This gorgeous raw cake is rich and fudgy and packed full of great ingredients. My simple, wholesome recipe uses just nuts, dates, coffee and a little coconut oil and maple syrup. You need quite a lot of nuts so I recommend buying them in our compostable bulk bags. Have a look at the organic bulk range here.
You need a food processor or blender to make this recipe and a deep baking dish. I use a 19 x 24cm dish but any medium baking dish will do. Let’s get started! Liz x
Ingredients (makes 16 or more slices)
1 mug walnuts (plus extra for decorating)
2 mugs pitted dates (chopped into smaller pieces with scissors)
4 mugs almonds
2 mugs cashews
1 mug espresso strength coffee
2/3 mug maple syrup
1/2 mug melted coconut oil
1 tbsp cacao powder for dusting
1 pinch salt
Watch the method. The cookbook can be added to your Green Earth Organics order here.
Method
Line a baking dish with baking parchment leaving a little overhang to make it easier to extract the cake once it is set.
Like many of my recipes, I use mug measurements for this. Just a regular, smallish coffee/tea mug, not a massive one. It doesn’t really matter what size you use though as it’s all about the ratios here. Just use the same mug for all the measurements and it’ll be fine.
Start by soaking the two mugs of cashews in water. This will make them softer and easier to blend into a smooth cream for the topping later. Then get on with making the base.
Measure the walnuts, dates and almonds into a food processor with a pinch of salt. Pulse them together into a crumbly, sticky mixture. If you only have a small food processor or a blender you may find it easier to measure the walnuts, dates and almonds into a large bowl, mix it up and then pulse the ingredients in smaller batches.
Once you have a nice sticky, crumbly mixture, pour in about 2/3 of a mug of espresso strength coffee and give the mixture a stir. Then pack it into your lined baking dish, spreading it firmly and evenly into a neat layer.
Then make the creamy topping. Drain the cashews and pop them in the blender with 1/3 mug of espresso strength coffee, 1/2 mug of melted coconut oil (you could sub this with melted cacao butter or a flavourless coconut oil if you don’t like coconut) and 2/3 mug maple syrup (or maple syrup to taste). Blend the mixture until perfectly smooth and creamy.
Pour the coffee cream over the base and level it out with a spatular. Then pop the dish in the fridge to set overnight, or in the freezer for an hour or two to set faster.
Once it’s set, pull the cake out onto a chopping board and dust it with cocoa/cacao powder. Slice it into bars or squares – it’s quite a rich cake so smaller slices are better. Decorate each slice with walnut halves or pieces and enjoy!
Store the cake in the fridge (like cheesecakes, it can get a little melty at room temperature) and enjoy within a week. Or store it in the freezer for much longer and take pieces out to defrost as and when you need them.
Millionaire shortbread has it all. Buttery, crumbly shortbread, sweet, sticky caramel and a shiny dark chocolate layer which just brings it all together. But to be honest, these days I find most shop bought millionaire shortbread a tad too sickly-sweet. My raw version is pretty quick and easy to put together and made with some great ingredients. Wholesome oats and dates, cocoa/cacao powder and it’s simply sweetened with a touch of maple syrup and bound together with coconut oil.
All the ingredients can be bought from the grocery section of our online shop and they are organic and plastic free! The dates come in a compostable bag. If you are not a fan of coconut flavour you can substitute with a refined flavourless coconut oil, some good butter/margarine or even better – cocoa butter. Give it a go and let me know what you think.
Liz x
INGREDIENTS
Base:
300g oats
pinch of salt
8 tbsp coconut oil – melted (you may need more)
2 tbsp maple syrup
Caramel:
200g pitted dates
150ml water
1 tbsp coconut oil
Chocolate:
50ml coconut oil
3 tbsp maple syrup
30g cacao
Method
Measure 150 ml of water into a jug then tear or chop in 200g of dates making sure no pits are present. Then leave to soak while you make the shortbread base.
Line a baking dish with baking paper (I use a 19x24cm dish) leaving plenty of overhang to make it easy to extract once it’s set.
Blend the oats with a pinch of salt into a fine flour then add the rest of the base ingredients (the coconut oil and maple syrup) and blend again to combine into a crumbly shortbread dough. Add more coconut oil if you need to until it comes together into a crumbly dough which stays together when squeezed.
Press the oat shortbread evenly into the lined dish then put the dish into the fridge to chill and start setting while you make the caramel.
Blend the soaked dates with all the soaking water and a tbsp of coconut oil into a smooth caramel. Carefully spread the caramel evenly over the shortbread layer and smooth it out as much as possible. Put the dish back into the fridge while you make the chocolate.
Melt the coconut oil then stir in the maple syrup. Get the dish out of the fridge and get ready to work quickly now.
Stir the cocoa/cacao powder in a tbsp at a time until you reach a shiny, smooth, pourable but thick consistency – a bit like double cream. You may not need to use all the cocoa powder. If it gets a bit thick/stiff then add a little more melted coconut oil.
As soon as you reach double cream consistency pour the chocolate over the caramel and tip the dish side to side to evenly spread a neat layer on top before it starts to set.
Put the dish in the fridge to set for a couple of hours before carefully pulling the shortbread out onto a chopping board and slicing into 12 or so biscuits.
Keep the biscuits in an airtight box in the fridge with parchment between the layers. They are ok at room temperature for a while but if it’s warm they can get a bit melty so they are best enjoyed straight from the fridge. Eat within 1 week. Enjoy!
Wild garlic is in season now and abundant in the woods around Galway. Do you have any growing near you? It’s one of my favourite things to forage and it’s long, pointed green leaves, white flowers and garlicky aroma are pretty much unmistakable. But, as with all foraging, please make sure you know what you are picking before you head out! Never pull the plant out by its small bulb, simply pinch off the green leaves and leave plenty for wildlife and biodiversity.
This year I made my usual batch of wild garlic pesto along with dehydrating some and turning it into a powder, blending some with salt and dehydrating it to make wild garlic salt, any flower buds that made their way into my bag were pickled and I blended a few handfuls with a couple of blocks of vegan butter which is absolutely incredible! I have used it in baked potatoes, roasted mushrooms, garlic bread and now this, our new obsession – parathas!
Parathas are laminated Indian flatbreads, flakey, buttery and oh so delicious! Here’s my easy recipe which we eat alongside red lentil dal and Indian pickles. Give the recipe a try and let me know what you think! Liz x
Ingredients (makes 8 parathas)
2 mugs of plain flour plus a little extra for dusting/rolling etc (you can use plain flour, strong bread flour or an authentic atta flour)
1/2 tsp salt
1 mug of water (or enough to make a soft dough – different flours have different rates of absorbency so add a little at a time and adjust with more flour/water as needed)
Optional extras like a tsp of nigella seeds, cumin seeds, brown mustard seeds, turmeric and black pepper are nice to add if you like
butter/wild garlic butter/coconut oil – melted
Method
Start by making your dough. Measure the flour and salt (and optional extra spices – we used nigella seeds this time) into a large bowl and mix to combine.
Add the water and mix into a sticky dough. Then tip out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead well until the dough is smooth and stretchy. Add more flour/water if needed to get the right consistency. Put the kneaded dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp tea towel. Let it rest in the fridge so that it is easy to roll out – 30 minutes to an hour is normally sufficient.
Then divide the dough into 8 even balls and roll them out into long oblongs.
Melt your butter/wild garlic butter/coconut oil and brush it all over the surface of the dough.
Then roll up the dough lengthways and coil it into a spiral. This way you have created loads of layers of fat in your dough which will make a flaky, layered flatbread.
Sit the coils on a platter covered with a tea towel ready to roll out. Heat up a frying pan to medium-high and melt a little oil or butter in the pan.
Then roll out the first coil on a lightly floured work surface into a thin, layered flatbread. Swirl the fat around the pan to evenly coat the bottom then add the paratha to the pan. Fry until golden brown and starting to blister then flip and fry the other side.
Keep stacked up on a plate covered with a tea towel. Then warm them up in the pan when you are ready to serve. Tear and eat – scoop up dal, chutneys etc. Enjoy!
More a serving suggestion than a recipe. You have to try my new favourite way to eat hummus! Simply smear it artfully on a plate and top with a mix of roasted vegetables and steamed greens. It’s great warm or cold! Scatter over some toasted seeds and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and scoop it all up as it is or with some salad leaves and toasted pitta breads. Why not add some extra toppings to your plate like olives, ferments, pulses, pesto, chilli sauce…? It’s such an easy way to get a whole load of goodness into your day.
How would your dream hummus plate go?
Liz x
Find the ingredients over on our website. Here are some suggestions to add to your next order:
A couple of minutes to put together and just 10-15 minutes to bake. Way faster than a takeaway pizza, cheaper, and dare I say it, more delicious? Tailor your pizza exactly to your taste with our easy pizza bases (we sell gluten free ones too), sauces, olives, pesto, vegetables and selection of cheeses (including vegan cheeses). This is also the perfect fun meal to make with kids.
Add the ingredients to your next organic fruit and veg order from us and give yourself a night off. We deliver to every address in Ireland. Liz x
Preheat the oven to 200C fan. Get a couple of baking sheets ready and line with baking paper for ease.
Open the pizza bases and place them on the baking sheets.
Spread with three heaped tbsp of tomato sauce on each pizza base. Add some dollops of pesto for little herby flavour bombs.
Scatter over your favourite pizza toppings – olives, roasted vegetables, cheese – then pop the pizzas in the oven until hot and bubbling and just starting to take on some colour. Around 10-15 minutes.
Serve slices with torn fresh basil leaves, a fresh salad and glass of organic wine for the perfect Friday night fakeaway!
Buddha bowls are all about balance. A vibrant bowl brimming with a diverse selection of grains, pulses, greens, vegetables, nuts or seeds and delicious dressings. They are a brilliant way to build a balanced lunch or dinner from some easily prepped boxes and jars of ingredients in your fridge. To me, they are the ultimate quick-but-satisfying working lunch, and a delicious way to pack in your 30 recommended ‘plant points’ per week. Buddha bowls are basically salads dialled up to 11 and in my old life running a cafe they were always the best sellers.
Here’s my flexible ‘recipe’ of what I happened to include in this week’s buddha bowl prep. But please just use it as a basic framework, the joy of Buddha bowls is making them your own using what you have and getting creative in the kitchen. Share your amazing Buddha bowl pictures with us over on our community facebook group. We love to see what you’ve made with our wonderful organic produce (and we all need a bit of inspiration sometimes).
Liz x
Ingredients
VEGETABLES for roasting (eg sweet potato, cauliflower, squash, beetroot, swede, parsnips, onion, carrots, peppers, aubergine, courgettes, tomatoes… whatever comes in your box)
DRESSINGS (eg lemon juice and olive oil, vinaigrette, tahini sauce, pesto, harissa, soy-lime-sesame, mayonaise… try and match your dressing to the other ingredients in your bowl)
optional extra PROTEINS (eg hummus, tofu, tempeh, falafel, cheeses…)
extra TOPPINGS for flavour and texture (eg ferments, pickles, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, chopped fresh cucumber/tomato/radish/scallions, herbs, sprouts, microgreens…)
Method
***Be realistic about how much food to prepare. Bear in mind that prepared food will stay fresh in airtight boxes in the fridge for 3 days so only make 3 days worth of food at a time.***
Start with roasting VEGETABLES. I like to divide mine into two trays – harder, slower cooking vegetables like roots and winter squashes in one and softer, faster cooking ‘med veg’ like peppers, tomatoes, courgettes in another.
Scrub and chop your chosen vegetables and put them into roasting trays with a little olive oil and seasoning (I like to keep the seasoning neutral with just salt and pepper at this stage so I can play with flavours when I plate up).
Roast in a hot oven until the vegetables are soft. Allow them to cool completely them pack them into boxes in the fridge.
Meanwhile cook some GRAINS/PULSES. I often cook a batch of orzo pasta (once your pasta is cooked, drain and rinse with cold water and toss with some olive oil to keep it fresh) and a batch of quinoa to get us through a few working lunches. You could skip this bit of prep and cook your grains on the day though if you’ll have time? Some warm rice with ready roasted veg and dressings is a brilliant lunch.
Or just use ready cooked tins of beans or lentils – I do this often, simply open, drain and rinse a tin of chickpeas/beans/lentils and serve with the prepped veg and dressings for the speediest lunch. We sell a range of organic tinned pulses which you can add to your veg order here.
Quinoa is very easy to cook, just like rice. Measure out a small mug into a fine sieve, give it a rinse then pop it into a small pot with two scant mugs of water. Bring to the boil with the lid on, then immediately turn to the lowest setting and let it simmer until it has absorbed all the water and released its little tails. Let the quinoa cool down before storing in an airtight container in the fridge.
Cook a big batch of GREENS. Purple sprouting broccoli and kale are my favourite at the moment and I just steam fry them in a pot with a little seasoning until they are tender. If I get salad leaves in my weekly veg box I’ll make sure I use those first as they don’t last more than 2 or 3 days.
Make a couple of DRESSINGS to keep things interesting. I love a simple vinaigrette (mix 1 tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice with 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and add other seasonings like 1 tsp of mustard, a tiny bit of maple syrup, a pinch of salt and pepper…) or a creamy tahini sauce (mix 3 tbsp of tahini with the juice of half a lemon, a splash of water and seasoning like a pinch of salt and garlic powder). I also like to make harissa, pesto, chilli jam, aioli etc so whatever sauces/dressings I have to hand will get used in my buddha bowls.
Prepare NUTS/SEEDS, PROTEINS and extra TOPPINGS. Have a look at my tamari toasted seeds recipe here. Or simply use mixed nuts or seeds to add crunch and extra nutrition to your bowl. Keep a selection of ferments (sauerkraut, kimchi, fermented onions…), olives, pickles, sun-dried tomatoes etc to add another layer of flavour and texture to your bowls. There is already loads of protein going on in all the ingredients above, but if you like you can add even more protein to your bowls by adding a dollop of hummus, some slices of cheese, avocado, tempeh, tofu and so on.
Once you have filled your fridge with a selection of ready cooked delicious ingredients, then it’s a simple matter of building your bowl when you are hungry. I like to try and keep the flavours in a way that vaguely makes geographical or cultural sense. So I’ll have pasta, pesto, roasted med veg, olives, greens.. one day, then roasted roots, tahini dressing, chickpeas, harissa, hummus… another day. Rice, kimchi, greens, furikaki and tempeh another day. It doesn’t always work out like that with perfectly matching flavours, there have been some ‘interesting’ fusions happening, but certainly never a dull bowl!
These simple seeds are so savoury, crunchy and moreish! The perfect salad or soup sprinkle. Here’s a quick video tutorial to show you the easy method. Otherwise read on below. You can buy organic seeds and soy sauce (or gluten free tamari) from our website along with the best organic fruit and veg. We deliver to every address in Ireland.
Liz x
Ingredients
seeds of your choice (sunflower, pumpkin, sesame or a mix)
soy sauce (or tarmari if you are avoiding gluten)
Method
Measure out your seeds into the jar you’d like to store them in. Make sure you leave some space in the jar though as they will expand as they are toasted.
Tip the seeds into a dry frying pan on a high heat. Keep them moving with a wooden spoon and toast them until they are taking on some colour, starting to crackle and pop and smell incredible!
Once they are toasted well, add a splash of soy sauce and quickly stir to coat all the seeds in the salty seasoning.
Take the pan off the heat and let the seeds completely cool down before returning them to the jar and securing the lid.
They should stay fresh for at least a month in the jar. Sprinkle them on salads and soups or eat them as a snack. Enjoy!
Being a chef, I do mostly make everything we eat from scratch, but Thai curry paste from scratch involves buying lots of specialist ingredients. Our organic sachets contain no nasty preservatives, have authentic, top quality ingredients and make life simple and delicious!
This is one of our most-made fakeaways at home. Thai yellow curry paste is absolutely delicious, quite mild so the kids love it, but absolutely packed with complex flavour. Simply simmer a sachet with a can of coconut milk, add some cooked veg and you’re good to hunker down with a steaming, vibrant bowl of Thai food. This quick method is so flexible, chuck whatever veg you have handy into the roasting dish with some firm tofu – cubed butternut squash, sweet potato, carrots, aubergine, peppers etc… and simmer any tender green veg with the sauce – asparagus, kale, spinach… I love it with fragrant jasmine rice or quickly boiled wide, flat rice noodles.
Let me know if you try any of our organic, ready made sauces and what your best recipes are with them. I’m working my way through them all to give you some fuss-free fakeaway ideas for those days we really can’t be bothered to cook from scratch.
optional toppings – fresh coriander, lime wedges, chopped scallions, toasted cashews or sesame seeds, salted peanuts, sliced red chilli…
Watch how I put the meal together here or read the method below.
Method
Preheat your oven to 200C. Cube up your tofu, carrots and sweet potato and add them to a roasting dish. Of course you should feel free to use alternative vegetables.
Drizzle the veg with a little oil and season simply with a big pinch of salt. Toss the vegetables with the oil and salt and put them in the hot oven to roast for around 20 minutes or until tender.
Meanwhile make the curry sauce. It’s as easy as emptying the contents of the sachet into a pot with the contents of the can of coconut milk. Turn the heat on and allow the ingredients to mingle and simmer.
Then put on your jasmine rice. For two people I measure out an espresso mug of rice into a fine sieve then give the rice a good rinse. Then tip the rinsed rice into a small pot with 2 scant espresso mugs of water. Put the lid on the pot and put it on the hob on the highest setting. As soon as the rice comes to the boil, turn the heat to the lowest setting and leave it to absorb all the water. Do not stir the rice or remove the lid. This whole process should take about 15 minutes for white jasmine rice – brown rice takes considerably longer.
While the rice is cooking and the veg is roasting, turn your attention back to the pot of curry sauce. You can add tender, fast cooking greens to the pot just before the veg is ready to come out of the oven. I used kale this time. Strip the leaves from the tough stems and slice the stems very thinly. Add them to the pot of simmering sauce to soften well before you add the leaves. Add the leaves 3 minutes before you take the veg out of the oven.
Once the roasted vegetables and tofu are cooked through, take them out of the oven and scrape them into the pot of curry sauce and kale and stir to combine. Taste for seasoning. You may wish to add some lime juice or salt.
Serve the curry and rice in bowl and top with chopped coriander, spring onions, chilli and lime wedges. Additionally add toasted cashews or salted peanuts for some welcome crunch. Enjoy!
We all have those days when we really really can’t be bothered to cook. Ordering a takeaway is such a nice treat, but it can take forever to arrive and be quite pricey. So on those days where you have no energy and your family is hangry, there’s always our ready made organic sauces for a bit of a shortcut. Look out for my ‘fast fakeaway’ recipes (if they can even be called recipes) using our range of organic, ready made sauces. I promise they are all super simple and extraordinarily tasty!
First up is this simple spaghetti with lentil ragu. This meal serves 4 or 5 people generously, takes less than 15 minutes and costs under €7 to put together.
Simply bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add a tbsp of salt and the packet of pasta to the boiling water and give it a quick swirl to stop it from clumping together.
Then tip the contents of the jar of pasta sauce into a small pot. Half fill the jar with water, replace the lid and give the jar a good shake. Then add the contents to the pot again.
Drain and rinse the tin of lentils in a fine sieve. Then add that to the pot of sauce.
Simmer the sauce while the pasta cooks. Taste for seasoning and adjust if needed. I find the jar of napoli sauce is perfectly seasoned.
Once the pasta is cooked to your liking, drain it and stir in the sauce. Add an optional drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to the pot.
Divide the pasta into bowls (alongside a simple salad or some steamed greens perhaps?) and top each bowl with a pinch of nutritional yeast for that parmesan cheese like flavour and extra nutrition.
The best current gut health science advises that we should be including as much plant diversity in our diets as possible. According to Dr Megan Rossi, one of the worlds leading gut health scientists and researchers, we should aim for 30 diverse ‘plant points’ every week. Do you eat 30 different plants a week? We certainly hope our veg boxes help you along the way to hitting that target.
We all know about the importance of eating our greens, but did you know that purple foods are really important to include in our diets too? Purple fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants called anthocyanins? All brightly coloured fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants which help prevent or delay cell damage. It’s best to get a full range of all the different types of antioxidants out there, so in the spirit of eating the rainbow, I’ve been trying out one of the new vegetables we have in, the vibrant, purple sweet potato! I’ve already made an irresistible classic – baked purple sweet potatoes with a bean chilli – and I couldn’t not make some gnocchi. Here’s the surprisingly simple recipe. I made a batch of butternut gnocchi at the same time for even more plant diversity on our plates. How will you eat purple sweet potatoes?
pesto to serve (make your own or we deliver a choice of organic pestos, add them to your fruit and veg order here)
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 200C. Scrub one sweet potato per person. Prick the potatoes with a fork and bake them in a tray in the oven until soft all the way through. Sweet potatoes cook faster than regular potatoes, so test them after 20 minutes.
Allow the potatoes to cool to a temperature you can handle. Then peel them or slice them in half and scoop out the soft flesh.
Mash or puree the baked sweet potato flesh in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Season the mash really well with salt (bearing in mind you will be adding flour).
Then start adding flour, a little at a time, and mixing it into the puree until you reach a soft dough consistency*. I generally use plain flour or strong white bread flour but most flours work. You can easily make these gluten free by using a plain flavoured gluten free flour like rice flour or a plain gluten free flour blend.
Tip the dough onto a floured work surface and gently knead into a smooth, soft ball. Do not overwork the dough, you want to keep it tender.
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Get a frying pan and some butter or oil ready too.
Roll the ball of dough into a long snake about 2 cm thick. You may wish to divide the dough into manageable pieces, depending on how big a batch you are making.
Cut the snake into bite sized pieces. You can leave the pieces in the pillow shapes they are, or roll them into balls then over a gnocchi board to make little grooves. Alternatively you can roll the pieces over the back of a fork.
Boil the gnocchi in the pot of boiling water in small batches. Once they start to float to the top of the pot, scoop them out with a slotted spoon and fry them in the frying pan with a little oil or butter until they are hot and crispy and take on some colour.
Toss the hot gnocchi with some pesto (you can loosen the pesto with a little of the pasta water if needed) and enjoy with some peppery salad leaves.
*I made a batch of butternut squash gnocchi at the same time. The method is the same. But as butternut squashes generally contain more water than sweet potatoes, they need a fair bit more flour to turn into dough.
