Ingredient: Eggs

Four different eggs of varying sizes and colours, including a large dark brown egg, a large light cream egg, a medium brown egg, and a small speckled brown and green egg, all resting on a white surface.

Eggs have spent decades as dietary villains, blamed for cholesterol crimes they mostly didn’t commit. Luckily the science has shifted and now they’re back where they belong: as one of the most nutritious things that you can keep in your fridge.

They are a complete protein, meaning that they contain all nine essential amino acids, and they are one of the best dietary sources of choline, which is important for your brain and liver. Most of the good stuff (vitamins A, D, E and K) lives in the yolk, so don’t skip it!

Hen’s eggs are the everyday all-rounder and seeing as the average British hen lays around 300 eggs a year, there are a lot of them to go around. Great on their own, hardboiled as a snack, and just as good whisked into a light sponge as they are gently stirred into my lemony chicken soup.

Duck eggs are richer, with larger yolks, which makes them great for baking. Quail’s eggs are a perfect mini mouthful and goose eggs are enormous and perhaps best shared. Ostrich eggs are firmly in curiosity territory.

And if you’re feeding runny eggs to children, pregnant women or elderly relatives, British Lion eggs (the ones with the red stamp) are now officially safe for everyone. That’s thanks to a vaccination programme that’s essentially eliminated salmonella from UK flocks. It’s a quiet British success story!