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Meghan Markle reveals favourite dish as she launches charity cookbook

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, cooks chapatis and rice in a London community kitchen.

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, cooks chapatis and rice in a London community kitchen. Photo: Instagram

Despite now having a small army of servants at her disposal at Kensington Palace, Meghan Markle still gets stuck into kitchen duties.

Four months after marrying Prince Harry, the Duchess of Sussex – who reportedly once tried to score a gig as a TV amateur chef – has named the current go-to dish she whips up for her and her husband.

And while she was roasting a chicken on the Sunday night when Harry proposed, Meghan’s new favourite is a “favourite avocado dip that I now make at home.”

The former Suits actor revealed the morsel of gossip in a long foreword she wrote for a charity cookbook of recipes compiled by women affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

The disaster killed 72 people in June 2017.

The book, which will be launched by Meghan, 37, and Harry, 34, at Kensington Palace on September 20, is her first solo project as a member of the royal family.

Video and photos of the duchess, white shirt sleeves rolled up and a striped apron tied around her waist as she works in a community kitchen, has already been released by Kensington Palace.

Meghan’s debut foray into good deeds was applauded on social media by some of her famous friends.

“Women supporting women,” wrote her unofficial bridesmaid and stylist Jessica Mulroney on Instagram, with a photo of the book’s cover showing Meghan cooking in a cloud of steam.

“This is more than a cookbook … very proud of you today.”

The idea for Together: Our Community Cookbook came from women who gathered in a communal kitchen at a Muslim centre in West London to prepare food for friends and family in the wake of the fire.

As word started to get out, the Hubb Community Kitchen was born.

The duchess has apparently made a series of “quiet visits” to the kitchen since she first visited in January.

She told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper that she found herself under instructions to wash rice for lunch immediately after asking how she could help.

Later, she asked co-ordinator Zahira Ghaswala how often the kitchen was open.

Hearing that it could only stretch to two days because of limited funding, Meghan suggested a cookbook as a way to raise enough money to allow the community’s women to gather there every day.

“I immediately felt connected to this kitchen,'” wrote Meghan of the Hubb, which has spawned recipes from Europe, the Middle East, north Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.

“It is a place for women to laugh, grieve, cry and cook together.”

Meghan often wrote about food on her now-defunct lifestyle blog The Tig and shared Instagram photos of Thanksgiving turkeys and acai bowls she’d whipped up.

In the foreword of the book she runs through a few of her long-time favourites: “a slow-cooked pot of greens from my grandmother’s garden”, her mother Doria Ragland’s gumbo, poutine and fish tacos.

For those who want to cook like a duchess, here’s Meghan’s favourite two-step dip recipe, as included in the new book:

Meghan's favourite dip recipePhoto: Penguin Random House

The proceeds from the cookbook, published by Penguin Random House, will allow the Hubb to welcome people seven days a week.

The charity hopes to raise £250,000 ($A460,000) from the book.

The publication of the cookbook is also supported by The Royal Foundation, the main charity of the Sussexes and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

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