A cupboard staple that’s easy to cook with, full of protein, and adds tons of goodness to your plate – the humble lentils are amazing in whatever colour you choose.
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Chilly days call for a big bowl of nourishing goodness. And even when the cupboards seem bare, this spicy dahl can be whipped up with store cupboard staples. If you have some veg to use up you can roast it like my half butternut squash, or cauliflower, parsnips, carrots or beets.
You can go as spicy as you like here too with chilli flakes or fresh chillies. And amp up the garlic and ginger to ward off the winter bugs. So delicious and versatile and the perfect way to add more organic plants to your plate this January.
Lou x
Ingredients: serves 4
1/2 butternut squash 3 tbsp olive oil 1 small white onion, diced small 4cm piece of ginger, grated
4 cloves garlic, grated
1 small leek – diced small, optional 1/2 a fresh red chilli, finely chopped- or 1 tsp chilli flakes Spice mix: 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp Garam masala 1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp maple syrup 250g dried red split lentils, washed and drained 750ml veg stock
1 tin chickpeas – drained Salt and pepper to taste More water to achieve desired consistency
To serve: plain yoghurt of your choice, fried curry or sage leaves, fresh chilli slices
To make it stretch further, serve with boiled rice and flatbreads.
Method:
Step 1: Preheat the oven 180ºc. Slice the butternut squash into semi circles, place on a baking tray, drizzle with oil, a pinch of salt and roast until soft- about 30 minutes.
Step 2: Warm a wide pot on a medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of oil and gently cook the onions until soft. Then add the leek, garlic, ginger, spice mix, tomato paste, maple syrup, salt and pepper to taste, stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the washed lentils and veg stock. Stir and simmer for 15 minutes then add the chickpeas and cook for a further 20 minutes. Stir the lentils every few minutes to make them soupy and creamy.
Step 3: Check that the lentils are cooked, adjust the seasoning if needed. Then serve with the cooked butternut squash slices, yoghurt, sage leaves and fresh chilli slices.
Delicious, easy, nourishing, and packed with plant power! We love this one pot dish and we think you will too!
The organic red Thai curry paste has all the aromatics added already and is a quick way to pack in the flavour.
Feel free to add some steamed rice or quinoa to make this dish go further. Its so tasty for lunch or dinner and your gut will be delighted with all the organic veggies in there.
Make sure you add it to your meal plan this January.
Lou x
Ingredients:
1/2 butternut squash , peeled and chopped into small cubes 1 tin of coconut milk
Step 1: A wide pot works well for this, add the diced butternut squash, the red curry paste, coconut milk and water. Simmer on a medium heat for 15 minutes.
Step 2: Next add the cauliflower florets and the butterbeans, stir to coat in the sauce and cook for a further 15-20 minutes. Check that the squash is soft, the cauliflower should be cooked but not to mushy, then take the pot off the heat. Season with salt and pepper.
Slowly cooked risotto is deliciously creamy and comforting especially on a crisp cold day in January. After the costly pinch of Christmas its great to have a few dishes that are easy on the pocket yet packed of flavour.
This is a plant based version, made with plant based butter and cheese.
Sweet Irish leeks are one of my favourite vegetables and they are the perfect partner to vitamin D rich Irish mushrooms in this one pot meal.
Gradually adding hot stock to the rice will create a perfect bowl of risotto. It’s always worth the effort.
Let us know if you try it we love to hear from you.
1 litre of hot vegetable stock (substitute 100ml stock for dry white wine if you wish)
juice 1/2 a lemon
A big knob of butter (30g), use dairy or non dairy
1 tbsp. Nutritional yeast
Salt, pepper and olive oil
grated firm cheese to finish, use dairy or non dairy
optional topping: a handful of chopped fresh parsley
Method:
Method: Step 1: Heat 1 litre of stock in a pan and bring to a boil.
Step 2: Meanwhile, in another pan, sautè the diced onion for 5 minutes in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and then add in the diced leeks and cook to soften. Next add the grated garlic and mushrooms cook for a further 10-15 minutes until cooked through.
Step 3: Stir through the rice. (If you want to add white wine add it now) Pour in a ladle of stock, stir gently and once all the liquid has been absorbed, pour in another ladle and repeat until the rice is al dente, or cooked to your liking. Continue stirring the rice so the starch is released and it becomes creamy.
Step 4: Stir through the nutritional yeast, butter, grate in some firm cheese and finish with lemon juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Serve with fresh chopped parsley, black cracked pepper and a good extra virgin olive oil.
Its hard to choose just 5 savoury recipes from all that we cooked and shared in 2023. Cooking with organic vegetables always makes the most delicious meal and just knowing they they were treated with care adds to the overall enjoyment.
The star vegetables here are courgette, butternut squash, beetroot, celeriac and delicious Irish potatoes.
We hope you try them out in 2024.
Lou 🙂
Tap on the dish below and it will take you to the full recipe.
We are spoiled for choice with all the gorgeous produce and products from the farm and our fantastic organic suppliers. We added lots of amazing Irish vegetables to our sweet bakes this year, beetroot, carrots, courgettes, butternut squash and heaps of fruit too strawberries, blueberries, blood oranges and apples to name a few.
Here are 5 of our favourite recipes. We hope you give them a try.
Lou 🙂
Tap the recipes below to take you to the full recipe:
This is a wonderful nut roast bursting with flavour. This is a recipe I came across in the Guardian newspaper many years ago and I’ve made it many times since. It’s a great one to make ahead of the big day. After cooking it will keep in the fridge for 3 days. Cut slices when its cold fry on a frying pan to sear and then heat through in the oven.
Someone recently said a nut roast is like a posh stuffing and I guess it really is. This one is a celebration of some of the gorgeous organic vegetables available at this time of year, cabbage, mushrooms and earthy parsnips with kicks of sweet and sour cranberry and salty Cashel blue from Co. Tipperary.
1 egg, or 1 flax egg (to make 1 flax egg mix 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons water, leave for 15 minutes then use like an egg)
Method:
Step 1: Boil or steam the parsnips and mash them when they are soft, set aside to cool.
Step 2: The cabbage leaves will line the loaf tin. Prepare the leaves by cutting off the stems and blanch them in boiling water, remove from the pot and run under cold water. Dry thoroughly. Oil a loaf tin, line with tin foil, oil the foil, then line the tin with the cabbage leaves, leaving no gaps.
Step 3: Meanwhile, sauté the onion in the butter until soft, then add the mushrooms, a pinch of salt and pepper and cook until they become dry. Stir in the chopped hazelnuts, cranberries, breadcrumbs, chopped sage and mixed spice. Stir in the cooled mashed parsnips, the beaten egg and break in the blue cheese if using. Season and then carefully fold the mixture together but keep the lumps of cheese intact. To check the seasoning fry off a small piece and taste, adjust if needed.
Step 4: Spoon the filling into the lined loaf tin, push down with a fork. Cover with the cabbage leaves, and finish with tin foil.
Step 5: Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. leave to set in the loaf tin for 20 minutes then slice. Or cool completely in the loaf tin, store in the fridge overnight and slice the next day. If serving the next day fry on a pan and warm through in a hot oven. Serve with Christmas veg and gravy.
It’s so lovely to combine Christmas flavours at this time of year. Cranberries are delicious served with savoury food but equally delicious bakes in a sweet pudding. The tart crimson fruit works really well with our delicious sweet organic Irish apples.
This crumble can be made and stored for 3 days in the fridge ready to bake on the big day. It also makes a gorgeous dish to take to a festive dinner party.
100g butter, cut into cubes (vegan butter will work too)
Method:
Step 1: Preheat the oven 190ºC and use a square or round deep dish 22cm approx.
Step 2: Pour the peeled and chopped apples into the dish along with the fresh cranberries, mixed spice, cinnamon and sugar, mix with a wooden spoon.
Step 3: In a separate mixing bowl measure in the plain flour, oats, sugar and mixed spice, stir to combine. Add the cubed butter and work into the dry ingredients with your fingers. When it looks coarse and crumbly its ready.
Step 4: Sprinkle the crumble topping over the apple mix. Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until golden and bubbly.
“Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should”.
We all have a right to know how our food is grown, what is in and on it, and more fundamentally whether the genetics of the plants and food we are eating have been messed with in a lab.
The idea of modifying food for the betterment of society is a good one and in principle it seems straight forward. But the promised results from genetically modified crops have not been realised, such as crops resistant to drought or pests.
The long-term impact of eating genetically modified plants is not well understood, nor is the impact on the environment. But setting that aside, it is the greed and the desire to patent and control our food system that tells us all we need to know to make the right decision when it comes to GMOs. In my view the right decision is to keep genetically modified crops out of our food system.
It is clear that the driving force for genetically modifying our food is driven by the desire of a handful of giant agri-corporations to control our food chain. Manipulation of the genetic makeup of crops allows these corporation to patent “their” crops and hence own a piece of our food system whilst making billions of dollars in the process. (as has already happened around the world with “Roundup Ready Soya”)
To think that we can replicate the careful complex modification of plants, through thousands of years of evolution by nature, in a lab, in the space of months, by splicing pieces of foreign DNA or modifying the plants own DNA is ambitious and/or insanely arrogant.
Apart from conferring increased resistance to a toxic weedkiller, the promised benefits have not yet been demonstrated and there are large safety concerns about releasing untested genetically modified crops into nature.
The release of these plants into nature then becomes an uncontrolled experiment and one that may be difficult to roll back if the outcome is not as we would like.
Up to this point genetic engineering has in the main, been used to confer herbicide resistance to a few key commodity crops, hence allowing larger amounts of Roundup to be applied, adding to the toxic load in our food and on our planet.
There is no argument that can justify owning the rights to our food system, end of story.
There are currently strict EU rules on the authorisation and labelling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). They allow farmers, food producers and consumers to choose and to opt for GMO-free food.
However, the European Commission wants to scrap this legislation and allow a new generation of GMOs, to enter our food system, without any labelling or safety checks. Essentially, they will be treating these “New genomic technique” modified crops the same as conventional crops.
I for one like to know what is in and on my food, I like to know its origin and I want to know that the food I am eating has not been genetically modified, if you are of a similar opinion then please sign this petition to help the EU politicians to take the right decision in this case and continue the ban of GMOs in our foodchain.
Thank you for supporting a sustainable food system.
Kenneth
PS It’s been a busy week, and we are ramping up for a manic packing and delivery week, next week. Thank you to all who have placed an order, and if you still have not there is plenty of time.
Please get your orders in over the weekend, but you will have up to your normal delivery deadline to get you orders in, if you are unsure of when that is you can click here to find out.
ALL DELIVERY DAYS AND DEADLINES REMAIN THE SAME FOR THE WEEK AHEAD! THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT, IT KEEPS US IN OUR JOBS AND KEEPS OUR FARM AND OTHER IRISH ORGANIC FARM’S FUTURE SAFE.
It’s almost Christmas, so let’s get all the lovely christmassy recipes into one place! Here’s some inspiration for a meat free christmas dinner and so much more.
