Archive for category: Recipes

Seasonal food is fresher and tends to be tastier and more nutritious.  Eating seasonal food helps us to reconnect with nature’s cycles and can help us lead a more eco friendly life by reducing the airmiles of our food.

This Beetroot & Ginger Soup is a perfect winter warmer.  Beetroot is high in betacartotene and folic acid.  This root vegetable helps cleanse the liver and can assist in lowering incidences of heart disease.

Depending on the weather, you can add extra warmth to the soup by adding more ginger.  Ginger is useful if you feel a cold coming on or if you wish to warm up.  It also helps soothe digestion.

Serves 4

Prep: 15 mins / Cooking: 45 mins

Ingredients

3 tbsp oil
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 green chilli, roughly chopped
3 gloves of garlic chopped
2cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and grated (add more ginger if you wish to give the soup an extra warmth & kick)
500g beetroot, scrubbed and grated or finely chopped
1 small potato (about 100g), peeled and grated
750mls vegetable stock
Salt, to taste
Plain yoghurt or non-dairy yoghurt (for garnish)
Crusty bread

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large thick bottomed saucepan, add the chopped onion and fry for 10 minutes over a gentle heat until softened. Add the chilli, garlic and ginger and fry for a further 3 minutes.
2. Add the beetroot and potato, stir the ingredients.  Add the stock to the pan and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Leave the soup to cool slightly, blend until smooth and add salt to taste.
4. Serve the soup with a topping of natural or non-dairy yoghurt and crusty bread.

I love this super simple light smoked mackerel pate recipe.  It’s really quick to make and adds lots of flavour to salads, picnics and regular meals such as jacket potatoes.  Also experiment with the flavours – try smoked mackerel with black pepper and chilli, replace the lemons with lime, add capers, dill or a squeeze of honey.

Serves 6

Prep: 10 mins / Cooking: 60 mins

Ingredients

480g smoked mackerel fillets, skin and any bones removed, flesh broken into pieces (I quite often use peppered smoked mackerel)
225g creme fraiche
2 tbsp. horseradish sauce
1/2 lemon juiced and zested
Freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Place all ingredients in a processor and mix until smooth.
2. Spoon the pate into your selected serving dishes – individual dishes or one dish if you are serving as part of a salad or main dish.
3. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour before serving.
4. This is a versatile recipe – serve individually with toast as a starter, use as a topping for jacket potatoes, use as part of a salad, include in your picnic.

Our Bala Brook cook, Christine, recently recommended Davina’s Sugar-Free in a Hurry recipe book.  Christine is an avid foodie and is always trying new recipes.  Upon this recommendation I’ve bought this book and I’m enjoying making the recipes which are super simple with easily accessible ingredients.  Even if you are not following a sugar-free diet this book gives a wide selection of healthy meal options.  This weekend  I made this butternut squash & couscous salad.  Really quick and simple plus any leftovers can be used for packed lunches.  I served this as a side dish to oven roasted fish.

Serves 4
Prep: 15 mins / Cooking: 30 mins

Ingredients

1 butternut squash
1 red onion, cut into wedges
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp paprika
200g barley couscous
200ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
small handful of mint leaves, chopped
30g pumpkin seeds
2 tsp chilli sauce (sriracha is good)
150g plain yogurt
salt & black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/ Fan 180C/Gas 6.  Top and tail the butternut squash and cut it in half. [Tip Leave the skin on to save time] Remove the seeds, then cut the squash into long wedges and put them in a roasting tin with the onion.  Drizzle with some of the oil, scatter over the cinnamon and paprika and season well.  Roast for 30 minutes or until the squash and onion wedges are tender and slightly charred, turning the squash halfway through.
2. Meanwhile, put the couscous in a heatproof bowl and pour over enough of the hot stock to just cover it.  Add the rest of the oil and the lemon zest.  Cover the bowl and set the couscous aside for 5 minutes or until it has absorbed the stock.  Fluff it up with a fork and then stir in the lemon juice and half the chopped mint.
3. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan over a low heat for about 2 minutes or until crisp and lightly golden.
4. Tip the couscous on to a serving dish and top with the roasted squash and onion.  Mix the chilli sauce with the yogurt in a small jug, then pour this over the salad.  Scatter over the pumpkin seeds and the rest of the chopped mint and serve.

Davinia’s book includes Light Meal & Soups, Speedy Salads, Easy Suppers, Weekend Specials, Guilt-free Snacks.  Plus a 5 week meal plan for a guide to eating less sugar and eating wholesome home-cooked food.

Recipe credit: Davina McCall

A simple fun recipe for Sweet & Salty Popcorn snack.  As you are making it yourself you can choose the quality of the ingredients so that you know exactly what goes into the snack.  Choose real butter, organic coconut oil, raw honey (full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants), organic popcorn kernels and sea salt.

Serves 2 – 4 people

Ingredients:

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
4 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp honey (preferably raw)
1 tbsp (or more) butter, to taste
1/8 – 1/4 tsp sea salt, to taste

Directions:

To make popcorn, you’ll need a large pan with a tight-fitting lid. Heat the pan with a little coconut oil, then add some corn kernels, cover and heat. The kernels will swell and start to ‘pop’, bursting out of their skins. Once the popping sound dies out, remove the pan from the heat and carefully remove the lid.

Use a heavy-based pan to make popcorn so that the kernels in contact with the surface of the pan don’t burn during cooking. Fill the pan only one-quarter full of corn kernels and never more than one-third full, as the kernels expand in volume considerably when they burst and need room to fully ‘pop’.

Meanwhile, melt the honey and butter (or coconut oil) together on the stove in a small pan over low- to- medium-low heat.

When the popcorn is done, pour the butter/oil and honey mixture over the popcorn and toss to coat.
Sprinkle the popcorn with sea salt and toss to coat it evenly.

This treat is sticky and delicious. Popcorn takes best when freshly made so eat as soon as possible!