Radish, cucumber and red onion salad with mint and orange blossom dressing. Photograph: Liz & Max Haarala Hamilton Chef Sabrina Ghayour’s new recipes deliver maximum flavour with the greatest of ease – perfect for busy lives’– Sainsbury’s Magazine This dish is more than just a simple broth – it is a wonderfully hearty meal and offers a great way of using up vegetables. There are no rules – it should contain whatever you find lying around the house and in your fridge. Sabrina Ghayour's Middle-Eastern plus food is all flavour, no fuss - and makes me very, very happy" - Nigella Lawson

Grind the saffron (if using) with a pestle and mortar, then pour over the 2 tbsp of boiling water and leave to infuse. The recipes in Persiana are laid out clearly and include a lovely chatty little blurb about the dish; a clear and usually short list of ingredients; step by step instructions and a beautiful, inspirational photo. My main complaint is that there is no guide to how long the recipes take to make. I would also have liked the steps in the method to be numbered to make it easier to find my place as I am following a recipe.

Try this recipe from the book

I keep this cake on a plate covered with clingfilm and find it can be kept like this for up to a week. Towards the end of the cooking time, drain and rinse the mussels and clams. Pull the beards off the mussels and give them a gentle scrub. Preheat a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Fill the pan with boiling water and add the rice with a generous handful of crumbled sea salt. Boil for 6-8 minutes until the rice is parboiled. You will know it is parboiled when the colour of the grains turns from the normal dullish white to a more brilliant white and the grains become slightly elongated and begin to soften.

Biryani is a dish fit for a king and its origin is largely credited to Persia. The delicate layering of rice interspersed with spices and meat or poultry relies on a special Persian steaming method known as dam pokht (or dum pukht if you are from India), meaning "steam-cooked". There are many variations of biryani from India to Pakistan, but authentic versions have no chilli in them whatsoever – just aromatic spices such as luxurious Persian saffron. My wonderful friend Asma Khan is the queen of biryani and nobody has a more delicate and expert hand than she does when it comes to making the best and most authentic. Asma very kindly shared some of her biryani wisdom with me, from which I am delighted to share a simplified version of this hugely popular dish with you. An absolute triumph…the kind of food you really want to share with friends and family’– Great British Food MagazineFor those of us who follow Ghayour on social media – she has a huge and enthusiastic following – we know that she lives with her charismatic mum, Mama G. In more recent times, she met and married her husband, Stephen, who brought two young boys into Ghayour’s life. She now not only leads a very busy life writing, teaching and making many appearances on TV, but she also cooks for a family. Persiana Everyday is therefore a collection of recipes that she uses in her own kitchen to get dinner on the table for a range of ages and preferences, the same dilemma any family faces. These recipes will satisfy your taste buds whether you are cooking for one or two, a family or a meal for friends. My go-to cookbook this year, full of easy recipes made with accessible things producing wildly successful dishes ‘– Rev Richard Coles Middle Eastern food can be heavy and plentiful, so you need to pair it with light, refreshing dishes that cleanse the palate and aid digestion. This is just that kind of dish – it is a perfect accompaniment to heavy meat and poultry dishes, providing a lovely fresh flavour – and it looks beautiful, too. The lightly sweetened dressing works well, counteracting the acidity, and I just love the intense crunchiness of this salad. Spiced carrot, pistachio and almond cake with rosewater cream. Photograph: Liz & Max Haarala Hamilton