Cauliflower Fritters

by Liz Child

These curried cauliflower fritters are simple to make but taste absolutely incredible! We love them with a lime, coriander and yoghurt dip for lunch, or they make a spectacular side to a homemade curry. The batter is made with chickpea flour, so nutritious and with a gorgeous savoury crunch, it’s the perfect way to elevate the humble cauliflower. Give these a try and let us know how you get on.

Liz x

Ingredients

  • 1 mug chickpea flour
  • 1 tbsp curry powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • black pepper to taste
  • 3/4 mug water
  • 1/2 a cauliflower, finely chopped
  • vegetable oil for frying
  • 1/2 pot natural yoghurt
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 lime, zested and halved
  • a large handful of fresh coriander
  • flakey salt to serve

Method

  1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the chickpea flour, curry powder, salt and pepper with the water. You should be left with a smooth, fairly thick batter. You can add more water if it needs.
  2. Chop up the cauliflower (include any leaves) and stir through the batter to evenly coat the pieces.
  3. Heat up a couple of cm of vegetable oil in a deep frying pan to shallow fry the fritters in. While it is heating, get a plate ready with a piece of kitchen paper to drain the fritters on after frying. You can also make the dip now too. Zest the lime into the yoghurt and squeeze in half the juice. Cut the other half of the lime into wedges to squeeze over the fritters later. Chop up the coriander and stir through the yoghurt with a little salt and pepper.
  4. Now the oil should be hot and you can fry the fritters in batches. Use a serving spoon to dollop the batter into the hot oil. After a few minutes, when golden brown, carefully turn the fritters and fry the other side. Careful not to splash hot oil on yourself us you turn the fritters. Use a spatular and a spoon to turn and lower the fritters without splashing.
  5. Remove the fritters when they are cooked and place on the kitchen paper to drain. Then keep frying in small batches until all the mixture is used up.
  6. Serve sprinkled with flakey sea salt and lime wedges. Dunk in the yoghurt and enjoy!

Lazy Lasagne

by Liz Child

Craving lasagne but can’t be bothered with the faff? Make this speedy version all in one pan. It’s honestly so so delicious, and really hits the spot. We switch mince for nutritious, affordable, planet-friendly lentils and if we have a courgette in the fridge, it goes in in long thin slices to play along with the pasta sheets. We kinda like how organic and messy these bowls turn out. Want more creamy, béchamel-type sauce? Add swirls of cream cheese or creme fraiche just before serving.

Liz x

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 diced onion
  • 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 2 tbsp Italian seasoning (or a mix of herbs you like)
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1 tin lentils, drained
  • 8 lasagne sheets, snapped
  • 1 courgette, thinly sliced
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • cheese & pesto to serve

Method

  1. In a sturdy pan, sauté the onion with the olive oil and a pinch of salt for 5-8 minutes or until it starts to soften.
  2. Add the Italian seasoning, garlic and a generous grind of black pepper. Cook for another minute or two until very fragrant.
  3. Pour in the tomatoes and lentils along with a tin of water. Then break in the lasagne sheets and stir in the courgette slices. Simmer, stirring regularly, for around 10 minutes. If needed, add a splash more water.
  4. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt or pepper as you like, then when the pasta sheets are soft, sprinkle cheese and dollop pesto. Serve in bowls and dig in!

Chickpea Omelette

by Liz Child

A simple mixture of chickpea flour, water and seasoning makes a really delicious batter that can be used to make egg free omelettes. Have you tried it yet? Delicious and so nutritious! Chickpea flour is high in protein, fibre and lots of vitamins and minerals. Stuff it with sautéed veggies and fresh herbs and you’ll be in brunch-heaven. Really you can make this recipe by eye and stuff it with whatever veg you like, but as a guide, here’s what I did to make two.

Liz x

Ingredients (makes 2)

  • 70g chickpea flour
  • 100ml water
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • a handful of chopped dill
  • 1 chopped scallion
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 6 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 a courgette, sliced into ribbons with a peeler
  • 2 large handfuls of spinach
  • 1 tomato, sliced
  • 2 tsp butter for cooking the omelette

Method

  1. Start by whisking the chickpea flour with the water into a smooth batter. Season with a pinch of salt, a grind of pepper and a handful of chopped herbs and half the chopped scallion. Stir in 1 tbsp of good olive oil to enrich the batter. Set to one side while you prepare the filling.
  2. In a non-stick pancake pan, sauté the mushrooms with the other tbsp of oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the garlic powder to the pan once the mushrooms start to sweat. Add the courgette strips and spinach and stir fry for a couple of minutes until the spinach has wilted. Move the filling off the pan into a bowl and put the pan back over a medium heat.
  3. Now melt a tsp of butter in the pan and pour in half the batter. Swirl and cook the omelette slowly until it is set. Then put half the filling on half the omelette and arrange half the tomato slices on top. Fold the omelette and serve with a sprinkle of scallions.
  4. Repeat with the other half of the batter and fillings and enjoy!

Veggie Irish Stew Pie

by Liz Child

This is ultimate comfort food, and the perfect dish for a family feast. Our veggie version of the classic Irish stew is hearty with beans and lentils. Chunks of sweet root veg and meaty mushrooms simmer in a broth of bouillon, dried mushrooms and bay leaves. We’ve taken the potatoes out of the stew and put them on top in the form of colcannon. This pie is so so delicious, packed with healthy veg and heaps of flavour, you’ll be coming back to this again and again and again.

Liz x

Ingredients (serves 6)

For the stew:

  • 2 tbsp vegetable bouillon powder
  • 1 tsp dried mushrooms 
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 liter just-boiled water 
  • a little oil or butter for sautéing 
  • 2 onions, roughly diced
  • 3 carrots, cut into chunks
  • 3 celery sticks, sliced
  • a couple of parsnips or a 1/4 of a celeriac, cut into bite sized chunks
  • 200g chestnut mushrooms, halved
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 tin cooked lentils, drained
  • 1 tin cooked beans, drained
  • 3 tbsp cornstarch, mixed with enough cold water to make a slurry

For the colcannon:

  • 10 or so potatoes, boiled
  • 150g kale, thinly sliced
  • 3 scallions, thinly sliced
  • butter, salt & pepper to taste 

Method

  1. Gather and prepare the vegetables, get the potatoes into salted water to boil and turn the oven on to 200C to warm up. Pop the kettle on.
  2. Pour a liter of boiling water into a jug with the bouillon powder, dried mushrooms and bay leaves. Stir well, this is your broth.
  3. Then, in an oven and hob safe pot, sauté the chopped onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms and parsnips/celeriac with the oil and a little salt and pepper. Stir over a medium-high heat for around 7 minutes or until the vegetables take on some colour and start to soften and reduce. Now add the broth, beans and lentils to the pot and simmer the stew for around 10 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile make the colcannon. Once the potatoes are boiled, tip the sliced kale into the pot and let it boil for just a minute. Drain and mash the potatoes and kale together with plenty of butter. Stir in the scallions and season to taste with salt and pepper.
  5. The stew should be ready, now it will just need thickening. Pour the cornstarch slurry into the stew and stir over the heat until the stew has thickened up. Then top with the colcannon and run a fork over the top to even it out and rough it up.
  6. Bake it a hot oven until the top has browned and crisped up a little and the stew is bubbling. This should take around 15-20 minutes if you get it in the oven whilst still hot. Enjoy!

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

by Liz Child

These are just like a pint of the dark stuff. Bittersweet, rich and fudgy chocolate cupcakes with a sweet, creamy frosting. If you are a fan of dark chocolate, you’ll love these. The Guinness in the recipe reacts with the baking soda to make the cake rise, as well as adding dark, delicious, malty flavours. So good! The perfect treat for St Patrick’s Day.

Liz x

Ingredients (makes 12)

Cake:

  • 150g flour
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 100g sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 50ml oil
  • 250ml Guinness

Icing:

  • 50g butter (room temperature)
  • 100g cream cheese
  • 100g icing sugar (sieved)

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 175C and line a muffin tin with 12 cases.
  2. Mix the dry cake ingredients together in a bowl to evenly disperse the baking soda, then stir in the oil and the Guinness. Stir into a smooth batter, but do not over-mix.
  3. Divide the batter between the 12 cupcake cases and bake for 12-15 minutes until risen. An inserted skewer should come out clean. After a few minutes, carefully move the cupcakes to a cooling rack.
  4. To make the icing, whisk the softened butter with the cream cheese until smooth. Then add the sieved icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Whisk the first tablespoon in until creamy and smooth before adding another tablespoon and whisking in again. Repeat until all the sugar is incorporated and the icing is fluffy and creamy.
  5. Allow the cupcakes to completely cool before icing. Enjoy!

Sweet Soda Bread

by Liz Child

With St Paddy’s Day just around the corner, we have been making lots of traditional Irish food. Soda bread is so quick and easy to make, we love this sweet loaf with whiskey soaked raisins. We make our own dairy free buttermilk, but of course you can use regular if that’s what you have. It’s the best thing, warm out the oven with a generous slab of cold cold butter and a steaming cup of tea. How do you like yours?

Liz x

Ingredients

  • a generous handful of raisins soaked in a splash of whiskey or black tea

For the dairy free buttermilk:

  • 300ml oat milk
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tbsp oil

Dry ingredients:

  • 500g flour
  • a pinch of salt
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 3 tbsp sugar

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180C and butter a skillet (or you can use a baking sheet or cake tin).
  2. Soak your raisins in a splash of whiskey or tea and mix the buttermilk ingredients together in a measuring jug.
  3. While the raisins plump up and the milk sours, measure out your dry ingredients into a bowl and give them a good whisk to evenly disperse the baking soda.
  4. Then use a wooden spoon to stir in the raisins, followed by the buttermilk. You should be left with a fairly sticky dough.
  5. Generously flour a clean work surface and scrape the dough out onto the flour. If your dough is very sticky, sprinkle flour on top too. Bring the dough together into a ball, no need to knead, then place the dough on the buttered skillet.
  6. Score the bread with a deep cross and sprinkle with more sugar if you like. Then bake for 30 minutes or until it sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to cool as long as you can resist before slicing and spreading with butter. Enjoy!

Oat Milk & Cookies

by Liz Child

We LOVE oat milk, do you? So creamy and delicious and incredibly good for both you and the planet. For teas and coffees we definitely recommend a store bought option which doesn’t curdle or separate. But for all your other oat milk needs, smoothies, béchamel, cereal, porridge or a simple glass of milk, we recommend making your own to save on packaging and money. Oat milk is fairly straightforward to make yourself at home. But if you over-process it, it can come out a little slimy, and if you strain it through a nut-milk bag, can come out a little thin and watery. The best (and easiest) way we’ve found to separate the milk from the oat purée is straining it through your finest mesh sieve then letting any extra solids settle for a few minutes before pouring the top off into a clean bottle. If you have a loosely woven tea towel then you could try use that too, but the sieve method is so quick, easy and mess-free. Now don’t waste those leftover oat solids! Add to bread dough, smoothies or your bowl of oats, or make these zero waste oatmeal cookies, they are divine!

Liz x

Ingredients

For the milk:

  • 100g oats
  • 1 pitted date (or a tsp of sugar or maple syrup)
  • a pinch of salt
  • 800ml ice-cold water

For the cookies:

  • 100g oat purée left from making oat milk
  • 100g melted dairy free butter or coconut oil
  • 100g brown/white sugar mix
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 100g flour
  • 150g porridge oats
  • handful of raisins (or chocolate chips)

Method

  1. Turn your oven on to 175C and line a large baking sheet with baking parchment. Gather your ingredients.
  2. Make the milk by adding the ingredients to a strong blender and blending for just 40 seconds on high. If you over-blend, your milk can come out a little slimy. Now separate the milk from the solids by pouring it through a fine mesh sieve into a jug. Do not press or squeeze the milk through or it can become gritty/slimy. Let the milk settle in the jug for a few minutes then carefully pour the top into a clean bottle to store in the fridge (use within 5 days*). Leave any extra sediment in the bottom of the jug. Now tip the oat purée into the jug along with the sediment and you should be left with around 100g of purée. Perfect for making cookies (you can make the cookie dough in the jug).
  3. Melt the butter or coconut oil and stir it into the oat puree. Add the sugar and stir into a smooth batter. Then add the salt, cinnamon, baking soda and powder and vanilla, then stir again until smooth. Add the flour and stir until just incorporated. Lastly add the raisins and oats and stir until you are left with a sticky cookie dough.
  4. Spoon the dough onto the baking sheet you prepared earlier (makes 12-14 cookies) and bake until golden. Around 15 minutes but keep an eye on them as ovens vary. Allow to cool then enjoy with a cold glass of oat milk.

*NOTE – it is normal for oat milk to separate in the fridge. Always shake well before serving.

Potato Peel Crisps

by Liz Child

It is very rare that we bother to peel our organic potatoes. Including potato peel in recipes means more wonderful fibre and nutrients. But when we do peel, we make this delicious snack to avoid waste. These are also a great alternative to a plastic bag of crisps ~ save packaging waste, food waste and money! You can make these crisps in the oven or air fryer. I tested this recipe with thinner peel, made from a potato peeler and although it works fine, the crisps were a little too thin, not ideal. So if you want to make this recipe, I recommend using a knife to peel slightly thicker pieces for a more satisfying crisp.

Liz x

Ingredients

  • Potato peel
  • olive oil
  • salt
  • optional extra flavourings eg smoked salt, paprika, nutritional yeast, herbs, chilli powder…

Method

  1. Scrub and peel your potatoes (this works with any root veg eg parsnips, swede, beetroot, carrots). For more satisfying crisps, use a small sharp knife to peel.
  2. Drizzle the peels with good olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt. A little goes a long way so be careful not to over-season. You could also add other flavourings if you wish.
  3. Mix well ensuring all the peels are coated with the seasoning. Then tip into your air fryer basket or spread onto a large, lined baking sheet.
  4. Bake at 180C until browned and crispy – around 15 minutes. Turn or toss the crisps halfway through the baking process to ensure they bake evenly. Enjoy!

Blood Orange Sorbet

by Liz Child

All you need to make this sorbet is ONE ingredient, blood oranges (plus a freezer and a food processor). We are obsessed with blood oranges at the moment. Have you tried one yet? They are only around for a short season each year, so don’t miss out! They are a little sweeter than your usual oranges, with a stunning raspberry twist. Having that gorgeous purple/red hue is a sign of anthocyanin, a really powerful antioxidant which is brilliant for heart health. This sorbet makes a stunning palette cleanser between courses if you are cooking up a fancy feast, otherwise it is just a delicious, healthy dessert. No need for added sugar and it still feels like a luxurious treat!

Liz x

Ingredients

  • Blood oranges

Method

  1. Peel blood oranges and place the segments on a tray or plate which fits in your freezer. Freeze overnight or until solid. Remove from the freezer around 15 minutes before you need to serve the sorbet. It is best served directly from the blender.
  2. Put the frozen segments into your food processor with the S blade attachment. Blend until it turns into sorbet. At first it will look grainy and like it is not going to work. Don’t give up. Stop the machine a few times to scrape down the sides and keep blending. After a while the sorbet will turn creamy and smooth. Stop before it gets too juicy/melted.
  3. Working quickly now, scoop the sorbet out of the processor into a tub. Press it down and smooth it out with the back of the spoon. Dunk an ice cream scoop into a cup of hot water, then scoop out large balls of sorbet and enjoy!

Lemon & Poppyseed Pancakes

by Liz Child

What kind of pancakes do you love to eat on pancake day? We enjoy them all! Thin crepes, fluffy American style and even savoury. This year we are going for a thick stack of lemon and poppyseed pancakes. We recommend always choosing organic citrus, especially if you are using the zest. Non-organic citrus fruits are treated post-harvest with all kinds of nasty waxes and chemicals to help them last longer on the supermarket shelves. You can be assured that all of our citrus fruit are organic, so it is totally safe to use the zest. Happy Pancake Day!

Liz x

Ingredients (makes around 10 large pancakes)

  • 1 large mug of flour
  • 2 tbsp poppyseeds
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil
  • zest & juice of half a lemon
  • 1 mug of oat milk
  • butter for frying
  • to serve… whipped cream or natural yoghurt sweetened with icing sugar to taste, then lemon zest, juice and poppyseeds stirred through

Method

  1. Prepare your toppings and pancake pan first. Once you make your batter you want to cook it soon after before the raising agent starts to loose it’s oomph. Pre-heat your pan over a medium-low heat. Thick, fluffy pancakes cook low and slow so that they are golden brown on the outside and perfectly cooked through and fluffy on the inside.
  2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, poppyseeds, salt, sugar, lemon zest, oil and baking powder. Then squeeze the lemon half and pour it into the mug. Top up the mug with oat milk and stir to create a soured milk. Pour the sour milk into the dry ingredients and whisk to just combine into a thick, smooth batter. Careful not to over-mix.
  3. Melt a little butter in your pancake pan then add a generous serving spoon of the batter. Allow it to cook until golden brown on the bottom (this takes around 3 or 4 minutes on a low heat) then carefully flip and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes or until the pancake is cooked through. Place in a tray to keep warm in a low oven.
  4. Repeat with the rest of the pancake mixture. Stack up the pancakes on plates and top with the cream or yoghurt, extra icing sugar, lemon zest and poppyseeds. Enjoy!