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:
Cheese and fruit platters are gorgeous ways to graze over the festive season. They are great for sharing and require minimum effort. We like ours when we have friends over or when we watch a family movie.
We stock some gorgeous organic bio cheeses like this wheel of camembert and with a little effort it is delicious baked for your cheese board. Baked with garlic and herbs bring it to the next level, your guests will love it. Serve along side our delicious mulled wine.
Lou 🙂
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Step 2: Most Camembert comes in a little wooden crate. Open the cheese and place in parchment paper and put it back into the crate. If there is no crate, place it on a baking tray.
Step 3: With a thin sharp knife, make grid like cuts in the cheese, 3 or 4 in each direction, about 1 inch apart and going about 1 inch deep into the cheese but without cutting through the bottom rind. Use your knife tip to “open” each cut and your fingers to press a little sliver of garlic into each cut. Combine the olive oil with the rosemary, salt, and pepper in a small dish. Spread thickly on top of the cheese.
Step 4: Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cheese is loose inside the rind. Serve immediately with crackers, grapes and bread.
Warm mulled wine is a great way to kick start Christmas. We have gorgeous Organic/Vegan wines that are perfect to warm and add some Christmas spice. You can make this ahead of time and reheat it when your guests arrive.
Cinnamon, orange, star anise, bay and cloves make for the most delicious mulled wine, a perfect drink for Christmas Eve.
Wishing you and yours a very peaceful Christmas.
Sláinte,
Lou x
Step 1: Cut the orange and stud with the cloves.
Step 2: Add the sugar, bay, star anise, cinnamon stick, studded orange, lemon zest and wine to a wide pot. Warm gently for 10 minutes, do not boil or all the alcohol will evaporate. Taste it is it sweet enough, if not add a bit more sugar. Then turn off the heat to infuse for 30 minutes.
Step 3: Serve warm in heat prof glasses.
Enjoy 🙂
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.
We really hope you try it.
Lou 🙂
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.
Enjoy the festive flavours,
Lou x
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.
Serve with ice cream, custard or fresh cream
How do you eat yours? This might be the tastiest sprout dish I’ve ever had! The combination of flavours is just perfect, in fact I could eat a whole bowl..and I never liked sprouts as a child! This is delicious as a solo dish or serve with your Christmas main or as a starter with crumbled feta cheese and sourdough.
We have the nicest Irish brussel sprouts for you this Christmas, make sure to try them this way you wont be disappointed.
Lou 🙂
Every Christmas dinner needs a centrepiece and this is a delicious one. Organic butternut squash with mushrooms, herbs and nuts tastes delicious wrapped in crispy puff pastry with all the usual side vegetables.
You can make this ahead of time and keep it wrapped on a tray in the fridge for 3 days. If you fancy making your own gravy check out our recipe Groovy Gravy.
Save the recipe to try this Christmas.
Lou 🙂
Step 1: Preheat the oven 180ºC, line 2 trays with parchment paper. Take the puff pastry out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Put the diced squash on one tray, drizzle with oil, salt and pepper and roast until soft, 30-40 minutes.
Step 2: Warm a frying pan on a medium heat, add a tablespoon of oil and the chopped onion, cook to soften for 5-10 minutes. Next add the garlic, leeks, some salt and pepper cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook them fully for 15 minutes. Once cooked add in the sage, parsley, chopped nuts, soy sauce, maple syrup, stir to coat.
Step 3: When the squash is cooked add it to the pot with the cooked mushroom and mash with a fork or potato masher. Pour in the breadcrumbs and stir well. Set aside to cool.
Step 4: Unroll both packets of pastry lay one on the second baking tray. Spoon the squash and mushroom filling into the middle of the pastry and make a long sausage shape mound. Mould it with your hands so its compact. Lay the second piece of pastry on top. Cut away the extra pastry (use it for something else) seal the edges with a fork, score a diamond shape on the top. Brush with milk or egg-wash.
Step 5: Bake in the oven 180ºC for 1 hour 20, until golden brown and cooked through.
The old reliable carrot is an annual hero on the vegetable charts! You’ll find it in soups and stews in the colder months but is given a jazz up in this tasty recipe.
Hasselback originated in a restaurant in Sweden where a potato was sliced multiple times but kept intact then seasoned, oiled and roasted. We’ve added some spice to our Irish organic carrot version and slowly roasted them and they are sweet and soft and flavoursome.
Serve as a starter with crumbled cheese and nuts or on the side with your veggie main course.
Enjoy,
Lou
Baking with vegetables fills us with joy. Courgette is a great vegetable to bake with and paired with chocolate it works very well. My kids ate big slices and didn’t notice the green vegetable….I said nothing just incase.
We added cane sugar that is a healthier option over refined white sugar, or you could add coconut sugar too if you like. Our courgette season has come to an end but you can still get the best courgettes from our organic grower in Spain.
This is a delicious chocolatey moist cake we hope you try it.
Lou 🙂
Beautiful red onions high in antioxidants, great for your heart and liver. This recipe couldn’t be easier, just 4 ingredients and its so versatile. Serve it with cheese, put on a pizza, have it with savoury pastries it gives lovely sweet and sour notes to your food.
We’re coming up to Christmas and it would also make a lovely gift. Jar it up and put a nice ribbon on it, it makes a really thoughtful edible gift.
We enjoyed it this week with our Amazing Leek and Bean Rolls! Yum.
Put some red onions in your basket this week.
Lou :
Method:
Step 1: Chop off the top and root and peel the red onions. They need to be finely sliced so use a food processor with a fine blade or do it by hand with a sharp knife.
Step 2: Put the sliced onions into a wide pot along with the sugar. Stir together and put the lid on the pot and cook on a low heat for about 20 minutes until the onions are completely soft and the sugar has dissolved. Check it half way through.
Step 3: Pour in the wine and the vinegar and cook with the lid off on low for a further 20-30 minutes. When the onions are ready the liquid will have evaporated and the onions will be sweet and soft.
Cool completely then transfer to a clean jar. This will keep in the fridge for 1 month.
