Recipes

Kumato, Piquillo, Butter Bean and Coriander Salad

Posted on November 30, 2012 by leroy watson

Kumato, Avocado, Butter Bean and Piquillo Salad

A salad to light up any table with a wonderful combination of strong colours and sweet flavours. I know we always rave about our food, but we happen to like it! This salad is a combo of all the things we adore in food; beans, sweet things, crispy veg and a tangy dressing. It’s a hearty salad and ideal for a main course.

All ingredients are from the local market, grown by people who love their plants. I swear you can taste the difference!

Piquillos are something new for us, I have never fully appreciated their potential to tantalise. A proper taste explosion! There is such a wide range of flavours that can be experimented with when marinating. The process is the same with meat and veggies, peppers are ideal for the slow soaking process. Really getting the flavours in there and becoming nicely tender.

Piquillos are little red Spanish chilli peppers, which are spicy in a soft way. To make our marinated peppers, we roast them off first, get a little colour on them, and pop them in a jar and cover with olive oil and a drop of honey. Herbs and spices can be added, we like them nice and simple. Seal well and leave for a few days, longer if you can, and enjoy on all salads, sandwiches or served straight up as a nibble/ tapas treat.

Kumatos are a real star. A type of tomato grown in these Murcian parts, dark green (or called black by some!) and full of a vibrant sweet flavours. Very fruity indeed. I did not fully understand the wonder of tomatoes until I visited southern Spain. They grow all around this region, unfortunately mostly in longs bags in massive plastic covered farms. These beauties came from an old mans back garden and you can taste the love!

Salads like this deserve a decent plate to be served on, not stacked up in a bowl. This adds a little theatrical joy to the dining experience. Get your largest, finest plate and spread the gorgeous ingredients out in a haphazard, indulgent fashion.

I like to serve the salad with warm butter beans, it brings the flavours out even more. If you use warm beans, serve straight away, things can get limp.

Time for the assembly…..

Makes one large plate of salad, good for two as a main serving.

The Bits

5 medium kumatos (or the best tomatoes you can get your mits on), three large handfuls of chopped swiss chard, 2 cups of cooked butter beans, 1 cup chopped piquillos, 1 avocado (chopped into chunks), 1 handful of fresh coriander,

Dressing – 3 tbs great olive oil (or use the oil from the piquillos, even better), 2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice, sea salt and cracked pepper to taste.

Do It

Lay your chard out onto the plate and pop the rest of your bits evenly on top, leaving the coriander until last. Drizzle with a little dressing and keep some on the side for people who love their tang!

Kumato, Butter Bean, Coriander and Piquillo Salad

Serve

Centre stage maybe with some crusty bread and lashings of olive oil.

We Love It!

Rich and sweet, just like us (not!) A real gourmet salad treat.

Foodie Fact

Piquillos are traditionally grown in northern Spain and are full of vitamin C (comparable with a citrus fruit). They are also rich in many other vitamins and are generally served in Spain stuffed and roasted. They’re great stuffed with cream cheese and herbs.

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: butterbean, food, healthy, kumato, piquillo, recipe, salad, spain, vegan, vegetarian | 1 Comment

Murcian Sweet Potato & Rosemary Burgers with Aubergine Buns

Posted on November 27, 2012 by leroy watson

Happy day at the Sunday market (with backpack full of good stuff), Puerto Mazzaron, Spain

Hola from Murca, Spain! We’ve moved here for a few months, following the sun!

It’s been a while beloved Beach Houser’s, too long, but we’re back with a bang and a massive burger treat. The search for the tastiest veggie burger is a quest to be taken very seriously. These are at the very least, a contender, with Aubergine for buns and a nice cheesy chilli kick.

Cracking burgers these with inspiration straight from the local markets of Puerto Mazzaron, Murica (a region known as the ‘garden of Spain’ or ‘veggie produce heaven’). It’s not hard to be inspired in Murcia, the air smells of rosemary and herbs with tomatoes, lemons and almonds growing freely all over the place.

The local Puerto Mazzaron Sunday market is full of old time geezers and their wives selling their wares, mostly out of the backs of dilapidated jollopy type vans. There is at least some organic produce here, but it’s never marked, we just pick the most misshapen, curly, funky looking varieties and this seems to work. The flavours are amazing, a humble pepper can fill me with so much joy.

Mazzaron market is a real feast for the senses and like all markets in the world, I feel in my element, free to sniff out the finest produce and really get to grips with a culture and place. The market is the beating heart of a town, the fact they are dying out is a huge shame. Food says alot about us and in Murcia they sell it whilst swigging cold beers, potent coffees and doughnuts dipped in thick hot chocolate all washed down with ham, ham and more ham. This can only mean more veggies for us. Buena Suerte!

We didn’t fancy any salt in these burgers, so the olives were a great local addition. Packing loads of flavour and decent hit of salty tanginess. The olive counter at the market is a large row of buckets with a mind boggling number of varieties. We love the fat little green manzanilla’s, the spicy gazpacho mix and the sweet red peppery ones. You can get olives anyway you like here, stuffed with lemon or even a whole chilli!

Jane on the mountain top behind our little casa – Isla Plana, Murcia.

Manchengo comes in various guises and I normally like the cured option, slightly saltier and harder, on the way to a pecorino. Jane opted for the semi-cured variety this time which was a real surprise. After munching much cheese in France, this Spanish stuff is really decent. Semi-cured manchengo is very creamy and light, perfect for a tasty burger, adding a load of richness. Add to that the local organic hot paprika, rosemary from the rambla (one of the dried river that runs below us) and the smells and flavours of Murcia are all here, in burger form!

Aubergine buns!? Why not. Tastier than bread and a healthier option. Feel free to pop them into a proper bun if you fancy. The only thing was, our burgers were way too big for our buns (never a bad thing), so we were forced to improvise and make it into something resembling an aubergine bruschetta.

These are burgers to crack out when you are in carnivore territory and you need something packed with flavour and filling. This is no flimsy veggie option, this is one for big eaters and lovers of rich food. Ideal for barbecues.

We have no internet in our casa, so we hope to connect again soon, but who knows!? Rest assured, we’ll be eating our way through the ‘garden of Spain’ and thinking of you all. Watch this space for more BHK Espana antics.

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The Bits – For 4 big ones

1 medium sweet potato (cut into 1cm cubes), 1 ½ cup brown lentils, 1 yellow pepper, 3 cloves garlic, 1 aubergine (cut into 4 large wedges for the buns), 100g Vegan Parmesan Cheese (chopped fine), 20 plump green olives (mas o menos, chopped fine), 2 heaped teaspoons hot paprika (add ½ teas cayenne pepper if you don’t have hot paprika), 1 heaped teas Dijon mustard (when in Spain!), 2 teas balsamic vinegar, 2 teas fresh rosemary (chopped fine), lots of cracked black pepper, your favourite oil for frying (we used a nice sunflower)

Topping – Sweet Red Piquillos (red peppers, roasted and marinated in olive oil), thin slices of good tomato.

Do It

Cover your lentils with water, 1 inch above, add 3 bay leaves and a little sea salt, bring to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes until tender. Drain well (keep the juices for soup or stew. Yum!) and set aside.

Fry off your onions and pepper on medium heat in a good glug of oil until they are nice and golden, soft and sweet. Set aside, cover and wipe out pan with some kitchen paper.

Add your little cubes of sweet potato and cook briskly and stir well until soft and getting caremelised, 10 minutes more or less, add your garlic and cook for another couple of minutes, then add your onion mix and paprika, rosemary, pepper and mustard, cook for a few minutes on a low heat then add your chopped cheese and olives. Stir well and combine your 2 cups of cooked lentils. Set aside.

Pop the oven on, 200oC.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Get a masher and give the mix a thorough mash up. Some chunks are allowed, all adds to the texture. Grab a baking tray, get it oiled up (use some tin foil if you prefer), form large balls of the mix in your hands, it’s going to be sticky but that’s where the fun lies! They should be a real cupped handful per burger (you may need to lick your fingers afterwards, this is encouraged). Drop the balls in a neat(ish) fashion onto your tray, making four large balls.

Add your 4 hefty chunks of aubergine to the tray and drizzle/coat all with some nice oil. Your burgers need to be formed, use a spoon to push and level out your burgers, make them thick and roundish, use the curve of your hand here. You should be left four fat half pounders.

Top with a little cracker pepper and into then into the oven for 30 minutes (check them after 20 mins).

They may char slightly, the sweet potatoes caramelising, this is good and will be great for the flavour.

When handling the burgers take care, you need to have good spatula skills here. They may fall apart unless handled with love.

Serve

If your burgers fit in your aubergines (you have huge aubergines!) then make a classic burger, topped with some gorgeously piquant, sweet piquillos and a few slices of tomato and Parmesan. A green salad would be nice too.

We Love It!

Very, very tasty burgers. The cheese inside makes them really rich and the effort put into crafting them is well worth it. The roasted aubergines are a find, crisp and juicy, perfect with this sort of dense veggie burger.

Foodie Fact

Aubergine, Eggplant, Brinjal, whatever you want to call it, it tastes good and does you good. Aubergine is low calorie, high fibre, full of the vitamin B’s and some Brazilian scientists have said that it can help control blood cholesterol.

Categories: Dinner, Recipes | Tags: burger, food, healthy, lentil, manchengo, murcia, olive, puerto mazzaron, recipe, spain, sweet potato, travel, vegetarian | 6 Comments

Rasta Pasta Sauce

Posted on November 23, 2012 by leroy watson

Jane in the ‘Lemons’ kitchen

We’re down in Mazzarron, Murcia (Espana!) and having a ball, basically taking along break and getting down with the Spanish vibes (manana!). Lack of internet means little Beach House stuff, but we are getting a little more organised, so hope to be posting a few bits in the near future. The sun shining, the weather is sweet……yeahX

After a wander down the local fruit and veg market we headed back to the ‘Lemons’ (our little flat near the sea) along the beach full of inspiration and big bags of odd looking tomatoes. We came up with this gorgeous and simple rich-tasting pasta dish using aubergines and yellow peppers. We called it rasta pasta, you can take it easy, whip it up in minutes and spend more time in the sun with some good tunes.

Buen Provecho, JaneX

Getting things started, Aubergine and Peppers frying up

The Bits

1tbs cooking oil, half a large aubergine (chopped into 2cm cubes), 2 medium sized yellow peppers (chopped into 2cm cubes), 2 medium sized onions (chopped into 1cm cubes), 3 cloves garlic (chopped finely), 5 tomatoes, cracked black pepper, sea salt, 1tsp of mixed herbs, 1tbs balsamic vinegar, 1tsp runny honey (local por favor), fresh parsley, brown spaghetti (we liked).

Do It

Chop the aubergine into rough cubes and fry in oil on a medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped peppers and keep cooking until everything is soft and roasted and smelling good. Put them in a bowl and cover.

In the same pan, fry the onions gently on a lower heat in a little more oil, for about 5 mins until soft. Then add the chopped garlic and cook gently so everything goes caramalised.

Chop up your tomatoes roughly, then add to the pan. We left the skins on. Pepper and salt to taste, add the mixed herbs, balsamic vinegar and honey and turn up the heat to medium. Stir everything around then cover and leave to reduce for 15 minutes until the sauce is perfectly thick and ready for the pasta.

Rasta pasta in the mix

Serve

We used brown spaghetti which was beautiful or whatever pasta you prefer. Mix all mixed together with a little splash more olive oil making it juicy and rich. Oh and a rather decadent side salad with avocados and sprouts.

What a feast!

RASTA PASTA

We Love It!

This dish is a wonder and has virtually no fat. It proves that the need for cheese with pasta is a myth and it has all the colours of reggae! Yippeee!

Foodie Fact

Aubergines are brilliant! Low in calories and rich in fibre, they are full of the vitamin B’s and are good for anti-oxidants.

Categories: Dinner, Healthy Eating, Recipes, Sauces, Vegan | Tags: cooking, food, healthy, pasta, rasta, recipes, sauce, spain, vegan | 6 Comments

Monkey Puzzle Nut and Jaggery Muffins (Vegan)

Posted on October 31, 2012 by leroy watson

We’re on the road in France and Spain at the minute, but here’s one we did earlier…….

We have some lovely friends of the Beach House Kitchen to thank for these nuts, Rachel and Axel over on Anglesey, who somehow man-handled their monkey puzzle tree into letting go of its precious nuts. Not an easy task, these trees are seriously covered in sharp spines.

We saw this technique being executed by the British wild food guru Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on his TV programme ‘Veg Everyday’ recently and he needed the help of a tree expert and a hydraulic lift. From what Rach tells me Axel simply shimmied up a neighbouring tree and shook the hell out of the top, using only a snake catching pole (Axel is an expert in all things snakes and adders) and net. Unconventional harvesting techniques demand an unconventional recipe me thought. Hugh made a tasty looking summer cous cous salad out of his puzzle nuts, but we were on a different page all together.

So I had a bowl of these beauties, I roasted them and tried one, tastes a little like a chestnut merged with a pine nut. They are probably best just eaten as they are, but I couldn’t resist sticking them in this vegan muffin recipe that I’ve been sitting on for a while. A word of gentle warning, these nuts do go a bit dry after roasting and when baked. CRUNCH!

Jane has been fantasising about cake now for a few days and I have finally got around to making my poor, long suffering lady something resembling a sweet thing. This is as close as I get really, all that white flower, butter and sugar makes me feel a little queasy. These muffins are packed with the good stuff and still taste mighty fine.

Monkey Puzzle Tree

What on earth is a Monkey Puzzle Nut?

The monkey puzzle tree (or Araucaria araucana if you’re Latin speaker) is an evergreen that can grow up to 40 metres tall with a trunk of two metres wide! The tree is covered with sharp, blade-like, ‘reptilian’ leaves or spines that make the monkey puzzle nut one of natures toughest morsels to harvest. The tree is native to the low Andean slopes of Chile and Argentina but seems to do well on this little grey island. It is a hardy conifer and you regularly see them sticking out of gardens and stately home driveways. I don’t think there is a more incongruous tree on this island than the monkey puzzle.

What on earth is Jaggery?

Jaggery is an unrefined sugar used in many parts of the world, known as Gud in India. It has an amazing toffee-like texture and can be made with palm, coconut or date tree sap. Jaggery has a powerful, caramelised flavour that sets it apart from any sugar I have come across. It is high is sucrose and can be used as a healthier alternative to refined sugar. Great in a chai. I like to bake with it because it flavours and sweetens.

You could use a good unrefined brown sugar as a substitute, or even something like molasses, as jaggery can be a little hard to track down.

These muffins make for a great breakfast (they are nice and dense) and are best served warmed through. A cold muffin has an air of austerity to it that a baked good should not possess. If you are storing them, make sure they are in a well sealed container or well cling filmed, they can get a little dry these vegan sorts.

I used polenta and oats here as they were in the cupboard, another flour like spelt, rye or tapioca will work really well. Polenta isn’t quite fine enough to bind and bake as well as other flours. The oats add alot of ballast and ‘feel’ to these wonder muffs.

Makes for six hearty muffs.

The Bits

2 cups polenta, 2 cups oats (gluten-free), 1 teas cinnamon, 1 teas baking powder (gluten-free), 1/2 teas bicarb, 1/4 teas sea salt, 2 mashed bananas, 1/2 cup coconut oil, 1 grated carrot, 1/2 cup jaggery, 8 finely diced dates (finely chopped), 1 teas vanilla extract, 2/3 cup monkey puzzle nuts (or pine nuts/ your favourite nut), 1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate (finely chopped), 1/3 cup roasted pumpkin seeds, 1/2 cup soya milk

Do It

Preheat your oven to 375ºF and grease six muffin cups (or use silicon muffin cups). In a bowl, mix with vigour the polenta, oats, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a food processor, blitz together the banana, coco oil, jaggery and vanilla until relatively smooth with just some small banana lumps remaining. Add wet mix to dry and add carrot, chocolate, seeds and milk. Fold and stir together nicely until just combine.

Divide the batter up between the six muffin cups, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until slightly browned on top and a thin knife inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Serve

With a cup of fine tea. Best warm from the oven, but great in a packed lunch too.

We Love It!

Simply put, we know of no cooler muff.

Foodie Fact

Jaggery is unrefined and a more complex carbohydrate than normal white sugar. It contains magnesium and salts and good levels of the antioxidant selenium. Jaggery also contains iron, which helps ease tension.

Categories: Baking, Desserts, gluten-free, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: banana, breakfast, carrot, foraging, hugh fearnley whittingstall, jaggery, monkey puzzle nut, muffin, recipe, vegan | 12 Comments

Rainbow Kale and Tofu Sabzi (Beach House Basics)

Posted on October 10, 2012 by leroy watson

Rainbow Kale and Tofu Sabzi

“Simple is best.”

Sage advice and I managed to stick with it this time. This Sabzi is quick, super healthy and a staple at the BHK. All it takes is a little tofu, a scattering of seasonal veggies and a few sprinkles of fine spices.

Sabzi (pronounced ‘sabji’ or ‘chi’, my Hindi is not great) is a simple vegetable curry in India that is the cornerstone of most Indian meals. Sabzi, rice, chappatis, maybe some pickle and dahi (yoghurt), that is a hearty, balanced feast that can be enjoyed everywhere across India. It fuelled me daily and around 1 billion other folk on the sub continent for that matter.

Travelling in India is such a treat for all the senses, especially the belly sense. The smell of toasting chappatis and a bubbling sabzi is a truly magical thing. My best eating experiences in India were sat on the floor, on mats in communal canteens, eating by hand from a metal thali plate or banana leaf, steaming curries and daals served straight out of buckets.

This is a quick and easy Sabzi that I made a little heartier and healthier with the addition of the tofu, a substitute of sorts for paneer. Make sure you get the firm tofu, it comes in many different textures and the firmer the better for cooking. Silken tofu has a lower fat content and will just dissolve (but does make amazing tofu ice cream!)

Sabzi in India is prepared with what is growing locally and seasonally, the only way you can eat in most parts of the world, what you eat is where you are and for that reason, one of the wonderful things about travelling the world. Our choice of veggies here reflects this with some gorgeous local organic tomatoes (plucked from the farms poly-tunnel). The kale was yanked (lovingly) out of the Beach House garden, it’s actually doing quite well now winter is here!? I have alot to learn with plants! We are loving the cavolo nero cabbage that is available at the moment, it’s very dark green which can only be a good thing. It has a really full texture and strong flavour making it perfect for stews, soups and even smoothies.

Oops! I’ve managed to delete the rest of the photos from the camera but the dish is such a winner, I thought I’d share it anyway.

Serves four hungry sorts.

The Bits

1/2 block of firm tofu (chopped into cubes), 10 stems of kale (sliced), 6 stems of cabbage (like cavolo nero, long leafed is best, sliced), 1 stem celery (chopped), 1 courgette (cubed), 1 onion (chopped), 2 carrots (cubed), 4 tomatoes, 1 inch cube ginger (finely sliced), 4 cloves garlic (crushed), 2 teas turmeric, 1 teas gram masala, 1 teas chilli powder, 1/2 handful of methi leaves (curry leaves), 1/2 cup water, sea salt.

Do It

Add onion to the pan on a medium heat, get them nice and glassy, then add your ginger, spices and garlic, fry for a further 3 minutes. Add your courgette, tofu and carrot and fry for 3 minutes, then the methi leaves and the tomatoes and cook this mixture down a little (5 more minutes will do). The pan should be nice and hot, toss the kale and cabbage in along with the water, it should steam up nicely, put on a low the heat and pop a lid on the pan and leave to gently cook for 10 mins. Check seasoning and serve piping hot. This will keep very well overnight and may even be better for a good rest the next day.

Serve

With basmati rice (we used wholegrain) and some dahi (yoghurt), mango pickle if you have can. If you have time and the skills, make some fresh chapattis. This type of sabzi would normally be served out of a thali plate, a metal plate with compartments.

We Love It!

Eating Sabzi in Wales is a little like riding an elephant down Caernarfon high street, slightly incongruous yet very satisfying.

Foodie Fact

Tofu was discovered thousands of years ago in Japan, it is basically curdled soya bean milk. It boasts many health giving properties from a plant based food. Tofu is a brilliant source of protein and calcium. Soy protein can lower your chances of getting a dodgy ticker and has also been shown to help during menopause. Tofu is virtually fat free and contains many anti-oxidants and omega 3 fats.

In the absence of tofu photos, here I am with a cool car.

Categories: Curries, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: curry, food, healthy, india, nutrition, quick, rainbow kale, recipe, sabzi, tofu, vegetarian | 16 Comments

Ang’s Quinoa and Roast Veggie Salad

Posted on October 8, 2012 by leroy watson

A recipe here from a friend of the Beach House Kitchen. All the way from sunny Auckland (New Zealand that is), Ang floats over some tasty bites over to the Beach House. WE LOVE ANGx

I met Ang in Barcelona, where she lived a tofu chuck away from a health food shop. I needed some ‘health’ after being on the road for too long and eating out of dusty stalls. Ang cooked up some amazing vegan treats and planted seeds that have now formed the BHK.

We will be munching this soon and having tasted Ang’s cooking, just know that it will be very, very delicious indeed.

Cheers AngX:

Ang sporting socks and deer

YUM!

Being a vegetarian on a low-FODMAP foods hasn’t been easy. No beans, chickpeas or lentils are allowed, but thank goodness for the almighty Quinoa.

I made some delicious quinoa and courgette fritters one night last week and had loads of quinoa left over, which resulted in this beast of a salad mixed together in a huge moroccan salad bowl – perfect for parties or BBQ’s.

-Cubed veggies, roasted (potato, pumpkin, carrot, courgette) with fresh rosemary and oregano
-Quinoa
-Baby spinach
-Feta
-Raisins
-Baby tomatoes

Dressing
-lemon juice
-dijon mustard
-basalmic vinegar
-olive oil
-S&P

Salads like this are so hearty and can be adapted in so many ways. Add olives? Avocado? Seeds? Make it your own 🙂

Ang’s Quinoa and Roast Veggie Salad

If there are any other friends of the BHK (thats all of you!) who would like to send us a recipe, we would love to hear from you and will most probably, depending on the deliciousness of the dish, put it onto the blog.

Categories: Recipes, Salads | Tags: auckland, diet, food, health, low fodmap, quinoa, recipes, salad, vegetables, vegetarian | Leave a comment

Golden Courgette, Cashew and Basil Bake (Vegan)

Posted on October 1, 2012 by leroy watson

This is a blockbuster bake. Layers of golden courgette, chard, green cabbage, onion, tofu and mushrooms, all smothered in a creamy garlic, cashew and basil sauce. Hows that!

This was loosely based on the traditional French dish ‘au gratin potatoes’, but without the cheese, milk, butter, flour, breadcrumbs or potatoes! So I guess it becomes a good, old fashioned bake!! Its a healthier Beach House number after all. I guarantee that no flavour is lost here, no enjoyment. Just different flavours and ways of enjoying food.

We love a good bake, but generally they just turn into a cheese and fat fest. All that oil and the incredible richness just makes us feel a little sleepy and bloated. We fancied something baked and light and this dish hits that nail right on the head.

As usual, the local farm is producing some quite amazing veggies. This dense courgette was over a foot long and weighed a couple of kilos, that’s a proper vegetable. We thought about roasting it whole but then this little idea cropped up and we haven’t had baked anything for an age now.

Ready for a roasting

The tofu was added last minute, to give it a different texture and more luxurious feel. Tofu has a certain cheesiness to it, like a vegetal haloumi. Viva tofu! Our mate Pete gave us a fantastic Japanese tofu book from the 60’s, the entire history and different methods for producing the wonderful white stuff. We shall be experimenting soon. We forgot to add the sweet peppers here. Red ones sliced thinly, that are unfortunately still in the fridge. They would be a nice addition. Next time. This time, it still tastes quite amazing.

One of the best things about this dish is the leftover potential. Tastes better the day after and is even delicious served cold.

This is an interesting little take on an old classic and with Autumn around the corner, its good to have some new ‘bakes’ up your sleeve.

Recipe Note

You can salt and pat dry your courgettes beforehand to get rid of some of their water.

The Bits – For 6 hungry sorts

Layers

1 giant golden courgette (or 2/3 normal sized courgettes/ zucchinis)

1 bunch of chard

1 bunch of spring greens (aka dark green long leafed cabbage)

1 onion

8 mushrooms

1 block tofu (250g-ish, enough for two layers)

1 sweet red pepper (sliced)

1 big handful of basil leaves

Sauce

1 small onion

3 cloves garlic (crushed)

1/2 cup cashews (soaked for 1 hour)

1 handful of chopped basil leaves

1 handful of fresh parsley

2/3 cup soya milk (or nut milk)

1/3 cup filtered water

1 big glug of olive oil,

Sea salt and cracked pepper

Topping

2 handfuls of roasted cashew nuts

Do It

Sauce – In a decent blender, blitz up your cashews until a paste forms, then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until a smooth liquid forms. You may need to scape down the sides of the blender to get it all mixed evenly.

Layer of mushrooms

Layers – Slice all veggies thinly, not quite wafer, but getting there. Remove any thick, chewy stems. Add a little sauce to cover the base of your dish (a good thick rectangular baking dish, glass would be nice to see all the layers), begin the layering. Start with the cabbage, courgette, mushroom, onion, pepper, chard, tofu, courgette sauce (repeat once more). That will be three layers of courgette, it should be the last layer on top and will go nice and brown when baked.

The dish should be piled high, don’t worry it will cook down quite alot. Cover with foil and bake for 40 mins (180oC) then remove foil and bake for a further 15 mins or until the top is nice and golden brown.

Serve

Topped with roasted cashews, we ate ours with our leaf of the moment, a carrot top salad. Rich bakes just crave for a nice crunchy salad.

We Love It!

Hearty winter fare, but light and healthy. Like a normal bake but without the vast amounts of grease and fat.

Yellow Courgette and Basil Au Gratin

Foodie Fact

The gold in these courgettes makes it a great source of flavanoids, a wonderful thing. They scavenge the body looking for baddies and make us look young and keep us disease free. Courgettes are best stored in a plastic bag in the fridge, they dry out easily.

Categories: Autumn, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: au gratin, basil, dairy free, food, golden, healthy eating, recipe, tofu, vegan, vegetarian, zucchini | 13 Comments

Pina Colada Juice

Posted on September 27, 2012 by leroy watson

Pina Colada Juice

At this time of the year, with summer on the wane, you need some colour adding. You need something to remind you that holidays, beaches and the sun, are not just figments of your imagination. They exist and are alive and well in this pina colada. It is guaranteed to add a little tropical swing to any day. Sweet and vibrant, when we tried this, we both felt like we were back on a Thai island or any land where the pineapple grows.

Pineapples always remind me of Costa Rica, where in many places, pineapple plantations stretch to the horizon. Quite a site, rows and rows of those sharp leaves. Pineapples take a long time to grow, like a lot of the fruit and veg we eat and they are real gifts from the earth. They also look quite amazing, bar the rambutan and the dragon fruit, is there a cooler looking fruit?

You can technically grow your own pineapple, just take the severed head part and plant it in the ground. Quite shallow. After a year, a pineapple may have grown. We have not tried this for obvious reasons. Wales is not a pineapple friendly environment (however the raspberries are looking well this year).

You can see we quaffed this with a rather funky fruit salad, putting the meat of the coconut to good use with some other fruits seeds and yoghurt. You can try to make your own coconut butter/paste, just blend it up in a decent blender and after a few minutes it will take on a lovely creamy texture. Ideal to keep in the fridge and add to dishes.

This sweet and tarty juice takes half a pineapple to make, but its well worth it and the lime juice adds a nice tang to proceedings. We’ve added a little bit of canned coco milk, for creaminess. The combo of coco and pineapple is always tantalising and a quick burst of escapism in the morning sets you up nicely for the day.

The Bits

1/2 pineapple, 1/4 tin organic coconut milk (stirred and creamy), juice of 1 fresh coconut (the water only), 1 squeeze of lime juice.

Do It

Get the magimix fired up!

Juice your pineapple in large chunks into a large container. Stir in the coco water and milk. Just before serving, squeeze a little lime into the juice and stir.

Serve

Immediately, with sun hats on and some calypso music.

We Love It!

It’s a tropical juice to spark wanderlust in even the most rooted of souls. The tropical beaches seem ever closer with this juice in your life.

Foodie Fact

Pineapples are drought tolerant and the plant grows up to 8ft tall. Pineapples are a brilliant source of vitamin C and dietary fibre. They also contain bromelian and incredible enzyme that actually helps you digest your food and fight all sorts of infection/ disease.

View of a autumn sunset from the Beach House Kitchen window

Categories: Juices, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: coconut, food, juice, juicing, magimix, pina colada, pineapple, raw, vegan, vegetarian | 6 Comments

Carrot Top Salad aka The Perfect Packed Lunch

Posted on September 25, 2012 by leroy watson

Carrot Top Salad

So what does a mostly raw food dude take to work for lunch? A carrot top salad of course! The most complete salad we can muster.

This Carrot Top Salad is a good example of my daily packed lunch, nice and quick to prepare and bursting with good textures and flavours. Its one of my favs. You may have noticed the distinct slow down in Beach House posting recently, I’ve been working like a donkey. I need all the energy I can get and this salad is a serious hit of nutrition, flavour and vitality. I feel fully charged after lunch and light as a feather. Non of those post lunch slumps with this salad.

To make this you need carrot tops. To find those you need to go get some real food, most supermarkets won’t sell carrots with the tops on and if they do, god knows where they’ve been and what the poor green things have been exposed to along the way. Go local and find some earth loving types, normally living in peace and happiness somewhere in the middle of a field and ask them which way to the carrots. It should’t take long.

Carrot tops are delicious and full of nutrients, especially chlorophyll. They can be a little bitter, thats the potassium, so at least you know its some good stuff. They make great juice and can even be crushed and used as a mouthwash. They contain a lot of vitamins etc not present in the carrot (like ‘K’ for example). They can be hard going and a little chewy on their own, thats why they are best in this salad. They’re not as sweet as the ‘root’, thats where all the sugar and water goes. So much food is thrown away nowadays and much of these we can re-use or munch on. Please, give these little green beauts a chance!

Glorious local toms

To the salad….I basically combined the fruits, veg and seeds available into a massive salad, stick it in a container and have a jam jar full of dressing (that lasts a few days). I make enough salad for at least two days (excluding the apple, normally added in the morning) and hey presto! LUNCH.

This is a huge salad by general standards, alot goes into it and it’s designed to be a hearty meal. The Carrot Top definitely cannot be termed as a ‘side salad’, this is the main attraction. A word of warning, this takes quite a bit of munching. You need to build up some decent jaw muscles to attempt such a salad.

There are constants in my salad world; dark green leaves make up the majority of it, lots of hard vegetables cubed (for crunch), seeds (lots)and the occasional dried fruit makes an appearance and also a nice easy, tangy dressing. Then that’s me off, for another day in the office/ kitchen/ restaurant/ field/ bridge tunnel or wherever else the money lies!

We have decided to head off to Spain for a few months over the winter months and all the pennies are needed for time in the beautiful Mediterranean sun. Expect some real bright beach posts soon, until that time comes in mid October, its work and salad time for me.

Just for your information, I also scoff two pieces of fruit and a bowlful of nuts and seeds all washed down with a cup of green tea and lots of water. You’ll be glowing afterwards, safe in the knowledge that this lunch time you were very kind to your body.

The only reason we can eat like this is due to Jane and I’s passion for healthy foods. We have buckets of fine pulses and seeds filling up our kitchen. We buy all this stuff in bulk normally and have it to hand. We are lucky. If we are not at home, travelling around etc, it can be tough to get anything like the real ‘Carrot Top’ together.

Kale takes a bath

This makes two large pots of salad, good for two lunches at least.

The Bits

Salad – 1 apple (or pear), 2 carrot, 1/2 cucumber (pickled or not, I like either), 1 courgette, 1 beetroot (all cubed), 2 handfuls of carrot tops (finely chopped), 2 big handfuls of beetroot leaves or green cabbage or kale (chopped), 1/2 handful of raisins, 1/2 handful of pumpkin seeds, 1/2 handful of sunflower seeds, 1 handful of mung bean sprouts, 1/2 handful of chopped mint leaves, 1/2 handful of chives, 2 teas barley powder/spirulina (optional, specialist things from health food shops that are full of zing), handful of cherry tomatoes (whole)

Beetroots on the board

Dressing – Juice and zest of half a lemon, 1/3 cup good olive oil, 1 teas honey, 1 clove garlic (minced), sea salt, cracked pepper. Or just make a whole jam jar full and shake it up when you need it. I normally carry it around in my bag. If you friends laugh at you for carrying dressing around with you, they obviously don’t understand the importance of salad.

Do It

Gather all you ingredients in your largest salad bowl and get you hands in there, give it all a good mix up. Separate into your containers and pop the lids on and into the fridge. You are now well lunch’d up and ready to go.

Packed up and ready to go.

Serve

After a good mornings graft, eat with a large spoon and be happy in your munching.

We Love It!

Turning something that many would deem as waste into a tasty dish is just grand. We love the crunch and texture of these salads, each mouthful is different.

Foodie Fact

Carrot tops can also be made into a brilliant tea, great for purifying the blood and kidneys. They also used to be used as a fashion accessory:

“In the reign of James I, (1603) it became the fashion for ladies to use flowers, fruit, feathers and the like to decorate their clothes. Picture showing carrot leaves in a hat This was amusingly extended to the use of Wild Carrot flowers and its feathery leaves and stalks to decorate their hair, hats, sleeves, dresses and coats. The lacy green foliage was especially fashionable during the autumn months when the leaves took on a reddish coloration.”

For more carrot facts like this, visit The World Carrot Museum

Categories: Healthy Eating, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: carrot top, cherry tomato, food, kale, packed, packed lunch, raw, recipe, salad, superfood, vegetarian | 6 Comments

Nantmor Shiitake Risotto with Four Herbs

Posted on September 24, 2012 by leroy watson

The ideal warming dish as the nights are drawing in and theres a winter chill starting in the air. Autumn is here and that means it’s time for blockbuster risottos.

I love Italian food, but have never been to Italy. I have been fortunate to have met and cooked with quite a few Italians in the past and can safely say that they are the most pedantic and fussy cooks/ eaters in the world. Everything is how ‘mama made it’ or its no good at all. They are critical of the slightest detail and in this way, great to cook for and with. If you can get an Italian excited about your food, you are doing something very right!

A luxurious risotto for me is a taste of food perfection. The balance of fresh produce, richness and a hint of wine represents all that is amazing in Italian food (not to mention the large hunk of pungent cheese). They of course take it seriously, its seriously good food. Our new chef at work lived and worked in Modena for years and to see him make risotto is to see a true craftsman at work, he gives it such care and dedication. I hope this recipe reflects this passion. I’ve gone for only the finest of local produce and a brilliant wine. All the elements must be selected with equal care, otherwise the risotto will not be a true expression of food heaven.

These Nantmor Shiitakes (Shii – Tree, Take – Mushroom) from the Mushroom Garden are the real highlight in this dish. They’re my kind of mushroom; pungent, meaty and damn pretty too, adding amazing flavour to anything they touch. They are grown on Welsh Oak in the small village of Nantmor, by a local chap named Cynan. The Mushroom Garden now supplies many top restaurants around Britain as mushrooms actually thrive in the mist and damp of Wales. Whenever I find a good mushroom, I always think ‘risotto’, so classic and so good. Due to the Shiitakes being so precious and a little costly, we added some chestnut mushrooms to add a different texture and ensure that we had loads of lovely mushrooms in the risotto.

The Beach House additions is brown rice. I know its not technically a risotto, but humour us! The results are delicious. Vegan parmesan is out there, Violife make an incredible version. Very much like the real thing, we’d recommend seeking some out. Especially for risotto!

Nantlle Shiitake

The brown rice is not as starchy as the proper risotto rice, but we are willing to make that sacrifice. We like the nutty flavour of brown rice. Try and get some really funky organic rice if you can, rough stuff with chaff, good for the belly and you’re guaranteed more flavour.

WELSH WINE!

We bought a wonderful bottle of southern French rose from the local family ran vineyard Pant Du, set in the beautiful Nantlle Valley. Yes, you heard us right, they are growing wine in these parts. Brave souls indeed. The Pant Du Winery has now opened a small cafe and wine shop, Jane and I visit regularly for tea and to soak in the stunning views and happy family vibes.

The wine on sale are from small pockets of Europe, a really interesting selection. This rose was a deep pink beauty. This year at Pant Du has unfortunately been a less than prosperous growing season, but they will still make a few bottles of their German varieties. So a glass of our Costiere de Nimes was sacrificed to the risotto. Really, we should only cook risotto with wine that we would enjoy drinking, it makes a difference to the delicate balance of flavours.

I plundered the herb garden for our herbs; sage, rosemary, oregano and thyme. A brilliant combination, we are so lucky that they thrive in our hedges. Unlike our tomatoes, they seem to like the grey conditions. The courgette came from the farm and they are abundant and delicious at the moment. I couldn’t resist a little more greenery in there.

I think we’re ready for the fun bit now, let’s get cooking!

Beauty Herb

The Bits

Olive oil (for frying)

1 big white onion (finely sliced)

4 cloves garlic (crushed)

2 cups of organic brown rice (roughly 1 cup per person)

1 cup Shiitake mushrooms

1 cup other mushrooms (preferably something like a chestnut)

1 smallish courgette (chopped into small cubes)

2 big handfuls of Violife parmesan cheese (finely grated)

1 glass of decent wine

1 tbs of each fresh sage, thyme, rosemary, oregano (chopped)

1.5 ltr good veg stock

Glugs of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (optional, for added richness at the end)

Do It

You need to be a bit organised with a risotto, have hot stock ready and all your ingredients to hand, things can happen quickly here and timing is everything.

Boil the kettle and make some nice veg. stock, 1.5 ltr should be enough, if you are super cook, you’ll probably make your own stock from scratch. Have a good bottle of wine open and preferably a glass poured for yourself, all that stirring is thirsty work.

Pre-soak your shiitake mushrooms for an hour or so prior to cooking and have all your bits chopped and ready. The key to a good risotto is to never leave its side, keep stirring and giving it love. You will see the difference in the end.

Getting things organised

Begin by gently frying off your onion in a thick bottomed large saucepan, keep them moving, you want them to go glassy but not browned. Once they are getting there, add you garlic and in this case, your courgette and mushrooms (try not to break them up).

Cook for a couple of minutes on a medium heat, stirring all the time, then add your rice. Keep stirring and giving the rice a thorough coating of oil. The pan should be nice and hot, add your glass of vino, which should immediately sizzle and evaporate, being absorbed nicely by the hot rice and meaty mushrooms.

Sweet simmering

Now for some serious, steady stirring action. With a good wooden spoon or a spatula, keep going at it, adding your hot stock one ladleful at a time (we put the mushroom soak juices into the stock), this will loosen any starch from the rice and create a lovely smooth texture. Once the stock has evaporated and the rice is hissing slightly, its time for another ladleful.

The rice should take around 15-20 minutes to cook, you want it ‘al dente’. Just before the rice is cooked (try some between your teeth, it should not be chalky, but still firm in the middle) take it off the heat and stir in your cheese and if you like, glug of nice olive oil and season with sea salt and fresh pepper. This is where the real richness kicks in. Put a lid on and leave for 5 minutes to come together.

Stirring in the Shiitakes

Add a little more stock to thin it out if needed. Risotto must be served and eaten almost immediately. It’s perfect, when its perfect, not afterwards. Your risotto should be liquid, but not liquid enough so that it seeps out around the edges, all should be perfectly combined and blended together, with the rice cooked but not stuck together. Its a fine art! But one well worth mastering.

Serve

Pronto! Hot flat bowls are best. We topped ours with some runner beans from garden, a little more herb.

We Love It!

Risottos are one of my most satisfying dishes. I love cooking them and eating them equally. They are normally eaten in Italy as a first dish but I cannot imagine that, I like it centre stage. Cooking rice is something that the Italians have perfected. Grazie Mille!x

Foodie Fact

Shiitakes are re-knowned for their health giving properties, in Japan especially, they believe the Shiitake to help fight cancer. These mushrooms also boast many medicinal and immune system boosting qualities.

Categories: Autumn, Recipes, Welsh produce | Tags: cooking, food, herb, nantmor, pant du winery, recipe, risotto, rose, shiitake, vegetarian | 2 Comments

Raw Power Balls

Posted on September 23, 2012 by leroy watson

Apricot Sesame and Tahini – Raw Power Balls

These are real super fuels, if you need power and energy, look no further. These Raw Power Balls are like duracell batteries for the body.

We love a good raw bar. Nutty or seedy. Carob or crunch. Nak’d and Nine Bar are just a couple on sale in the UK which are perfect when you fancy a treat but don’t want to eat a load of junk. Making them yourself however is a lot more fun and allows your creative side to get busy.

These little balls pack a serious punch, tasty and like rocket fuel, your energy levels and vitality will leap when you try them. We experiment with this recipe all the time and they are the perfect snack for a long day walking up steep hills (and then down again). I eat them at work and they keep me rocking all day. The measurements are rough here, they don’t need to be exact, handfuls are accurate enough. This is a simple, quick snack that serves as a tasty last minute treat.

Packed with nuts and date, you need to take it easy with this type of snack. They are very filling and packed full of sugar, hence the power. Too many and you’ll negate any benefit gained from all that raw goodness (by getting fat!).

They don’t need any preparation, but the dates and nuts will be better for a soak. They swell up and even taste better. They become softer and easier to blend. Soaking will also release many of the useful enzymes and nutrients that are otherwise closed off to the body. If you do decide to soak your bits, keep the juice, date juice is lovely and sweet and the nut juice is packed with nutrients. We add it to juices, stews or soups.

You may also like to make these into a truffle. Heat up some chocolate (in a bowl above a pan of steaming water) and roll you power balls in them until well coated. Place on a tray, covered with baking parchment and stick them in the fridge. Once the chocolate has hardened, they are ready to be enjoyed. That’s surely a treat worthy of a special birthday walk or even a dessert in its own right (just make the balls slightly bigger).

On a wander, seeing some flowers.

Here are a few of our favourite Power Ball flavour combos:

The Bits

Makes six decent power balls

Basic recipe:

1 handful of good dates (we like medjool, soaked for 2 hours), 1 handful of almonds (soaked overnight), 1/2 handful of cashews (soaked overnight)

Dark Chocolate Orange

2 heaped teas cacao powder, 3 teas orange blossom water or 2 teas orange zest, 1/2 handful of raisin (soaked)

Apricot, Sesame and Tahini

3 teas sesame seeds, 2 teas tahini, 1/2 handful of dried apricots (soaked and chopped)

Walnut Apple Pie

1 handful dried apples (soaked), 1 handful of walnuts (replace almonds), 1/2 teas cinnamon

Lemon Cardamom

2 teas lemon zest, 2 teas crushed cardamom seeds

Coco Choco Mint

1/2 handful of fresh coconut (blend first), 2 teas cacao powder, 2 teas finely chopped mint leaves

Vanilla Cashew

1 teas vanilla extract, use only cashew nuts

Very Berry

1 handful of dried cranberry, 1/2 handful of dried blueberry, 1/2 handful dried cherries, 1 teas vanilla extract

Seedy Wonder

1/2 handful sunflower seeds, 1/2 handful pumpkin seeds, 1/4 handful sesame seeds, 1/4 handful poppy seeds

Ginger Bread

1/2 teas all spice, 1/2 teas dried ginger, 1 handful of pecans (replace almonds)

Maple Fig and Lavender (CAUTION – very sweet!)

1 teas maple syrup, 1/2 teas dried lavender, 1/2 handful dried figs (soaked and chopped)

Peanut Butter

2 teas peanut butter, 1 handful of raw peanuts

The list goes on…………..like kids in a sweet shop……

Do It

The technique is always the same. Put it all into a food processor, blitz until smooth (or chunky, you decide). Get your hands in there and roll out a decent sized ball between your palms. That’s it!

Place in the fridge for a while to make them firmer and a little less sticky. They last for a long time in a sealed container in the fridge and can even be frozen and munched at a later date.

Chocolate Orange – Raw Power Balls

Serve

Preferably on top of a peak or in a forest somewhere far away from anywhere.

We Love Them!

Better than a biscuit and full of only raw goodness.

Foodie Fact

Dates give you a hefty dose of protein and fibre. They are also high in calories, essential when wandering around the countryside (or city for that matter). They are also a good source of Vitamin B and you’ll even get a splash of C thrown in as well.

Sun on flowers, taken on a walk in the woods

Categories: Desserts, Raw Food, Recipes, Snacks and Inbetweens | Tags: balls, dates, energy, flowers, food, hiking, nuts, photography, raw, snack, vegan | 4 Comments

Avocado, Coconut & Lime Cheesecake

Posted on September 18, 2012 by leroy watson

p1170814

This is just one of those recipes that comes along, out of the great blue yonder, that catches the eye and demands to be made. This floated by via a recommendation from Yolanda at the wonderful Byzantine Flowers blog. There are millions of recipes hovering around out there, but only a small minority grab me and really get my creative juices flowing. I like something a little bit different, something challenging and new. When I saw that this cheesecake had either kale, beetroot leaves or spinach in it, I knew I’d discovered a new dessert for me to play with. I’m strange like that!!

MERCI CHEF!

We are in veggie heaven at the moment after helping chef strim his garden. To be honest it was more of a wild field than a garden and due to our combined efforts in helping tame his jungle, chef gifted us a serious glut of amazing vegetables from his pristine veg garden (you can see where his priorities lie!).

Chef lives way up in the hills and has a fantastic garden that he and his Zimbabwean wife, Estele, take magnificent care of. Estele is a natural with the good earth and can grow things that just shouldn’t grow in these temperate parts. Chef is a proud frenchman and quite handy with a strimmer and mandolin. Thanks to them we are now the proud owners of literally bin bags full of incredibly sweet spinach, fiery mint, intense chives, vibrant cabbage and some of the most vivid carrots. You may be seeing more of these ingredients soon (maybe in desserts?!) I have never tasted spinach this sweet (see below), the seeds came from chefs sister in the Loire Valley in France. Ideal dessert spinach I’d say.

Raw desserts normally have a lot of components, but they are easy to get together and require a lot less messing around than normal baking (its not going to sink, burn, crumble, split……etc), it just sits there on the plate looking sexy. I’ve never used pumpkin seeds in a base before and I think they taste even better than nuts. Less fat, more flavour. Seed bases are a winner. The filling is rich and bright green (the spinach doing its thing) and you won’t believe that cream cheese wasn’t added. It’s so smooth and creamy.

Who needs flowers

In the bright, green future, we’ll all be eating these!

Here’s the recipe with a few Beach House additions. I stuck with handfuls, rather than exact measuring, here because its so straightforward and we love getting our mitts involved in cooking!!!

———

Avocado, Coconut & Lime Cheesecake (raw, gluten-free, vegan, yum!)

Avocado, Coconut & Lime Cheesecake

The Bits – 6 little cheesecakes or one large one

Crust

4 big handfuls pumpkin seeds

2 big handfuls dates (pitted and soaked in warm water for an hour)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 teas tahini

Pinch sea salt

Filling

2 avocadoes (peeled and stoned)

3 big handfuls spinach leaves (washed)

2 handfuls dates (pitted and soaked n warm water an hour)

125ml (1/2 cup) water/ water from date soaking

3 tbs lime juice

2 tbs coconut flakes/ desiccated

1 tbs coconut oil (melted)

1 tbs maple syrup

1 tsp lime zest

Pinch of sea salt

The pumpkin seed bases

Do It

Using a food processor, pulse the pumpkin seeds, dates, vanilla, tahini and salt together until they start to clump into a ball. Place in the fridge for an hour to firm up.

On a chopping board, using your hands, press the ball down into a flattish sheet (approx 1.5cm thick). Then take a cake/cookie cutter and cut circles. Roll up the leftovers and make another smaller sheet, repeat this until most of the base mix is used (eat the rest. Yum!)

In the mix

Get all of your filling ingredients in your food processor/ blender and blitz up until nice and smooth. Place you cake/ cookie cutter over your bases and spoon in a good layer of mix, using the spoon, even out the mix and make sure it meets the edges (giving you a nice looking, clean edge). Gently pull off the cutter, your cheesecake should look splendid. If not, be more careful with the next one! Repeat until your mix runs out.

As I mentioned, the base can be rolled up into little balls and snacked on at a later date, so no waste here.

Please feel free to play with sizes and shapes. We used this cutter as it makes for a decent dessert size and was handy. The original recipe was more of a cupcake size.

Serve

They don’t last long, for many reasons, the avocado doesn’t help (so creamy!) Serve them immediately with thin slices of lime, bits of coconut or as we did, a sprinkle of coconut flakes and a few pumpkin seeds.

We Love It!

People look quite disgusted when we tell them we’ve been making desserts with spinach in. Hopefully they’ll read this post and have their minds changed, even better, they’ll actually try it for themselves. Vegan desserts are the future, next week, garlic beer! (joking)

Foodie Fact

Coconut oil is an excellent substitute to cooking oils and especially butter. It has been heralded as a ‘superfood’ and it certainly is. The benefits of coco oil are many, for example, it can even be rubbed into your hair and skin giving amazing nutrition to both. Coconut oil is high in saturated fats, but they are mainly lauric acid, which actually helps repair the heart and arteries. These fats also contain micro-biological qualities that fight bad bacteria and fungi in your guts, they also help you absorb many vitamins and minerals. I could go on here……..I’m sure you get the idea. Eat more cocos!

Categories: Desserts, Raw Food, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: cheesecake, coconut, dairy/ lactose free, dessert, food, gluten-free, lime, raw, recipe, vegan | 9 Comments

Black Prince Tomato & Coriander Soup (Raw)

Posted on September 11, 2012 by leroy watson

Something like a Black Prince Tomato

These little toms are mind-blowingly tasty and light up this fabulous raw soup recipe. We believe they are called Black Princes, but cannot be sure. If they are Black Princes, they originated in Siberia but we picked them up from the wonderful John and Pippa in the small village of Bethel (a couple of valleys away). They are stunning tomatoes to look at, purple and dark green inside and mottled with emerald patches on the outside. The most surprising thing about these tomatoes is that they have been grown organically in Wales (the land of the shy sun). How is this possible? I put it down to great expertise and poly tunnels, 20 years of growing experience also helps! We are so very grateful to the brilliant Pippa and John for eeking out the best of the conditions of this, the wettest and worst summer on this grey island for over 100 years. Can you imagine what they’d do in Spain! Jane and I are almost addicted to these little gems, even scoffing them like popcorn whilst watching a samurai movie recently.

So whats all this about a Black Prince anyway?

Well, the Black Prince (apart from just having the most epic name of any tomato we have encountered) is one of the most popular black tomatoes in the world (more dark green than black to be honest). These toms are classed as an heirloom variety in the U.S. (see the foodie fact below) and have a wonderful deep, rich and fruity flavour. The Black Prince is known as a ‘true Siberian tomato’, which makes it perfect for growing in cooler climates like our little grey island.

They say an Indian summer is coming to these parts, having experienced a couple of these myself in India, I am not sure that this is an accurate description of the potential weather situation. We can however hope for some late summer sun which makes for a perfect raw soup climate. But raw soups are not just for the summertime.

One of the things we both struggled to imagine prior to our month of raw food eating in June, was sitting down in front of our fire in mid-December, all wrapped up warm with thermals on and tucking into a cold soup with a salad. We now know that this would work out just fine. Although the temperature outside is chilly, the effect this kind of soup has on body and mind is seriously rejuvenating and they are absolutely jam packed full with the vitamins etc. that your body needs come the darker months.

This soup really does the black prince toms justice, it’s refreshing and not shy of a few flavours. Whether you feel like sparkling some more, or are getting over a good old-fashioned beer garden adventure, this soup will get you zinging in all the right places.

Recipe Notes

The juice in the recipe replaces a traditional stock. We have been experimenting with this juicy method and have had some brilliant results in mainly raw soups and stews. No stock can live up to the vibrancy and freshness of a raw juice, especially for a chilled soup like this one. We picked only the freshest flavours here and the combination of the tomatoes, peppers, oranges, chilli, coriander and ginger……well you can imagine! With all those colours in a bowl, expect fireworks!

We like to use a little of the orange zest, it gives it even more pizzazz. The dates are essential to balance the saltiness of the miso. You could use agave syrup or the like if you fancied, but there is something wonderful about adding dates to savoury food. Avocado is perfect in soups, but does mean that it must be eaten within a day. The avos add creaminess without the cream and are a great little raw food trick.

If you don’t own a juicer, just buy some fresh carrot juice instead. You could also use the same quantity of water, but it would be slightly lacking. You may also omit the sprouted mung beans and still produce a wonderful bowl of happiness, we just had a glut of them to hand.

Black Prince Tomatoes

This recipe is enough for two big bowlfuls with ample seconds.

The Bits

10 ripe black cherry tomatoes (or the best cherry tomatoes you can get your hands on)

3 ripe tomatoes (the bigger variety)

1 avocado

1 big handful mung bean sprouts

250ml carrot and celery juice (that’s roughly 4 large carrots and 1 stick celery)

1 big handful chopped coriander

1 yellow pepper (chopped)

1 tbsp flax oil (or good olive oil)

2 tsp miso paste

2 cm cube ginger (finely chopped)

1 clove garlic (mashed)

1/2 red chilli (or 1/2 teas chilli flakes)

Juice of 1 orange (with half the zest)

3 finely chopped dates

Do It

Make your juice first and then placed all ingredients in a food processor. Blitz and add the juice gradually. We think a minute or so is enough, maintain a few chunks, a longer blitz means a smoother soup.

Pre-blitz

Serve

Just not quite chilled and with a good handful of freshly chopped coriander (cilantro) as a topping and a scattering of sprouted mung beans.

We Love It!

Our favourite raw soup yet!!

Black Prince Cherry Tomato and Coriander Soup

Foodie Fact

In America ‘heirloom’ veggies are all the rage. The Black Prince is an ‘heirloom’ fruit, which basically means that they are pure seeds and have not been touched by any GM crops. At local markets in Britain, it is great to see people growing our indigenous varieties again, all mis-shapen and knobbly, with real flavours and textures. Many people are single handedly keeping these varieties in existence and passing on these heirlooms to future generations.

Categories: Local food, Raw Food, Recipes, Soups, Summer, Vegan | Tags: black prince, heirloom, raw, recipes, soup, tomato | 13 Comments

Trio of Simple Organic Summer Salads

Posted on August 27, 2012 by leroy watson

Aloe Vera Plant

Only naked and fresh veggies here! Food for the sun. When the produce is this good, you don’t want to mess with it too much. The flavours of these veggies are amazing, we are so privileged to live in an area with some serious vegetable growing heroes living close by.

We are getting veg from two local farms over the hill and have recently been picking up a veg box from another farm. We are suddenly inundated with incredible produce and can think of no better way of eating it than raw. Bring on the salads!

Local food is fresher and contains more nutrients due to this, we also like to support these amazing folk who are dedicated to the land. These salads are simple and contain only a few ingredients. Its what you’ll find us eating most days. Adding less ingredients to food makes the nutrients in food easier for the body to digest and use.

Our garden has taken a beating recently with the ‘summer’ storms, the wind is raging out there as I type these words. Leaves whizz by at right angles and the rocket is blown flat to the ground. The slugs have also had a field day out there, I can only hope they enjoyed what they ate. We have been harvesting some lovely red potatoes and a little rainbow chard, but really, the garden had been a steep learning curve this year. Next year, we are full of hope and fresh ideas to fortify our garden from these vicious Welsh elements. Having spoken to local farmers, it has been the worst growing season for 20 years, so a meagre crop is understandable. So we need some help!

Doing my best for the leeks

I’ve been working like a trooper of late, no time to cook food at the BHK. I needed plenty of shiny food and nutrition to keep me going and Jane has stepped in and has been making the most fantastic raw food delights. These salads, that we ate last night for dinner, were for me the pick of the bunch. Simple and tasty with a wonderful dressing.

I have a habit of throwing things together and letting a little bit of experience and my taste buds sort out the rest, Jane is brilliant at following recipes and measurements. This is important with some parts of cookery, namely baking and it would appear dressings. This dressing was perfectly balanced, with the warm edge of mustard and a good amount of honeyed sweetness.

Thinly sliced veggies

Thinly Sliced Veggies

Some may call this a ‘carpaccio’, but really it’s just a stunning way to serve veggies as a salad. Get your nicest plate out of the cupboard, some amazing veggies and slice thinly and arrange. Viola!

The Bits

We used our one each of our local organic farms courgette, beetroot, broccoli and a organic yellow pepper. Any combination of hard vegetables will do, if you are conscious of presentation, maybe mix up the colours a little.

Tomato and Basil Heaven

Tomato and Basil Heaven

For this you must have the finest tomatoes available. These red/green tomatoes came with our veggie box and completely blew us away. They grow in poly tunnels and god knows what else! They are insanely tasty and needed just a few torn basil leaves which are blooming on the windowsill and a splash of olive oil.

The Bits

2 handfuls of amazing tomatoes, meagre handful of torn basil leaves, a splash of great olive oil and sea salt and pepper if you must.

Carrots and Almonds

Carrots and Almonds

The sweetness of these carrots and almonds goes perfectly with the sweet mustard dressing.

The Bits

3 wonderful large carrots (scrubbed, not peeled), 1/3 head of broccoli (broken into little pieces, use the stalk and leaves), 1 handful of raw almonds, thinly sliced red onion and yellow pepper.

Sweet Mustard Dressing

Shake all ingredients together in an old jam jar, they are also handy to keep your dressing in afterwards.

The Bits

1 teas English Mustard, 2 teaspoons clear honey, 1 tbs lemon juice, 4 tablespoons rapeseed oil, a sprinkle of sea salt and pepper.

There is so little work in getting these together, we hardly need a ‘Do It’ section. More time to soak up some rays with your loved ones.

Serve

All veggies are best served at just under room temp, we used the dressing on the Carrot and Almonds and Thinly Sliced Veggies, the tomatoes needed no additions nonsense.

We Love It!

Magic veggies deserve to be eaten in all their glory i.e. naked and fresh!

Foodie Fact

Why buy organic/ local? Food loses nutrition when shipped and kept, so the more local fresh food you consume the better for you and your community in general. Organic veggies actually contain no more nutrients that conventionally grown, but they are clean and contain no pesticides (or poisons). Organic practices enrich the earth and by not using chemicals and GM techniques, ensure the fertility of the earth for future generations. Also, people who grow organically are normally lovely people to visit for tea!

Categories: Organic, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: dressing, food, healthy, local, organic, raw, salads, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian, why | 4 Comments

Sprouted Wheat and Apple Bircher

Posted on August 21, 2012 by leroy watson

Sunset time at the Beach House

A real breakfast belly filler here. This is a great start to the day, maybe not the very best, but somewhere close! This is a bowl designed especially for those who have a busy/active time ahead. Maybe your a sheep farmer, or a trapeze artist, whatever your activity of choice, this bircher will give you full power! The sprouting bircher gives slow release energy that will keep you ticking over well beyond lunch, in fact, we find it lasts us until dinnertime! It’s a beast!

You will need to get sprouting here, or buy some in. The former is more enjoyable and much cheaper than the later. It would be a shame to exclude them. We are keen to get the world sprouting, we’d love to see windowsills full of mungs! Once you begin to sprout, you just cannot stop. We used sprouting buckwheat and wheat grains (called wheat berries in the States), both can be bought easily in most shops in the UK in a pre-sprouted state. They will definitely have them in your local health food shop.

Sprouting is great value and nutrition, the grains/pulses really bulk out and you get a good amount of sprouts from just a hand full of dried little things. Wheat grains make for brilliant sprouts, they are quick and abundant and have a nice sweet taste. Wheat grains are basically unprocessed wheat, Ideal if you are craving some bread or biscuits but want to stay super healthy (incidentally, these sprouts make a great loaf I’m told) .

We had this breakfast before a long walk in the hills and it was the perfect fuel to scale some craggy rocks and filthy bogs. Birchers are a real favourite of mine, basically a bowl of muesli, with yoghurt, given one big stir. Makes a change, a bit of a mash up.

The seeds and fruit can be played with here, whatever you have in the bowl and fridge really. We like to used flax seeds because they are great for the digestive system and sunflower seeds because the have amazing health properties and flavour. This recipe uses organic rolled oats, but you could use oat groats if you were eating raw.

Serves two hungry hikers/ workers

The Bits

1 cup of organic rolled oats (or oat groats), 1 banana (chopped), 1 apple (chopped, organic is definitely best here), 1/2 cup nuts (we use hazelnuts or almonds), 1/2 cup raisins, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 2 tbs golden flax seeds, 1/2 cup buckwheat sprouts, 1/2 cup wheat grain sprouts, 1 cup yoghurt (we use soya, whatever you prefer), 1 teas cinnamon.

Sprouted Wheat and Apple Bircher – in the mix

Do It

Get out a nice big bowl, add all ingredients in no particular order and give it all a good and gentle stir. It should be well mixed when served.

Bircher post-mix, check out those funky sprouts!

Serve

As quick as you can, in spacious bowls, it does not keep so well.

Sweeties may like a little compote or honey on top of their bircher, but we think it is sweet enough.

Sprouted Wheat and Apple Bircher

We Love It!

This is a bowl of goodness that really sticks to the ribs and is packed with good energy and nutrients. It deserves to be fully fledged member of the ‘best way to start the day’ gang.

Foodie Fact

A serving of sprouted wheat grains contains your daily requirement of Manganese, which keeps your brain, metabolism and nerves in check. Good to know!

Here’s a sunshine morning tune:

Categories: Breakfast, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: apple, berries, bircher, breakfast, grains, healthy, nutritious, sprouted, vegan, vegetarian, wheat | 5 Comments

Salad Shirazi

Posted on August 20, 2012 by leroy watson

Farm fresh veggies from our friends at Trigonos, bring on the salads!

Salad Shirazi is one of my favourite Persian salads and very easy to get together and prepare. This salad seems to be ubiquitous from Delhi to Tangiers, hard vegetables chopped up small with onion and some lemon juice, herbs if you are lucky or decadent or both.

We used some lovely veggies from the farm and added a little courgette because it is that time of year. The mint came from the herb garden and our little taste of Persia was complete.

This salad adds the ideal fresh crunch to rich cuisine and went perfectly with our Persian Aubergine Stew, but is perfect as a salad in its own right. The fresher the produce, the better the salad.

The Bits
3 medium sized cucumbers, 3 small firm tomatoes, 1 courgette, 2 small sweet onions, 3 tablespoons good olive oil, juice of 1 lemon or lime, 1 handful of fresh mint (chopped, dried mint will do), sea salt and cracked pepper to taste

Do It

Cut tomatoes, cucumbers, courgette and onion into small cube-ish pieces and place them in a salad bowl and gently mix. Add salt, pepper, mint, olive oil and lemon juice, mix well.

Salad Shirazi

Serve

Slightly chilled with smiles.

We Love It!

CRUNCH!

Foodie Fact

Salad is good for you.

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: cucumber, food, iranian, mint, persian, recipe, salad, shirazi, tomato, vegan, vegetarian | 2 Comments

Raw Strawberry Tartlets

Posted on August 13, 2012 by leroy watson

Raw Strawberry Tartlets

This is a variation on our Raw Summer Berry Cheesecake that was SOOOOO GOOD we thought we would do it again… only adding some different ingredients to make it tastier and a little more interesting (and smaller!). One for the sweet tooth and can be eaten on a raw food diet too. Try it, it’s amazing!

It was a beautiful sunny day so I put on my shorts, went in the garden, felt super-summery, and then decided to surprise Lee with a beautiful treat for when he got home from work. The strawberries were farm-fresh, juicy, and looked oh so irresistible in the fridge, and the result was a delightful delicate mix of this rich nutty sticky base with it’s thick creamy sweet fruity topping. Such sunny decadence!!!

I just love raw food preparation and cooking. It’s quick, there is very little mess or washing up, and I really feel like I am learning so much about how to combine the ingredients and flavours. It’s so incredible how tasty these blends of foods can be and how versatile these ingredients are – the topping in this recipe is unbelievable! Tahini never tasted so good.

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Raw Strawberry Tartlets

The Bits

Base

200g dates

200g soaked almonds

Large handful sultanas

Large handful cashew nuts

A shake of cinnamon

A shake of ground (or chopped ginger)

The delicious creamy topping

1 large banana

Juice of one lemon

3 tablespoons tahini

8 dates

Topping

Chopped strawberries

Do It

So here’s how it’s done!

Base – Blend the ingredients for the base in a food processor. Make little balls with the mixture and squash flat to make little round mini-bases. This took the longest out of everything because the mixture gets so sticky. Make as many bases as you want, any size or shape you want! Worth persevering with your sticky fingers for the end result 🙂

Topping – Blend everything together and smooth the lovely thick mixture on to your bases. Throw on some chopped strawberries, or any other fruit you may have that looks beautiful; and serve straight away.

You can keep the base and topping separate in the fridge and they will keep well for a few days.

Only add the fruit just before serving for the freshest taste imaginable!

Serve

We like it all left out of the fridge, at room temperature. Served in the garden and eaten with teaspoons (to prolong the happiness). Normally with a nice cup of Rooi-al (Rooibos tea with almond milk) or Rooi-soy (with soya milk). The perfect little summer treat.

We Love It!

This is so simple. The most delicious dessert and minimal effort…leaving more time for eating!!!

Foodie Fact

Strawberries are actually native to Europe, and technically a ‘creeper’. Nothing evokes summertime in Britain more than the coming of the strawberry. Strawberries are very high in vitamin C, our anti-oxidant friend and vitamin B. They also contain plenty of vitamin B and E and have good levels of mineral content. They are also full of phyto-nutrients that are brilliant for the body, they fight diseases and other nasty things. Oh, and they are low in calories.

Enjoy!!

Jane x

Categories: Desserts, Raw Food, Recipes, Summer, Vegan | Tags: dessert, raw, recipe, strawberry, summer, tahini, tarlets, tart, vegan, vegetarian | 13 Comments

Beetroot Leaf Soup

Posted on August 11, 2012 by leroy watson

The Beet Leaves

With beetroots like these who needs spinach?! Or something like that anyway. With a regular supply of these beauties almost year-round you can expect alot more beetroot dishes on the BHK! Really though, it is my favourite veg. I know that is a bold statement for a veggie lover. The ‘root is such a magnificent purple thing, but the leaves are just as good and this soup recipe puts them to good use. We normally chop them up and put them into salads, so this is a nice change.

Now, the vast majority of Beach House readers are from over the pond, that is to say the USA. We love you guys and must translate a little here, you may know these leaves as beet greens and beetroots are of course beets. I like the name beets and beet leaf has a much better ring than beetroot leaf, but I must stay true my small island roots.

The beetroots we are buying at the moment from the farm all come with at least five crisp leaves and beautiful crimson roots. You can really see the similarity with chard, especially swiss chard, they are all one big happy family. As with most plants, the leaves contain more nutrients than the roots, one more reason to never, ever throw them away (I hear of people doing this). What a waste!

This is a basic soup recipe and the beetroot leaves can be substituted for beetroots themselves, or most other veg. This is a classic soup base that allows you to use up any veggies that you have hanging around.

As with most soups, its better the day after. The flavours really come together and the piquant tomato flavour really comes through with the balsamic adding a lovely sweetness.

I decided on oregano here, because it is blooming at the minute in the herb garden. You may prefer to use thyme or even rosemary would go nicely.

We made a big vat of soup here, feel free to half the quantities for a more modest pan full.

Makes one big pan full (eight bowls)

The Bits

1 tbs veg oil

2 sticks celery (chopped)

1 carrot (chopped)

4 cloves garlic (minced)

1 big white onion (chopped)

2 teas ground cumin

Leaves of 12 beetroots (well washed and roughly chopped)

2 tbs balsamic vinegar

2 stems of fresh oregano (leaves only, 2 teas dried oregano otherwise)

1.5ltr veg stock

5 ripe tomatoes (roughly chopped)

2 tbs organic tom puree

sea salt and cracked black pepper

Do It

Heat veg oil on medium in a suitably large pan, add onions and soften for a couple of minutes, add celery and carrot and continue cooking and stirring for a couple more minutes. Then add cumin, garlic and balsamic, allow the vinegar to evaporate (getting rid of most of the acidity) then add you beetroot leaves and season with salt and pepper, stir in well.

Beet leaves wilting

Cook for a few minutes and when the leaves are wilting add the tomatoes, the oregano leaves and the puree, stir in and heat through, then add your stock and bring it all to the boil. Lower heat and cover, cook for 20 minutes, until all veg is tender. Then blend together using a hand blender or in batches in a food processor. The soup should be smooth, no lumps, check seasoning.

Blitz it up!

Serve

In warm bowls, topped with some oregano leaves and fresh cracked black pepper.

Beetroot Leaf Soup

We Love It!

A great summer warmer (needed in these climes), we love the combination of balsamic and beetroot, sweet and tangy coming together nicely with the deep and hearty tomatoes. A lively, zingy soup, jam packed full of flavour and goodness.

Having a good slurp. YUM!

Foodie Facts

Beetroot leaves are full of fibre, protien and vitamin C, which we need constant supplies of because our bodies cannot store it. One cup of beetroot leaves gives you 60% of your daily dose of C. The best news is the vitamin A content, one cup contains 220% of your daily intake. Cor! They also contain alot of calcium, most people think that calcium comes from cows, but there are so many other ways of getting your calcium.

Categories: Recipes, Soups, Vegan | Tags: balsamic, beet, beetroot, food, greens, healthy, leaves, oregano, recipe, soup, vegan, vegetarian | 38 Comments

Warm Green Salad with Rapeseed Oil Dressing

Posted on August 9, 2012 by leroy watson

Warm and Green Summer Salad

A quick and easy summer salad with many a luxury touch. The method here is simply blanching the veg and hopefully maintaining alot of their goodness. You certainly don’t want to cook veggies until they lose their crunch, that is utter madness. Veggies should be alive and crispy when eaten!

This salad was so green, it was jumping out of the bowl (if that makes any sense at all!) All the veg here are seasonal, from the farm (bar the Avocado which I think flew over from Mexico), the basil came from the bush on the windowsill and even the oil and salt are Welsh. It is so great to eat something made from produced sourced locally. We have really struggled this year to gather together good, organic produce. But the sun is out today and all is blooming, hopefully the next few weeks will see more harvesting and beautiful produce up for grabs. Even our rainbow chard in the garden is looking good for the plate. Amazing what a little sun can do!

The dressing is made with Blodyn Aur Rapeseed Oil, a real find in Wales. Great folk who use the cold press techniques of olive oil making to produce a stunning rapeseed oil. Real food heroes who enrich our lives with beautiful oil. The flavour is very buttery, nutty and smooth and the colour is the brightest gold. This oil also has bags of Omega 3 essential fatty acids, which are great for us. If you live in Britain, I hope you can track some down. It is like no other oil I have come across.

We also used some local sea salt flavoured with celery. Halen Mon are a family business making salt from the pure water of the Menai Straits on Anglesey, we can seem them from the kitchen window of the Beach House Kitchen and have never tasted salt this good. Really. It’s amazing salt. See our Halen Mon post here.

We always have a good stock of seeds, but if you don’t have sesame or flax, any seed will do really. Although poppy seed would be a little strange. We like adding flax to dishes because it is good for the digestive system.

A opposed to our normal raw food fare, this warming (I wouldn’t go as far as cooking!) of the salad really brings out the flavour of the dressing. We have also recently been told that it is not such a good idea to each French beans or broad beans raw. They contain things that may do you no good.

Rapeseed Flower

PS – A handful in our recipes is probably about a cup (in our hands!). Maybe yo have different names for these beans, fava etc. I hope you know what we are talking about here!

The Bits

Salad – 1 ripe avocado (chopped), 3 handfuls of spinach, 1 small sweet onion, 3 handfuls of chopped french beans, 2 handfuls of podded broad beans, 1 stick of finely sliced celery, 1/2 handful of chopped basil leaves, 2 teas sesame seeds, 2 teas flax seeds.

Dressing – Freshly squeezed juice of a lemon, 3 tbs great oil (olive or we used local rapeseed oil, it has a lovely buttery flavour), 2 cloves of crushed garlic, 1 teas organic honey, cracked black pepper, sprinkle of sea salt (we used Halen Mon celery salt).

Do It

Gather all your broad beans, french beans, onion, place in a bowl/pan and pour over just boiled water. Leave to sit for a few minutes. Make the dressing, add all ingredients to a small bowl and whisk vigorously with a fork or small whisk. Drain you veggies and add to a large salad bowl (or any good looking receptacle), mix in your avocado, celery and basil leaves (gently does it) and pour over and stir in your dressing.

Warm Green Salad with Rapeseed Oil Dressing

Serve

Warm, with smiles and summer joy.

We Love It!

All good local fare; seasonal veggies that are so full of flavour and the vibrant dressing adds a lovely rich citrus kick. A bowl full of the joys of these lands.

Foodie Fact

Unlike all other vegetable oils, cold pressed rape seed oil contains a natural balance of omega 3, 6 and 9 oils, making it a great source for these essential fatty acids. ‘Good oils’ are essential in bodily functions, including aiding cholesterol reduction, and maintaining a healthy heart. Omega 3 is a rare oil, that can be difficult to include in our diet. Rapeseed oil also contains Vitamin E, a powerful anti-oxidant.

Categories: Recipes, Salads, Summer, Vegan, Welsh produce | Tags: green, omega 3 essential fatty acids, rapeseed oil, recipe, salad, seasonal, summer, vegan, vegetarian, welsh | 4 Comments

Vegan Chocolate and Almond Ice Cream

Posted on August 7, 2012 by leroy watson

One big pile of Vegan Chocolate Nut Ice Cream

The Beach House Kitchen is definitely rustic. Not in the manufactured ‘rustic’ sense of the word, I mean we have sheep invading our front garden and no coffee shop within a half hour drive. The wind howls and we regularly have horses looking into our bathroom window (which can be quite a shock when you’re getting out of the shower!). We live out here and it’s beautiful!

I try and convey this country feel in our pictures, I just don’t have the gadgets (and time) to make our food look so polished. I am in awe of many blogs that manage to make any dish look like food of the Gods. When it’s so grey outside, taking photographs of food just doesn’t do the dish justice. One blog who constantly dazzles with its photographs and gorgeous food is 84th&3rd. This recipe is inspired by their Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream recipe. This is one of those food blogs that is so delicious and sexy, you just want to try out all of the recipes.

This is an amazing recipe that will blow anybody away. Vegan or otherwise. Even the hardest of hardcore Ben and Jerry lovers will be impressed with this ice cream. It is a wonder, with purely natural and healthy ingredients. Good fats and sugars ahoy!

The Beach House additions to this recipe were mainly nutty. Almonds to be exact, although pecan and cashews would be lovely also. We used soaked almonds here, the soaking brings out the nutrients and also makes them nice and plump and soft, ready for blending. Soak your nuts! It helps.

Cacao powder is a great investment, a little costly, but a small spoonful goes a long way. It is surprisingly chocolaty and opens a doorway into much sweet experimentation. Contrary to popular misconception, vegan ice cream can be rich and we’ve turned to the old favourite, avocado, to give things that creamy richness that diary normally would.

Cacao Beans

Cacao or Cocoa?

Cacao is not cocoa, cocoa is not cacao. They are very similar in every way, which can be confusing, but one way they differ greatly is nutritionally. Cacao is raw, meaning not heated to an extent that fragile enzymes and nutrients are destroyed, cocoa is heated (although still very tasty). Raw chocolate is brilliant for the body (in moderation) and big slab of Cadbury’s just ain’t so great.

Try to buy organic with your cacao, they use a load of pesticides and bad things in cacao growing. There’s no point going healthy and opting for a chemical cocktail, it will probably be the matter of a few pennies more.

Bananas (not ripe yet)

Bananas

The bananas here, and in general, should be getting towards brown. Some brown spots and a nice soft banana is important. They will be alot sweeter and better for you (I won’t bore you with the science of it this time, see the ‘Foodie Fact’ for that). Most places sell bananas way to early, meaning we eat them far too early. We try and buy bananas a week in advance so they are nicely ripened when we get around to them. Bananas are an essential part of any healthy foodies diet. They are so packed with sugar and can add super sweetness to all kinds of things. No added sugar required when a banana is in town. It is a nice idea to keep some bananas (and fruit in general) chopped and ready in the freezer. It keeps them fresh and is perfect for making smoothies etc.

This recipe is so easy to prepare, no need for an ice cream blender (which is surely a dust trap/ counter clutterer waiting to happen). It just needs a little stirring and a freezer and you have a gorgeous, very chocolaty ice cream.

You may like to add even more chocolate to this recipe, just bash up a bar of your favourite dark chocolate or add cacao nibs for the healthier touch. This adds some nice crunchy bits, as does the almonds. If you like a smoother ice cream, just blend for longer.

Jane sneaks in

The Bits

1 cup soaked almonds (overnight), 1 ripe avocado, 2 large frozen bananas (chopped up), 1/4 cup cacao powder, pinch good sea salt (we use halen mon tahitian vanilla sea salt), 1 tsp maple syrup/ honey, 3 tbsp bashed up dark chocolate or cacao nibs (for serious chocolate fiends only)

Do It

Blend up the almonds first for a minute then add your banana, avocado and salt using a food processor until smooth. Chop up the rest of the almonds into rough looking pieces and stir them through with cacao powder until well combined. Add maple syrup/ honey. Stir through chocolate chunks/ cacao chips if using.

Pour into an old ice cream container, or something of those dimensions. Stir every 30 minutes or so, breaking up frozen bits and mixing until smooth. Do this approximately four times if you can. You may also like to dust off and put into use your ice cream maker here.

Set out for 15 or 20 minutes to soften slightly before using, it is easier to scoop this way. Sharing is optional.

Serve

We had ours with blueberries and chopped banana, with a little more chopped almonds on top.

We Love It!

The texture of this ice cream is so rich and has a lovely smooth nuttiness. We cannot believe how healthy and delicious it is, we will be making more of this. Alot more.

Foodie Fact

When bananas ripen proto-pectin is converted into digestible, soluble pectin and starch is also converted into sugars of which 20% is glucose, 14% is fructose and the remaining 66% is sucrose.

Bananas give off a large amount of ethylene, which helps fruits ripen. If you have any fruits that need ripening, pop them in a bowl with the bananas and wait a day. They use this ethylene to turn green oranges orange. Many people don’t like the look of a green orange, even though they are ripe. We do funny things with our food!

Bananas also contain our happy friend trytophan, that converts to serotonin and makes us shine. See our ‘Mood Foods….’ post for more info on happy veggie foods.