1. First make the spice mix. Heat a frying pan add the whole spices (star anise, coriander, cumin, mustard and all spice berries). Heat until fragrant, take care not to burn.
2. Next toast the cashews, set aside.
3. In a mortar and pestle, pound the spices (I removed the star anise, I was worried about not being able to pound it small enough and didn’t want sharp pieces in my curry). Add the cardamom and thyme and mix together.
4. In a wok heat the oil, add ginger and cook 30 seconds, add the green bananas, the chili pepper and the spices (don’t forget the star anise), cook about 30 seconds.
5. Add the water and palm sugar, cover and cook for 15min.
6. After 15min add the pineapple pieces, cook further 10 min, until the bananas soften and sauce is very thick (there won’t be a lot of sauce left).
7. Stir in the cashews, season with salt and lime juice.
8. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with you chosen side.

Tags: banana, Caribbean, curry, pineapple, cashews, mains

1. Peel the sweet potato and cut into bite size pieces. Put into a saucepan, cover with water. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and gently boil till soft.
2. Remove the potatoes from the water, reserve the cooking water.
3. While the potatoes are cooking cut up the mushrooms (mine were small I only halved them).
4. Prepare the spring greens, cut out the stalks and shred the leaves.
5. In a medium sized frying pan heat about 60ml (1/4 cup) of the cooking water. Add the mushrooms and garlic and gently cook for a few minutes until the mushrooms soften.
6. Add the cajun seasoning and cook for 30 seconds.
7. Next add the shredded spring greens to the mushrooms, let them wilt and cook for about 3 minutes. Add more sweet potato cooking liquid if needed. Taste the greens, if you prefer them softer cook longer.
8. Add the sweet potato and heat up. Serve.

Tags: sweet potato, spring greens, mushrooms, mains

1. First soak the prunes in boiling water for about 20min or until they soften.
2. Preheat the oven to 170C (I had my fan oven on 160).
3. Put the prunes and about 80ml-90ml (1/3cup plus 1 Tbs) of the soaking liquid into your blender or food processor. Start with less liquid, process into a thick smooth puree (see photograph), if too thick add more water. Set aside.
4. For the wet ingredients, in a medium bowl, mix the almond milk, zest (or vanilla extract), the vinegar and maple syrup. Stir in the prune puree.
5. For the dry ingredients, in a large bowl, mix the flour, cocoa and bicarb soda.
6. Add the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir together. You will get moose like cake batter.
7. Line a 10 x 6 inch baking tin with greaseproof paper. Pour in the batter, spread evenly.
8. Bake for 20 min or till cake springs back when pressed with your finger.
9. Let cool, cut into squares and enjoy.

Tags: dessert, prunes, chocolate, cake

In my opinion there is no better drink than a nice cup of tea. My favourite, without a doubt, is green jasmine tea. I love its heady floral scent and gentle flavour. My cupboard is full of different teas, green and white, plain and flavoured, there are some with fancy names, teas in bags and loose leaf teas. Some have been tied by hand into intricate flowers that magically open up when introduced to hot water.

We all know the antioxidant rich tea has lots of health benefits. In UK tea is the number one source of flavonoids in the diet. I thought I would do a little experiment and search through some tea stories to see what health claims newspapers come up with. I must say I was overwhelmed.

These are some of the claims I found:
Drinking tea just may

• reduce chance of brain tumour and stroke
• help fight infection
• slow down weight gain and prevent obesity
• cut risk of throat and oral cancer
• help prevent breast cancer
• lower LDL cholesterol levels
• prevent flu better than vaccination
• alter gene expression and improve cholesterol metabolism
• lower diabetes risk
• extend lifespan
• prevent fatal autoimmune diseases
• fight ageing and free radicals
• cut risk of heart disease
• help to halt luekemia and other blood cancers
• block lung cancer
• prevent eye disease and glaucoma
• halt prostate cancer tumour growth
• treat/or prevent dementia, brain disorders and Alzheimer’s Disease
• fight lung cancer and pneumonia
• prevent and treat osteoporosis

ingredients
100g (2cups) soft dried apple rings (not apple crisps)
100g (1cup) walnuts
70g (1/2cup) raisins
4-5 Medjol dates
1tsp cinnamon

method

1. In a food processor chop the walnuts. The nuts need to retain some texture not turn into nut flour.
2. Add the apples, cinnamon, raisins and 4 dates. Process until the mixture starts coming together. If needed add another date.
3. Tip the mixture into the bowl and roll into 18 walnut size balls.
4. Keep in the fridge, this will firm them up a bit.

Tags: Apples, walnuts, dates, raisins, raw, dessert, snack

1. First soak the Ancho chili in boiling water for about 10min. Remove it and reserve the liquid. Chop the Ancho chili quite finely.
2. In a large wide saute pan heat the oil (or 1/4 cup of water). Add the onion and saute till softened.
3. Next add the garlic, jalapeno chili, bell pepper and cook for 2 min.
4. Add the spices and Ancho chili. Cook about half a minute taking care not to burn the spices.
5. Next add the tomato paste, cook it for about a minute.
6. Add the tinned tomatoes, liquid aminos, if using. Make up 500 ml (2 cups) of liquid out of the strained Ancho soaking liquid and vegetable stock. Add it to the chile.
7. Next put in the beans, bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer gently for about an hour. The sauce should be thick with a deep colour.
8. To finish the chili add the chocolate, let it melt into the sauce. Stir.
9. Serve with your favourite sides or toppings.

Tags: beans, chocolate, chili, Mexican, mains

Tags: Kale, cucumber, drink, Apples, pear, drink, raw

1. First soak the porcini mushrooms in boiling water for about 20 minutes. Remove the mushrooms, reserve the liquid, and chop the mushrooms up.
2. In a medium frying pan heat about 60ml (1/4cup) of the reserved mushroom soaking liquid. Add the mushrooms and garlic, cook till the mushrooms soften about 5min. Add the porcini mushrooms cook for further 2 minutes. Set aside.
3. In a large saucepan, bring the vegetable/mushroom stock to a boil. Slowly add the polenta and sage, keep stirring. When the polenta thickens, turn down the heat and let bubble for couple of minutes. Stir in the mushrooms.
4. Line a baking sheet with grease proof paper, spread the polenta on top, about 1/2inch thick. Smooth the top. Let cool.
5. In a large sauce pan heat 60 ml (1/4cup) water (or stock) and cook the onions and garlic, gently simmer till softened. Add the vegetable stock and beans, bring to a gentle boil.
6. Add the kale, cover and simmer for 10-15min or until the kale is tender.
7. Season with plenty of pepper.
8. While the kale is cooking, preheat the grill (broiler).
9. Cut the polenta into triangles, place on top of grease proof paper lined baking sheet. Place under the grill and grill for about 2 min on each side.
10. Serve the kale and beans with the polenta triangles.

Tags: polenta, mushrooms, Kale, beans, mains

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Cook the potato in its skin (or use leftover cooked potato). Cook for about 30min, or till soft when pierced with a fork. Drain and let cool. When cool enough to handle peel and put through a ricer or mash thoroughly.
3. In a small sauce pan place the lentils and 375 ml (1 and 1/2cups) water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 15-20min till lentils are soft and almost all the water is gone. Let cool. Rest of the water will get absorbed as the lentils are cooling down.
4. Line a baking tray with a greaseproof paper, place the carrots on top and roast for about 20-30 min till the carrots are soft and begin to caramelise. Remove the carrots from the oven and let them cool down.
5. In a food processor, combine the lentils, carrots, garlic, spring onions, miso, cumin and coriander. Process into a a pate consistency, mainly smooth with some texture (see picture). The pate shouldn’t need salt as the miso is quite salty.
6. Tip the pate into a bowl and add the mashed potato and lemon juice to taste.
7. For the salad, fit your food processor with the grating attachment, grate the carrots, beetroot and cabbage.
8. Transfer to a large bowl, season with salt, add pecans, the orange juice and the vinegar.
9. Serve the pate and salad with some oatcakes or flat bread.

Tags: carrot, lentils, pate, beetroot, cabbage, orange, starters, light bites

1. In a small sauce pan start heating up the milk.
2. In the meantime, chop your date(s), it will become a sticky mess, but don’t worry the dates will dissolve into your milk.
3. Add the dates and porridge to your milk. Bring to a boil and turn the heat down.
4. Simmer for about 7 min.
5. Pour into a bowl, top with sliced banana and almonds.

Tags: oats, breakfast, dates, banana, Almond

1. In a blender whizz up the cashew nuts, dates and water until smooth. Strain the mixture to ensure a smooth texture, the dates can leave few gritty bits behind.
2. Place a bowl with broken up chocolate over a pot of simmering water (makes sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water and the water doesn’t boil rapidly). Melt the chocolate.
3. Stir the chocolate and vanilla. Make sure the ingredients are well combined leaving no streaks in the mixture.
4. Carefully pour (or spoon) into expresso cups and let set in the fridge for at least an hour.
5. To make decorations, melt chocolate as above and pipe heart shapes onto greaseproof (parchment) paper. Let them set in the fridge. Be careful handling them as they melt readily when touched.
6. Serve the pots decorated with the chocolate hearts or raspberries.

Tags: chocolate, cashews, dates, dessert

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Cut the carrots into quarters lengthways, the sweet potatoes into 8 pieces and the onion into 8 pieces. Add 1 tsp of oil, coat the vegetables.
2. Line a baking tray with baking paper,place in the oven and roast for 25min or until the vegetables are caramelised. Let cool.
3. Reduce the oven to 180C.
4. In a dry frying pan, dry roast the nuts until starting to brown. Set aside. Next roast the seeds. Set aside.
5. In a food processor process the nuts until chopped still retaining texture. Put into a large mixing bowl.
6. Put the roasted vegetables, garlic, beans, soya sauce, tomato puree and vegetable stock into the food processor and process until texture of coarse pate, with some of the ingredients processed smooth and some still retaining some texture.
7. Put the vegetable mixture into the bowl with nuts, add the oats and mix well.
8. Place into a loaf tin lined with baking paper sticking out at the ends by an inch (this will help to lift the roast out). Bake for 30min until the top is golden brown. Let cool in the tin for 5 min, lift it up with the help of the baking paper.
9. Slice and serve with green salad any sides of your choice.

Tags: nuts, sweet potato, carrot, beans, mains

1. In a medium sauce pan, combine the squash flesh with the water, curry paste and the lemon grass stalk.
2. Bring to a boil, cook on gentle heat for about 5 min, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the cashew nut milk a heat.
4. Add the cubes of tofu and just heat through. If too thick add more water.
5. Fish out the lemon grass stick and discard. Add lemon juice to taste, chopped coriander and serve.

Tags: sweet mama squash, thai, cashews, tofu, soup

1. Mash the squash flesh.
2. In a large bowl, mix the water, yeast and olive oil.
3. Add the squash flesh and mix well. No need to add sugar as the squash has enough sugar in it to activate the yeast.
4. Next start adding the salt, 2Tbs of pumpkin seed and flour (bit by bit), how much you need really depends on how dry your squash flesh was. Keep mixing as you add the flour.
5. When the dough starts to come together turn it out on a floured board and kneed for about 7-10min. This dough is quite sticky you may have to add more flour.
6. Spread the remaining olive oil on the ball of dough, place into a bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise for 1 hour.
7. When the dough has doubled in size turn it onto a floured surface and need again for about 2min. Place into a greased (or lined with grease-proof paper) bread tin. Let is rise for another 25min.
8. Preheat the oven to 200C.
9. Place into a preheated oven. Bake for about 30min until the bread is brown and sounds hollow when you knock on it.
10. Let cool and enjoy.

Tags: pumpkin, sweet mama squash, bread, spelt

1. Peel any damaged layers of the fennel, cut of the tough stalks and cut out the core. Cut into pieces about 1/2 inch (1.5cm). Put into a large bowl.
2. Zest 2 oranges, add the zest to your fennel.
3. Using a sharp knife ( I find a serrated bread knife works great) peel of the orange peel and the white pith. Cut into bite size pieces. I try to match the size of the fennel. Collect any juice and add together with the oranges to your fennel.
4. Now cut up the dates (again similar size) and add to the bowl. Add pinch of salt (optional). Toss together.
5. The juice of the oranges will self-dress the salad however if your oranges are not very juicy add the juice of the third orange to dress the salad.
6. Let it sit for about half an hour for the flavours to develop.

Tags: orange, fennel, dates, salad, raw

1. In large pot of water cook the spaghetti.
2. While the pasta is cooking heat a large frying pan (large enough to fit all the spaghetti when cooked) and toast the pine nuts. They should be fragrant and golden brown, take care they will burn in no time. Set aside.
3. In the same frying pan heat the oil and gently fry the garlic (and chilli flakes if using).
4. Add the rest of the ingredients (except parsley) and gently heat through. You can add couple of tablespoons of the pasta cooking water.
5. Add the spaghetti and toss with the sauce. Mix in parsley, pine nuts and freshly ground black pepper. Serve with a green salad.

Tags: spaghetti, capers, olives, Artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, mains

1. In a large stock pot heat 60ml (1/4) cup of water and add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and pepper, saute until softened, about 10min. Stir occasionally, to prevent sticking, add more water if needed.
2. Add the tomato puree, stir around for about 1 min.
3. Add the oregano, tinned tomatoes, beans and vegetable stock.
4. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and cook gently for 30 min.
5. After 30min, add the cabbage and pasta. Cook for about 10 min or until the pasta is tender. Stir occasionally to prevent the pasta sticking to the bottom.
6. Garnish with herbs, nutritional flakes if using and serve with crusty bread (wholemeal of course)

Tags: soup, pasta, tomato, carrot, cabbage, beans, celery, pepper

1. Soak the cashew nuts in water for at least 30min. You can soak them over night in your fridge. This softens the nuts making them easier to blend into cream.
2. Drain the cashews. Put in a blender and add fresh water.
3. Blend till smooth.

1. Place the lentils and vegetable stock into a large saucepan, bring to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 20-25 min, they should be soft to bite but still hold their shape. Set aside but don’t drain.
2. In a wide saute pan heat the oil, add the onion, pepper and garlic and gently saute till softened, about 10min.
3. Add the chilli flakes, and cook for another minute.
4. Next add in the tomatoes, cook about 2 min to soften the tomatoes (you can add couple tablespoons of water to help it along).
5. Put in the lentils with the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat down and simmer for 5 min.
6. Add in your cashew cream and heat through. If the mixture is too thick just add some water and heat.
7. Season and add lemon juice to taste.
8. Serve garnished with parsley or coriander.

Tags: cashews, lentils, tomato, pepper, mains

1. The honey pecans are fabulous, you can also use maple syrup to make these. I was a bit worried none would be left for the salad as they kept disappearing ...
2. I actually like this salad made with just lemon (hence the wild sorrel association), but you can use a small amount of olive oil to soften the flavour.
3. The beauty of this salad is that it keeps unlike tender salad leaves dressed with lemon (or vinegar), you can keep it in a fridge for couple of days.

Tags: Kale, Apples, onion, pecan nuts, salad