Looking for a quick and simple, yet utterly delicious, centerpiece for your veggie/vegan guests this Christmas? This glazed tofu is the answer. It is gorgeously caramelised on the outside and beautifully tender inside. Firm tofu is a wholesome, healthy and satisfying protein, but definitely a blank canvas that needs a good marinade to shine. This sweet glaze is spiked with mustard and garlic and is honestly, so moreish. Enjoy!
Liz x
Ingredients (serves 2-4 depending on sides and appetite)
400g extra firm tofu (2 of our blocks)
4 tsp smoked paprika
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 heaped tsp garlic granules
1 heaped tsp dijon mustard
a splash of just-boiled water
salt to taste
Method
Place your blocks of tofu into a small, lined roasting dish. Sprinkle the first sides with 2 tsp of smoked paprika and 2 tbsp of soy sauce. Turn the blocks over.
Score the tops of the blocks of tofu in shallow, diagonal cuts. Then sprinkle these top sides with the remaining smoked paprika and soy sauce. Pop the dish in a hot oven to roast for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile prepare the glaze by whisking together the sugar, mustard, garlic granules, salt and hot water into a smooth sauce.
Remove the tofu from the oven and brush liberally with the glaze. Return to the oven for another 15 minutes or so until dark brown, sticky and delicious! You can check on the tofu every 5 minutes and baste with any glaze that has pooled around the bottom of the dish. Enjoy alongside all your usual Christmas roast trimmings.
Make your favourite bar of chocolate that bit more special by melting it into puddles and adding festive toppings. We love adding green pistachios and red pomegranate seeds to ours for fresh bursts of flavour and Christmassy colour. But be aware that if you are using fresh pomegranate seeds, these chocolates will need to be stored in the fridge and eaten within 3 days, so only make as much as you’ll need. These are a great (minimal effort but maximum wow factor) treat to bring to a Christmas gathering to be enjoyed with a glass of mulled wine.
Did you know that most chocolate has quite problematic origins? Cocoa production is rife with child and slave labour, as well as environmental issues with land clearing and overuse of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Organic, ethically sourced chocolate is of course more expensive, but I think we can all agree that it is totally worth spending a few more cents to help make the world a fairer place. Playing with your chocolate like this and adding nuts, seeds, fruit etc can also make it go further. Check out our chocolate selection here.
Liz x
Ingredients
Your favourite chocolate
pomegranate seeds (or use freeze-dried fruit for longer lasting puddles)
desiccated coconut
sea salt flakes
pistachio nuts, chopped
or any toppings you prefer
Method
Line a tray with a sheet of baking parchment and make space in your fridge or in a cool, dry place in your house. Prepare your chosen toppings.
Gently melt the chocolate. The best method is in a glass bowl over a simmering pot of water.
Spoon the chocolate out onto the parchment and use the back of the spoon to create little puddles.
While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle over the toppings. Set in a cool place until solid then enjoy! If you are using fresh pomegranate seeds, store the chocolates in a container in the fridge and eat within 3 days. Dried fruit and nuts will last a lot longer.
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
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…)
Spread the sprouts and potatoes onto a large, lined baking tray and squash them gently with the base of a glass.
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).
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.
This creamy, comforting, warm winter side dish will make you cosy from the inside out. It’s special enough for the Christmas table, but once you try it, you’ll be making it to go alongside all your winter roasts. Deep, dark, earthy mushrooms mingle perfectly with sweet parsnips and rich cream. The nutmeg, garlic and bay leaves infuse beautifully into the sauce making your whole house smell amazing!
Liz x
Ingredients
250g fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, peeled & sliced
1 tbsp oil
600g potatoes, thinly sliced
600g parsnips, thinly sliced
1 tbsp dried mushrooms (soaked in 400ml boiling water)
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 bay leaves
400ml cream (oat cream works well)
salt & pepper to taste
Method
Turn your oven on to 200C and prepare all your ingredients. Boil a kettle and cover a tbsp of dried mushrooms with 400ml of just-boiled water. Find a large, oven and hob safe pot with a lid (or use a large soup pot on the stove and decant to an oven dish to bake).
Sauté the sliced fresh mushrooms for 5 minutes with the oil, garlic and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Once soft add the potatoes and parsnips to the pan.
Pour the mushroom stock (including all the now rehydrated mushrooms) over the vegetables. Add the bay leaves & nutmeg and season well with salt and pepper. Carefully stir to combine the ingredients, then level out with the back of the spoon.
Pour over the cream then pop the lid onto the pot and simmer for around 8-10 minutes until the vegetables are just soft. Remove the lid, use the back of the spoon to push all the veg under the liquid. Taste and add more seasoning if needed.
Place the dish in the oven for 20-30 minutes to brown and reduce into a gorgeous gratin. Allow the dish to sit out and set for 5 minutes before serving in generous scoops. Enjoy!
This is a really delicious and hearty veggie main for your festive feast, made with ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. A great option if you need an alternative to a nut roast, this beetloaf is nut free, can easily be gluten free if you use gluten free oats, and is full of healthy fibre and protein from beans, chickpeas and oats. Make is Christmassy as I’ve done here with a cranberry sauce glaze, or use it for another occasion and switch the cranberry sauce for barbecue sauce, apple chutney or a mustard and maple glaze. Make it your own with your favourite herbs and spices. Happy Christmas!
Liz x
Ingredients
400g cooked beetroot
1 tin of chickpeas plus the liquid in the tin
2 tins black beans, drained
1 tbsp each: smoked paprika, sage, rosemary and thyme
2 tbsp tomato purée or ketchup
2 diced onions and 4 diced garlic cloves cooked in olive oil
150-200g porridge oats
salt and pepper to taste
cranberry sauce to glaze (around 6 tbsp)
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 200C and line a loaf tin with baking parchment.
In a food processor, blend the beetroot, chickpeas and their liquid, herbs and spices, seasoning and half the black beans into a thick purée.
Add the onion/garlic mix, 150g of oats and remaining black beans and pulse together to retain some texture.
Scrape the mixture into a bowl, taste and adjust the seasoning if needed and add more oats if a little wet.
Scrape into the lined loaf tin, cover with cranberry sauce (or any glaze you prefer eg barbecue sauce, mustard and maple…) and bake for around an hour or until cooked through.
Serve in slices with all the trimmings. Gravy, roast potatoes, greens…
Against all my best inclinations I have decided I am not going to launch into a rant about the damage the supermarket food culture has wrought on our land. I have decided to instead embrace the positive this week, to celebrate the little wins and the amazing things our people, suppliers, and you our customers are doing.
We have the most amazing suppliers, the best in the world, and they are local, Irish and sustainable. Just today I met Titta from Lilly’s eco clean, she exudes positivity and is dedicated to the sustainable cause. Yesterday I had reason to speak to Franck, our local native Galwegian French man who supplies us with his amazing organic wine, he is always in good form.
We have had to give the harvest of our own leeks a little break until after Christmas and therefore I was on the phone to Roy Lyttle one of our amazing potato and leek suppliers. Cameron from Battlemount organic farm supplied us just a couple of weeks ago with his own freshly pressed organic apple juice from apples in his own orchard and the most amazing potatoes on this island.
Ralph Haslam and I go back along way and he supplies the gorgeous organic cheese, yogurt and if milk (I believe the best milk in Ireland) you may know his products better as “Mossfield Organic farm”. There is of course the cultured food company and Synerchi kombucha, and the Little Milk Company and Bunalun Organic, all great IRISH companies. Yorg from Solaris teas makes his tea right here in Galway and Blakes Organic roast their coffee in Leitrim, the fantastic McCabes coffee roast their organic coffee beans in county Wicklow.
Then there is all the other Irish organic growers that supply us at times during the year such as Audrey and Mick from Millhouse organic farm. Joe Kelly in Westport, Padraigh Fahy in Beechlawn organic farm. Philip Dreaper in Coolnagrower organic farm and many more.
But the best supplier of all is our own farm and the amazing hard-working team of individuals that work tirelessly on our farm. They grow the best tasting, healthiest food you can buy anywhere. Our farm is the centre of our business, it is the heart, it is our cornerstone, it keeps us grounded and it keeps us deeply connected with our food, it never lets us stray from the right path.
That is not to say that we do not have the most amazing teams of packers and drivers and customer service people because we do, the very, very best. So we really understand and appreciate the hardwork and effort of all our other suppliers, they are all amazing, struggling with the ups and downs of running and owning a small business and working extremely hard to produce great IRISH products and make their business work especially during the last two years.
This brings me to our last stars, the real hero’s of our story and I guess you may know who that is? That is, you. Your support, your purchases, your positive (and constructive negative feedback) keeps us going, it puts money in our bank account to pay for all of the above. But and this is the big one, it keeps a strong growing sustainable system of food production going. So aside from the very best healthy and (we have no shame in saying) the most amazing tasting produce you are supporting an idea for a better food future.
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
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.
Pre-heat the oven to 175C. Line a loaf tin with baking parchment.
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.
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.
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.
This is my favourite way to make really Christmassy roast potatoes. When the oven is full for a big roast dinner, it’s a great way to double up in one dish too. Brussel sprouts are best when roasted or sautéed rather than the traditional boil and flavouring them with red onion, sage and clementines just screams Christmas! Don’t forget to save the potato peels and make crisps! There’s a lot of flavour, nutrients and fibre in those organic peels.
Liz x
Ingredients
Potatoes – think X amount per person
Brussels sprouts – 6 or so per person
Clementines – 1 between 4 people
Red onion – 1 between 4 people
Sage – 3 leaves per person or 1 tbsp dried between 4 people
Vegetable oil – a generous slick in the roasting dish plus a drizzle for the bowl of sprouts
Salt and Pepper to taste
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Peel your potatoes and leave them whole if they are small, or cut them into large, even chunks. Place the potatoes into a large pot of water and bring it to the boil.
Boil the potatoes until par-cooked. They should just be soft on the outside but still firm in the middle. Meanwhile pour a generous slick of vegetable oil into a roasting dish which will comfortably accommodate your potatoes and get it in the oven to heat up.
Drain your potatoes into a large colander. Give the colander a good shake. This will rough up the outsides of the potatoes which will make a gorgeous crispy exterior in the oven.
Carefully remove the roasting dish from the oven and tip in the roughed up, par-boiled potatoes. Use a spatular or tongues to turn the potatoes in the hot oil then pop the dish into the oven to continue cooking the potatoes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Cut the ends off the sprouts and cut them in half. Remove any damaged outer leaves as you go. Put all the cut sprouts into a large mixing bowl.
Slice the clementines into rounds and peel and slice the red onion. Add both to the bowl with the sprouts.
Season the bowl of sprouts, red onion and clementines with salt, pepper and sage and mix well with a drizzle of vegetable oil.
Keep an eye on the potatoes in the oven and turn them regularly to ensure they are cooking evenly. Once they are beautifully golden and crispy (after around 20-30 minutes) remove the dish from the oven. Carefully tip in the prepared sprouts, red onion and clementines. Mix carefully then return the dish to the oven.
After around 15 minutes, the sprouts and onions should be cooked through and the whole dish should smell amazing. Enjoy alongside your other roast dishes and gravy. Merry Christmas!
Here in Ireland we need to do much better on plastic, we are at the bottom of the European league tables when it comes to plastic waste per person. By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish by weight in the oceans.
On our farm and in our business, we have spent 3 years looking at our processes and removing plastic where we can. In contrast to the green washing of most of the larger retailers who have promised and yet have not delivered we are doing what we say.
We do not use plastic in any of our seasonal set boxes, we use paper, and we collect and reuse our boxes, this is a fundamental cornerstone of our business. We realise that paper too has its own carbon cost, and we are looking at ways of trying to reduce that further. It bothers me a bit though, when the idea of using a paper straw instead of a plastic one constitutes progress, it is a small step, but it diverts attention from the real issues, such as the large scale use of plastics in the food industry.
The strain that humankind’s excessive consumption is putting on our planet is eye watering and for the environment and biodiversity the price is too great. We all need to consume less, whether it be plastic or otherwise.
I recognise the irony of encouraging less consumption and at the same time trying to sell our organic veggies boxes. But I have no shame in this, we run a sustainable business, we employ a lot of people in a worthwhile industry we grow local organic food and support so many other small scale Irish organic producers too and in order to pay them we need to sell boxes.
Everybody needs to eat, and it is impossible to assess the environmental credentials of most food businesses. This Christmas and new year if you want to know your food has been sourced and grown sustainably then throwing your lot in with us for your food is the right thing to do.
Our Christmas boxes and many other lovely Christmassy things (gift vouchers, wine hampers, original art and many eco-hampers) are available on our website, and they will be delivered the week beginning the 20th of December. The boxes are brimming with organic local (where possible) freshly harvested sustainable food.
We can deliver by courier all over Ireland and if you can place your order by the 12th you will be entered into a draw for an amazing hamper, it also guarantees you a delivery slot on Christmas week and helps us out immeasurably with harvesting.
If you want the most amazing fresh ingredients and also keep Christmas plastic free, local and sustainable then get a delivery from us this year.
Whole roasted vegetables are one of my favourite things. The long roast means there’s always a sweet, juicy centre and interesting textures and flavours on the edges. This recipe for whole roast swede (pretending to be ham) is inspired by eco-chef Tom Hunt. It makes a fun festive centrepiece and it’s delicious too! Not ham flavoured of course, but a celebration of the humble-but-hearty swede. These bulbous roots are a real Irish staple and they are well overdue their time in the limelight. Swede is slightly peppery and sweet and the mustard-maple glaze works wonderfully. Delicious served in slices alongside pickled red cabbage, roasted potatoes and winter greens. The vegetable and red wine bed makes a brilliant base for a veggie gravy too.
What are you serving for Christmas dinner?
Liz x
Ingredients
2 onions
1 bulb of garlic
2 carrots
4 bay leaves
2 stock cubes
a large glass of red wine
a large glass of hot water
1 swede
whole cloves (approximately 50?)
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
6 tbsp wholegrain mustard
6 tbsp maple syrup
Method
Turn the oven on to 200C. Find a casserole dish with a lid that your swede will fit comfortably in (alternatively use a deep roasting dish and a sheet of foil or a baking sheet as a lid).
Start preparing your swede. Peel it with a potato peeler and trim off any unwanted bits with a large, sharp knife. Score it with shallow cuts, criss-crossing to make lots of diamond shapes. Using a toothpick or a skewer, push a hole into the centre of each diamond. Then push a whole clove into each hole to stud the surface of the swede.
Cut the bulb of garlic in half along its equator. Quarter the onions (leave the skin on) and the carrots. Put the vegetables in the casserole dish, these will impart lots of flavour to the juices in the bottom of the dish. Pour in the wine and hot water and crumble in the stock cubes. Add the bay leaves. Now place the prepared swede on top.
Drizzle the swede with the olive oil and season it with salt and pepper. Put the lid on and place the pot in the oven to steam-bake the swede for at least 1.5 hours (depending on the size of the swede) or until the swede is cooked through. You can test this with a skewer.
Remove the swede onto a clean baking dish. Mix the mustard and maple syrup together and brush half of it over the top and sides of the swede. Return it to the oven for 10 minutes. Then brush the remaining mustard and maple glaze over the swede and put it back in the oven for a final ten minutes. Then it’s ready to carve and enjoy!
Roasted Garlic & Red Wine, Onion Gravy
You can make a gorgeous gravy from the juices left in the casserole dish. Remove the carrots, bay leaves and onions skins. Squeeze out the garlic and remove the skins from the pot. Then use a whisk to blend the roasted garlic into the sauce.
Add 2 tbsp of cornstarch that has been mixed with 3 tbsp of cold water. Whisk it into the gravy and simmer and stir until the gravy is a good consistency. You may wish to add more water.
Add a generous knob of butter and taste the gravy for seasoning. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if needed. I usually add a splash of soy sauce to enrich and darken the gravy too.
