This Christmas, how about making vegetables the centrepiece of your Christmas feast? Better again, how about supporting Irish farmers by including lots of local vegetables, grown organically without the use of any pesticides? We’re kicking off our Christmas series of recipes today with a gorgeous root vegetable gratin. Hearty enough to sustain itself as a main, but it makes for a delicious and nutritious side too. This vegetable-ladened gratin is a rich source of fibre, vitamins, and minerals. The beetroot adds a beautiful pink hue to the finished dish, along with a burst of nutrients including iron, vitamin B6 and magnesium. If you would like to get-ahead for the big day, this gratin also freezes perfectly; simply take it from the oven before adding the cheese, allow to cool fully, before wrapping tightly and freezing in a freezer-proof dish. Then defrost in the fridge overnight the night before cooking, add a layer of cheese and bake for about 20 minutes or until fully cooked through.
Wash, peel, and very thinly slice the vegetables. Rinse with water and pat dry with a paper towel.
Add to a large bowl with the stock, cream, sage, rosemary and some salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
Transfer to a large casserole dish, and bake in the oven for 50 minutes, giving the mixture a stir a couple times during cooking.
Add an even layer of the grated cheese to the gratin and return to the oven for 10-15 minutes until it is bubbling, cooked through and the cheese is bubbling. Serve and enjoy!
Crispy, so savoury and packed full of flavour. We think you’ll love these plant based rolls. Delicious for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
We have the nicest chestnut mushrooms rich in immune boosting nutrients, cooked down with onions and spices. They give the best texture. We’ve bulked these out with protein packed chickpeas and almonds and blended the mix with iron rich baby spinach. Serve them with a sweet chilli dipping sauce, divine.
Grab most of the ingredients in our groceries.
Lou x
Ingredients: makes 8 rolls
I pack of ready rolled puff pastry(375g) – most are suitable for vegans 1.5 tbsp oil 1 pack (250g) chestnut mushrooms, finely diced
1 red onion, finely diced 3 gloves garlic, finely chopped or grated 2 tbsp tomato paste 1 tbsp maple syrup 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tbsp soya sauce 40g baby spinach 1 tin chickpeas rinsed and drained 100g flaked almonds Salt and pepper to taste 1 egg whisked or milk of choice to glaze 1-2 tablespoons sesame seeds to decorate
Method: Step 1: Preheat the oven 200ºC fan. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper. Leave the puff pastry out of fridge to come to room temperature.
Step 2: Start by warming a frying pan on a medium heat, add the oil and the diced onion. Cook for five or so minutes to soften. Add the chopped garlic and cook for a few minutes. Next add the diced chestnut mushrooms and cook for a good 5 -10 minutes, until they shrink in size. Spoon in the tomato puree, maple syrup, soy sauce, cumin and paprika. Stir to coat the mushrooms and cook for a further few minutes. Set aside to cool for a minute or two.
Step 3: To a food processor add the cooked mix, drained chickpeas and flaked almonds, chopped spinach. Blend to combine but keep the mix a bit chunky for texture. Taste the mix add salt or pepper if needed.
Step 4: Unroll the pastry, divide in 2 lengthways giving 2 even strips. Spoon the mix down the middle of the pastry in a sausage shape. Brush one side of the pastry strip with egg or milk. Gently fold the pastry over, use a fork to seal it. Cut the strip into 4 and put them on the baking tray, seam side underneath. Brush with egg or milk, sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Repeat with the other strip of pastry.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until nice and golden brown and delicious.
First, I want to show you something: Darragh Wynne from the charity Goal Ireland was here a few weeks back and invited me to talk for a video, if you want to learn a little bit more about and see some cool drone footage of our farm (and even catch a glimpse of George and Florence check this video out.
George and Florence are happy pigs, they couldn’t actually have a better life, I really don’t think they could. Not only do they get to roam around nearly 2 acres of old and newly established forests, they have a dry straw lined shed to sleep in and probably best of all they get fed waste organic veg once a day. They are as happy as two pigs in muck could be.
But they fit into this story very well, as they are the last step in our grandly termed food waste reduction strategy, we don’t have a formal document or anything like that, but we do have a belief system around food waste.
So here is a crazy fact, one third of all food produced on the planet is wasted. The area required to produce that food is 16 million km2, which is roughly an area the same size as Russia, which is a very big place.
We all know we need to take urgent steps to reduce our impact on the planet, no surprise there, and as we pass yet another mind boggling climate record with September being the warmest month ever by a long way, that action is critical.
So wouldn’t it be an amazing if we could cut the land used for agriculture by 16 million square kilometers and instead grow forestry? Of course, it would.
But where is all this wasted food coming from? Well, that is where I will tell you the second part of my story, last week we took a delivery of carrots, we weren’t very pleased with these carrots, they were Irish, they were organic, but they were massive, and I mean they were big but we got our heads together and figured out how we could prevent them ending up in the bin.
So, we set about trying to use them to sell them, to make sure we wasted as little as possible. There is one thing I can absolutely guarantee had these carrots landed at the door of a supermarket they would have been rejected, sent back, or wasted.
Herein lies one of our bugbears, supermarkets insisting without remorse on unforgiving specifications and when produce does not meet them refusing to sell it or accept it. We have been there many moons ago, once upon a time having supplied supermarkets. In the growing season we have had this year, produce may come out maybe a little smaller or bigger or twisted or forked and that in our view is the beauty of nature. We wont grade out twisted parsnips, or forked carrots.
Of course, there is still the possibility that produce will not meet our quality requirements, and this is where we do have a very well-defined system and we put a fair amount of effort into it to make it work.
Maciek our quality manager has done amazing work creating his “Rescue boxes” each week these boxes are filled with “Class II” produce. If we can’t use the produce in the rescue boxes our team get it, and if it is unusable it ends up in one of two places, actually one of three places!
It either A. Goes to one of our three compost bays, or B. go to George’s belly or C. goes to Florence’s belly!
(Interesting fact: We have to make two separate piles of food when feeding the pigs because Florence always bullies George and tries to keep all the food for herself!)
So that is the end of the story for this week, just know you are supporting a little business that manages in our own way to keep the food waste mountain from growing at least on our watch and continues to step by small step help build a better food system.
You are making it possible, thank you.
Kenneth
PS Darragh Wynne from the charity Goal Ireland was here a few weeks back and invited me to talk for a video, if you want to learn a little bit more about and see some cool drone footage of our farm (and even catch a glimpse of George and Florence check this video out.
We love these fritters! In fact I made them twice at the Farm Walk and I was asked for the full recipe so here it is. This is especially for Kenneths mother Maureen, who I promised I would share this, so she can make them at home herself.
This September we are making a conscious decision to eat more Irish produce, the carrots and courgettes are from the farm. While the other ingredients are from further afield we are happy knowing that these came from Irish soil. And I tell my kids that when we eat these fritters. Oh and my daughter had these in her lunchbox for school and loved them.
Step 1: Using a machine or box grater, grate the courgette, carrot, sweet potato and red onion, mix well.
Step 2: In a separate bowl add the chickpea flour, curry powder, chilli flakes, salt and pepper, mix well.
Step 3: Pour the seasoned chickpea flour all over the grated veggies and using you hands mix really well, this will take a few minutes. Really give it a good squeeze and work it almost like a dough. The liquid from the veg will help to form a batter with the flour.
Step 4: Warm a frying pan on a medium heat, add tablespoon of oil. Shape the mix into small patties fry for a couple of minutes, flip and fry again until cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack and repeat.
Courgette season is in full swing and we are harvesting these dark green beauties both from the tunnels and from the fields. Fantastic in savoury dishes, of course, but did you ever bake a courgette cake?
Click on the bold part to go directly to each recipe
It’s barbecue season! What better way to use some beautiful courgettes than these BBQ skewers
A handy snack for hungry adults and children alike: Lunch box muffins
This frittata is so handy to make and works perfectly with gorgeous Irish root veg! You can add just about any cooked veg to your frittata, here we are using delicious turnip and potato thats delicious with spinach and feta. Any left over cooked veg can be used think beetroot, peppers, courgette, carrots, parsnips, broccoli or peas it’s a real #zerowaste hero recipe.
This recipe makes a large frittata that is great for feeding a crowd for lunch, dinner or picnic. The best part is you can have it hot or cold.
Food waste is such a huge issue, so much food gets wasted, a lot of it could still be used and feed us rather than end up in the compost bin. Food is too precious to let it go to waste, isn’t it? The EPA (environmental protection agency) estimates that Ireland generated 770,300 tonnes (t) of food waste in 2020.
So what can you do to reduce food waste in your house? Store fruit and veg correctly, for starters. And when cooking, make sure to check out the below recipes for using up things like overripe bananas and stale bread. Love food, hate waste.
Bread is Irelands most wasted food with 40% of households saying old bread makes it way to the bin. There are a few nifty thrifty ways to use up old bread and give it a new lease of life. There is “Less Waste and More Taste” with these homemade croutons in 3 different flavours (herb, chilli and curry) that go deliciously well with soup in winter and salads in the summer.
I joined the air fryer community a few months ago and I have to say making a batch of croutons in the air fryer with old cubed bread is a cinch and very satisfying. Raid the spice rack and add some exciting flavours while you’re at it. If you don’t have an air fryer just toast the bread in the oven.
Tip: Old bread works best for croutons. Cut the pieces of bread into roughly the same sized cubes for even cooking.
My young kids adore these with their soup…and we munch and crunch on them chat about which flavour we like best.
Lou 🙂
Ingredients: makes 3 different flavours and 3 small bowls
6 slices old bread – white slice pan/ sour dough/ batch loaf/ GF whatever you have
For the herby croutons: Slice and cube 2 slices of bread and add them to a mixing bowl.
Sprinkle in the dried mixed herbs and mix, add a drizzle of oil to coat season with a small pinch of salt and pepper if you wish. Toss the croutons to coat in the oil.
Pour the cubed bread into the air fryer basket.
Air fry at 180ºC for 8-10 minutes shaking half way through.
You can toast the croutons in the oven -Preheat your oven 180ºC, put the bread cubes on a baking tray and bake them in the oven for 20 minutes, check and shake half way through.
The croutons should be evenly toasted and brown all over.
For chilli croutons: Repeat the method above but for step 2 instead of dried mixed herbs add paprika and chilli flakes.
For curry croutons: Repeat the method above but for step 2 instead of dried mixed herbs add curry powder.
We love oats in every way, when you eat them they release energy slowly over the next few hours and make for a great start to the day! However, porridge everyday can get a bit boring so we’ve added a few good ingredients to make this indulgent baked oats dish. Of course you probably won’t have chocolate oats everyday so give this a go at the weekend or to celebrate a special day! Serve as it is or with yoghurt and banana or ice cream and berries.
Cooking methods have evolved over the years. Traditional methods of steaming, boiling and roasting will remain but air frying is a new enough method and a great addition. I decided to hop on the air frying wagon a couple of months ago and have not regretted it one bit.
Air fryers are very economical to run and so efficient! And whats more they are great for cooking vegetables in a speedy tasty manor.
Butternut squash is a great winter veg, I spied the hasselback version and was dying to try it out. Basted in a spiced butter it is a delicious side dish. If you don’t own an air fryer you can make the same dish in a casserole or roasting dish in the oven, it will take about an hour at 180C.
Carefully cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds.
You’ll need 2 chop sticks to make incisions in the squash. Take one half of the squash and place a chop stick on either side. Hold the sticks in place along with the squash with one hand and chop multiple thin slices with a sharp knife down as far as the sticks with the other hand. they should be about 4mm thick. Repeat with the other half of the squash.
Melt the butter in a pot or microwave and add in the paprika, cumin, chilli, salt and pepper, give it a stir.
Remove the grill place and pour the spiced butter into the air fryer basket
Place both of the pieces of squash in the basket, flat side down in the spiced butter.
Air fry for 25 minutes, basting with the butter half way through.
Check the squash is fully cooked by piercing with the tip of a sharp knife.
When its fully cooked remove carefully from the basket, baste again with the spiced butter and serve.
