Oven Baked Parsnip & Hazelnut Risotto

by Liz Child

Bake your next risotto in the oven to save yourself from standing over the stove and constantly stirring a pot. I promise, the results are just as delicious. We are obsessed with this parsnip and hazelnut version right now as the new season parsnips are just being pulled from the ground. Hazelnuts and parsnips are a match made in heaven and the rosemary in the recipe really rounds off the flavours. Did you know we stock organic risotto rice and hazelnuts (and many more great groceries) in clever compostable bags?

Liz x

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 1 onion, diced
  • 3 sticks of celery, diced
  • 400g parsnips, diced
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 250g risotto rice
  • 600ml water, just boiled
  • 200ml white wine
  • 2 stock cubes
  • 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 3 tbsp chopped rosemary
  • 100g hazelnuts, chopped

Method

  1. Turn your oven on to 200C and find a deep baking or casserole dish with a lid. Put the parsnips, onion and celery in the dish along with the oil and butter. Season well with salt and pepper, give it a mix and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the veg is soft.
  2. Meanwhile, in a heat-proof bowl, measure out the rice and top with the just-boiled water, stock cubes, garlic and rosemary. Stir to dissolve the stock cubes and then add the glass of white wine. Let the rice soak while the veg cooks in the oven.
  3. Remove the dish from the oven and pour in the rice and all the liquid it has been soaking in. Stir to combine the rice, stock and vegetables and then put the lid on the dish. Place the dish back into the oven to bake the rice. It should take around 20-30 minutes. Check on it after 20, when the rice has absorbed the liquid, it is done.
  4. Once the rice is cooked, remove the lid and stir, add a splash more wine or water to stop it from drying out, then top with the chopped hazelnuts and return to the oven with the lid off for just 5 minutes or so to toast the nuts. Serve in warm bowls and enjoy!

Leek & Lemon Orzotto with Hazelnuts

by Liz Child

Leeks are one of our favourite vegetables. They are so delicious, I like to make them the star of the show when I cook with them. This simple, one-pot, spring dish is all about those luscious, soft and sweet leeks offset by toasty, crunchy hazelnuts (we stock organic hazelnuts in compostable bags here) and tangy caramelised lemon. Orzo is just rice shaped pasta which I love to cook like risotto rice, we stock an organic bag from Irish company, Bunalun. We love their store cupboard staples so much. Top quality, organic and affordable. Add some Bunalun groceries to your next fruit and veg order with us here. We deliver nationwide.

Liz x

Ingredients (serves 4 hungry people)

Method

  1. Find a large, deep, frying pan or pot. Start by toasting the hazelnuts in the dry pan. Just turn the heat to medium-high, tumble the hazelnuts into the pan and keep them moving around until they smell amazing and are deliciously toasty. Tip them into a bowl to cool a little then chop or crush into smaller pieces and save for finishing your dish at the end.
  2. Then, in the same pan, add the butter and oil. Place the lemons, cut side down, into the melted fat and let them cook until caramelised. Remove them to a bowl to finish your dish with later too. Caramelised lemon is so delicious. It makes the lemon softer, juicier and sweeter…and it looks pretty too.
  3. Tip the chopped leeks and garlic into the pan and season with salt and pepper. Stir fry until the leeks are starting to soften.
  4. Add the orzo and stock to the pan and simmer and stir until the pasta has absorbed the liquid and is cooked through. Taste and tweak the seasoning if needed with more salt and pepper.
  5. Stir the chopped parsley through, then serve in four bowls, each topped with a caramelised lemon half and a handful of chopped, toasted hazelnuts. Enjoy!

Spiced Parsnip, Hazelnut & Pear Loaf

by Liz Child

This loaf has everything I love in a cake. Great texture (thanks to the grated parsnips), not too sweet, lovely fruity bursts from the pear slices and it’s deliciously nutty and spiced, perfect with a hot mug of tea on a chilly Autumn afternoon! I hope you enjoy it as much as I am enjoying it right now. You’ll need a food processor to grind your linseeds and hazelnuts, and a grater for the parsnips, but apart from that it’s a pretty straightforward, one bowl cake.

Liz x

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp flaxseeds, ground into flour in a small food processor
  • 1 tsp each: ground cinnamon, ginger and cardamom (or use mixed spice?)
  • a pinch of salt
  • 150ml vegetable oil
  • 250ml oat milk (or any milk you like eg hazelnut)
  • 200g sugar
  • 250g hazelnuts, ground into a rough flour in a food processor
  • 250g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 250g parsnips, grated
  • 2 large pears

Method

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 175C and line a large (or two small) loaf tin with baking parchment.
  2. Mix the ground flaxseeds, spices, salt, oil, milk and sugar in a large mixing bowl and let it sit while you grind the hazelnuts and grate the parsnips. This time will allow the flaxseeds to absorb some liquid and turn ‘eggy’.
  3. Tip the ground hazelnuts, flour, baking powder and bicarb into the mixing bowl and fold it into the wet ingredients. Don’t over-mix! Just fold it in until it’s fairly well incorporated.
  4. Then fold in the grated parsnip. You should now have a spoonable, thick batter.
  5. Peel the pears and cut them lengthways into quarters. Cut out the cores then cut the quarters into long slices.
  6. Spoon half the batter into the lined loaf tin. Arrange half the pear slices on top, then spoon over the rest of the batter. Smooth it out and place the other half of the pear slices on top. Sprinkle with a few pinches of sugar if you like, then place the tin in the middle of the oven to bake.
  7. Depending on your oven and the size of your loaf tin, this cake should take roughly 90 minutes to bake. Check it at 40 minutes in, then check on it every 15 minute or so after that. It will still be deliciously moist inside because of the pear slices and parsnip, but not wet. You can test it with a skewer. When it’s done to your liking, allow it to cool in the tin. Then carefully move it to a chopping board and enjoy in thick slices with a hot cuppa!

Raw Courgette & Hazelnut Salad

by Liz Child

We are in the midst of a classic courgette glut on the farm. Next week we’ll add some free courgettes to all the boxes, we hope you enjoy them. Expect lots of courgette recipes to come your way. We’d love to know your favourite courgette recipes too please! Let us know in the comments or over on our community Facebook group. I’ll start us off with this super simple salad. It’s so easy to make (just a matter of combining raw courgettes with a lemony dressing, then scattering over some toasted hazelnuts) and oh SO delicious! I have this salad often this time of year as a side to pretty much any meal, or it’s brilliant stirred through freshly boiled pasta or bulked out with a drained tin of lentils.

Liz x

Did you know, our organic hazelnuts come in compostable bags?

Ingredients

  • Courgettes (2 small or 1 large)
  • 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • the juice of half a small lemon (have you tried our new season verdelli lemons?)
  • 1 small garlic clove, crushed
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • a handful or two of hazelnuts, toasted in a dry pan then roughly chopped

Method

  1. Using a potato peeler, slice the courgettes into delicate, thin ribbons. For ease, slice them directly over a serving platter or large salad bowl.
  2. Make the dressing by stirring together the olive oil, lemon juice and crushed garlic with a pinch of salt and pepper.
  3. Drizzle the dressing over the courgette ribbons. You could toss the salad now to evenly coat the ribbons with the dressing, or just leave it drizzly.
  4. Then toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan until nicely coloured. Tip them onto a board and carefully chop them up a bit to make them go further through the salad.
  5. Scatter them over the dressed ribbons and finish the salad with a little sprinkle of flakey sea salt. We LOVE Achill Island sea salt for exactly this type of dish.
  6. Enjoy as is as part of a salad buffet or alongside a BBQ. Or make it a light, refreshing meal by tossing through some freshly boiled pasta or a drained tin of cooked green lentils.

Parsnip & Pear Soup

by Liz Child

Parsnip & Pear Soup with Hazelnut Dukka

This soup is very simple, but delicately sophisticated. I would say it’s even good enough for the festive table! Parsnips and pears are a match made in heaven and I think you’ll agree that my hazelnut dukka really makes the dish sing. The spiced, toasty crunch of dukka offsets the sweetness of the parsnips and pears, and a little drizzle of peppery extra virgin oil rounds off the bowl.


Ingredients (serves 4 as a starter)

  • 1 tbsp olive oil (plus extra for drizzling)
  • 1 knob of butter
  • the white part of a leek – rinsed and roughly chopped
  • 1 scrubbed and trimmed parsnip – roughly chopped
  • 2 small pears – quartered and cored
  • salt to taste
  • pinch of ground nutmeg (optional)
  • hazelnut dukka (see recipe below)

Method

In a pot, gently soften the leeks, parsnip and pear with the olive oil, butter and a pinch of salt. Once the vegetables start to soften and wilt down, just cover them with water and simmer until the parsnips are cooked through. Then blend the soup until very smooth with a handheld stick blender (or let it cool down and blend in a food processor). Taste for seasoning and add more salt and a fragrant pinch of nutmeg if you like (this just makes it extra festive). Serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of hazelnut dukka.

Hazelnut Dukka

Dukka is an Egyptian nut and spice blend which is absolutely delicious. You’ll be hooked once you try it so it’s worth learning to make your own. My version is fairly simple to make.

I find an empty jar that I want to store it in and half fill it with hazelnuts. Walnuts or mixed nuts are great too. Then toast the nuts (for hazelnuts, I do this in a tray in a hot oven – just keep an eye on them and give the tray a shake every now and then so that they toast evenly – it should only take around 10 minutes).

Then tip the hazelnuts onto a clean tea towel on your work surface, place another tea towel on top and rub your hands quite firmly on the tea towel and the skins will just flake off. Then pick out the skinned and toasted hazelnuts and chop them with a large, sharp knife and put them in the jar.

The rest of the jar space should be taken up with toasted sesame, cumin and coriander seeds in fairly equal proportions. I just eyeball it and toast these one at a time in a dry frying pan, or altogether in the oven. I like to bash up the toasted coriander seeds a bit with a pestle and mortar first.

Then give the jar a shake to mix up the ingredients, let it cool completely with the lid off before popping the jar on your shelf to use on lots of different dishes. Your dukka should stay fresh for at least a month.

Did you make this soup? Let us know how it went in the comments and feel free to share the recipe with your friends and family. Share photos of our recipes on the Green Earth Organics Healthy Eating Facebook page or tag us @greenearthorganics1 over on Instagram. We love to see our recipes leave the page! Liz x