My Best Organic

I love receiving my fruit, salad and vegetable boxes - I get quite excited about what delights will be revealed as I open the boxes. However, I have to admit that I have had to find new recipes in order to include some of the contents into my family’s diet. Take, for example this week we received a butternut squash. We’ve had quite a few lately and at first I struggled to know what to do with them. CAKES! This is the answer provided by Jamie in his book “Jamie at Home” - and the recipe works a treat. What I also really like about his recipe is that he uses olive oil as rather than butter - so great for those with dairy allergies or vegans. I also made the cakes with gluten-free flour and it still worked out fine.

My two year old son saw some other children eating biscuits recently - and started asking for them…so I put together this rather indulgent recipe this morning. The biscuits turned out really well - very sweet, but lovely. It also does not contain any transfats.

Ingredients

• 125g coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup sugar (You could use less if trying to cut down; even with half a cup the biscuits would be sweet enough)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of plain flour
• Half a mug of self-raising flour
• Half a mug of porridge oats
• Half a mug of chopped up soft dried apricots

I used an average sized coffee mug for measuring.

Method

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees
• Cream the coconut oil with the sugar, egg and vanilla until quite light
• Add the flours, cinnamon and porridge oats until mixture starts to stick together
• Stir in the apricots
• Shape mixture into balls - each one should be about a tablespoon’s worth of mixture
• Place on baking tray/baking paper. Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes
• Biscuits will still be quite soft when they first come out of the oven, but don’t worry, they will become crisp on the outside as they cool. They’ll stay soft and slightly moist on the inside.

This amount made about 25 biscuits - kind of lost count as my son and I ate quite a few as they came out of the oven!

This post was submitted by Susannah.

I tried out this new idea yesterday, and the results have all been eaten, so I guess it was a success. I wanted to create a breakfast type snack for those with multiple allergies and for vegans who are trying to cut down on wheat based cereals. This quantity makes about 20 small squares - so about four breakfasts/snacks worth for a toddler.

Ingredients (all quantities are approximate)
75g Nature’s Path Organic Millet Rice Flakes
10 soft dried apricots
2 handfuls of sultanas
2 teaspoons golden linseed
2 teaspoons pumpkin seeds

Method
Place seeds in blender and blend until quite fine
Add sultanas and apricots into blender along with seeds and blend
Add millet etc., flakes and whiz briefly to combine ingredients
Press the mixture firmly into a small shallow dish
Leave for about an hour to settle
Cut into squares

Exceedingly healthy! (But still delicious x)

This post was submitted by Susannah.

You know those moments when you think yourself a genius? Well, it doesn’t happen often for me, but today I had one of those moments. I experimented with a new carrot cake recipe and the results made all who ate it squirm with pleasure! Even my husband said it was the best cake he’d ever eaten (and he’s eaten a lot).

The great thing is, the recipe is dairy-free, does not contain any hydrogenated or trans fats and is substantially lower in fat than the average cake. However, two drawbacks are: because it’s made with coconut oil, it does contain saturated fat (I think about 4g per slice - recommended daily intake for adults is between 20-30g per day) and it does require a bit of faffing about in the kitchen. It took me about 20 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook (and about 10 minutes to wash-up as I don’t have a dishwasher). But it’s worth it.

Ingredients

• 250g organic self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 50g coconut oil
• 250g sugar (I use organic unrefined)
• 2 teaspoons apricot extra jam
• 4 eggs
• 10ml vanilla extract
• 2 large carrots

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees (might need slightly higher for non-fan oven)
2. Peel the carrots. Chop one of them and put in small saucepan with some water and bring to boil. Let simmer for about 15 minutes whilst you do rest of preparation
3. Grate other carrot and put aside
4. Blend the eggs and coconut oil together. Add sugar, cinnamon, jam and vanilla extract and blend some more.
5. When carrot has simmered for approx 15 minutes, add to blended mixture and blend some more until quite smooth
6. Put blended mixture in a large bowl and fold in flour
7. Add grated carrot to mixture
8. Pour mixture into a prepared cake tin (about 10″ diameter. I do usually find that using unbleached baking paper gives a better result and ensures that no chemicals have leached from tins
9. Bake for about 25 minutes until a knife comes out of cake clean if stabbed into it all the way to bottom of tin
10. Let cool in tin for about 10 minutes
11. Turn out onto wire rack - and try to resist cutting a slice immediately x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

We had this for dinner this evening, and it went down a treat. As it’s quite a cheap meal to knock together we splashed out on some decent organic pasta…Seeds of Change have a nice range.

Ingredients
50g sundried tomatoes
2 fresh tomatoes
1 red onion
generous handful young spinach
mushrooms
Kallo Vegetable Stock Cube
pasta

1. Rinse and then rehydrate the sundried tomatoes following instructions on pack. Do not discard the liquid afterwards.
2. Rough chop onion and steam fry for a couple of minutes in a little olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of liquid from the sundried tomatoes
3. Rough chop the tomatoes and add to onion along with the sundried tomatoes
4. Add spinach and more liquid if needed. Gently cook for about 10 minutes until soft
5. Place above in blender and blend until consistency of pesto
6. Clean and chop mushrooms. Steam fry in olive oil and more left over liquid from sundried tomatoes, add a Kallo Veg Stock Cube

Serve cooked pasta mixed with the sauce and place the mushrooms on top in the centre for a bit of presentation malarkey

This amount of sauce should be enough for about four servings x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

This is really easy and tastes amazing. It’s suitable for vegans and those with dairy allergies but does contain nuts.

Ingredients
100g (approx) Brazil nuts
250g (approx) soft dried dates

Finely chop the nuts (yeah, I use my poor old blender)
Blend the dates
Mix together - easiest done using your hands to kind of press the mixture together
Press mixture into shallow tin and cut into small squares

This amount of mixture made about 30 squares each measuring approximately 2 cm
Next time I make it I’m going to try to include a few rough-chopped dried cherries to add a bit of a sour kick to the taste and a bit of drama to the texture x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

This recipe only takes five minutes to prepare and about 15 minutes to cook. It’s great with veg and nuts (or chicken if you’re a meat-eater).

Ingredients
1 onion - peeled and cut in half
1 or two cloves garlic - peeled
2 fresh tomatoes - cut in half
1 tin coconut milk
1 teaspoon paprika
1 or 2 teaspoons korma mix (Infinity Foods in Brighton do a great one)
pinch seasalt

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, this makes enough sauce for about four people. It is quite a thin sauce, but very tasty.
Steam-fry veg/chicken for couple of minutes
Add sauce and bring to bubble. Simmer gently for 15 minutes or until all cooked

Gorgeous - and a real hit with children, too, as it’s mild and quite sweet x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

This recipe is suitable for vegetarians, vegans and those allergic to dairy.  It does contain nuts.

I don’t know about you, but in the morning I want to be able to give my little boy a really healthy breakfast which doesn’t involve too much fussing in the kitchen, or that creates too much washing up.  Anything that requires a saucepan at 6.45am is just not acceptable.  My son refuses to eat porrige, so that’s handy!

The best breakfast so far has got to be homemade chocolate spread on toast.  This chocolate spread can be made up and used for a few days if stored in the fridge.  It’s so nice it probably will not last longer than that anyway.  

The Chocolate Spread Recipe

• 125g  organic dates
• 75g organic walnuts
• 1 heaped teaspoon of cocoa powder

Method

Put dates in a small saucepan and put in a couple of tablespoons of water.  Cover and simmer for a few minutes until starting to soften

Blend softened dates, walnuts and cocoa powder together

That’s it!

My son has a cup of organic rice drink and two slices of wholemeal bread with ‘Pure’ spread and chocolate spread.  The best thing about it, is that if he decides he’s had enough, I get to finish it for him x

I tried this recipe for vegan chocolate truffles today, and everyone loved them so I thought I’d share. It’s suitable for those with dairy and wheat allergies. It’s does, however, contain nuts and seeds.

Ingredients
25g sesame seeds
50g walnuts
2 level teaspoons cocoa powder
125g dates
3 soft dried apricots
tablespoon of dessicated coconut

1. Put dates in a small saucepan and add just enough water to cover them. Simmer for about five minutes
2. Transfer dates to blender and add the rest of the ingredients except the coconut
3. Blend until a paste is formed
4. Roll mixture into small balls and coat with coconut

This quantity of mixture makes between 25 - 30 truffles. The approximate cost to make this quantity is £1.90, and all of the ingredients are available from Ethical Superstore - just click on the banner!

This is a recipe I discovered and adapted recently.  It’s suitable for vegetarians and vegans.  I’ve been trying to find a way of increasing my son’s intake of seeds…he’s happy to eat a few as snacks, but loses interest quite quickly.  With these fruit/seed/nut bars, he’s content to munch away, no problem.  It’s very simple, and took us a maximum of ten minutes from digging out the ingredients through to him eating the first bar.

Ingredients

• A small handful of soft dried fruit - Crazy Jacks’ Apricots are ideal
• A small handful of sultanas
• A small handful of walnuts 
• A small handful of seeds
• A small handful of dessicated coconut

Blend all of the ingredients together until they form a paste, then shape into bars.  No need to bake!  Store in an airtight container in the fridge - probably best to eat within a few days.

Next time I’m going to experiment and use sesame seeds as they are apparently a good source of calcium.  I might try it with partially rehydrated dates instead of the apricots too.

In terms of blender, I use a KitchenAid one in a lovely bright red.  As someone with a poor history with blenders (I’ve killed four in the past few years) this one seems to be holding up pretty well.