This weekend, more than 400 small food and drink producers who use sustainable, traditional methods of rearing will pitch up at Earls Court for the Real Food Festival.

Wandering around the festival's website, I signed up to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's campaign for a future for free-range chicken, www.chickenout.tv.

I particularly like chicken with lemon, as illustrated by these recipes. First up is a simple aromatic curry with a chilli kick to the pretty tomato and coriander gravy. This is particularly good with boiled bas-mati rice and mango chutney but is also delicious scooped up with hot nan or another Indian bread.

Lemon zest is a favourite way of bringing interest to simple dishes and it works well with chicken and artichokes, the marinated sort, quartered and preserved in oil. Thyme and white wine unite the flavours and it's finished with butter beans to mash into the luscious juices.

Lentils need the zing of lemon to bring them alive and in my final recipe they're cooked with a thick mix of green vegetables to make a delicious background for poached chicken. It makes a moreish meal in a bowl bobbing with celery and beans, spinach and peas, all offset with salty capers and grassy flat-leaf parsley. Serve it in soup bowls with some good crusty bread and butter to dunk and slurp.

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