Posts Tagged With: vegan

Winter Zing Salad

Posted on December 8, 2012 by leroy watson

Winter Zing Salad

A salad for the lovers of all things green and healthy. A real cold buster! The winter zing will beat the heck out of all those winter blues and ailments that hang around at this time of year. It’s designed specially to make you fly into Christmas time feeling superb! All that decadent scoffing is just around the corner and our bodies need a helping hand.

It’s that time of year when salads should be eaten more, with the dark and gloomy weather, everyone is getting colds and run down. You just need to flip your head around a little here, salads are not just for summertime. Trust us, your body will thank you for this one.

We all need some food medicine sometimes and a boost, this salad boasts all of this and some funky green stuff to top it off. I like the idea of using food for healing the body (mind and soul too), a preventive measure to illness, something that benefits the body and actually gives energy freely, without taking it away. All ancient civilizations knew about this, especially the Indias, who through Ayurveda, have a complete method of food science created thousands of years ago! It is mostly still relevant today and modern science seems to be catching up!

Most foods we eat at this time of year are stodgy, rich and satisfying, it seems natural to be drawn to them when it’s raining and miserable outside. These foods are the exact opposite to what our bodies actually need, we end up feeling heavy and bloated, our bodies energy is mainly used to digest the food being eaten and not keeping us in tip-top shape, fighting bugs and all.

In wintertime the body needs a boost, an influx of nutrients, alkaline foods and a vitamin kick to keep them clean, light and healthy. With salads like this you’ll be the only one at work who doesn’t get that cold!

This bowl of goodness is basically lots of green leafy bits and other hard colourful veggies chopped up finely and given a wonder dressing. It is hearty and rich, with the addition of olives and a good glug of olive oil which gives plenty of fats to keep you well padded in colder climes. You can use different combos of hard veggies and leaves depending on what you have in the fridge, but this bowl works wonderfully. We have been experimenting extensively in the super zing salad field; too many baguettes and lumps of cheese in France has left us feeling in need of some quality salad time.

The idea here is to chop everything up into small chunks, so that you can get many different flavours on your fork/ spoon at the same time. Mingle the zing! You don’t want a mouth full of just spinach, you want it all mixed up and coated in your magic dressing.

Jane on the beach with Robbie (the dog)

This recipe uses raw garlic, we love it and so do our nearest and dearest. You may want to moderate the quantity if pungent garlic breath is not you thing, although trust me, your body will thank you for the garlic buzz (it’s pretty powerful stimulant).

We topped this salad with some treats from the health food shop that you may not have in the cupboard. Nori and all of the seaweed family are just amazing for you and also add a distinct flavour to each dish they grace. For vegetarians, they are almost essential, the more green things in your diet the better and the seaweed family is full of chlorophyll and anti oxidants that make you zing and shine. As a substitute you could use wheat grass powder, spirulina or some finely chopped green herbs. Basil would be rather nice and is a special leaf.

The blob of miso on the side here acts as your salt for the meal, it is full of sodium but also many, many other goodies and cold fighting friends. You can regulate how much you fancy or need.

We are getting back into our food combining behavior and feeling all the better for it. Usually we wouldn’t eat dried fruits with this salad, but those fresh dates a too fine to ignore and of course add a lovely sweetness to proceedings.

Makes one large bowlful for one very lucky salad muncher.

A decadent salad for beating dark long days…….

The Bits

All veggies should be chopped into fine cubes (approx 2cm):

1 handful spinach leaves, 1 handful chard leaves, ½ cup brilliant green olives (pitted easier to eat), 1/3 cucumber, 1 gorgeous tomato (we used a black kumato), 1/3 head of broccoli and stem, 1 small carrot, ½ red pepper, 3 fresh dates (chopped), 1 tbsp nori sprinkles, 1 teas barley grass powder, 2 teas mixed seeds, small blob of brown miso (on the side)

Dressing – 1 garlic clove, 3cm sq cube ginger (both finely diced), 1 1/2 great olive oil, 1 tbsp coriander leaves (finely chopped), ½ tbsp lemon juice

Do It

Rinse all your veggies in a bowl of water, chop it all up into little pieces, we don’t peel anything unless absolutely necessary.

If you are presentation conscious, layer the salad (green leaves first) and top with olives, dressing and green sprinkles. Otherwise, mix all your veggies and olives in a bowl with the dressing and then top with your sprinkles.

Serve

Your finest salad bowl, although you could serve this salad in any pot or dish and it would light up your day.

Winter Zing Salad

We Love It!

Taste amazing, full of crunchy bits and many surprising flavours, one moment a date pops up, then a little miso, then an olive. This is fun food and always interesting to eat!

Foodie Fact

Cold busting 101:

Exercise, eat healthy, avoid excessive boozing, get some sun (if you can!!), treat yourself, relaxxxxxxxxxx, embrace the beauty of winter, get social and most of all, catch plenty of ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ’s.

Winter is a tough time for body and mind, eat more salads!

Categories: Ayurveda, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Superfoods | Tags: colds, food, healing, nutrients, raw, salad, vegan, winter | 10 Comments

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

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

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

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

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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!!!

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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

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

Khoresh Bademjan – Persian Aubergine Stew

Posted on August 20, 2012 by leroy watson

Persian (or Iranian) food is a favourite of mine, but something I haven’t cooked for a long time. It is similar to Indian food and the food of other areas in the Middle East; namely Turkey, Iraq and Pakistan. Some would say that these countries food cultures are similar to Persian food, after all, they were there first! Ancient Persia, Darius the Great and all, have always sparked my imagination. I hope one day to visit (soon).

THE BEAUTY OF PERSIAN CUISINE

Persian food is beautifully spiced and rich. It’s roots are of course ancient and the oldest Iranian cookbook was written in 927 and was called ‘Kār-nāmeh dar bāb-e tabbākhī va sanat-e ān’ or the “Manual on cooking and its craft”. It offers an exhaustive insight into the complexity and importance of Persian food to the people and the culture. This amazing food tradition has been passed down through the generations, normally from mother to daughter, meaning that the dishes served in Tehran today will not have varied greatly from the time of the ‘Kar-nameh’. This all means that Persians take there food very seriously, authenticity is a must.

Persian food is captivating, I love the emphasis on fresh produce, in London I have seen Iranian housewives shopping down at the markets and they only accept the very freshest of ingredients (giving the stall holders feedback if things aren’t up to scratch!) Persian cuisine uses large amounts of fresh herbs, sometimes it seems they replace the use of vegetables!

A LITTLE HISTORY…….

Persian food has influenced the world of cooking, much more than we know, giving us delights such as ice cream and kebab. Dare I say it, many of North Indian dishes are heavily derived from Persian cuisine. In Mughal times especially, Persian cooks were in high demand in the courts of the ruling caste. These trends filter down into the melting pot of India’s culinary traditions.

The whole vast area of the Middle East has been linked throughout history; cultures mingling and merging throughout the centuries. Iran is a very fertile land with a wonderful array of produce; pistachios, spices, dried limes, fruits, pomegranate, green herbs, the flavours of rose and saffron, all spring to mind and the colours alone get my imagination flowing.

TEHRAN VIA LONDON

My first taste of Persia came in a London backstreet, a place where farsi filled the air and a smiling man made fresh flat breads in a stone oven. The food was so fresh and the flavours striking. I started to experiment with Iranian cooking and found a whole new range of flavours and ingredients to play with. Dried limes for example are unique revelation!

Persian food is very traditional and each dish has set rules to follow, not something I am completely comfortable with, but the results are generally outstanding. My best memories of these Iranian days were the rice (polo) cake that I made. The sort of dish that is so easy and looks very unique, the rice takes the shape of the the pan and forms a nice golden crust. You cut into it like a cake! Served with a delicious Ghormeh Sabzi (Veg and Kidney Bean Stew – Iran’s National Dish) and you have something quite special to enjoy.

Although Persian main dishes revolve around meat and rice, I have found the creative combining of ingredients can easily be related to veggie foods. There are also many vegan stews, salads etc that are popular in Iran, like this Khoresh Bademjan or Aubergine Stew, which traditionally would have a lump of meat in it.

AUBERGINE – ‘THE POTATO OF IRAN’

Aubergine (Egg plant to some) is a staple in Iran and is even known as the ‘potato of Iran’. I love making stews, the gentle simmering nature, the way they fill the house with the homely smell of food. The use of cinnamon here adds such a warming flavour to the dish and the lentils keep nice and firm, giving the stew a very hearty feel.

I know how passionate Iranians are about their food, so I felt it right to seek advice for this recipe and stumbled upon a top Iranian food blogger, Azita at Turmeric and Saffron. Azita’s recipes are traditional and made with love and care, many handed down from her mother. This to me is real heart and soul food, cooked with love and care and a cornerstone of family life and culture all over the world. It is surprising how many of our memories of loved ones revolve around food (or maybe that’s just me!) I have changed the recipe slightly, but kept the authentic flavours in tact.

Iran is such a vast and fascinating land, the dishes served will vary greatly in different regions, I’ll just have to go for a visit and try them all myself! Hopefully you’ll see some holiday snaps on the B.H.K soon. It’s great to be back in the Iranian cooking flow and I hope to be making much more Iranian food.

Happy CookingX

This makes a big pot full, good enough for four hungry mouths.

The Bits

3 large aubergines (peeled, sliced into large chunks and salted with 2 tablespoons of salt)

2 courgettes (chopped into large chunks)

4 medium tomatoes (peeled and chopped)

1 large onion (diced)

4 cloves of garlic (crushed and chopped)

3/4 cup yellow split peas (rinsed)

3 tablespoons sunflower oil for frying onions etc

1/2 cup (60ml) oil for frying aubergines

3 tbs tomato puree

3-4 cups of water

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

sea salt and cracked pepper (to taste)

1 lime or to taste (juice) or 2-3 tablespoons sour grapes (ghooreh).

Do It

This is Persian food, meaning a very particular way of preparing the dish. Well worth the effort!

Leave your aubergines for 30 minutes with salt rubbed into them. Then place the salted aubergines in a large container filled with water; put a heavy bowl or a heavy lid on top of the eggplants to hold them down for ten minutes, this will get rid of the bitterness. Remove aubergines from container and pat dry completely before frying. (You can skip this step if you’re pushed for time).

Fry the aubergines in 1/2 cup (60ml) of hot oil until brown on both sides, remove and then add the courgette and fry until golden. Place all on a plate lined with thick kitchen paper to drain some of the excess oil.

Using a knife, mark each tomato with a shallow X at the top, place them in a pot of boiling water for five minutes before pulling off the skin, then chop or slice them thinly or just chop the tomatoes skins on (for the time deprived).

In a large saucepan, heat the oil, add chopped onions, saute until translucent then add the garlic, stir well. Sprinkle in the turmeric, salt and pepper and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly. Cook until onions begin to caramelise.

Add dry split peas, fry for five minutes, this will keep the peas more firm in the khoresh. Then add chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and three cups of water to cover all the ingredients. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and cook for an 35 mins on medium heat.

Add the fried aubergine and courgette to the mixture, adjust the seasoning and add more water if needed.

Cook for another 15 minutes, until all is nice and tender. Add the lime juice or two tablespoons of sour grapes (ghooreh). Let it sit for 10 minutes off the heat, with the lid on. This allows the stew to cool a little, flavours can be impaired by really hot food.

Serve

With steaming rice, soya yoghurt (or whipped silken tofu) and a fresh salad shirazi. This dish may also be served with sour grapes (ghooreh), which you can buy in many world food stores.

We Love It!

Jane and I can sit at our table in the Beach House, up in the clouds, and dream of exotic far off lands and ancient cultures…to the blue mosque of Isfahan and back before dessert…..traveling the world one plate at a time. This stew is that good!

Foodie Fact

The aubergine (or brinjal or eggplant…) is native to India, this fruit comes in all shapes and sizes and is now grown around the world. It is very low in calories and contains much soluble fibre. The skin of aubergine is high in anti-oxidants and it is a good food to help high blood cholesterol and aids metabolism.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: aubergine, cinnamon, eggplant, food, healthy, iranian, persian, recipes, stew, tomato, vegan, vegetarian | 8 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.

p1170518

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.

Categories: Desserts, Recipes, Summer, Vegan | Tags: almond, banana, cacao, chocolate, cocoa, dessert, food, healthy, ice cream, recipe, vegan | 17 Comments

Stuffed Courgette with Hazelnut and Peach

Posted on August 4, 2012 by leroy watson

The Bits

Cooking is still a bit weird here after all of our raw escapades. We are still eating mainly raw, with a few exceptions, when the produce and mood take us in a hotter direction. I need to keep my hand in because of the work that I do.

I’ve always loved a stuffed veg, Mum used to make stuffed peppers back in the dark ages on the early 90’s. Mum’s always been a bit of a maverick. I remember the first time she made cheesecake, in the mid 80’s with cheddar cheese! The family all came around to try this new found food. We’ve come a long way since then.

This is a dish along the lines of the millions of other ‘stuffed’ dishes on cyber space, the only difference being, this is ours and its only semi-stuffed. Recipes that spring to mind via what you have at hand are always my favourite. Spur of the moment cooking, making the best of what you have. This recipe goes against all of the food combining advice that we have been following recently, but we felt like living dangerously!

We are lucky to have brilliant courgettes at the moment from the farm and some sweet ripe peaches; combine that with a nut cabinet that never runs dry, mint growing wild like a madman in our garden and the ever-present cauliflower and you have the makings of a feast.

I decided to add the cauliflower to the cous cous, I love the subtle flavour that cauliflower gives off when steamed/ boiled. It added great flavour to the cous cous.

Being very much an amateur cook, I make many mistakes, or as I call them, great opportunities to learn. Cooking with an electric hob can be a real drag, but that is what we have. I much prefer gas stoves, mainly for controlling the heat by eye. When cooking the cous cous and cauliflower here, I forgot that the hob was still on very low and went off to do other things (drink tea), leaving the poor cous cous to overcook. Oh well, this is ‘real’ cooking and it still tasted good, if a little soft and congealed.

The French beans here are optional and can be substituted with anything else green and is season. Peas, spinach, broad beans etc would be grand.

We are an energy conscious household at the Beach House and don’t like turning on the oven unless very much necessary, namely, when we have lovely guests. Otherwise, it’s all hob. These courgettes could be blanched off in boiling water then thrown in a hot oven for a while, that would be nice. We have opted for the simpler and more efficient method of re-using your frying pan.

This is an ideal seasonal summer lunch which oozes flavour. All that sweetness and crunch with the bitterness of the olives. You could even cook the courgettes on the barbecue if you fancy!

Peaches and Raisins

The Bits

2 cup wholemeal cous cous (or brown rice, quinoa etc), 1/2 cauliflower (chopped finely), 1tbsp good veg stock, 1 large onion (chopped), 10 french beans (topped and tailed and chopped), 1 teas carraway seeds, 2 cloves garlic (minced/ finely chopped), 1/2 cup olives (sliced, we like the green ones), 1 ripe peach (finely chopped), 3 tbsp hazelnuts, 2 tbsp raisins (chopped), 2 tbsp mint (chopped), 1 tsp parsley (chopped), sea salt and cracked black pepper, 1 tbsp good oil, 4 courgettes (halved lengthways)

Chopped Cauliflower

Do It

Boil some water in a saucepan (follow quantities written on your cous cous packet, you will need a little less due to the water given off by the cauliflower) and stir in your stock, add your finely chopped cauliflower and cous cous, stir a little then tightly cover and leave off the heat to cook for 20 minutes. Fluff cous cous with a fork and re-cover until needed. If more water is needed, add now.

Heat your frying pan, add your hazelnuts and warm them through, lightly roasting them. Allow to cool, chop up into chunks.

Then heat some oil in the pan, gently soften your onions for 5 minutes, until slightly golden; add carraway seeds and french beans. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly, then add your mashed garlic, cook for 5 minutes more.

Gently soften your onions

Now add your mint, parsley and chopped hazelnut, stir for a minute to heat through, then add your cous cous and cauliflower, raisins, olives and peaches, with plenty of cracked pepper and some sea salt. Combine well. Be gentle with the cous cous here, you don’t want a mush! Cover pan and keep warm.

In another large frying pan, heat some oil and on a low/med heat, fry your courgettes face down. Allow them to colour for a few minutes then flip over, repeat this twice and the they should be cooked. You don’t want to overcook the courgette, it should still have a little crunch in the middle.

Stuffed Courgette with Hazelnuts and Peach

Serve

Place two courgettes on a plate, leave a little space inbetween, spoon over your filling. Pile it nice and high, finish with some of your chopped herbs.

We Love It!

This is a great dish, ideal for a light summer dinner. The combination of flavours and textures here is something that delights the mouth (even with overcooked cous cous)!

Stuffed Courgette with Hazelnut and Peach

Foodie Fact

Cous cous is small balls of semolina flour, whole wheat cous cous is made with wholewheat flour and has higher nutritional properties. Wholewheat cous cous contains higher fibre and iron than the normal stuff, 1 cup gives you a third of your daily fibre requirement.

Categories: Lunch, Recipes, Summer, Vegan | Tags: cooking, courgette, food, hazelnut, healthy eating, peach, recipe, stuffed, summer, vegan, vegetarian | 11 Comments

Watermelon and Tofu Kebabs

Posted on July 24, 2012 by leroy watson

The Bits

We don’t care if the weather is damn awful, we are having our summer! These kebabs are pure sun food, to be eaten when it’s too hot to even consider a barbecue and all you want to do is have a massive chill (preferably in a hammock). Serving suggestion – on a tropical beach. They are easy on the eye, served cool and require very little effort.

Summer will not be reaching Wales this year, so we are making our own, using kebabs. When you need to get a big fire on in mid July, you know you’re in trouble. British people are famous for talking about the weather, well it’s no wonder, it’s a freak.

Watermelons are a fruit custom designed for summertime. They are so thirst quenching, I like then best just at it comes and straight out of the fridge. When living in Murcia,(+40oC in summer) Spain I used to use them as ice cubes (just cut into cubes and stick in the freezer). We decided to add kiwi here and some amazing cucumber from the farm; purely for the colour contrast, we demanded sexy kebabs. The not-quite-ripe kiwi also adds a nice fruity bitterness.

We marinated the tofu for a few hours in a classic style summer dressing, all basil and mint from the garden with tad of honey and lemon. You can use goats cheese or feta and treat it in the same way.

Marinating Tofu

When you buy a watermelon, and you don’t have a family of ten, you have to get a little creative to use it all up. We found out recently that you can actually eat the rind of the watermelon, cook it up into a stew. Checkout our some favela cooking, Rio style. Waste not, want not! We bought a beastly sized thing and have been making it into soups, salads, smoothies and all sorts. This was our favourite experiment with the big pink globe.

Watermelon works surprisingly well with savoury dishes, its light sweetness blends nicely with fresh flavours, it is quite neutral really. It certainly add colour to the plate, which is something we love in any food.

Please try these cooling kebabs in a hotter part of the world, we ate ours with our fleeces on (indoors) dreaming of swaying palm trees. We have good imaginations, it nearly worked!

Remember your seeds. Keep them, dry them out and roast them for a lovely little snack. Pumpkin and watermelon seeds are delicious and very easy to collect and roast. It seems a waste to chuck them in the bin.

Kebabs and the ‘Big Crunch’

Makes two big kebabs:

The Bits

Kebabs – 10 big chunks of watermelon (cubes), 10 chunks of firm tofu (marinated), 1 large cucumber (chopped into chunks), 1 kiwi (not quite ripe, peeled and cut in slices). 2 large skewers, we used metal.

Marinade – juice of 1/2 lemon, 6 fresh basil leaves (ripped up small), handful of fresh mint (chopped), 1 teas honey, 1 clove garlic (finely chopped/ crushed), pinch of sea salt, cracked black pepper (to taste), 1/4 cup of good olive oil.

Do It

Mix up your marinade in a bowl, toss tofu well and coat in the marinade. Leave covered in the fridge for a couple of hours. When ready to serve, gather your bits and begin to make the kebabs. Slide on your chunks in a regular order, we like the last one to be a kiwi.

Serve

Spoon over any left over marinade and serve on a nice platter/ chopping board.

We had ours with a nice ‘big crunch’ salad:

All chopped – 1 head chicory, 1 apple, 2 carrots, 1 orange pepper, 2 large mushrooms, 1 beetroot, 1 red onion(diced small), 6 large lettuce leaves, 1 handful of beetroot leaves, sprouted mung beans, golden flax seeds with our ‘Beach House Dressing‘ mixed in. CRUNCH!

Watermelon and Tofu Kebabs

We Love It!

This is the perfect summer munch and a fine way to get rid of your excess watermelon! One day, we will eat this in the sunshine…….

Foodie Fact

Watermelon are the ideal accompaniment to a sun scorched summers day. They are originally from Southern Africa and are closely related to the squash. They are full of electrolytes and of course, water. They also contain alot of lycopene (super antioxidant) vitamin A and C and potassium.

Categories: Dinner, Healthy Eating, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: food, gluten-free, healthy eating, kebabs, low fat, salad, tofu, vegan, vegetarian, watermelon | 4 Comments

Beetroot and Apple Raita

Posted on July 22, 2012 by leroy watson

Beetroot and Apple Raita

The perfect accompaniment to the ‘Hippy Daal’. This sweet, crunchy, fruity raita salad is the ideal side dish to spicy rich food, also great as a salad in its own right.

This is a really nice twist on your normal raita recipe. Absolutely nothing wrong with the original recipe, but when you have amazing beetroots and apples in the bowl, you just have to play with flavours!

Of course we love beetroot at the BHK, for the most part, we live on the stuff. We juice it, chop it, grate it……our table is incomplete without a little purple plate or two.

I like using the apples here, because I would normally sweeten my raita, but with these apples it doesn’t need it.

Jane and I on the beach today, enjoying the a little bit of sun (too rare).

The raita will look great if you try and chop all components in an even way. Squares work well! Circles more difficult, but very impressive!

Make sure your yoghurt isn’t too thick, water it down if needed. Otherwise you could have a sticky mess on your hands. The fresh mint makes this dish, so do try and get some together. It is really easy to grow and we have found it saves alot of hassle (and money) to have some planted outside or on a window ledge. If given space, it will spread like wildfire and you’ll never have a fresh mint crisis again (you’ll also have an endless supply of amazing mint tea).

The Bits

1 medium sized beetroot (peeled or scrubbed and chopped), 1 sweet organic apple (chopped), 1/2 cucumber (chopped), 1 small courgette (chopped), 1/2 teas ground cumin, 1 clove of crushed garlic, 1 handful of chopped fresh mint (chopped), 150 ml of yoghurt (we use soya, greek/turkish would be amazing)

Do It

Add all ingredients to a bowl and give it a good stir.

Beetroot and Apple Raita (Raw)

Serve

Leave for at least an hour before serving, let the flavour’s gather. Serve as you like, traditionally with a stonking curry or as we like, as a main course salad with some green leaves. Add nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts) to make it more of a meal of it.

We Love It!

Creamy, spicy, fruity and what a crunch! Difficult to find anything wrong with a raita.

Foodie Fact

Mint is high in fibre and magnesium. It is very high in vitamin A and folates and also packs some serious vitamin C. It also helps with all sorts of stomach issues.

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: apple, beetroot, food, raita, raw, recipes, salad, vegan, vegetarian | 7 Comments

The Beach House Kitchen voted for a ‘Thought Provoking’ Blog Award

Posted on July 19, 2012 by leroy watson

Lovely Ivelinax

Our dear Ivelina at ‘Mother Nature Loves You’ has kindly bestowed the B.H.K. with another little blog award, the ‘Thought Provoking’ Blog Award. We love to receive these awards, especially from a wonderful lady like Ivelina.

Ivelina has created a very special space, where she conveys her wisdom and gifts on a daily basis. Ivelina’s insight into living and her shining energy is a constant source of inspiration for us and we are blessed to have such a friend supporting the Beach House Kitchen. Ivelina is also very knowledgeable about all things vibrant food and holistic living. Thank you ‘Mother Nature’X

This award actually started off at my other blog ‘Riding Effortlessly On A Large Green Turtle’ a blog for travel, poetry, philosophy and whatever else I encounter along the way; but eventually found its way to the Beach House. I have found so many great new blogs and like minded folk through such an award, I love to pass them on and spread the good word. We hope you find the same!

At the Beach House Kitchen we aim to create a home for folk who love healthy vegetarian food, a place for vibrant ingredients and energies to mingle and create; a little hillside retreat from the grey modern world where we can add a little colour and spice to living, a place that nurtures body and mind. We also have a very good laugh at the same time.

Here are a few foodie blogs that inspire us and get out thoughts flowing in the right direction (just a handful and in no particular order):

the bear and the blackberry – Beautiful vegan blog.

freeflowfoodie – Wonderful energy to be found here (and veggie bites)

the veggie nook – Gabby is a real sweetie!

sacred strawberry – Emily writes from the heart and heat of Madrid

veganchopnchat – Inspirational words and food abounds.

mumtopia – Many Mum’s join us in the BHK, it seems a great time in life for healthy food! The is lovely Ali (Jane’s sisters) brilliant blog about all things motherhood.

travelbutterfly – Because we love travel and Savannah gives us wings!

lucysfriendlyfoods – Lucy has the luckiest family around. Cordon Bleu treats and balancing a busy, busy lifestyle. A real inspiration.

postpunkkitchen – The PPK is a constant stream of amazing recipes and huge library of gorgeous dishes.

Peace the consciousness, the transitoriness, your existence – What is cooking without a little poetry?! Beautiful words that light up our days.

Thank you to the whole blogging community for being so kind and supportive and enriching out lives.

Lee and JaneX