Easter Feasting

Celebrate spring with some bright fresh flavours, have an Easter feast and bake some treats with the kids. There are loads of ideas up on the blog now. Let me point you in the direction of some delicious dishes which will work perfectly this Easter. Liz x

Hot Cross Buns

Homemade hot cross buns are always better! Try my plant based recipe.

Courgette Risotto

My courgette risotto is a celebration of this delicate green vegetable – there are silky soft, slowly simmered pieces and fresh raw ribbons to tantalise your tastebuds. Swirl through some of my low waste salad bag pesto and scatter over some crunchy toasted hazelnuts…heaven!

Devilled ‘Eggs’

After something Easter eggy with out the egg? Try these fun little devilled ‘eggs’ made with quick picked mushrooms and a vibrant yolky chickpea mixture.

Leek and Thyme Tarte Tatin

Leeks are in season now and this sophisticated dish is deceptively simple to make. Find the easy recipe here.

Shortbread Biscuits

Make an egg shaped batch of my easy as 1,2,3 shortbread and have fun decorating. I added the zest of a lemon to the dough and used the juice for icing. Just stir in enough icing sugar to make a thick paste, then split the icing into two bowls and add turmeric to one for a natural food colouring – make chicks, eggs, daffodils, daisies… Allow the icing to harden and set before storing in a biscuit tin.

Flourless Black Bean Chocolate Cake

Prefer your Easter chocolates in the shape of a cake? Why not melt down any unwanted eggs and make this flourless, fudgey cake?

Spring Sunday Roast

Lemon and herb roast veg, spring cabbage, a beetroot and butterbean loaf and gravy. A vibrant roast perfect for Easter Sunday!

Lentil Pie with Colcannon Mash

Forgo the sacrificial lamb and make this hearty lentil pie instead? It’s packed full of flavour and veggies and is a satisfying family friendly meal. Serve with seasonal greens. I always make a big batch and pop one in the freezer for a rainy day.

Raw Carrot Cake

The Easter Bunny’s favourite dessert? Try my raw recipe, it’s delicious!

Raw Carrot Cake

Illustration from my cookbook, Cook Draw Feed – available to add to your next order here.

For a healthy cake, this tastes incredibly decadent. It’s not too sweet and full of great flavours and satisfying whole-foods. So simple to make too – it’s simply a case of squishing together the base ingredients and blending up the cashew-cream cheese frosting, then putting it together and letting it set overnight in the fridge. Easy! I love this cake with a big mug of chai tea, have you tried our new Rooibos Cacao Chai?

Ingredients

Method

Start off by soaking the cashew nuts – simply cover them with fresh water and leave to soak and swell up for at least an hour. Line a baking dish with baking parchment.

Base

While the cashew nuts are softening, grate the carrots into a large mixing bowl. Then pulse the dates and walnuts together in a food processor until they are finely chopped and sticky. Scrape this mixture in with the carrots. Then add the desiccated coconut, ground spices and a pinch of salt. Use your hands to mix the base ingredients really well, then squish the mixture evenly into the lined baking dish.

Frosting

Use the same blender you used to pulse the dates and walnuts, no need to clean it out, just make sure you scraped the date/walnut mixture out thoroughly. Drain the soaked cashew nuts and pop them in the processor with 50ml of water and the vanilla, lemon juice, maple syrup, melted coconut oil and pinch of salt. Blend until totally smooth, thick and creamy. You may need to stop the blender and scrape down the sides every so often to get a silky smooth cream cheese frosting. When you are happy with the texture, pour it over the base, cover the baking dish and refrigerate overnight to let the cake set. Then you can carefully take the cake out onto a chopping board, dust it with cinnamon and decorate it with walnuts. Slice it with a large, sharp knife and enjoy!

Liz

Tips: It’s best to keep the cake in the fridge when you are not serving it to make it last longer, and as the cashew cream can sometimes get a bit melty in a warm house. You can also portion it up and freeze it. It will last in the fridge for around 5 days and in the freezer much longer.

Did you make this recipe? Let us know in the comments how it went and please share your photos with us @greenearthorganics1 on Instagram or on our Green Earth Organics Healthy Eating page on facebook. If you like this recipe you’ll love my book. Available to add to your regular order from the farm here.

This recipe was featured on Twinkl as part of their Easter Bakes campaign.