This easy yakisoba can be made with pork, chicken, seafood or tofu—or a combination thereof— and is a mix of noodles, vegetables and a cooking sauce that gives the dish its name. It’s the perfect, quick meal to put together when you don’t have a lot of time to spare.

This recipe for pasta with pumpkin, spinach and thyme sauce takes barely 30 minutes to prepare and is surprisingly delicious for something that is so easy to cook with relatively few ingredients. Ideal for when you need to pull something impressive together with little time on your hands.

Moroccan duck roast duck with figs is a delicious dish from the Moroccan High Atlas, here served with smoky vegetables and couscous. Its great additional benefits are that you're likely to get at least one additional meal out of this dish—maybe more—and possibly discovering a new Japanese-Moroccan sauce.

This weekend leftovers Durban curry turns remnants from a weekend roast or braai into a delicious weeknight meal whether chicken, lamb or beef—as I'm doing here—without it tasting like an afterthought. A modern tradition from South Africa's Eastern Seaboard, you can enjoy it anywhere there are leftovers

A riff on the British Sunday roast, this Eastern Mediterranean roast lamb is served with autumnal veggies and spätzle dressed in the fresh flavours of spinach, feta and parsley. It's a nod to the food culture that Turkish immigrants brought with them to Germany. But, don't let the highfalutin concept get in the way: it's a delicious meal and, importantly a slow-cooked treat that won't stress out whoever is cooking the Sunday roast.

Lombard chicken with pumpkin, fennel and asparagus; adaptation an 18th-century recipe

Another South African Indian diasporan dish, this pumpkin and mushroom curry with eggs is easily turned vegan—just leave out the eggs.

Ideal for Thanksgiving, a tasty simple soup that makes a perfect first course for a big seasonal meal or a hearty meal soup