 minutes
Serves
Serves 4
Ingredients
Ragu
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
1 leek
2 carrots
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp rosemary, chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree
500g minced beef
300ml beef stock
400g tinned tomatoes
1 tsp redcurrant jelly
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Greek yogurt white sauce
300g Yeo Valley Organic Greek Style Yogurt
2 eggs
100g ricotta
50g Yeo Valley Organic Cheddar Cheese
Salt and pepper
Lasagne sheets
Yeo Valley Organic Cheddar Cheese & Mozzarella (optional)
Method
Heat your saucepan and pour in the olive oil. Add the diced vegetables in next and cook them for five minutes until soft. Add in the chopped rosemary, crushed garlic and tomato puree. Cook everything for an extra two minutes.
Add the minced beef to the pan and cook everything for a further 5-8 minutes, until it’s browned. Pour the tinned tomatoes and stock into the pan. Cook the mixture until the sauce has reduced by one third. Add in the Worcestershire sauce and redcurrant jelly. Season with salt and pepper.
Add all the ingredients for the Greek yogurt white sauce to a mixing bowl and combine. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat the oven to 180°c.
Spread one spoonful of the meat sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Cover this with one layer of lasagne sheets, which can be snapped to fit if needed. Top this with one fourth of the white sauce, plus the grated cheddar and mozzarella, if you’re using this.
Build these layers two more times until you’ve used all the meat sauce. Create a final layer of pasta, adding the remaining white sauce and leftover cheddar and mozzarella.
Place the dish on a baking tray to catch any spills. Bake the lasagna for 1 hour, until it’s brown, bubbling and crisp on top.
Serve with garlic bread or fresh leaf salad.
This recipe will give you two deliciously different meals with only a few minor tweaks. You can reduce your time, food waste and energy in one go! The recipe begins with cooking a large pot of seasonal vegetables, which are then turned into two delicious meals. Squash is the star of the show here. It’s an excellent chance to try different varieties of squash, all of which have their own unique texture and taste.
Serves
Each recipe serves 4 people
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 aubergine, diced into 2-3cm cubes
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 2 carrots, scrubbed and roughly diced
- 2 sticks celery, diced
- 1 bulb fennel, chopped roughly
- 1 red pepper, core and seeds removed, chopped roughly
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- About 800g prepared squash, skin and seeds removed, chopped into 4cm dice
- 1 can chopped tomatoes
- Salt
Method
Heat up 3 tbsp of olive oil in a large saucepan or casserole dish. Add the aubergine to the pan or dish and fry over a medium heat for approximately 5 minutes, until it turns translucent. Don’t worry if the pan appears dry. The aubergine will soak up the oil initially but will release moisture as it cooks.
Add the rest of the oil, plus the onion, carrot, celery, fennel and pepper. Cook the vegetables for another 10 minutes until they start to soften.
Add the garlic and squash to the pan or dish and keep stirring until the garlic releases its aromas.
Tip the tomatoes into the pan or dish, along with enough water to just cover the veg. Add a good pinch of salt too.
Cover the mixture and simmer for about 2 minutes, until the squash feels tender. You may need to add some extra water, but it should have the consistency of stew rather than soup.
Divide your stew between two pans or dishes.
North African style
- 2 courgettes, roughly chopped
- 1 can chickpeas, drained
- 1 tbsp roasted cumin seeds, crushed lightly with a pestle and mortar
- 100g green, pitted olives
- 2-4 tbsp harissa paste
- Juice of 1 lemon
- A handful of fresh coriander leaves.
- Flatbreads/couscous + 4 tbsp natural yoghurt
Heat up the stew (which will be half of the mixture from your original pot or dish).
Add the courgette, which will cook quickly, plus the chickpeas, cumin seeds and olives. Next, add the lemon juice and harissa, then sprinkle the coriander leaves over the stew, to balance the taste.
Serve the stew warm with couscous or flatbreads and several spoons of yogurt.
Minestrone with pesto
- 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
- 75g orzo pasta (or spaghetti that’s broken into small pieces)
- 1 can borlotti beans, drained
- 100g green vegetables (e.g., chopped kale, trimmed green beans, spinach or chard)
- Salt and black pepper
- 4 tbsp basil pesto
Pour the stock into your vegetable casserole (which will be half of the mixture from your original pot or dish). Bring it to boil.
Add the pasta and boil the soup for around 5 minutes.
Tip in the vegetables and canned beans. Continue to cook the soup until the greens are just cooked through. Season with salt and pepper.
Swirl a large spoonful of pesto into the top of each bowl of soup. Enjoy your soup with bread.
Better Food has several cafes and stores in Bristol that sell the best local, organic and ethical food, health and bodycare products. You can follow Better Food on Facebook and Instagram.
Jenny Chandler is a cooking teacher, food writer, consultant and author of several recipe books.
There’s nothing more joyous than a flavoursome and rich veggie moussaka! In this recipe it becomes a healthy supper with Yeo Valley Organic’s 0% Fat Natural Yogurt too.
Preparation time
1 hour 20 minutes
Serves
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 carrot, finely diced
- 2 x 400g tins green lentils, drained
- 200ml vegetable stock
- 400g chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- Small bunch of oregano, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 aubergines, sliced
- 300ml Yeo Valley Organic 0% Fat Natural Yogurt
- 1 egg
- 50g vegetarian (non-parmesan) hard cheese, grated
Method
Heat the oven to 180°c/160°c fan/gas mark 4. Use a large pan with a lid to heat 2 tsp of oil and gently fry the onions for around 3-4 minutes, until they’re soft. Next, add the garlic and cook the mixture for an extra minute. Add the lentils, carrot, tomatoes, stock, tomato puree, cinnamon and oregano. Stir the mixture well.
Bring the mixture to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer, covered with the pan lid, for 30 minutes. Take the lid off and simmer for another ten minutes, taking everything off the heat when the carrots and lentils are tender, and the juices have reduced to a thick sauce.
As the lentils are cooking, mix the lemon juice and remaining oil together. Brush the aubergine slices with a thin layer of this mixture. Heat the grill and grill the aubergine slices until they’re brown on both sides.
In another bowl mix the egg, yogurt and half the cheese together. Take the bay leaf out of the lentil mixture. Spread half the lentil mixture across a large lasagna dish. Top the lentils with a layer of aubergine. Repeat this process and finish with an aubergine layer. Next, pour the yogurt on top and sprinkle the remaining cheese over the moussaka. Bake the dish for 45 minutes until the top is golden brown.
Something sweet
Here’s Yeo Valley Organic’s take on a classic British pudding.
Preparation and cooking time
40 minutes
Serves
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 750g apples
- 50g Yeo Valley Organic’s salted butter
- 100g sugar
- 200g crumble topping
Method
Firstly, peel and core all the apples and chop them roughly. Make sure you chop them into fairly large pieces.
Next, make a ‘direct caramel’. Pour the sugar into a pan and then heat it up on a stove. This type of caramel can be stirred, as it doesn’t crystallise.
Keep stirring until you’ve created a lovely golden caramel. Add the butter. The recipe can bubble fairly quickly at this stage, so be careful.
Stir the butter and caramel together until everything’s dissolved and your mixture looks like toffee.
Add the apples and make sure they’re covered in the toffee mixture. You might need to keep the mixture on the heat for one or two minutes, as the coolness of the apples may make the mixture solidify slightly.
Place the mixture into an ovenproof dish. Cover with the crumble topping and bake in a preheated oven, at 180°c for 10-15 minutes. The crumble is ready when the top is golden brown.
Serve with Yeo Valley Double Cream or fresh custard.
These cookies from Dolly’s Desserts are the perfect combination of a sweet maple frosting with a crumbly pecan cookie.
Preparation time
15 minutes
Cooking time
15 minutes
Serves
Serves 10
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 250g unsalted butter, softened
- 135g granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond essence
- 385g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 120g pecans
For the frosting
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- 200g icing sugar
- 70g maple syrup
To decorate
- 1 small handful of chopped pecans
- Ground cinnamon, to garnish
Method
Line two baking trays and preheat the oven to 160°c.
Cream the sugar and butter together in a mixing bowl.
Add the vanilla extract, egg and almond essence, then combine.
Sift in the baking powder, flour and salt. Mix these ingredients together until they’re combined.
Chop the pecans roughly and fold them into the dough. Leave some large chunks in if you want your cookies to have extra crunch.
Weigh the dough and split it into ten 100g portions. Roll all the portions into individual balls and place them on the baking tray. Make sure they’re spaced apart as they’ll spread out while baking.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until they’re a light golden colour. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool.
Next, make the frosting. In a bowl, beat the softened butter until it turns a lighter colour. Doing this will make the frosting light and fluffy.
Slowly sift the icing sugar into the bowl, a little at a time. Mix the icing sugar and butter until they’re fully combined.
Add the maple syrup to the bowl and mix everything again.
Transfer the frosting into a piping bag and carefully pipe it onto each cookie. Do this in a circular motion, beginning from the outside and moving towards the centre.
To finish, sprinkle chopped pecans and ground cinnamon over the frosted cookies.