The Green Familia » Recipes

Chocolate Tahini Fudge

Brenda — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:00:10 +0000

Here is a great recipe that is not only delicious but good for you.

Suitable for Vegetarians, Suitable for Vegans, Gluten Free, Wheat Free, Soy Free, Egg Free, Sugar Free

Makes 20 pieces

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Chilling Time: 3-4 hours

Storage: Keep in the fridge for up to 1 week. Freeze for up to 1 month.

200g / 7oz Essential pecans

200g / 7oz Essential walnuts

Pinch of ground cinnamon

200g / 7oz Essential chocolate drops

75g /3 oz Essential light tahini

150g / 5oz pitted soft dates

In a high speed blender or food processor, grind up the nuts until fine. Place in a bowl with the cinnamon.

Put the chocolate drops in a pan with the tahini and melt over a low heat.

Place the dates in a blender with the melted chocolate and process to form a stiff paste.

Add the paste to the ground nuts and combine thoroughly using your hands to make sure it is completely mixed. It should form a soft dough.

Place the mixture into a lined 20cm / 8 inch shallow square tin and press down firmly.

Chill for 3-4 hours until hard. Cut into chunks to serve.

Nutritional Information

Per square

Calories: 232kcal

Protein: 3.8g

Total Fat: 18.9g of which saturates 3.3g

Carbohydrates 11.5g

Per 100g

Calories: 562kcal

Protein: 9.3g

Total Fat: 45.8g of which saturates 8g

Carbohydrates 27.9g

Bring Your Own Lunch – Recipe Ideas from Nairn’s Oatcakes

Jo — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 12:00:50 +0000

In the current economic climate we all know that it makes sense to make and take your own lunch into the workplace. This is backed up by research from Nairn’s Oatcakes who have found that over 70% of office workers are taking packed lunches to work to save money. The problem is that eating the same homemade sandwich or salad everyday can become a bit boring!

Apparently the average working lunch break across the nation is only 25.9 minutes, with the majority of us eating at our desks and treating lunch as an additional action on the long to-do list. Even if we do manage to take time-out for lunch, 53% of us find that the traditional sandwich doesn’t fill us up and 37% of us feel hungry again after only two hours!

Nairn’s have teamed up with TV chef Rachel Allen, renowned nutritionist and food consultant Christine Bailey, and Scottish food ambassador Lady Claire Macdonald, in an effort to help inspire those of us who make a packed lunch on a daily basis. They have created some delicious and nutritious recipe and topping ideas to help us feel naturally energised and keep us going for longer.

Choosing a healthy and balanced lunch will sustain your hunger, and the slow release energy in Nairn’s Oatcakes will leave you feeling ready to take on the afternoon work load. The Moroccan Apricot Bean Spread sounds delicious, only takes 10 minutes to prepare and can be packed up, taken to the office, and then spread on an oatcake for a fulfilling bite to eat that won’t leave you feeling ready for that siesta later on!

So if you are looking for more inspiration on a budget, look no further. For recipe ideas and advice on how to be naturally energised go to the Nairn’s website, follow Nairn’s on Twitter and like them on Facebook!

Feast your eyes on this Vegetarian Christmas Dish!

Brenda — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 08:00:39 +0000

FESTIVE FAYRE CAN BE QUITE A CHALLENGE IF YOU’RE SERVING UP VEGETARIAN DISHES AT YOUR CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS – BUT TAKE A LOOK AT THIS CULINARY WORK OF ART FROM A LEADING CHEF THAT’S SURE TO WOW EVEN YOUR NON-VEGETARIAN FRIENDS.

Take one great organic vegetarian dish from a top chef, add a quality bottle of natural red wine, invite some friends over and you’ve got all the right ingredients for a fantastic Christmas celebration….naturally.

Aiden Byrne is well known for producing works of art straight from the professional kitchen. At the age of just 22 he was the youngest ever Michelin star chef – and having appeared on TV programmes such as Masterchef and the Great British Menu his face is known to many.

Now Chef Proprietor at 3 AA rosette establishment The Church Green in Lymm, Cheshire and Co-owner of the Hillbark Hotel restaurant at Frankby on the Wirral Aiden is a big advocate of cooking with fresh locally produced – and where possible organic – ingredients. So much so that he has written a cookbook Made in Great Britain that celebrates the very best of our nation’s produce.

His focus on using the best possible quality ingredients extends also to his wines – and he’s recently collaborated with a French vineyard to propose an award winning natural wine that’s produced to organic standards but that comfortably stands its own ground against established wines produced to more traditional methods.

Tour De Belfort is produced in a vineyard that nestles in an eco-friendly EC Natura 2000 zone (so no cross-neighbour contamination) in the Lot region of South West France without the use of pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilisers or artificial flavour enhancers. Bees naturally pollinate the land – as well as producing honey – and the whole wine making process is carried out by hand from start to finish. 21,000,000 grapes are literally picked, sorted and processed by the vineyard owners, the Lismonde family, who have worked very hard to ensure that their wine meets Eco cert organic standards.

Their blend of four different varieties of grapes gives their wine great complexity and length which makes it an ideal companion to Christmas food.

This wonderful fine tart of aubergines and cepes from Aiden is easy to assemble – and with Tour de Belfort wine is perfect Christmas fayre. Even for non-vegetarians, it looks good enough to eat! Have it as a starter or increase the ingredient quantities and add side dishes.

Tour de Belfort wine is available from www.tour-de-belfort.com. I’ll be buying a case (free delivery) so I can give even a few away as Christmas gifts – and I’ll be taking them over to friends as our contribution to their drinks parties, eco-wrapped of course thanks to great tips from thegreenfamilia’s recent post on green gift wrapping! Enjoy!

Fine tart of aubergines and cepe mushrooms

Cepes and aubergines are a marriage made in heaven. I use this combination in lots of different ways – for non vegetarian guests with monkfish, lamb, or just as a wonderful vegetables-only starter like this one. You if you’re fish eaters you could also put some pickled anchovies on this tart if you like.

To serve 4 portions (starter size – increase ingredients accordingly depending on guest numbers )

4 sheets of filo pastry
3 onions (peeled)
4 large sprigs of thyme
250 grams of cepe mushrooms
6 baby aubergines
1 tablespoon of picked thyme leaves
100 mls olive oil
100 grams butter
2 cloves garlic (sliced)
50 grams of Parmesan cheese (shaved)
Buckler sorrel leaves to serve

Method

1. Place a sheet of greaseproof paper on a heavy baking tray then place the first layer of filo. Brush with olive oil, just enough to cover the filo, sprinkle with a small amount of salt and then sprinkle ⅓ of the thyme leaves, place another sheet in top then follow the same process as before. Place a third and final sheet on top and again brush with olive oil. Cover with another sheet of greaseproof. Put the other baking tray on top ensuring the filo is fully covered and the two trays are as close to each other as possible. Place in the oven with a heavy weight on top. A heavy pan will do. Bake for about 20-25 minutes and then remove from the oven. Once crisp, place on a cooling wire and allow to cool.

2. Slice the onions as finely as possible. In a warm pan, with butter slowly sweat the sliced onions, the thyme sprigs and a sprinkle of salt under a lid until the onions become very soft. Remove the lid and then the onions will begin to caramelize. This should take about 30-40 minutes. When the onions are golden brown, check the seasoning, you should be able to taste the salt and the natural sweetness of the onions should come forward. Pour the onions out onto a tray to cool down. Set aside.

3. Slice the cepe mushrooms and the aubergines lengthways at an even thickness so you can see their natural shape, simply pan-fry them both with a slice of garlic and a sprinkle of salt in olive oil until golden brown. Drain on a wire rack to cool.

4. Spread the filo tart with the onion, layer the aubergines and cepes on the tart filling it up as much as you like.

5. Top with the majority of the shaved Parmesan and simply bake for a couple more minutes in a hot oven. Serve the tart with the crisp sorrel salad and some more shaved Parmesan.

TESCO GREENER SITE

Jo — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:00:31 +0000

Did you know that Tesco had gone green? Tesco is the third largest grocery retailer in the world, and although it originally specialised in food it has diversified into the merchandising of other retail goods and has outlet stores throughout Europe, Asia and the USA with over 2,000 stores in the UK alone. In an effort to reinforce themselves as the ‘Green Grocer’, they are bringing their green credentials to their updated Tesco Greener Living site which is loaded with practical hints and tips on how to save money.

Visit the fully interactive Save Money House where you can move around room by room to find out how to save money by being greener. Clicking on the green circle in the kitchen on the dishwasher door will bring up a pop-up box with the idea that ‘Its greener to use your dishwasher when full’. Other suggestions include a link to buy particular products that will help you make savings, such as the OWL Electricity Monitor which you will find placed on a shelf in the lounge. The newly made over eco house can help you save more than £5,000 a year – an additional £1,500 worth of savings compared to the previous version. It’s fun for the kids as well – they can meet the chickens, check out what’s growing in the veg patch and clamber up to the treehouse where they can play games and watch videos.

There is also a really handy Seasonal Food Calendar that lists the array of produce available in any particular month, together with some superb green recipes and an area where you can create your own recipe book. You can even earn Green Clubcard Points by making small changes that help the environment. Ordering online and choosing bagless delivery will earn you one clubcard point for every 10 items delivered.

There are several guides on the website with useful information. Looking for advice on driving in a greener way? The Greener Driving Guide lists simple changes that you can implement to the way you drive which will add up to a substantial saving on your petrol bills.

The Greener Living website helps customers to make choices on how to shop in an eco friendly way and complements the many green products that are on the shelves in the Tesco stores.

Peas, Peas, Peas

erica — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 16:00:09 +0000

Virtually every home must have frozen peas in the freezer. The good news is that they are a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, thiamine (B1), iron and phosphorus. As pulses, they are also rich in protein, carbohydrate and fibre and low in fat. Peas are frozen within 2.5 hours of being picked and the UK is the largest producer of peas for freezing in Europe. Our east facing seaboard (East Anglia particularly) is ideally suited to pea production. So our frozen peas haven’t had to travel that far to get into the shops. As you might have gathered, I’m a big fan of the humble frozen pea and was delighted to discover a website dedicated to recipes using them.

The Yes Peas! has a wide range of recipes and meal planning ideas available: pea and bacon chowder, pea and beef kerala, etc. I like the sound of the pea and ham muffins, which I think would be great for packed lunches. There’s also a feature available where you can search by what ingredient you have in your fridge or store cupboard and they’ll suggest a recipe for you to try. Plus there are facts and figures about peas and you can even see videos of peas being harvested in the fields. You can claim a free recipe booklet by visiting the site.

The Resourceful Cook

erica — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:54:15 +0000

The Resourceful Cook is a great new meal planning website that helps people avoid food waste and save money. Their recipes are based on standard pack sizes to allow you to use up perishable ingredients, so reducing food waste. By being able to select meals that suit your budget, you can stay on track financially.

With meal plans that are themed to help you quickly choose ones that will suit your tastes and requirements e.g. low fat, Italian, frugal,etc. plus they’re also grouped according to the numbers of people that they serve. You can choose meal plans that let you stick with the size of store cupboard you’re comfortable with: a basic store cupboard, a typical store cupboard or a cook’s store cupboard. There are vegetarian options too. All the recipes are provided on the site and you get useful details like cost per person and cooking and preparation times.

I particularly liked the shopping list option – once you’ve selected your meal plan, you can print off a shopping list and there’s room to add on other food and non food items. There are also some interesting looking dinner party menus, like Aegean Vegetarian, and once again you have the shopping list option so that you don’t forget anything – there’s nothing worse as a cook than not having that key ingredient, when you have hungry people due to arrive imminently.

The site is still in beta, but it works really well. As a 3 person family it would be great to be able to choose this option from the menu or to be able to specify children (you can choose 1,2 and 4 people currently), so I’m hoping they introduce this as they develop the site. I’d also like to be able to choose recipes around an ingredient – at the moment I’m looking for courgette recipes as I have so many!

Day 2 – My zero waste week challenge

erica — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:00:16 +0000

Home baking is my focus for day 2 of zero waste week. I’ve been trying out recipes to deal with my cooking apple glut and so far I’ve tried out apple flapjacks, apple cake and apple pie – it’s a good job I love apples! The apple flapjacks were moderately successful, but were so sticky with apple that we had to eat them with spoons. I took the recipe from BTCV’s Grow Your Own Food Guide which is available free. Adding custard made them into a pudding which was quite nice, but I’ll keep looking for an apple flapjack recipe that I can use for picnics and lunch boxes.

Next up is a recipe that I’ve tried before and that I love: Annabel Karmel’s Tea-Time Apple Treat , which is in her Baby and Toddler Meal Planner. Her recipe uses eating apples, but I make it with cooking apples and some extra sugar. This is a cake that uses up quite a lot of apples – about 5 of my small-medium sized windfalls. I first baked this cake after eating it at a friend’s house and other people have made it after eating it at mine. I’m making 2 and putting one in the freezer to see if that works well.

Last but not least, I tried my grandmother’s apple pie recipe. My grandma’s pies were legendary in our family and some years ago, I watched her make them and wrote down the recipe. Since then, I’m ashamed to say, it’s sat in my recipe clippings book and I’ve never made it. So I got it out and gave it a try. It was a real blast from the past tasting it again – I think I pretty much got it right. It’s a robust pie that you can eat in slices using your hands and isn’t too sweet, so I’ve been known to have it for breakfast. If you’d like to try it, here’s the recipe:

Core and chop 5-6 medium cooking apples into small pieces, add 4 tablespoons of caster sugar and stew for a few minutes on a strong heat (don’t add any water, but do stir regularly). Meanwhile rub 8oz of self raising flour into 4 oz of room temperature margarine. Then add a little very cold water at a time until you have a nice pastry dough. Roll out on a floured board and line a large pie dish with the pastry (I used a little over half the dough for this). Put in the apples and place a pastry lid on top. Seal the edges with a fork, slit the middle with a knife and few time and decorate with scraps of pastry, if you like. Cook at gas mark 5/190 degrees for about quarter of an hour.

Recipe of the Week: Roast Rump of Daylesford Organic Lamb

Brenda — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:00:36 +0000

Roast Rump of Daylesford Organic Lamb

prep time: 2 minutes

cooking time: 25-30 minutes

serves: 2

season: spring

Ingredients

330g rump of lamb

sprigs of rosemary

1 drizzle of olive oil

Method

1 Preheat oven to 200 degrees- 190 degrees fan oven/gas mark 6

2 Drizzle the 330g rump of lamb with a high quality extra virgin oil, season with salt and pepper, and lay the sprigs of rosemary on the rump of lamb

3 Roast in the oven for 25 minutes for rare, 28-30 minutes for medium/well done. Remove from the oven and allow to rest, covered, in a warm place for a good 10 minutes.

4 To serve, carve the lamb into thick slices and arrange on a plate, drizzling over the juices from the resting tray. Delicious served with seasonal vegetables like honey and rosemary glazed parsnips and Red Russian kale.

Recipe kindly shared with us by Daylesford Organic.

Easter Recipes with Tropical Wholefoods

Brenda — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:00:30 +0000

These recipes have been added to our new recipe page, if you have any new organic, fairtrade recipe that you would like to share with TGF readers please send them to me at: brenda (at) thegreenfamilia (dot) co (dot) uk. Each month we will pick our winning recipe of the month to be featured in a post.

Tropical Wholefoods, pioneer of sun-dried tropical fruits, has come up with two delicious Easter recipes – including a classic Simnel cake and a creative twist on the traditional hot cross bun.

The recipes use products from the Tropical Wholefoods range and demonstrate the versatility of the products which include newly-introduced apricot kernels from Pakistan.

The hot cross bun recipe uses dried mango and apricots to replace the usual currants and is a great way to encourage children to have a go at baking.

The Simnel cake (above) contains dried mango, pineapple and apricot, while the ‘apostle’ decorations on the top – 11 balls to represent the apostles minus Judas – are made using ground apricot kernel. The cake will make a fabulous centrepiece for any dining table on Easter Sunday.
Kate Sebag, Marketing Director of Tropical Wholefoods, says: “These recipes will make Easter taste extra special for families. Although the cake looks very professional, it is relatively simple to make and the hot cross buns taste so great fresh from the oven I guarantee they will be eaten in one sitting!”

The Tropical Wholefoods range – in striking new packaging – includes sun dried bananas, apricots, pineapple, mango, snack bars and apricot kernels in three flavours.

Many of the products are organic and and carry the FAIRTRADE Mark.

Fairtrade Simnel Cake
This is a lovely cake to make at Easter, full of fruity nutty flavours and Fairtrade goodness. The eleven marzipan balls represent Jesus’ apostles with Judas excluded. You can have fun decorating the cake with spring flowers and ribbon.
Ingredients for the Cake
175g light muscovado sugar
175g butter, softened
175g self raising flour
3 large eggs
25g ground almonds
2 tbsp milk
100g Tropical Wholefoods Fairtrade Organic Dried Mango, chopped into 1.5cm pieces
100g Tropical Wholefoods Sun Dried Pineapple, chopped into 1.5cm pieces
100g Tropical Wholefoods Fairtrade Sun Dried Apricots, chopped into 1.5cm pieces
100g stem ginger, finely chopped
2 tsp ground ginger
For the almond marzipan to cover the cake
200g icing sugar
125g ground almonds
half a large egg yolk beaten
2 tbs of orange juice
3 drops of almond essence
For the apricot kernel marzipan centre of the cake and “the apostle balls”
200g icing sugar
125g Tropical Wholefoods Fairtrade natural apricot kernels
half a large egg yolk beaten
2 tbs of orange juice
3 drops of almond essence
To decorate
Spring flowers
Beaten egg
A ribbon

Method
1. Preheat oven 160C/320F/Gas 3
2. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm/8in deep, round cake tin with baking parchment
3. Combine all the cake ingredients in a large mixing bowl or food processor and beat well until thoroughly blended. Place half the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface.
4.To make the apricot kernel marzipan centre and “apostle balls”, grind the apricot kernels to a powder in an electric grinder. Place the ground kernels and icing sugar in a food
processor. Process, slowly dripping in the egg yolk, orange juice and almond essence until you have a smooth pliable paste. Set aside about a third of this marzipan for the balls with which to decorate the cake.
5. Scatter icing sugar on a board and roll out remaining kernel paste into a circle to cover the cake mixture. Place the circle over the cake mixture, spoon the remaining cake mixture on top of the paste and level the surface.
6. Bake for about one and three-quarter to two hours or until golden brown and firm in the middle. If toward the end of the cooking time the cake is getting too brown, loosely cover with a piece of foil. Allow the cake to cool in the tin before turning onto a cooling rack.
7. Whilst the cake is baking, make the almond marzipan for the top of the cake in the same way as the apricot kernel marzipan.
8. When the cake is cool, roll out the almond marzipan on an icing sugar covered board and use it to cover the cake. Then make the 11 even sized balls out of apricot kernel marzipan and arrange the around the edge of the cake.
9. Lightly brush with a beaten egg and glaze under a hot grill for about five minutes turning the cake so it browns evenly. You could use a blow-torch for this if you prefer.
10. Tie spring coloured ribbon around the edge of the cake and scatter a few narcissi or primroses in the centre for decoration.

Fairtrade Hot Cross Buns
A fun twist on traditional Hot Cross Buns, making them with Fairtrade dried apricots and mangoes. Delicious toasted and buttered, and also with apricot jam. Makes about 12 buns.
Ingredients:
50g, plus 1 level tsp, caster sugar
1 level tbs dried yeast (do not use the easy-blend dried yeast.)
450g plain flour
1 level tsp salt
1 rounded tsp mixed spice
50g Tropical Wholefoods Organic Fairtrade Mango chopped into 1cm pieces
75g Tropical Wholefoods Fairtrade Sun Dried Apricots chopped into 1cm pieces
40-55 ml warmed milk
1 egg, beaten
50 g butter, melted

For the glaze:
2 level tbs granulated sugar
2 tbs water

For the crosses:
4 oz (110 g) plain flour
3 tbs water
You will also need a greased baking sheet.
Method
1. First stir the teaspoon of caster sugar into 150 ml hand-hot water, then sprinkle in the dried yeast and leave it until a good frothy ‘beer’ head forms.
2. Meanwhile sift the flour, salt and mixed spice into a mixing bowl and add the remaining 50 g of sugar, and the chopped dried fruits.
3. Make a well in the centre, pour in the yeast mixture plus 40 ml of milk (again hand- hot), the beaten egg and the melted butter. Now mix it to a dough, starting with a wooden spoon and finishing with your hands (add a spot more milk if it needs it).
4. Transfer the dough on to a clean surface and knead it until it feels smooth and elastic – about 6 minutes.
5. Now pop it back into the bowl, cover the bowl with a lightly oiled plastic bag, and leave it in a warm place to rise – it will take about an hour to double its original size.
6. Turn it out and knead it again, back down to its original size.
7. Divide the mixture into 12 round portions, arrange them on the greased baking sheet (allowing plenty of room for expansion). Leave them to rise once more, covering again
with the oiled polythene bag, for about 25 minutes. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7.
8. For the crosses, mix the flour and water, roll out thinly and divide into small strips, dampen and place on top of the buns before baking.
9. Bake the buns for about 15 minutes. While they’re cooking, make the glaze by melting the sugar and water over a gentle heat. Brush the buns with the glaze as soon as they come out of the oven, to make them nice and sticky.