Lunch or Dinner?

... on New Year's Day.

Either or, here's another suggestion for a meat free dish that you could serve to veggies or use as an accompaniment – it lends itself very well with duck, goose or gammon.

Apricot & Pistachio Stuffing

60g Unsalted butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, crushed or 1 tsp garlic paste

**200g Breadcrumbs/Parsley, Thyme & Lemon stuffing mix

150g dried Apricots, roughly chopped

50g shelled Pistachios, chopped

Sea salt and black pepper

**Generous pinch of dried parsley and thyme

Pre-heat your oven 180 fan/200c/Gas 6.

Heat the butter, add the onion and garlic and fry for 6/8 minutes until softened, add the breadcrumbs/stuffing mix, apricots and nuts and season well. Add 9 fl oz (just under ½ pint) of boiling water (you can use vegetable stock for enhanced flavour if you prefer) mix and then transfer to a lined loaf tin. Alternatively you can roll the mixture into stuffing balls, place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Cover in foil and cook for 20 minutes. You can freeze the stuffing, cooked or uncooked (although if you are using breadcrumbs that have been frozen the stuffing should be cooked before freezing).

**You can use your own breadcrumbs, especially if you use white bread and you've got the end of a loaf. Take the crusts off and blitz – you can air dry on a baking sheet or pop into a low oven to dry out – they can be frozen. If you buy them don't get the bright orange variety, Waitrose do their own version – expensive but you get what you pay for. You can also cheat and use a packet of Parsley, Thyme and Lemon stuffing mix and add breadcrumbs. The Shropshire Spice Co make a good product in 150g packets, so an additional 50g of crumbs is required, adding a generous pinch of dried parsley and thyme.

Finally, here's my contribution if you are feeling a tad fragile. I can't hold it out to be a hangover cure but, try peanut butter on toast and top with cranberry sauce/jelly or, my personal favourite – redcurrant jelly. If you use the Whole Earth peanut butter you could even try and kid yourself it's healthy.

S novim godom! (I hope this says “Happy New Year” in Russian)