Recipes
Roasted Cauliflower, Sweet Potato and Chickpeas with Tahini and Yoghurt
Cauliflowers have been particularly successful this season; there has been a plentiful supply of lovely creamy heads. Although Cauliflower Cheese remains one of my all-time comfort foods, I love this combination of roasted cauliflower and chickpeas, tempered with sweet potato and punctured by pomegranate seeds.
Salmon With Cucumber Relish
Tastes of Summer!
A crisp tasting cucumber relish to compliment a lightly spiced fish dish makes for the quintessential flavours of summer. Each 125g fillet can be served with new potatoes and a green salad as a main dish. It can also be served on toasted sourdough or cooked mini filo cases as a starter, topped with the cucumber relish. Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a starter
Veganuary Heart of the Home Stew
Veganuary is here!
As I write Storm Brendan et al has been and gone – there is wind and rain a plenty! Here in North Devon we know all about this in the winter months. It’s time to snuggle up and make this comforting plant based stew. The trick here is to make layers of flavour within a single pot; the long cooking time of the pulses gives ample opportunity for this.
Tomatillos
We started growing these in 2014. Tomatillos or tomate verde are a member of the same plant family as tomatoes but are more closely allied to the “Cape Gooseberry” or Physalis. When the husks are removed, they look like a green tomato, but the inside is full of seeds and they have a bitter-sweet, tangy flavour.
Romanesque Cauliflower Sauce
This is a quick and easy sauce to serve with pasta or with crusty bread Its delicious served with a garnish of toasted flaked almonds or grated pecorino or try it with both if your are feeling indulgent!
Blackberry and Pear Torte
Although late summer heralds shorter days and a return to school and work, there is still some time to enjoy some summer treats and blackberries are one of them!
Padron Peppers
Padron Peppers – “some are hot and some are not” Rumour has it that these little green peppers were brought to the Galician town of Padron in the 16th Century from Mexico. The peppers have brought a certain fame to this parish and there is a fiesta to celebrate them.
Fish Kitchari
Mitch Tonks came to Appledore book festival to talk about fish and his new book. Mitch runs the hugely successful seafood restaurant “The Seahorse” in Dartmouth. He is passionate about fish cookery and using fresh local ingredients.
Salmon and Coconut Curry
Mean Molly – Food for mind and body! This is a lightly spiced recipe with many variations, common in southern India and south east Asia. The name is derived from “moilee” – a stew with coconut and “meen” – fish. Somewhere along the line this got christened Mean Molly in our house. However there is nothing mean about this dish – its packed with nutrients for the heart, brain and general well being.
Leek, Sweetcorn and Black Bean Soup
This warming soup/stew is a real storecupboard treasure, quickly prepared in 15 – 20 minutes. With the addition of some cooked rice or noodles it would make a satisfying main dish for 4.
Golden Glow Soup
As the leaves on the trees change from green to yellow, orange and red and are finally dispelled by a few sou’ westerlies, I begin to think of warming bowls of soup. The tomatoes and summer veg are at an end – it is the season of golden squash, carrots and other root vegetables.
Felafel
These felafel are made throughout the middle east using either dried large broad beans or chick peas. However, we are now selling a British grown bean called Fava and it is these that I have used for this recipe. It is most important to use dried beans, not already cooked ones as these will not hold together.
Quinoa and Avocado Salad
Finding a healthy lunch on the go or to eat at work can be difficult but with a little planning it’s easy to take your own. I have combined the super-nutritionally-loaded quinoa and avocado to make this nourishing and tasty salad. Quinoa has a prep and cook time of about quarter of an hour so it takes no time to do the night before, making it an ideal ingredient to have ready in the fridge for healthy snacking.
Swiss Chard and Chickpea Curry
Due to the extraordinary weather in February when temperatures soared we are lucky enough to see a few green shoots in the garden. The Swiss Chard or silver beet is one of those appearing now and how welcome it is! I think it is a universal type of plant that grows where nothing else is sprouting as there are recipes to use it all over the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Asian subcontinent.
Easter Buns
Holy Hot Cakes! Myths surround the origin of the hot cross bun, some sources saying that they originated in ancient Greece! Another theory is that a bun with a cross was baked by medieval monks – perhaps to keep the evil spirits that might prevent the dough rising away.
Poached Baby Veg with 3 sauces
Spring into Summer – At last there are a few fresh veggies ready to harvest. It seems to have taken even longer this year, with a very mild winter turning into a very cold spring! Even in the mildest of seasons, plant growth is restricted by day length and then as the days get longer, the temperature has plummeted! I love to have a plateful of these young veg virtually raw to remind me just how good they taste.
