Beetroot and Cumin Fritters from Peace and Parsnips
This is a recipe taken straight from ‘Peace and Parsnips’, a nice light summer lunch:
These little fritters are bursting at the seams with flavours, and the herbaceous horseradish yoghurt tops things off very nicely. A punchy, zesty sauce is perfect with any fried food, lighting the palate up. The sweet earthiness of the beetroot and the fragrance of cumin were, very simply, made for each other. I like to use any green peas or beans for this, but the edamame probably have the edge due to their nice crunchy texture, which adds an almost nutty bite to the fritters. Use any flour you like, but I prefer to keep them gluten free. Gram (chickpea) flour would work well.
The Bits
1 large potato, scrubbed and cut into cubes
125g firm tofu, drained and well mashed
40g buckwheat or wholewheat flour
a handful of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
300g beetroots, scrubbed and coarsely grated
a handful of edamame/green peas/ broad beans
1½ tsp cumin seeds, toasted and roughly ground
vegetable oil, for frying
For the garnish
1 big handful of watercress or spinach leaves
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
For the Horseradish & Dill Yoghurt
350ml thick unsweetened soya yoghurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp finely grated horseradish or 1½ tablespoons horseradish purée
a handful of fresh dill, finely chopped
a pinch of sea salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Do It
Put the potato into a small pan, cover with water, add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Cook for 25 minutes, until soft. Drain in a colander, mash well and leave to cool.
For the Horseradish & Dill Yoghurt, stir all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Season and drizzle with olive oil. This can be done well in advance.
Once the potato has cooled to handling temperature, mix with the tofu, flour, mint leaves, lemon, salt and pepper. Now gently mix in the grated beetroot and peas, until all is well combined – using your hands is best. We’d like these fritters to be chunky and packed full of texture.
In a large, heavy frying pan, dry-toast your cumin seeds on a medium-low heat for a minute. They should pop and give off a lovely aroma. Put them into a pestle and mortar and bash them up a little, then stir them into the fritter mix.
In the same pan, warm ½ tablespoon of oil on a medium heat, ensuring that the base of the pan is evenly covered with a film of oil. Spoon in 2 heaped tablespoons of fritter mix per go, pressing it down a little with the back of the spoon until roughly 1cm thick. Cook for 3–4 minutes on one side and slightly less on the other. Repeat until you have a few fritters cooking at the same time, and continue to cook in batches. Drain on kitchen paper and keep them warm in a low oven.
Serve
Warm and crispy on a bed of vibrant green watercress or spinach leaves, garnished with the spring onions and with the horseradish and dill yoghurt on the side.
Portobello Pecan Burger (Original recipe from Peace and Parsnips)
This is no ordinary veggie burger, this a proper whopper! Perfect for every summer BBQ and a vegan burger for all (even rampant carnivores!)
A beast of a burger taken from ‘Peace and Parsnips’ our new vegan cookbook which is storming a technicolour, vibrant veggie, food trail around the UK at the moment. Jane and I are super chuffed with its success and so happy that people are enjoying the food and positive vibe of the book. We’ve had such a great response on The Beach House Kitchen, as well as Twitter and Facebook.
In fact, Jane and I are really getting out and about this summer and have plenty of book signings, cooking demo’s, supper clubs and festival appearances lined up. 2015 is going to be a veggie riot! The best way to keep up with all of this is on Twitter of course, but we’ll try and keep the BHK up to date and ever crammed with gorgeous vegan deliciousness.
There are a few recipes floating around the internet from Peace and Parsnips and we thought we’d share one of our fav’s with our beloved Beach Houser’s. Thanks to the good folk at the Happy Foodie for posting this originally. They also voted Peace and Parsnips in their ‘Top 5 Cookbook Debuts of 2015’ and the Beetroot Fritters in their ‘Top 5 Vegetarian Dishes of 2015’. I love these guys!!!!
If you haven’t quite got around to getting a copy of the book, we’ll be running a competition very soon, giving away a free copy. Watch this space.
So here we go, the
‘Here we have a burger that is rich, with a deep flavour from the mushrooms and miso. It is packed with heavy umami flavours, with the seaweed, pecans and miso working their potent charms. Sun-blushed tomatoes can be found in most delis nowadays and ooze fragrant tomato all over this burger. If you are struggling to find them, I know some fantastic people on the Isle of Wight who can sort you out. This burger mix will keep very well in the fridge, 5 days easy. Try making it into ‘meatballs’, with a tomato sauce and pasta. Gluten-free option: just cook 25g more rice and omit the breadcrumbs.’
Like so many vegan dishes, this burger is super delicious and super healthy. What a sensational combo!
The Bits – Makes 6–8 mammoth burgers
4 tbspolive oil
350gPortobello mushrooms, cut into cubes
1aubergine, chopped into 2cm pieces
a large pinch of sea salt and black pepper
3 tbspfresh oregano leaves or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
1onion, sliced
2celery stalks, finely diced
4cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
20gdried seaweed, cut into very fine ribbons
175gflageolet beans, soaked overnight, then cooked with ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda and cooled, or 1½ x 400g tins
120gtoasted pecans
100gred or brown rice, cooked and cooled
2 heaped tbspbrown miso
1 tspbicarbonate of soda
100gfine wholewheat breadcrumbs (you can also use gluten free breadcrumbs)
For the Pumpkin wedges –
750gpumpkin, scrubbed, seeded and cut into 5cm wedges
2 tbspvegetable oil
a large pinch of sea salt
To serve –
8seeded wholewheat rolls, halved (for gluen-free aternative, use your favourite GF bread)
1big handful sun-blushed tomatoes
buttery lettuce leaves (something like oak-leaf)
Do It
To make the pumpkin wedges, preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Put the pumpkin on a baking tray, toss with the oil and salt, and roast for 30 minutes, turning over once. The pumpkin should be tender and nicely coloured.
Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large, heavy frying pan on a medium-low heat and add the mushrooms and aubergines. Cook for 10 minutes, then add the salt and pepper. Cook for a further 5 minutes, until the aubergine is soft. Stir in the oregano leaves and set aside in a bowl.
In the same pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil on a medium-high heat and cook the onion and celery for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and seaweed and cook for another 2 minutes, then remove from the heat and combine with the aubergines and mushrooms.
In a food processor, combine half the beans, pecans, aubergine mix and rice with the miso, sifting in the bicarbonate of soda. Blitz to a thick paste. Add the breadcrumbs and the rest of the beans, rice and aubergine mix, along with the rest of the pecans. Pulse until a chunky mix forms, coarse in texture but finely chopped. Check the seasoning – the miso is quite salty. Transfer the mix to a bowl, combining it all well with your hands. Form the mix into 6–8 fat burgers. Put them into the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.
Pop an ovenproof frying pan on a medium-high heat and lightly oil it. Cook each burger for 5 minutes per side, until beautifully light brown. If they lose shape and are unruly in the pan, press them down using the back of a spatula. Veggie burgers are sensitive and need to be handled with soft hands (and spatulas).
Put all the burgers into a warm oven, 150°C/gas mark 2, for 10 minutes to finish cooking. Cut your bread rolls in half and put them into the warm oven for 5 minutes.
Serve
On the base of each warm roll, scatter sun-blushed tomatoes (with a little of their oil) and top with a lettuce leaf, the burger and a good topping of macadamia tarragon aioli (recipe in the book). With the warm pumpkin wedges.
Foodie Fact
Pecans are a real treat for us. We don’t use them all the time but when we do, we make them count! Nuts are little nutritional powerhouses, packed with all kinds of anti-oxidants and friendly fats. A handful a day, keeps the grim reaper at bay! In fact, I write a whole section about NUTS in Peace and Parsnips called ‘Nuts about Nuts’!
Pecans are especially nutritious, loads of good mono-unsaturated fats and very high in Vitamin E and some important vitamin B’s. They also happen to be loaded with all sorts of minerals.
I thought I’d pop these on #thebeachhousekitchen as I had such a laugh doing them, it was the first time I’d ever set foot into a radio studio and spoke to a nation! Quite a day out. All the people I met were lovely and made me feel very relaxed. I’ve never had a problem talking (loads) about anything! Especially veganism, something I’m so passionate about. They could hardly shut me up!
I ended up chatting about all things vegan, fav foods, chia seeds, healthy eating, nutrition, vegetarian week and ‘Peace and Parsnips’. I started the day with BBC Radio Wales and Eleri was a real star. We kicked off with a little ABBA ‘Knowing me, knowing you’ and halfway through the interview we went for ‘Whhhaakkaaan Be Your Hero Baby’ by Enrique Inglesias. The banter could hardly live up to the tunes, but we tried. Eleri is the daughter of a cattle farmer and I had little chance of converting her to vegan ways (not that I expected to!) but we had a real laugh and some of Eleri’s questions were quite a surprise. My favourite of the day was;
‘So Lee, tell us, where is the peace in ‘Peace and Parsnips’?’
I wasn’t prepared for something so deep! I thought we’d just talk a bit of tofu.
Steve and Janie Lee Grace were very nice and welcoming, the interview was high energy with loads of chat and questions flying around the place. I challenged Steve to a ‘Roast Squash Gnocchi’ (a recipe from the book) which he didn’t fancy much, but I got the impression that they were both open to the idea of vegan food and more veggies in our diets. I was sandwiched between the guys from ‘Made in Chelsea’ and Gilbert O’Sullivan. A mixed bag! I also got my picture taken outside of the BBC building by the paparazzi and touched Elton Johns piano. Quite surreal times.
Todays cook off – Loads of new tasty recipes for the Beach House Kitchen.
Listen to me chatting with Eleri Sion HERE about vegan wind issues, the joy of plants and PEACE. I start about 2:05 minutes.
Sunbathing today on Dinas Dinlle, many miles away from a Radio interview! PS – This is how we sunbathe up here, wearing jeans and hiking boots.
If you’re not in the U.K. I don’t think you can access these. Sorry about that. If you’d like to hear them, Jane’s recorded them on her ZOOM. We can maybe transfer them across somehow.
PEACE AND PARSNIPS ROCKS THE TOP 20
Peace and Parsnips has been selling really well and even stormed the Amazon top 20 bestsellers recently. It is still the number 1 selling Salad cookbook on Amazon and we have plenty more promotional behaviour planned for the summer. Jane and I are organising some supper club style nights in local cafes and restaurants, I’ll be doing book signings and cooking demos around the country and we may even run a vegan cooking course (with yoga and hiking) this winter. We’ll let you know. Add all that to tending to our veg patch and cooking up a storm in the BHK and 2015 is looking like a busy one!
WIN!
If you’d like to win a copy of Peace and Parsnips, have a look here. Plenty of sparkling veggie books being given away by the great folk over at The Happy Foodie.
It’s a bit like Christmas morning in the Beach House today……..Peace & Parsnips goes on sale across the world. There are people selling it in Germany, France, Spain, Czech Republic (we think), Japan, Korea, Russia….all over…..Its very cool indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Peace & Parsnips is finally out in the shops. It seems like an age since I first sat down to begin writing it and dream up the recipes and how best to showcase vegan food. “How can I make vegan recipes appeal to everyone?” Make them outrageously tasty I think is the answer!
The process has been long and fascinating and I must thank all at Penguin Books UK for their amazing support and enthusiasm. Peace & Parsnips was written in India, Spain, Turkey, Italy, Wales and various family and friends houses in England. It has been a wonderful experience getting this cookbook together and seeing it morph and change, finally creating a gorgeous vegan tome. I still can’t believe it happened!!!! The shoots in London and Wales especially were a real laugh and the photography in the book is just stunning.
Peace & Parsnips have been a labour of love for sure. It really is ‘vegan cooking for everyone’ and I have packed as many tantalising recipes into the 350 pages as possible. No filler, all foodie heaven. There are many recipes I love, so many great memories of friends and family are linked to them. Food is so important to Jane and I, we believe it links us all and goes a long way to representing who we are.
Chestnut, Millet and Sage Sausage Sarnie with Homemade Ketchup
If I had to do a top 11 recipes that I’d make right now for lunch. It would be (drum rollllllllllllllll pllleeaassseee):
– Portobello Pecan Burger with Roast Pumpkin Wedges
– Blueberry and Macadamia Cheesecake
– Shiiitake Tempura with Wasabi Mayo
– Seitan and Sweet Potato Kebabs with Mango Barbecue Sauce
– Oven Baked Squash Gnocchi with Spinach Pesto
– Smoked Chocolate and Beetroot Beans with Baked Chilli Polenta
– Pakistani Beetroot and Pumpkin Bhuna with Banana and Lime Raita
– Puy Lentil and Walnut Burger with Parsnip Clotted Cream
– Chargrilled Chorizo Pinchos with Pistachio and Coriander Pesto
– Okra, Corn and Black Eyed Bean Succotash with Chilli Cornbread Crust
– Spiced Apple and Date Pie
Portobello and Pecan Burger, Raw Blueberry and Macadamia Cheesecake – a few shots from Peace & Pasrnips
In the book, Jane and I share with the world what it is to live up here in the Beach House and cook in our lovely kitchen. The book revolves around our little cottage and the beautiful landscape around. There is, of course, some shots of us on the beach and me trying to catch some little waves on our surfboard. Unsuccessfully! We also take in local waterfalls, lakes, valleys, mountains and of course, our local glorious veg and fruit farms. Wales sparkles and shines in the book.
Burgers, curries, many sweet treats, bakes, salads, sauces and dips, tapas style little plates, mammoth style big plates, hot drinks and smoothies, its all here in P & P. All superbly healthy and naturally vibrant. I hope you love it as much as I loved writing it!!!
Mighty MUFF – Blueberry and Hemp Muffin (vegan/ gluten free)
I love cooking with vegan and gluten free food. It’s a challenge. How can we make a muffin taste, look, feel as good as a ‘normal’ muffin without the things that can muddle our bodies. So many people are giving gluten a miss, it seems like a good idea as many people struggle with it. I love bread so I made a tasty loaf the other day using predominately ground sunflower seeds, it worked a treat. I feel a shift, things are changing in the foundations of how we eat. The next generational food norms will be very different indeed. Gluten free and vegan will be as normal as fish and chips or black forest gateau.
I cook in a place called Trigonos, an idyllic retreat centre and organic veg farm. It’s a blessing. There I encounter all sorts of dietary requirements, every group that I cook for has a long list of specific dietary needs. The most regular are vegan and gluten free (we are a pure veggie place), but there are so many people out there waking up to food intolerances and how they can hamper our wellbeing. We are all unique and beautifully different, what works for me, might not work for you. But eating less gluten and animal-based saturated fat can only be a good thing for our health. That is a widely held, universal, food understanding. So these muffins are nice….. They can be enjoyed by almost anyone and there is no sacrifice in the taste or treat departments.
Nobody who eats these muffins would think they are vegan or gluten free. They are really quite healthy but very delicious. Any berry can be used here, depending on the season. We managed to get some blueberries and I admit, they are one of my favourites. The berries sort of explode in the muffins, creating lovely fruit pockets of happiness. There is plenty of richness from the coconut oil and a little bit of bite from the polenta flour (very fine polenta that is, not the course grain stuff we use normally).
GLUTEN FREE BEHAVIOUR
We tend to make our own gluten free flour mixes, we still haven’t got round to making the definitive Beach House Bread Mix. But its coming. Banana helps with the binding here, but you can use stewed apple instead. This is also very nice and works well when using blackberries in this recipe. We’ll be doing his later this year for sure. The brambles are already winding their wicked way all over the back of the garden and in Autumn, it will be an oasis for big, juicy blackberries.
FLAX EGG?(!)
Making flax eggs is so easy. Grab some flax/ linseeds and grinder them in a coffee grinder, blender, something like that. You are looking for a fine powder, but a few whole seeds is absolutely fine. You can also buy ground flax seeds or flax meal. This can then be added to all baking shenanigans in order to add a very nutritious binding agent. In the absence of eggs, I find them the best. They even have a vaguely egg-like texture, very gelatinous and gloopy. For 1 tbs of ground flax, I add 1 1/2 – 2 tbs water, stir and leave for a short time. You’ll see the change very quickly. Ground flax is also an amazing way of adding nutrition to your morning cereal, yoghurt or smoothie. Ground flax also helps to make a substantial and chewy loaf of bread or pizza crust. Fibre is so, so important to a healthy diet. It cleans you out in more ways that one!!!!
I love using hemp seeds although they are a little rare. You could try sunflower seeds here, but the hemp seeds (hulled ones anyway) are so creamy and light. They seem to blend into the muffin adding richness. Sunflower seeds will be more of an obvious presence. Tasty non-the-less. Hemp is a wonderful plant and is becoming more and more popular for its uses in making fabric and even paper.
On the beach, with a shell
What with promoting our new book PEACE & PARSNIPS (out tomorrow I may add) and cooking, cooking, cooking…..there seems little time to squeeze in blogging, let alone glorious beach walks. Which is a shame. We will hopefully get some more of our recipes up on the B.H.K very soon. It is almost impossible to keep up. I love writing about food, but I must say, I love cooking much, much more. I’m an out of balance food blogger. Forgive me!!!! I just bought a new computer to replace my ancient little Filipino net book gadget, hopefully this will make me vastly more efficient. You never know!
These muffins are light and fruity…..healthy and delicious….give them a whirl!! All of your guilt-free dessert dreams are coming true….right here:
Fresh from the oven- THE SMELL! THE AROMA! (yum) PS – I ran out of mix so the top left muff is a bit wee
The Bits – Makes 6 muffins
50g gluten-free flour mix (brown is nice)
50g rice flour
25g polenta flour (not coarse polenta, it should be fine like flour)
(or try 125g of a pre-mixed gluten free flour)
30g hulled hemp seeds
2 tbs coconut oil (softened)
½ teas g.f. bicarb soda
½ teas apple cider vinegar
¼ teas sea salt
1 teas vanilla extract
1 banana (mashed)
4-6 tbs rice syrup (depending on how sweet your tooth is; I’m a 3 and Jane’s an 8 – on this scale)
30-50ml soya milk
1 flax egg (1 tbs ground flax seeds mixed with 1 1/2 tbs water and left for 15 minutes)
100g blueberries (or berry of your choice)
Do It
Set the soya milk aside and then mix together the dry and wet ingredients separately. Then mix both together until just combined, adding the soya milk as need. The batter should be sticky, but not wet. Gently stir in the blueberries without popping any if poss (no drama if you do, they will have cool purple streaks).
Spoon the batter into oiled and lined muffin trays. Use muffins cases if you like, I prefer cutting out squares of baking parchment, oiling them and using them. They look far cooler. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick test comes out clean and not sticky. Remember, a little moisture in a muffin is a good thing of course, over baking them would be a shame. Use your muffin-sense here.
Leave to cool in the tray for 20 minutes before enjoying liberally with mugs of your favourite chai.
Blueberry and Hemp Seed Muffin – Difficult to be this close without taking a bite…..
Foodie Fact – Flax Seeds
Flax seeds contain soluble fibre, a gel forming substance called ‘mucilage’. This means that they are brilliant for slowing down the release of sugars into our bodies, helping us absorb more nutrients from our foods and resulting in us being fuller for longer. 2 tbs of flax seeds contains 4 grams of dietary fibre.
Flax seeds are also the very best source of lignans, which provide the body with anti-oxidant and fibre-like benefits. In fact, flax seeds are actually higher in anti-oxidants (polyphenols) than blueberries! Not bad for a little grass seed.
Flax seeds are also ridiculously high in Omega 3 fatty acids, probably the highest to be found in nature. Omega 3’s help to keep our hearts healthy.
Only a couple of days until the BIG DAY!!!!! No, I’m not talking about the election (which surely must be a little refreshing), I’m talking ‘PEACE AND PARSNIPS‘!!!!!!!
‘Happy, healthy and hearty – it’s time to cook vegan…discover the delights of eating meat- and diary-free recipes, bursting with vitality and taste. Using fresh produce, Lee celebrates this incredibly healthy way of eating through recipes that are varied, nutritious and utterly delicious. From curries, burgers and bakes to show-stoppers….’
Preparations are almost complete, like Christmas Day, all of the vegan elves and parsnip fairies have been working overtime to get the book ready and on Thursday, all the good veggie (and non veggie) boys and girls of the world will wake to a massive slice of vegan deliciousness. It’s a real tome, over 350 pages packed with recipes and gorgeous pictures of North Wales, many of which are gluten free (or with options for GF). Its the full montilado!!!!
Here’s a little look behind the scenes of the shoot where I’m trying to keep my cool in the middle of a heatwave and full on cookathon:
‘Peace and Parsnips’ our new cookbook, taking off!
We went up to the top of Tiger Hill and it turned into a full power ‘Peace and Parsnips’ fest, with various pictures of me goofing around with our brand new cookbook (out on May 7th!). Forgive Jane and I, we are little excited about it all.
Our friend Shira was amazing at catching me in mid air, looking like I’d just been dropped out of a passing plane.
I also went back to cooking at Trigonos Retreat last week, which is always a real pleasure. You could call this my day job, cooking vegan fare for meditators and yoga folk. I am a very lucky chap indeed. It is the place where many of the cookbook recipes were tried and tested.
Playing with food, back cooking at Trigonos Retreat Centre, Nantlle, Wales
Once more, just for kicks…..
‘Peace and Parsnips’ is coming to get yaaaaaah! (Its all in the hips)
We’re also sticking loads of new Beach House Kitchen stuff on Twitter and Facebook. Check. It. Out. Xxxx.
If you haven’t bought the book yet (tuttututututututututtttttuuuut), HERE is a great place to pre-order your very own copy for a superbly reasonable price. Over 200 vegan/ gluten free recipes straight from the Beach House Kitchen. How cool is that! Priceless….. The books contains chapters like: Nuts About Nuts!, The Vegan Larder, Eating from soil, shoot or branch, Seasonality, A Very Meaty Problem, Homemade Milks, The ‘Whats Up’ With Dairy and of course the recipes:
Breakfast, Smoothies, Juices, Steamers and Hot Drinks, Soups, Salads, Sides, Nibbles, Dips and Little Plates, Big Plates, Curries, Burgers, Bakes and Get Stuffed, Sweet Treats and finally Sauces, Dressings, Toppers and Other Stories.
That’s quite a plateful of vegan fare. It’s a tasty vegan tome.
Friends, family and loved ones (everyone) I will even sign your copy for no extra charge!!!! Expect many more gratuitous ‘Peace and Parsnips’ plugs coming in the next couple of weeks.
“Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.” HH Dalai Lama
Viva Vegan (peaceful, bright and bountiful food)xxxx
Risk free, no brainer baking. Perfect! If you have never made bread before, start here…….if you’re a pro kneader, give this one a whirl, you’ll be surprised by the results.
This is bread making without all the fuss and mess. In fact, its as simple as; combining, baking, eating. This is a light loaf, with a slightly crumbly finish, like an Irish soda bread (without the faint twang of soda). You can really taste the yoghurt which is a nice addition, giving richness to the loaf.
This is a bread that we make regularly and is perfect for a quick loaf in a hurry. There is no proving or hanging around with this one. Mix it up, whack it in the oven and before you know it, your whole house is fragrant with the joys of imminent warm bread. Homemade bread is the only way to go and with recipes like this, its hassle free.
Adding sparkling water to your baking really adds a lightness to proceedings. Normal water works fine here also.
Jane nibbling on a ‘Tostada con Tomate’ – One of the recipes in our new cookbook – Peace and Parsnips
Modified from the awesome vegan baking book ‘The Vegan Baker’ by Dunja Gulin
The Bits – Makes a 1/2kg loaf (around 8-10 slices)
275g unbleached white flour
125g wholewheat flour
2 teas baking powder
50g rolled oats
1 ½ teas salt
250ml soya milk
225ml water (sparkling water is best)
4 tbs soya yoghurt (unsweetened)
2 tbs olive oil
Everything in neat bowls, probably the tidiest bread making recipe (no flour everywhere for a start)
Seed Mix
3 tbs rolled oats
1/2 teas caraway seeds
2 tbs flax/linseeds or sunflower seeds (any seed will do….)
Loaf topped and ready for the oven
Do It
Preheat an oven to 220oC (425oF).
Sift the white flour with the baking powder, then stir in the oats and salt. Mix well.
Mix in the wet ingredients and combine well with a trusty wooden spoon until a sticky dough is formed. It should be easy to spoon, add a touch more water if needed.
Line a loaf tin with oiled baking parchment, the neater, the better. Sprinkle half of the seed mix on the base and then spoon in the bread mix. Level with a spatula (a wet one works best) and sprinkle over the rest of the seed mix.
Pop in the oven and lower heat to 200oC (400oF) and bake for an hour. If you’re using a fan oven, check after 30 minutes that the top is not burning (our oven is a beast and tends to burn tops). Cover with more parchment if this is happening.
Remove from oven and allow to cool in the tin. Turn out and peel off paper. Leave to cool further on a wire rack, the crust will now crisp up nicely.
Store as you do, this bread lasts well, 5 days.
We let it cool outside, meaning you can start eating it sooner!
Serve
Warm with Marmite and good olive oil or some of Jane’s lovely Apple and Tomato Chutney (coming soon on the B.H.K). This loaf is a good toaster.
Foodie Fact
Oats are a concentrated source of fibre and nutrients, a pocket battleship so to speak. They are very high in minerals like manganese, phosphorous and copper. It contains beta-glucan, which is a special type of fibre that actually lowers cholesterol. Isn’t nature kind! Have loads of fibre also means that oats help to stabilise our blood sugar level, meaning a better metabolism and less freaky weight gain. Oats are very cool.
Just a quickie to let all our lovely followers of the B.H.K that we did a cookbook and its coming out very soon with the great folk at Penguin. Pure vegan, pure delicious and packed with stunning pictures of the Beach House and beyond. We couldn’t have done it without all of your inspiration and encouragement along the way.
Peace and Parsnips is simple and decadent, spicy and sultry, moreish and quite an eye full. There are recipes here for everyone, we’ve even tested them on all on ravenous carnivores and they smiled and asked for seconds. YES!
(The veggie prints on the front cover were hand printed by Sarah, our amazing Art Designer, and her daughter on a Sunday afternoon. How lovely is that!)
“This book will rock your concept of vegan cooking – join the meatless revolution and the trend for cooking healthy, hearty food! Nutritious, cheap, easy, diverse and mouth-wateringly delicious, Lee Watson is set to reinvent the way we think about vegan cookery with an incredible range of styles and flavours. Packed full of fantastic recipes that range from basic bites to gourmet delights. This vegan tome is the answer to all your cookery needs, whether you’re a vegan or just want to give it a go. Burgers, curries, salads, pies and sweet treats, this is a book that will appeal to everyone – including carnivores! Welcome to Peace & Parsnips, the ultimate vegan cookbook.”
We are very, very, very happy with the book. It looks AMAZING and the recipes really shine and the food photographs are just plain sexy! Some beautiful shots of the Welsh landscape and plenty of Jane and I cooking up many storms and trays/ bowls of full power vegan goodness. You’ll even see us surfing, hiking in the hills, attacking sandwiches, sitting under a waterfall and laughing. Lots of laughing. IT WAS FUN!
We have filled ‘Peace and Parsnips’ with the recipes that make us smile and shine; Portobello and Pecan Burgers, Macadamia and Blueberry Cheesecake, Kashmiri Turnip and Spinach Curry, Oven Baked Squash Gnocchi, Asparagus and Cashew Tart…..there are over 200 shimmering purely plant-based recipes to get stuck into! There’s even a section on making your own nut, bean and lentil milks.
You can pre-order the book HERE for a special 5 pounds off.
We will be sharing excepts and bits from the book on The Beach House Kitchen as we move towards the launch date. As you can imagine, Jane and I are getting quite excited about it all!!!!!
We’ll also be doing alot of stuff on our facebook and twitter pages. Follow us there for more vegetal fun, games and deliciousness……..
Another hedgerow classic via our Beach House brother, Dan. This recipe was originally taken from the great book, ‘Wild Garlic, Gooseberries and Me’ by the brilliant Dennis Cotter. I haven’t read it, but will hopefully be acquiring it soon.
This is a cracking little recipe, nice and quick to get together and you gain the infinite pleasure of cropping your own bunches of wild garlic (or ‘Ramson’ in some parts of the world), that are free and absolutely delicious.
The amazing thing about pesto, like most good things, it gets better with age (to a point!). An overnight stay in the fridge and POW, the flavours leap out at you.
We will be trying it tonight with almonds (we have a walnut shortage) and mixing it into some wholewheat penne. Yum!
Thanks and hugs to Dan and Ruth for their constant inspiration.
Add all ingredients to a blender and give it a good blitz. A small food processor is best here, like the ones you would use to grind coffee.
Wild garlic and walnut pesto
Serve
We have pesto spread thinly on toasted oatbread, or mixed in with wholewheat pasta.
Foodie Fact
Interestingly China in the largest producer of garlic in the world, at 13 million tonnes of the stuff, followed closely by India (800,000 tonnes), then comes Egypt and South Korea. France is not even in the top ten!
Dennis Cotter is an Irish veggie chef who owns the ‘Cafe Paradiso’ in Cork. His cookbooks and approach to all things veggie cooking are always fresh and very delicious.
Beetroot and Cumin Fritters from Peace and Parsnips
beach house kitchen 