It’s almost Christmas, so let’s get all the lovely christmassy recipes into one place! Here’s some inspiration for a meat free christmas dinner and so much more.
Looking for some fantastic festive nibbles for your next seasonal soirée? These smashed and roasted potatoes and sprouts are incredible! Taking the time to squash, dress and roast your boiled/steamed veg is really worth it. This process creates gorgeous craggy edges which turn into crispy deliciousness in the oven! Perfect with a nutty romesco dipping sauce or any dip you fancy. Enjoy!
Liz x
Ingredients
For the potatoes and sprouts:
1 kg potatoes, steamed/boiled until fork-tender
500g brussels sprouts, steamed/boiled until tender
5 tbsp oil (I used golden rapeseed oil)
the zest of an orange
4 crushed cloves of garlic
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp fine salt
For the romesco dipping sauce:
100g almonds, roasted
2 roasted and skinned red peppers (from a jar is perfect)
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp fine salt
1 small garlic clove, peeled
1 tbsp vinegar (apple cider, red wine or sherry vinegars all work well here)
2 tbsp olive oil
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C and prepare the vegetables. (Boil or steam the potatoes and sprouts until they are fork soft, roast the almonds in the oven for 5 minutes, roast the peppers or use pre-roasted from a jar, prepare the dressing ingredients…)
Spread the sprouts and potatoes onto a large, lined baking tray and squash them gently with the base of a glass.
Mix the dressing ingredients and drizzle/brush over it all over the squished vegetables. Then place the tray in the oven to bake until golden and crispy (around 30 minutes).
Meanwhile blend the romesco dipping sauce ingredients together until smooth. Serve the crisped up vegetables on a large platter with the sauce in a ramekin – fab festive finger food! Any left over sauce makes a great pasta or pizza sauce or can be frozen to use another time.
Making gnocchi from scratch is a little intimidating, but it’s actually not that complicated. Simply mix puréed, seasoned vegetables with enough flour to form a soft dough, roll the dough into snakes and cut into bites. Then boil the bites until they rise to the surface and you are ready to sauté, roast or simmer them in sauce. This parsnip variety is ridiculously delicious. Give it Christmassy vibes with sprouts, sage and hazelnuts.
Liz x
Ingredients (serves 4)
For the gnocchi:
500g parsnips, boiled/steamed until soft
2 tsp salt and a grind of pepper
250g flour (plus more as needed for dusting and rolling)
To finish:
lots of butter (to sauté the gnocchi in batches)
around 20 Brussels sprouts, quartered
a handful of hazelnuts, chopped
fresh sage leaves
salt and pepper to taste
Method
Mash the cooked parsnips until smooth. If they are a little stringy or you left the skins on, use a blender to get them very smooth. Stir in the salt and pepper and taste. They should be over-seasoned at this stage before you add the flour.
Tip in the flour and use a spoon to roughly combine it with the pureed parsnips. Then tip out onto a floured surface and bring together into a soft dough. Don’t give in to the temptation to knead, you are not looking for stretchy gluten in gnocchi, you want a tender dough.
Cut the dough into smaller pieces and roll into slim snakes. Use flour as needed to help avoid stickiness. Then cut the snakes into little bites and spread them out on a floured tray. If you feel up for some kitchen meditation time, you could roll each bite over a gnocchi board or the back of a fork to create beautiful grooves, but it’s not necessary.
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and drop the gnocchi in in batches. After just a few minutes, they should start to rise to the top, scoop them out with a slotted spoon a place on a large platter. Keep going until you have boiled all the gnocchi.
Heat up a large frying pan with a generous tbsp of butter. Add half the sprouts and season with salt and pepper. Sauté for 3 minutes until they start to colour. Then add half the gnocchi, half the hazelnuts and around 6 sage leaves. Add another tbsp or so of butter and stir fry to warm up the gnocchi and give it some golden colour. The nuts should get wonderfully toasted and the sage leaves impart gorgeous fragrance and flavour.
Tumble into two warm bowls to serve and repeat step 5 with the other half of the ingredients. Enjoy!
Here in Ireland we need to do much better on plastic, we are at the bottom of the European league tables when it comes to plastic waste per person. By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish by weight in the oceans.
On our farm and in our business, we have spent 3 years looking at our processes and removing plastic where we can. In contrast to the green washing of most of the larger retailers who have promised and yet have not delivered we are doing what we say.
We do not use plastic in any of our seasonal set boxes, we use paper, and we collect and reuse our boxes, this is a fundamental cornerstone of our business. We realise that paper too has its own carbon cost, and we are looking at ways of trying to reduce that further. It bothers me a bit though, when the idea of using a paper straw instead of a plastic one constitutes progress, it is a small step, but it diverts attention from the real issues, such as the large scale use of plastics in the food industry.
The strain that humankind’s excessive consumption is putting on our planet is eye watering and for the environment and biodiversity the price is too great. We all need to consume less, whether it be plastic or otherwise.
I recognise the irony of encouraging less consumption and at the same time trying to sell our organic veggies boxes. But I have no shame in this, we run a sustainable business, we employ a lot of people in a worthwhile industry we grow local organic food and support so many other small scale Irish organic producers too and in order to pay them we need to sell boxes.
Everybody needs to eat, and it is impossible to assess the environmental credentials of most food businesses. This Christmas and new year if you want to know your food has been sourced and grown sustainably then throwing your lot in with us for your food is the right thing to do.
Our Christmas boxes and many other lovely Christmassy things (gift vouchers, wine hampers, original art and many eco-hampers) are available on our website, and they will be delivered the week beginning the 20th of December. The boxes are brimming with organic local (where possible) freshly harvested sustainable food.
We can deliver by courier all over Ireland and if you can place your order by the 12th you will be entered into a draw for an amazing hamper, it also guarantees you a delivery slot on Christmas week and helps us out immeasurably with harvesting.
If you want the most amazing fresh ingredients and also keep Christmas plastic free, local and sustainable then get a delivery from us this year.
