The very model of a modern TV cook

The current BBC television series, The Delicious Miss Dahl, shows her love of food. And in her book, Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights, she gives us more of her recipes but also an insight into her life and what made her choose the recipes she has.

Sophie, recently married to singer Jamie Cullum, shares 100 of her favourite recipes that show that healthy can be delicious and indulgent. As the first "anti-waif" model she tried every diet and fad going, before sorting out her relationship with food.Now she reveals the recipes that allowed her to eat what she wants while remaining slim.

Broad bean/fava salad with pecorino and asparagus

Serves two

180g / one cup of baby asparagus tips

150g / one cup of fresh or frozen baby broad / fava beans, skins removed (if fresh, they will need to be blanched to remove skins. You can also use the same amount of drained and rinsed canned beans).

A small handful of fresh mint, finely chopped.

3 tablespoons of good quality olive oil.

Salt and pepper.

50g / 1/2 cup of pecorino cheese, crumbled.

I had something similar to this in a very good Italian restaurant in New York. It is a simple pleasure, perfect with a little sea salt and a rich musky dollop of olive oil.

Put the asparagus in a pan of boiling salted water and boil for two to three minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water. Place the beans and asparagus tips in a small salad bowl and add the mint. Pour on the olive oil and add some salt and pepper. Add the cheese. Eat in a balmy garden with a few fat, blowsy bumblebees nearby, but not close enough to harass you.

Chicken stew with green olives

Serves four

Olive oil

1 chicken, cut up by your butcher

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

1 fennel bulb, roughly chopped

250ml/ one cup of white wine 400g/13oz can of chopped tomatoes

250ml/ one cup of chicken stock

150g/ half a cup of green pitted olives

A scant handful of fresh basil, chopped

There's something about those plump green Italian olives that sings of spring. Plus it's very simple. A kitchen supper with the doors thrown open, accompanied by a good summery white wine, probably Pouilly-Fuisse.

In a large pan, heat three tablespoons of the oil and add the chicken, cooking for 15 minutes until it has browned. Remove from the pan and keep to one side.

In the same pan, sweat the garlic and fennel in a little more oil for a few minutes. Pour the wine over, add the tomatoes and cook for another 10 minutes on

low. Put the chicken back in the pan and cook on low

for around 30 minutes, adding the stock little by little.

Put the olives and basil in at the end for a few minutes and serve.

Lemon Capri torte

Serves six

150g/1 1/2 sticks of butter,

plus extra for greasing

225g/1 cup of caster/superfine sugar

6 eggs, separated

Zest and juice of four lemons

300g/ two cups of blanched almonds, toasted, then ground

115g / one cup of potato flour, plus extra for flouring

I got this recipe from a taxi driver in Sorrento, who was big on cooking. He said his wife and daughters begged him not to, because he left the kitchen in such a mess!

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6. Grease and flour a 23-cm/9-inch round cake tin/pan.

(I prefer to use a springform tin.) Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg yolks in one go, then add the lemon zest and lemon juice. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks and add to the mixture. Lastly, fold in the ground almonds and flour.

Pour the mixture into the cake tin/pan and bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 150C/130C fan/Gas 2 and cook for a further 40 minutes. Cool and turn over.

You can get creative with this; I was disgusting and iced it with a mixture of crme fraiche and lemon curd!

Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights is published by Harper Collins (20). To order a copy from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop, call free on 0800 0153232 or go online at www.yorkshire postbookshop.co.uk. Postage and packing is 2.75.

The Delicious Miss Dahl is on Tuesdays, 8.30pm on BBC 2.