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.

Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread

by Liz Child

Ok, yes, it’s a lockdown cliché, but banana bread is one of the most useful recipes to have in your arsenal against the war on food waste! Got any over-ripe or bruised bananas? Please don’t throw them in the bin! My recipe is easy and adaptable, dairy and egg free, and oh so delicious! Liz x

Ingredients (makes 2 loaves)

  • 8-10 bananas
  • 1/2 mug oil
  • 1/2 mug milk (I use oat milk)
  • 1 mug sugar (I love our whole cane sugar for this)
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 4 mugs plain flour (our organic spelt flour is delicious here)
  • 2 heaped tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 heaped tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 100g dark chocolate (Or lave plain. Or add other optional extras, like walnuts, dates, peanut butter…)

Method

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 175C and line two tins with baking parchment.
  2. In a large bowl, mash 8 very ripe bananas.
  3. Add the oil, milk, sugar and vanilla and mix well to combine.
  4. Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt and mix into a sticky batter.
  5. Chop the chocolate (if using) and fold it through the batter. Here’s where you can fold through other optional extras too if you like. A swirl of peanut butter? Some chopped walnuts and dates?
  6. Divide the batter into two loaf tins. Add slices of banana on top and an optional sprinkle of brown sugar and bake.
  7. The loaves normally take around 30-40 minutes to cook through*. *TOP TIP – cover the loaves with a baking sheet or some foil or baking parchment after about 25 minutes in the oven to stop them colouring too much on top before they are cooked through in the middle.
  8. Serve in thick slices as they are or with butter or my favourite, peanut butter!

Ultimate Green Smoothie

by Liz Child

Green smoothies are not a punishment! Mine is sweet, creamy and deliciously refreshing! Give it a try, it’s full of goodness!

🌱SPINACH is high in iron, calcium and vitamins C and K.

💪TAHINI is a great source of healthy fats, protein, B vitamins and vitamin E.

🍌BANANAS are an excellent source of potassium, B6 and energy-giving carbohydrates. They’re also a brilliant prebiotic with a high fibre content.

🌴DATES are a natural sweetener, high in fibre, antioxidants and minerals.

🌾OAT MILK is environmentally friendly, high in fibre and deliciously creamy.

Add the certified organic ingredients to your next order here. We deliver to every address in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Liz x

Ingredients

  • spinach or kale – rinsed, one large handful per person
  • banana – half of one per person (chopped and frozen for an extra creamy texture)
  • dates – pitted, 1 or 2 per person for added sweetness
  • tahini – 1 heaped tsp per person
  • oat milk (or any milk you like) – 1/2 a glass per person
  • optional ice – especially good if your banana is not frozen
watch the easy method here or read on below

Method

Add all the ingredients to a strong blender and blend until smooth.

Pour into glasses and drink immediately.

TOP TIPS: *If you don’t have frozen banana, add a couple of ice cubes per person to the blender too for a chilled smoothie. *If your blender is not very strong, soak the dates before blending to help them break down faster.

Pak Choi Kimchi

by Liz Child

Like all fermented vegetables, kimchi is incredibly good for you. Luckily it’s mind-blowingly delicious too…and very easy to make yourself. I’ve made it with pak choi, seaweed and little radishes this time but you can play around with the ingredients and make it your own. Use local, seasonal vegetables for the best results. Here’s my quick tutorial video so you can see how easy it is to make yourself. Loads more fermenting inspiration in my book which is available to add to your veg order here. Any questions? Pop a comment down below and I’ll get back to you asap. Liz x

Ingredients

  • 2 large pak choi
  • 2 bundles of radishes
  • 1 handful of dried seaweed
  • 1 tbsp natural salt
  • 3 fresh chillies (or dried to taste)
  • 1 thumb of fresh ginger
  • 6 cloves of garlic

Method

Gather and rinse your ingredients. Find a large jar, a chopping board, a sharp knife, a spoon, a rolling pin, a blender, a mixing bowl and a small jar or glass that fits snugly inside your large jar. Ensure all your equipment is nice and clean – no need to sterilise.

Reserve an outer leaf or two from your pak choi. These will be used as ‘followers’ at the end of the recipe.

Slice the rest of the pak choi into bite sized pieces and put them in the large bowl.

Thinly slice the radishes and add them to the bowl too.

Rinse and slice the seaweed too (if you are using nori, no need to rinse first) and add it to the bowl.

Add the salt to the bowl and use your hands to tumble the ingredients and evenly disperse the salt. Sit the bowl to one side to give the salt time to dissolve and start drawing brine out of the vegetables.

Meanwhile make the spice paste. Take the green stalks off the chillies and roughly chop them. Put them in a blender. Peel and chop the ginger and add that to the blender too. Peel the garlic and then blend the 3 ingredients together into a bright space paste.

Taste the salted vegetables and add more salt if needed. They should taste pleasantly salty and should now look wet and wilted. If they are too salty, add some more vegetables eg grated carrot or another pak choi.

Mix the spice paste through the salted vegetables. Be careful not to get any on your bare skin. Wear gloves or use a spoon.

Then pack the mixture carefully and firmly into the large jar. Use the rolling pin to tamp down each new layer to ensure no air pockets are left in the jar. Leave at least an inch or two of head room in the jar.

Now cover the chopped vegetables with the ‘followers’ (the leaves you reserved earlier). Tuck everything neatly in under the brine. Use the spoon to help tuck the leaves down the sides of the jar and ensure no little floaty bits are above the brine.

Weigh down the ‘followers’ with a small glass/jar/ramekin. See the video above for more details.

Then close the jar – if you are using a clip top jar, remove the rubber seal to allow gases to escape, otherwise just close a regular jar loosely or remember to ‘burp’ the jar every day to allow gases to escape by briefly opening and closing it.

Put the jar on a tray or in a bowl to catch any overspill and set it on a dark shelf to ferment at room temperature for at least one week. Keep an eye on it. Does it need burping? If so, do it over the sink! Have the gases caused the veg to rise up above the brine? If so push the weight down to expel and air bubbles and get everything neatly under brine again.

After one week at room temperature, taste your kimchi. It should be tangy, spicy and delicious. If you are happy with the tang-level, remove the weight and pop the jar in the fridge. It should last well for at least one month, if not many more.

*Tips to make your fermented food last longer in the fridge: No double dipping! Consider transferring the ferment to smaller jars before refrigerating.

Devilled ‘Eggs’

by Liz Child

I saw these pop up on the fabulous Tabitha Brown’s Instagram months ago and haven’t been able to get them out of my head since. So when we finished a jar of pickles the other day I knew exactly what I was going to make. My yolk recipe is quite different (more of a European version than her American one I guess?) but all credit to @iamtabithabrown for the genius idea. These are such fun little retro canapés or as an Easter starter. Give my version a try and let me know what you think. Liz x

Ingredients

  • a jar of pickle liquor left after eating the pickled cucumbers
  • small mushrooms – white is best for the look of the dish but chestnut mushrooms work fine too – enough to fill the jar
  • 1 tin of chickpeas
  • 1 tsp black salt (kala namak)
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 tbsp dijon mustard
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree (or ketchup)
  • 6 tbsp mayonaise (try my aquafaba mayo recipe here and use the liquid from the tin of chickpeas to make it!)
  • smoked paprika (or hot paprika or chilli powder)
  • optional dill or chives to sprinkle on top

Method

Clean the mushrooms with a paper towel or pastry brush. Then pull out the stalks and peel them (like in the picture above). Keep the stalks and peels, do not throw them away! They are great crumbled up and sautéed as a base for a lentil pie or a soup or in tofu scramble.

Put the peeled mushrooms in the jar of leftover pickle juice. Give the jar a gentle shake and put it in the fridge. Every time you open the fridge, turn the jar the other way up so that the mushrooms all get an even soak in the juice. Leave them to soak and lightly pickle overnight.

Then just before you are ready to serve, make the yolky filling. Drain a can of chickpeas (reserve the aquafaba to make mayonnaise or a clafoutis?) and put them in a food processor or blender.

Add the black salt (this tastes like egg, if you don’t have it then regular salt is fine), pepper, turmeric, mayo, tomato puree/ketchup and mustard in the blender too. Then blend until smooth. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning if needed. You may need more mayonnaise or salt? The mixture should be thick but pipeable.

Put the mushrooms out onto a platter and put the ‘yolk’ mixture into a piping bag with the star shaped nozzle attached. Pipe a generous amount of the mixture into each mushroom.

Sprinkle the devilled eggs with smoked paprika and dill or whatever you like (chilli powder, tabasco, shopped scallions, parsley, chives, capers…) and enjoy them cold and fresh.

Fermented Onions

by Liz Child

Fermented onions are pickled onions funky cousin. They are much easier to make than the traditional pickled onion and taste amazing. And as an added bonus, like all fermented vegetables, they are incredibly good for you! I use these beautiful, tangy onions on loads of dishes, from dals to tacos. How will you use yours? Liz x

A quick video tutorial for you.

Ingredients

  • onions (a mix of red and white or just one or the other)
  • natural salt
  • optional herbs/spices (eg bay leaf, peppercorns, coriander and mustard seeds, juniper berries, thyme, rosemary, chilli… anything you like)
  • a cabbage leaf (or something similar)

Method

Gather your ingredients and a clean jar, knife, measuring jug, measuring spoons and chopping board. There is no need to sterilise, but do make sure everything you are working with is nice and clean and well rinsed.

Make a basic brine in your measuring jug and put it aside to fully dissolve while you prepare the jar of vegetables. ***The basic brine recipe is 1.5 tbsp salt dissolved in 1 litre of water.*** If you are making just a small jar then halve or quarter the recipe.

Add a pinch of whatever pickling spices or herbs you’d like to flavour your pickled onions with to the jar.

Then peel and slice your onions and add them to the jar. Red onions, or a mix of red and white, will give you beautiful, bright pink fermented onions. Plain white are delicious too of course. Leave about an inch of head room in the jar.

Then pour the brine into the jar ensuring you cover the onions when they are pressed down, but still leave a little head space in the jar.

Pin the chopped onions down under the brine with the cabbage leaf. You may need to break it to size. Try and tuck it neatly under the shoulders of the jar so that everything is safely tucked under brine. Any floating bits of onion will be exposed to air and are at risk of going mouldy so tuck them under the cabbage leaf ‘follower’.

Add a weight on top of the cabbage leaf if it looks like it will float up over the brine. This needs to be something that is not corrosive when in contact with salt and water. Glass is ideal in this situation so a smaller jar or a glass ramekin is perfect. Otherwise you can buy specialist glass weights for this purpose.

Place the lid loosely on the jar to allow gases to escape during fermentation. If your lid does not fit over the weight, then cover the jar with a tea towel and secure it with string/elastic.

Put the jar in a bowl or on a tray on a shelf for one week to ferment at room temperature. It’s best not in direct sunlight as that would cause too many fluctuations in temperature.

Taste the onions after 1 week. They should taste vinegary and delicious, a lot like pickled onions. If you are happy with the flavour, remove the weight and follower and keep the jar in the fridge. Otherwise let it carry on fermenting at room temperature until you are happy with the flavour.

The onions should last for a long time in the fridge, at least a month but usually much much longer. Just keep an eye on them and no double dipping! Enjoy!

Salad Bag Pesto

by Liz Child

One of the most common ingredients that get wasted are salad leaves. The mixed bags of salad leaves really don’t stay fresh long, really they should be eaten within 3 days. So if you don’t get around to eating a salad, perhaps the weather changed and you were more in the mood for a hot meal, there are a few ways you can use them up in a different way. Whatever you do, don’t throw that bag of slightly sad looking leaves away! Salad leaves can be blended into a soup in place of spinach or watercress or make this very flexible salad bag pesto! If you have any fresh herbs around the place, chuck some of those in too.

Read more about food waste in my blog post on the subject here. Liz x

Ingredients

  • mixed salad leaves (and odds an ends of fresh herbs if available)
  • sunflower and pumpkin seeds (or any nuts or seeds you like)
  • lemons
  • garlic
  • olive oil
  • salt
  • nutritional yeast (or odds and ends of cheese)

Method

I’ve deliberated not given amounts as pesto is a very fluid recipe. You can taste and adjust it as you go. You should aim to have around half the volume of the mixture as nuts or seeds. So if you have about a mug full of salad leaves that need using, toast about half a mug of nuts or seeds.

Toast the nuts or seeds in a dry frying pan to bring out their flavour. Allow them to cool.

The put them in a food processor. I used a blender because my food processor is broken – it works ok but I prefer a food processor for pesto because I don’t want the mixture to be too smooth in the end.

Add a crushed or grated glove of garlic, a shake of nutritional yeast, a big pinch of salt and all the salad leaves.

Then add lemon juice (you can add the zest of the lemon too if you like, or save it in the freezer for something else). Start with a small amount of lemon juice, you can always add more later.

Add a very generous amount of olive oil. A quality extra virgin olive oil is best for pesto.

Pulse the mixture, scrape down the sides and pulse again until you reach a loose, rough paste. Add more olive oil as you go if needed.

Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt of lemon juice as you like. Then store in a clean jar in the fridge. To make it last longer, cover it with a thin layer of olive oil to protect it from the air. Use it up within a week.

Pesto is not just for pasta! Use it for a dip, stir it into hummus or mayo, spread it into wraps or sandwiches, toss it through roasted veg or steamed greens, dollop it on your grainy salads…

Preserved Lemons

by Liz Child
A preserved lemon from my last batch which I made about 9 months ago.

Preserved lemons are a very North African/Middle Eastern thing and so go well in tagines, whizzed into hummus and blended into spice pastes or marinades. They are absolute flavour bombs and once you get a taste for them you’ll be hooked. Luckily they are cheap and easy to make yourself. Apart from the stunning flavour, what I really love about them is that they are a great example of compleating (a waste free principle of eating the whole fruit/vegetable). The rind of the lemon softens during fermentation and is then the best bit! Although don’t waste the flesh and the liquor, all that can be used to pep up dressings, risottos, soups, stews…anything that needs some salty, lemony goodness.

Here’s a quick video explaining the process, it’s one of those recipes which is easier to learn through watching. Liz x

Ingredients

  • organic lemons (unwaxed)
  • natural salt
  • olive oil (optional)
Just after jarring. These need 4 weeks fermenting at room temperature before they are ready.

Method

Rinse the lemons and prepare a clean chopping board, knife, tablespoon and large jar. They don’t need to be sterilised, but make sure everything is well cleaned and rinsed. Clean your work surface well too.

Slice the ends off a lemon (just a small sliver from the end that was attached to the tree, and the other end if it looks like it needs it. If it’s fresh and in good condition then just leave the bottom end on) then cut a deep score into the lemon about 3/4s of the way down.

Stuff the lemon with a tbsp of salt and press it firmly into the jar using the rolling pin to help.

Repeat until you have filled the jar or run out of lemons.

There should be enough juice in the lemons to create a brine to cover them all when pressed down. If not, add some extra lemon juice.

Weigh down the lemons under the brine using a small glass or a glass weight. Then add an optional layer of olive oil to float on top of the lemons and seal them from exposure to air.

Put the lid on (I like to make sure my jar is full enough so that the action of putting the lid on top of the weight pins down the lemons under the brine) and place the jar on a shelf at room temperature to ferment for 4 weeks.

During the first week of fermentation you may notice bubbles forming. Just open and close the lid to release any gases that have formed. Keep an eye on the jar and if any lemons start to rise about the brine just push them back under and re-arrange the weight.

After 4 weeks you should notice a change in texture, colour and aroma. They are done. Keep the jar in the fridge and use within a year.

For ease of use, you could purée the fermented mixture in the jar and then just take out a spoon or so to add salty lemony flavour to many dishes.

Puréed preserved lemons for easy use.

5 Ways to Stop Food Waste

by Liz Child
At the farm, rescue pigs George and Florence enjoy graded out vegetables from the packing shed..

When we think of food waste, throwing out a wobbly carrot or a bruised apple, we usually just think of it as a waste of a few cents. But food waste is actually one of the largest contributors to climate change. Growing, processing and transporting food uses significant resources, so if food is wasted then those resources are wasted too. It is estimated that globally, around 1.4 billion hectares of land is used to grow food which is then wasted. That’s a lot of land that could be returned to the wild and a lot of wasted food emitting methane as it rots. If food waste was a country, it would be the 3rd biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.

An excellent article on the subject of food waste has just recently been published in the Irish Times. Read it here. The article was sponsored by the brilliant initiative, Food Cloud which redistributes food waste in Ireland to those in need. Please do check them out and see how you can get involved.

I’ve been asking you for your food waste prevention tips and tricks over the last few weeks (thank you for those – can you spot your tips below?) and after collecting them all I’ve realised that they boil down to 5 main themes.

Here are some of your brilliant food waste tips, thank you! Please add anything I’ve missed in the comments.

1. Plan & Prepare

  • Write a menu for the week before shopping and only buy what you need. Or if you get a weekly veg box delivered then write a menu as you unpack the box and stick it on your fridge.
  • Plan to use up delicate ingredients with a shorter shelf life first. Things like salads, herbs and greens first, save the hardier root vegetables for later in the week.
  • Before you buy even more fresh food, shop from your own fridge, freezer and pantry. How many more meals can you make with what you already have? Delay the next shop as long as possible.
  • If you know you don’t have much time for cooking, spend some time meal prepping:
  • Cook batches of soups/stews/bakes, freeze them in portions to be taken out when you need them.
  • Make yourself a sort of ‘fridge buffet’ which you can dip into for lunches – separate boxes of cooked grains, roasted veg, dips, dressings – for food safety, only do 3 days worth at a time.
  • Pre-wash and chop all the veg you need for your menu so that when you come to cook it’s much quicker. But be careful doing this kind of prep as chopped veg doesn’t last as long as whole. Only do this 3 days in advance maximum.

2. Storage

  • Learn how best to store different fruits, herbs and vegetables so that they stay fresh longer. 
  • Should they be in the fridge or in a dark cupboard or a fruit bowl? Do they need to be in water to stay fresh longer? Are they better in or out of their packaging? Is it better to store them muddy or clean?
  • Always rotate! Put new ingredients behind older ones and use up the old ingredients first.
  • If you don’t eat a lot of bread, store sliced bread in the freezer and just take out a few slices at a time when you need it.

3. Eat ‘Root to Shoot’

  • Think to yourself, ‘does this really need to be peeled?’. Probably not. Especially if you are using our organic produce. Also, by not peeling you get the maximum nutrition and fibre out of the veg.
  • Question which parts of the vegetables you are discarding. Cauliflower and broccoli leaves and stalks are all edible and delicious. Carrot tops are a brilliant parsley-like herb substitute. Beetroot leaves can be eaten like chard. Mushroom stalks are edible. The core of cabbages can be finely sliced and added to stir fries. The dark green tops of leeks and spring onions are edible…
  • Any clean peelings and offcuts you do have can be collected in a box in the freezer. When you have enough to fill your largest pot, you can simmer them in water to make a tasty and nutritious stock.

4. Love Your Leftovers 

  • Have a strict rule that any leftovers from dinner must be eaten for lunch the next day (or frozen for another meal).
  • Find imaginative ways to repurpose your leftovers into another meal. Can it be turned into a soup or a curry or a pasta sauce? Can it be baked into a pie or a frittata? Would it be nice in a wrap or a sandwich? Can it be bulked out with some more fresh veg and simply eaten again?
  • Make croutons or breadcrumbs with stale bread or the bread ends you would otherwise throw out.

5. Preserve Any Excess

  • If you have a glut of a certain fruit or vegetable, find out the best way to preserve it:
  • Make chutney, jam or pickles? There are endless recipes online for inventive ways to make delicious jars of tangy chutneys and pickles and sweet jams. 
  • Lacto-ferment? Using just salt and a little know-how, transform your unused cabbages into sauerkraut or kimchi or your cucumber into sour dills. Any vegetable can be fermented. 
  • Freeze? Find out the best way to freeze your excess. Does it need blanching first?
  • Dry? Use a low oven or a dehydrator to dry out excess fruit or veg. Then rehydrate it when you need it (garlic, mushrooms, carrot slices…), eat it dry as a snack (apple rings, mango, kale crisps…) or blitz into powder and make your own bouillon (celery, onion, garlic, carrot, herbs, mushrooms…).

Please tell us how you avoid food waste in the comments. We’d love to share these top tips with our community. Liz x

Homemade Deodorant

by Liz Child

Making your own deodorant might sound like some hippy nonsense with questionable results…but I promise you, this stuff really works. I’ve been using it for about a year now and can honestly say it works better than any other deodorant I’ve ever tried, and I’ve tried them all. I actually smell good at the end of the day! It’s made with simple, non-toxic ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen cupboards. No nasty chemicals, it costs a few cents to make and lasts a really long time! But what I love most about it is that I am saving so much plastic packaging by making my own. I use cornstarch from a paper packet, bicarbonate of soda which I buy in bulk or get in glass jars and coconut oil which I buy in glass jars. You can also add essential oils if you like to make it scented.

Here’s my easy recipe. Let me know how you get on if you try it. Liz x

Ingredients

  • 6 tbsp coconut oil (find an unscented one if you don’t want to smell like coconut)
  • 4 tbsp cornflour (or arrowroot flour)
  • 4 tbsp bicarbonate of soda*
  • a few drops of an essential oil you like (optional)
Add organic coconut oil and baking soda to your regular fruit and vegetable order. We have an extensive range of groceries in our online shop here.

Method

Melt the coconut oil then stir in the cornflour and baking soda*.

When the mixture is smooth add a few drops of essential oil, stir, smell and add more if you like until you get to the level of fragrance you desire. Otherwise leave it fragrance free or just its own natural coconut fragrance if using an unrefined coconut oil.

Pour the mixture into a jar/tin/tub that you can easily get your finger into and allow it to set.

The deodorant can be used in solid or liquid form. On hot days it may be a little melty and on cold days it will be very hard.

Just rub a small amount into your armpit each morning (just like applying moisturiser) and you are good to go.

*Some people find they are a little sensitive to bicarbonate of soda. This is very rare but test a small patch of skin first.

**As the deodorant is oil based it may affect very delicate clothes like silk. Ensure it’s sufficiently rubbed in and absorbed before getting dressed. No need to use more than half a pea or so in each armpit.