Delicious, easy, nourishing, and packed with plant power! We love this one pot dish and we think you will too!
The organic red Thai curry paste has all the aromatics added already and is a quick way to pack in the flavour.
Feel free to add some steamed rice or quinoa to make this dish go further. Its so tasty for lunch or dinner and your gut will be delighted with all the organic veggies in there.
Make sure you add it to your meal plan this January.
Lou x
Ingredients:
1/2 butternut squash , peeled and chopped into small cubes 1 tin of coconut milk
Step 1: A wide pot works well for this, add the diced butternut squash, the red curry paste, coconut milk and water. Simmer on a medium heat for 15 minutes.
Step 2: Next add the cauliflower florets and the butterbeans, stir to coat in the sauce and cook for a further 15-20 minutes. Check that the squash is soft, the cauliflower should be cooked but not to mushy, then take the pot off the heat. Season with salt and pepper.
Slowly cooked risotto is deliciously creamy and comforting especially on a crisp cold day in January. After the costly pinch of Christmas its great to have a few dishes that are easy on the pocket yet packed of flavour.
This is a plant based version, made with plant based butter and cheese.
Sweet Irish leeks are one of my favourite vegetables and they are the perfect partner to vitamin D rich Irish mushrooms in this one pot meal.
Gradually adding hot stock to the rice will create a perfect bowl of risotto. It’s always worth the effort.
Let us know if you try it we love to hear from you.
1 litre of hot vegetable stock (substitute 100ml stock for dry white wine if you wish)
juice 1/2 a lemon
A big knob of butter (30g), use dairy or non dairy
1 tbsp. Nutritional yeast
Salt, pepper and olive oil
grated firm cheese to finish, use dairy or non dairy
optional topping: a handful of chopped fresh parsley
Method:
Method: Step 1: Heat 1 litre of stock in a pan and bring to a boil.
Step 2: Meanwhile, in another pan, sautè the diced onion for 5 minutes in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and then add in the diced leeks and cook to soften. Next add the grated garlic and mushrooms cook for a further 10-15 minutes until cooked through.
Step 3: Stir through the rice. (If you want to add white wine add it now) Pour in a ladle of stock, stir gently and once all the liquid has been absorbed, pour in another ladle and repeat until the rice is al dente, or cooked to your liking. Continue stirring the rice so the starch is released and it becomes creamy.
Step 4: Stir through the nutritional yeast, butter, grate in some firm cheese and finish with lemon juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Serve with fresh chopped parsley, black cracked pepper and a good extra virgin olive oil.
Its hard to choose just 5 savoury recipes from all that we cooked and shared in 2023. Cooking with organic vegetables always makes the most delicious meal and just knowing they they were treated with care adds to the overall enjoyment.
The star vegetables here are courgette, butternut squash, beetroot, celeriac and delicious Irish potatoes.
We hope you try them out in 2024.
Lou 🙂
Tap on the dish below and it will take you to the full recipe.
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:
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.
1 egg, or 1 flax egg (to make 1 flax egg mix 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons water, leave for 15 minutes then use like an egg)
Method:
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.
100g butter, cut into cubes (vegan butter will work too)
Method:
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.
It’s almost Christmas, so let’s get all the lovely christmassy recipes into one place! Here’s some inspiration for a meat free christmas dinner and so much more.
We like our veg dirty, we harvest them fresh from the ground and we leave the dirt on.
This dirt, good clean dirt we think is amazing, it is a natural preservative, none of those artificial waxes or fungicides required here. But there is other dirt hidden in/on conventional food that we don’t think is that amazing.
The dirty dozen is a list which is compiled both in the UK and the US each year based on measured chemical residues in and on conventional crops. It is a resource to allow us as consumers to make informed decisions about foods to potentially avoid or buy organically if possible.
It is a no brainer that removing synthetic pesticides and herbicides from our diet can only be a positive.
There are certain crops that seem to make the list each year, you may be surprised to learn that apples regularly feature on the list. In 2020 according to the PAN (pesticide action network report) 67% of samples had pesticide residue and one sample had 13 different types of residues!) This is I guess a little disturbing as apples are one of the most consumed fruits in the world.
Right here in Ireland based on a report by the dept of ag in 2014 (the most recent data I could get), the chemical Captan, which is a fungicide and classified as a probable human carcinogen was applied to 252 Hectares of land, and over 1.2 tonnes of the stuff was sprayed on apple trees.
For the life of me I can’t understand how kale makes it onto this list (in the US). Kale of all the crops is hardy and tough and at least in our experience on our organic farm performs amazingly well. In fact, if we leave our brassica crops uncovered (we cover our crops with netting to prevent birds eating them) then the pigeons will eat everything else before they have a go at the kale!
Maybe it’s the healthy organic matter rich soil, maybe it’s the lack of forced nitrogen nutrition that pushes growth of crops on and can cause them to be soft and disease prone, maybe we are just lucky. Whatever it is we are grateful and happy that we have amazing crops that rarely suffer from pest or disease affliction.
Spinach another relatively hardy green features regularly in the UK and the US list.
When all is said and done, the production of food is hard, and the pressure to produce food at rock bottom prices, controlled and forced on farmers by the supermarkets will always lead to compromises, such as intensification and the use of chemicals.
It is a pity that the supermarkets are so concerned with how our food looks, rather than with how it is produced and what goodness is on the inside. Take a look at just how shiny some of the conventional apples are next time you are in a supermarket; many are coated in a shellac and/or carnauba wax to prevent them drying out or rotting.
We are lucky that we have a fantastic supply of organic apples from Richard Galvin, from Waterford, grown right here in Ireland without the use of chemicals, again proving the point that indeed it can be done, the apples are amazing, fresh with no coatings and no chemicals!
Thank you for supporting a food system without chemicals.
Kenneth
PS We are in full Christmas mode now. Please get your order in next week to guarantee delivery the week after.
We are excited for all the lovely Irish produce that is jammed into our Christmas boxes, such as Battlemount organic farm potatoes (Kildare), Philip Dreaper’s organic carrots and Beetroot (Offaly), Beechlawn organic farm’s brussel sprouts, red cabbage and savoy cabbage (Galway), Mcardles amazing chestnut and portobello, mushrooms (Antrim), Leeks, parsnips, Celeriac, swede and Kale (right here on our own farm); apples from Richard Galvin (Waterford) and finally our very own handmade organic Cranberry sauce (with fresh organic cranberries) made by Rachel in Dunmore! PLACE YOUR CHRISTMAS ORDER NOW
The Christmas is meal is the ultimate seasonal meal and we have definitely got you covered on this one, so please get your orders in soon!
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.
Step 1: Preheat the oven 180ºC and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Step 2: Prepare the sprouts, cut off the end and take away the outer leaves. Then cut in half.
Step 3: Put the brussel sprout halves on the tray, drizzle with oil and salt and give them a rub with your hands to coat.
Step 4: Roast for 10-15 minutes. Then add chopped walnuts, the balsamic, maple syrup, stir to coat and put the tray back in the oven for a further 10 minutes.
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 🙂
Ingredients
2 pack of ready rolled puff pastry – most are vegan (375g per pack)
1 cup chopped nuts – walnuts/hazelnuts/almonds/cashews/pecans
salt and pepper to taste
80g breadcrumbs
Method:
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.
