Crushed, Roasted Potatoes & Sprouts

by Liz Child

Looking for some fantastic festive nibbles for your next seasonal soirée? These smashed and roasted potatoes and sprouts are incredible! Taking the time to squash, dress and roast your boiled/steamed veg is really worth it. This process creates gorgeous craggy edges which turn into crispy deliciousness in the oven! Perfect with a nutty romesco dipping sauce or any dip you fancy. Enjoy!

Liz x

Ingredients

For the potatoes and sprouts:

  • 1 kg potatoes, steamed/boiled until fork-tender
  • 500g brussels sprouts, steamed/boiled until tender
  • 5 tbsp oil (I used golden rapeseed oil)
  • the zest of an orange
  • 4 crushed cloves of garlic
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp fine salt

For the romesco dipping sauce:

  • 100g almonds, roasted
  • 2 roasted and skinned red peppers (from a jar is perfect)
  • 1 tbsp smoked paprika
  • 1/2 tsp fine salt
  • 1 small garlic clove, peeled
  • 1 tbsp vinegar (apple cider, red wine or sherry vinegars all work well here)
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200C and prepare the vegetables. (Boil or steam the potatoes and sprouts until they are fork soft, roast the almonds in the oven for 5 minutes, roast the peppers or use pre-roasted from a jar, prepare the dressing ingredients…)
  2. Spread the sprouts and potatoes onto a large, lined baking tray and squash them gently with the base of a glass.
  3. Mix the dressing ingredients and drizzle/brush over it all over the squished vegetables. Then place the tray in the oven to bake until golden and crispy (around 30 minutes).
  4. Meanwhile blend the romesco dipping sauce ingredients together until smooth. Serve the crisped up vegetables on a large platter with the sauce in a ramekin – fab festive finger food! Any left over sauce makes a great pasta or pizza sauce or can be frozen to use another time.

Simone’s Festive Apple Loaf

by Liz Child

Our farm photographer (farmtographer?) Simone has kindly shared her families festive apple loaf recipe with me. This is a delicious German cake, full of fruit, nuts and spices. It’s just the thing, thickly sliced and spread with butter on a chilly afternoon with a big mug of tea. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It tastes very Christmassy and I’ll definitely be making it again. If you have lots of apples to use up, then this recipe will certainly help! And the recipe just happens to be egg, dairy and fat free (that is, until you spread your slice with butter of course!)

Liz x

Ingredients

  • 500g peeled and grated apple
  • 200g sugar
  • 125g raisins
  • 6 dried apricots, chopped
  • 70g almonds, chopped
  • 1 heaped tsp cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • a pinch of salt
  • 40ml rum (or fruit juice)
  • 250g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder

Method

  1. Mix the apple and sugar in a large mixing bowl and allow it to sit in the fridge overnight or for an hour or so at room temperature.
  2. Pre-heat the oven to 175C. Line a loaf tin with baking parchment.
  3. Add the rest of the ingredients to the apple and sugar mixture (which should now be very wet) and mix to evenly combine the ingredients into a thick, spoonable batter.
  4. Spread the batter into the lined loaf tin and bake the cake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or so until it is risen and set. It should still be moist but when you insert a skewer it should come out mostly dry with a few damp crumbs.
  5. Allow the cake to cool in the tin then remove and slice it thickly. This cake stays fresh for a week in the fridge if tightly wrapped.

Orange, Rosemary & Black Pepper Almonds

by Liz Child

This aromatic, sweet and salty snack is the perfect nibble alongside a glass of wine or whilst watching a Christmas film. We stock organic almonds in compostable bags if you’d like to make your own. It’s easy to do and the flavour combination is just perfect! You might want to double or triple the batch and give some jars away as festive gifts.

Liz x

Ingredients

  • 500g whole almonds
  • the zest of a large orange (or use a few clementines)
  • 4 tbsp rosemary leaves
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 tbsp maple syrup or honey

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line your largest roasting tray with baking parchment.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients. Taste an almond and add more of any ingredient if you like, perhaps you’d like it extra peppery?
  3. Spread the almonds onto the lined baking tray in a single layer. Bake for 15 minutes or so until the nuts are beautifully toasted. Remove the tray from the oven every 5 minutes to stir the nuts and ensure they are not burning. Keep a close eye on them, once they start to toast they go very quickly!
  4. Allow the nuts to cool completely on the tray before storing them in an airtight container. They should stay fresh for a couple of weeks. Enjoy with a glass of wine and other delicious nibbly bits or gift wrap and share with your loved ones.

Romesco Sauce

by Liz Child

This romesco sauce is THE MOST delicious accompaniment to barbecued vegetables, it is our take on the special sauce used during calçot festivals in Catalonia (where barbecued large leek/scallion-like vegetables are dunked in romesco in their thousands). We make it on repeat all summer! It’s silky, nutty, savoury, sweet and smokey. Dunk freshly grilled  vegetables or bread in it or even use it as a stunning pasta sauce. Spread it into wraps or sandwiches, smear it on a plate and top with salads and grilled veg, or just eat it with a spoon! You’ll fall for this sauce hard so let us know your favourite way to eat it. 

There are as many traditional recipes as there are cooks in Catalonia and if you’re a fan of romesco you may notice bread, hazelnuts and tomatoes are missing from this one. Of course you should feel free to add them back in, but I love the undiluted, smokey roasted pepper flavour of our recipe. Use roasted or barbecued red peppers and good olive oil, or for ease, one of our new jars of organic ready roasted peppers in oil. We also sell bulk bags of organic almonds (and hazelnuts) in compostable packaging. Sherry vinegar is traditional in this Catalonian recipe, but actually, we love using the raw, organic, Irish, apple cider vinegar from Clashganny Farm in Co. Waterford instead. It’s gorgeous stuff, why not add a  bottle to your next order?  

Liz x

Ingredients

  • 1 190g jar of roasted peppers & the oil*
  • *OR* 2 roasted/grilled red peppers & 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 clove of raw garlic, peeled
  • 1 tbsp smoked paprika
  • 2 tbsp vinegar (sherry or apple cider)
  • 1 handful of roasted almonds (about 50g)
  • a pinch of salt

Method

  1. Roast the almonds in the oven until they just start to take on some colour – for about 5 minutes – or toast them in a dry pan on the hob.
  2. If you are roasting/grilling your own peppers, cook them on a high heat until the skins are blistered and the flesh is soft. Then cool and peel off as much of the blackened skin as you can, remove the stem and seeds. Otherwise just use one of our jars of grilled peppers.
  3. Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend into a silky, smooth sauce. 
  4. If you like a thicker sauce, with more of a hummus-like texture, you can simply add more toasted almonds and blend again.
  5. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed with more salt, smoked paprika or vinegar.
  6. Keep the sauce in a jar in the fridge and use within a week.

Rhubarb & Almond Clafoutis

by Liz Child

A clafoutis is a classic French dessert, somewhere between a cake and a pudding. It’s normally made with cherries but here’s my seasonal twist with gorgeous, tangy rhubarb and flaked almonds. The other twist? This recipe is plant based and low food waste, the eggs are replaced with aquafaba which is the liquid from a can of chickpeas or white beans which is normally discarded. I love it served warm, scooped out of the dish into bowls with yoghurt or custard but it’s also delicious chilled and served in slices. Give it a try and let me know how you like it? And of course, switch the fruit for whatever you fancy. I even make a savoury version with asparagus or cherry tomatoes…the possibilities are endless!

Apart from the taste, the whole joy of this recipe is that it is very forgiving, hence the super-simple mug measurements. Some of my cakes require exact weights to work but this little beauty is a chilled out affair. Just grab a regular sized mug to weigh out your sugar and flour (not American style ‘cup’ measurements) and if you don’t have a measuring tbsp, just use a dessert spoon for the oil/milk. A few grams amiss here and there won’t affect the bake as it’s more of a pudding than a cake, so just trust your instincts and go for it. If you have a really big roasting dish or flan dish, use a big mug and enough rhubarb to cover the base in a single layer. And enjoy the easy, relaxed method!

Liz x

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp butter/margarine
  • 1 handful sugar
  • 5 or so stalks of rhubarb
  • the liquid from a 400g can of chickpeas or white beans
  • 1/2 mug sugar
  • 1 mug plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder (or 1 tsp baking soda & 1 tsp vinegar)
  • a pinch of salt (omit if your aquafaba came from a salted tin)
  • 3 tbsp oat milk (or more if needed)
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 handful flaked almonds (optional)
  • yoghurt or custard to serve

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 175C. Find a large flan dish or medium roasting dish.
  2. Butter the base of the dish then scatter over a handful of sugar. 
  3. Rinse and cut your rhubarb into bite sized chunks then arrange them in the dish.
  4. Pour the aquafaba from a can of chickpeas or white beans into a large mixing bowl. Keep  the beans/chickpeas in a box in the fridge to use later today or tomorrow.
  5. Whisk the aquafaba until frothy, then add the 1/2 mug of caster sugar and whisk until creamy.
  6. Fold in the plain flour and baking powder (if your aquafaba came from an unsalted tin, add a pinch of salt now too).
  7. Stir in the milk, oil and vanilla. You should have a thick, creamy batter. If it’s too thick, add a splash more milk and stir again.
  8. Pour the batter over the rhubarb and spread it evenly. Scatter over the handful of flaked almonds if using.
  9. Bake in the oven until golden brown and just set. This should take approximately 20-30 minutes. The cake should still have some wobble and the rhubarb should be just cooked through and tender. 
  10. If you find it’s browning too much on top before being cooked through, move it to a lower part of your oven and cover the dish with a baking sheet or some baking parchment.
  11. Serve warm in large scoops with a dollop of yoghurt or custard. Or allow it to chill and set – the texture will become less pudding-like and more cake-like as it cools. You can then slice it and serve it in wedges like a regular cake. 
  12. Feel free to play around with the recipe substituting seasonal fruit or frozen berries as you like. I even make a savoury version with asparagus or cherry tomatoes, fresh herbs and feta. Simply substitute the sugar for more flour and seasoning.

Raw Coffee & Walnut Cake

by Liz Child

This gorgeous raw cake is rich and fudgy and packed full of great ingredients. My simple, wholesome recipe uses just nuts, dates, coffee and a little coconut oil and maple syrup. You need quite a lot of nuts so I recommend buying them in our compostable bulk bags. Have a look at the organic bulk range here.

You need a food processor or blender to make this recipe and a deep baking dish. I use a 19 x 24cm dish but any medium baking dish will do. Let’s get started! Liz x

Ingredients (makes 16 or more slices)

  • 1 mug walnuts (plus extra for decorating)
  • 2 mugs pitted dates (chopped into smaller pieces with scissors)
  • 4 mugs almonds
  • 2 mugs cashews
  • 1 mug espresso strength coffee
  • 2/3 mug maple syrup
  • 1/2 mug melted coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp cacao powder for dusting
  • 1 pinch salt
Watch the method. The cookbook can be added to your Green Earth Organics order here.

Method

Line a baking dish with baking parchment leaving a little overhang to make it easier to extract the cake once it is set.

Like many of my recipes, I use mug measurements for this. Just a regular, smallish coffee/tea mug, not a massive one. It doesn’t really matter what size you use though as it’s all about the ratios here. Just use the same mug for all the measurements and it’ll be fine.

Start by soaking the two mugs of cashews in water. This will make them softer and easier to blend into a smooth cream for the topping later. Then get on with making the base.

Measure the walnuts, dates and almonds into a food processor with a pinch of salt. Pulse them together into a crumbly, sticky mixture. If you only have a small food processor or a blender you may find it easier to measure the walnuts, dates and almonds into a large bowl, mix it up and then pulse the ingredients in smaller batches.

Once you have a nice sticky, crumbly mixture, pour in about 2/3 of a mug of espresso strength coffee and give the mixture a stir. Then pack it into your lined baking dish, spreading it firmly and evenly into a neat layer.

Then make the creamy topping. Drain the cashews and pop them in the blender with 1/3 mug of espresso strength coffee, 1/2 mug of melted coconut oil (you could sub this with melted cacao butter or a flavourless coconut oil if you don’t like coconut) and 2/3 mug maple syrup (or maple syrup to taste). Blend the mixture until perfectly smooth and creamy.

Pour the coffee cream over the base and level it out with a spatular. Then pop the dish in the fridge to set overnight, or in the freezer for an hour or two to set faster.

Once it’s set, pull the cake out onto a chopping board and dust it with cocoa/cacao powder. Slice it into bars or squares – it’s quite a rich cake so smaller slices are better. Decorate each slice with walnut halves or pieces and enjoy!

Store the cake in the fridge (like cheesecakes, it can get a little melty at room temperature) and enjoy within a week. Or store it in the freezer for much longer and take pieces out to defrost as and when you need them.