This is one of my all time favourite dressings. It is so vibrant and punchy and creamy from the cashews. I ordered a head of Irish red lettuce last week and have been living off it for the last 5 days (it was massive and gorgeous). And I remembered this dressing, I shared a version of it with you last summer. Its just the best and makes enough to last a few days.
Couscous is so quick and handy here but you could add leftover rice, pasta, tinned lentils or beans instead. As well as adding grated carrot, shaved red onion or any leftover cooked veggies that need using up.
Let us know if you try it,
Team GREEN yay!
Lou 🙂
Note: If you love garlic add extra cloves- I usually do.
Step 1: Begin by making the cous cous. Add the dried cous cous to bowl, add a pinch of salt and top with boiling water. Cover the bowl with a plate and leave it for 15 minutes.
Step 2: Put the cashews into a bowl and cover with boiling water, leave to soften for 15 minutes. if your blender is not very powerful, soak for a full hour.
Step 3: Toast a handful of almonds on a dry frying pan on a low heat, toss ever minute until toasted. Once cooled, roughly chop them.
Step 3: Make the dressing, to a blender add the basil, spinach, the softened cashews plus the water, lemon juice, oil, grated garlic and a good pinch salt, pepper. blend until nice and smooth.
Step 4: Dice the tomatoes and cucumber. Fluff up the cous cous with a fork.
Step 5: Build the salad add the cous cous to a plate, top with lettuce, tomato and cucumber, pour over the dressing and scatter the almonds on top.
High in protein cottage cheese banana and chocolate chip ice cream is worth trying!! It tastes tangy but sweet and tasty. We added some optional peanut butter and salted peanuts for extra crunch, saltiness and goodness.
When the weathers hot it’s great to get some goodness from our ice cream. We stock fair trade organic bananas and delicious dark chocolate that are perfect partners in this handy to make ice cream.
With the lovely warm weather we’re currently having, it most definitely is salad season. Quick, easy and healthy, as a side or as a main course – you’ll definitely want to try these!
Click on the bold part to go straight to the recipe.
We’ve got lots of gorgeous deep purple aubergines at the moment, so why not try this warm aubergine salad!
Step 1: Line a loaf tin with parchment paper, or a similar sized lunchbox will work too.
Step 2: Make the caramel: Add all the ingredients to a powerful blender. Blend until smooth. Take out 3/4 of the caramel and put it in a bowl and add in the base ingredients.
Step 3: Make the base: to the blender with 1/4 of the caramel add the oats, cocoa powder, coconut oil and boiling water. Blend until combined.
Step 4: Spoon the base mix into the loaf tin, smooth with a spoon or spatula. Top with the caramel and smooth. Put this in the fridge for 1 hour to set.
Step 5: Melt the chocolate and coconut oil together. Pour over the top and tilt the tin to cover, sprinkle with sea salt. Chill for 30 minutes. Slice into bars and enjoy.
There was an interesting piece on Countrywide last week documenting the demise of our indigenous vegetable growing industry. All the interviewed vegetable growers told the same story, loss leading and chasing the cheapest possible produce by supermarkets is destroying our industry. In some cases, refusing a very basic increase of a few cents to ensure survival of some of Ireland’s vegetable farms.
We have been led to believe that carrots at €.49 or broccoli at €.79 is the norm, or Brussel sprouts for €.05! This is loss leading as it is impossible to produce crops for these prices. The market will always chase the cheapest option, always, using cheap import pricing as a barometer to value locally grown food.
Not only are our food growers closing doors, so too are smaller independent retailers who haven’t the scale and cannot compete with supermarket pricing.
What happens when this short-term approach to food supply eventually leads to the last vegetable farms and independent retailers closing their doors. Where then will our food come from when there is a climate shock, as there was in Spain earlier this year. Where then will supermarkets look to supply our food? Where is the long-term vision and the commitment to sustainability in this food sourcing strategy?
Here’s another interesting fact about retailing in Ireland: ‘the restrictive practices order 1987 prohibits the sale of grocery products at below net invoice price’ but this law does not include fresh produce! It is deemed permissible to allow loss leading on all things fresh, and that includes you may be surprised to learn not only fruit and vegetables, but also milk, meat, and fish.
Setting a basic requirement to sell fresh food at fair prices would level the playing field would allow a more measured amount of the sale price to go to the farmer and give independent retailers a fighting chance.
An IFA commissioned economics report published last March, stated that retail prices compression threatens the viability of Irish horticulture which could lead to even more reliance on imports to feed our nation.
The most recent national field vegetable census showed that the number of field vegetable growers fell from 377 in 1999 to 165 in 2014. That is a contraction of 56% These skills are lost for ever, and once they are gone are difficult to replace.
I for one am grateful for our own farm and the farmers that supply us, we aim to pay fairly for the food we produce and buy, we price our produce as competitively as we can, and we feel by removing the middleman we are able to reasonably compete with the big supermarkets. But not if they continue to sell produce for below the cost of production.
We are lucky and thankful to have our own farm and also to have a network of great Irish organic farmers that we source our food from. We can’t wait to be harvesting more of our own produce and receiving the amazing produce from our other Irish suppliers and you can see all the IRISH produce we currently have here.
Please remember your purchase with us makes a massive difference, thank you for your continued support.
Tacos are on trend at the moment, you can add just about anything in there but its hard to beat spicy smashed black beans. They’ve got to be crispy so give them a good fry and serve up with your favourite taco sides.
We are big fans of Mexican style food in our house its great family food to share and dip and mix and match. Add fresh salsa, guacamole, cheese and jalapeños.
Find all the orgainc beans and spices you need in our groceries.
Step 1: Make the spicy smashed beans. Add the oil to a warm frying pan along with the onions and garlic. Gently cook to soften. Add the chilli, cumin, paprika, dried herbs, a pinch of salt and tomato puree. Cook for 3-5 minutes.
Step 2: Tip in the beans, stir to coat in the spices pour in the water and simmer for 5-10 minutes until the beans cook down, add a squeeze of lime. Mash with a fork or a potato masher, transfer to a bowl and clean the frying pan.
Step 3: Spoon the mashed beans onto the tortilla wrap, add cheese and fold over. Heat the frying pan, add oil and fry the taco on both sides until golden and crispy. Push down with a weight or small pot to get better contact with the pan, flip and fry on the other side until crispy. Repeat.
Step 4: Serve hot with smashed avocado, fresh coriander and lime.
Quick, dairy free, vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free, kid approved, only 3 ingredients and very tasty! You need to try these cookies.
My kids are alway hungry and I like to have snacks on hand that have a bit of goodness in them. Almonds are a superfood and while my kids wont eat whole almonds they will happy munch on these cookies instead.
They may not look perfect but for a quick bake they hit the spot. They are crispy on the outside soft in the middle. If you’re feeling extra fancy drizzle some melted chocolate on top.
Step 1: Preheat the oven 170ºC. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Step 2: Melt the coconut oil in the microwave or in a small pot and stir in the maple syrup.
Step 3: Mix the coconut and maple into the ground almonds and work into a dough. Use your hands to form 10 small balls put them on the baking tray 1.5 inch apart.
Step 4: Use a fork to push the balls down and make a crisscross on the top of each cookie.
Step 5: Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.
This is a very tasty satay curry. I was on a quest to use up a head of organic cauliflower that was looking a bit sad and neglected and I have to say it was delicious in this dish. I hoked and poked in the cupboards, fridge and freezer and managed to find all I needed for this curry without having to buy anything else. Using what you have at home is a great way to prevent food waste and it’s very satisfying using up odds and ends.
This curry needs the potato but add whatever veg you have that needs to be used up like peppers, carrots, courgettes, aubergine, greens. Most veg will work in here whether its fresh or frozen.
I’m a sucker for peanut butter and it helps to thicken the sauce and add that needed protein to keep you fuller for longer.
Will you give it a try? let us know in the comments below.
Lou 🙂
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
3 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 heaped teaspoon brown sugar
1 head of cauliflower, torn into florets
1 sweet potato and 4 regular potatoes about 700g altogether, peeled and cubed
Step 1: Warm a wide pot on a medium heat. Add a glug of cooking oil along with the onions, cook for a couple of minutes then add the garlic and ginger. Cook for a further 5 minutes to soften.
Step 2: Add in the spices the curry powder, turmeric, garam masala, chilli, brown sugar and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Toast for a minute or two.
Step 3: Toss in the cubed sweet and regular potato along with the cauliflower and coat in the spices.
Step 4: Pour in the tinned tomatoes, veg stock and coconut milk, stir and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Step 5: When the potatoes are cooked through stir in the peanut butter, peanuts and spinach. Taste the sauce and adjust if needed. Serve with rice and flatbreads.
It struck me today as I took the chance to get out of the office for a while, that there is a very real tangible benefit to doing business and farming in the way we and other organic farms do it.
There is pressure too as we don’t have the reliance on an armory of chemicals to cut the work to the minimum and to ease the pressure when there is a risk of disease.
But the pluses definitely outweigh the negatives, It is definitely worth it, 100%. It is worth it when you take a walk around and you absorb the diversity we have here in abundance, and not just biodiversity we have diversity of people and plants, and animals and insects and even in you our customers that we have the privilege of being able to connect with directly we have diversity. Often marketers ask us who our customer is, and it is so difficult to define because people from all walks of life choose to support us.
But the biodiversity is the one thing that without fail always reminds me of the importance of changing the way we produce our food, and I guess the poster child for biodiversity is the bee. I don’t think I can count the number of different bumble bees I have seen in the last week. They seem to come in all shapes and sizes and they just make me feel happy! But not only that they of course have a very real role as pollinators and without the bee we would be lacking for so much.
So, and it seems like deja vu, as we do this every year, so here we go again! I hope if everything goes according to plan by the time you have read this then we will have planted nearly 3 acres of wild flowers and clover. We do this to enhance the structure of the soil and to add nutrients too. But the most amazing benefit will be felt later on in the year when the color and the flowers and bees come in their thousands and for that I cant wait. A real gift of nature, but as with many things it is fleeting, but to be enjoyed while it lasts.
I also hope by the time you read this that we will have successfully sown our first parsnip, carrots and beetroot crops, that of course is by no means guaranteed as the weather the machinery tend to take on a life of their own. But what will be, will be, they do say you need to cultivate (and that was definitely not an intentional pun!) patience to do this job, and they are right.
I will of course keep you posted of our progress, and in that respect the farm team are making loads. The tomato plants look amazing, and there are flowers blooming on all the plants (over 1100) we also have fantastic harvesting going on for you over the coming days. The spinach, chard, lettuce and salad, coming from our own farm. We are also receiving gorgeous rocket from Millhouse organic farm, and fresh herbs from Joe Kelly, amongst all the other usual Irish staples.
We have this year put in place formal agreements with a number of small and not so small Irish organic growers as we came to two realisations.
We simply cannot do it all ourselves, we have tried.
This allows the creation of an amazing network of support for other small Irish organic farms. As this season rolls on watch this space for all the amazing Irish produce we will be growing receiving and delivering.
So, thank you, without you and you need to really understand that we really mean ‘without you’, we would not be here, the bees would not be here. You are making this possible, and you are getting the very best cleanest freshest organic food on the planet delivered to your door to boot!
So, thank you from all of us here.
Kenneth
PS Watch out for the signed note of who packed your order in all your boxes, you may not meet the guys who walk around our warehouse carefully putting your orders together but now at least you get to put a name to the person who does.
PPS So don’t forget to place your order, and if you are a courier customer, watch out for our amazing new FSC (Forest Stewardship approved) courier boxes, only ever packed with shredded waste cardboard! Also remember delivery is still FREE when you spend over €100.
