Author: Georgy Holden

This was the first chocolate I ever made and people seem to like it. I use date syrup to sweeten it, which I have not seen in other recipes. The result is a rich fruity chocolate which is a great complement to nuts and dried fruit. You can use any combination of nuts and fruit that you fancy. At Christmas I often use goji berries because they bring a festive red to the chocolate, I also sometimes include dried shredded coconut, don’t be afraid to experiment. Toasting the nuts and coconuts adds crispness and flavour but you don’t need to do this if you would prefer not too. Just pack the chocolate with lots of fruit and nuts so there is some in every bite.

Ingredients

• 75g Raw cacao paste
• 75g Raw cacao butter
• 75ml Date syrup
• 1 teaspoon of rose or vanilla essence (I like rose but vanilla is good too)
• 100g of nuts
• 100g of dried fruit eg cranberries, golden berries, goji berries and (my favourite) white mulberries

Method

1. Put a glass bowl in a saucepan full of boiled water to create a Bain Marie (the bowl should be big enough, and the pan small enough, that water cannot get into the bowl.
2. Melt the cacao paste and cacao butter together in the bowl, stirring constantly to help it melt.
3. When all the cacao is melted add in the essence and the date syrup, keep stirring.
4. You should find that the mixture begins to thicken a little when the date syrup is added. Taste test it with a small teaspoon, if you feel it needs to be sweeter add a little more syrup, but this ratio of a third each for the main ingredients usually works.
5. Line a saucer or other flattish receptacle with greaseproof paper.
6. Toast the nuts if you would like them toasted.
7. You can either pour the chocolate into the receptacle and then add the nuts and fruit or put the fruit and nuts into the receptacle and pour the chocolate over (or a combination of both).
8. To cool the chocolate either place in the freezer for 20 minutes or so or cool in the fridge until the chocolate is completely set.
9. The chocolate melts easily so is best kept in the fridge until you are ready to eat it, you will find a little goes a long way!

We had a few too many kiwi fruits going soft because they had come in our Riverford fruit box and not been eaten quickly enough, so I started looking around for recipes. I was slightly surprised to find that kiwi loaf is a thing, like banana bread but made with ripe kiwis. The recipes I found included things I don’t eat so I decided to make my own version. It turned out really tasty, my husband who is never slow to tell you if he does not like something, ate two slices straight off, so I am confident that, if you like the slightly acidic, almost citrus like notes of kiwi you will too.

Ingredients

• 125g Coconut oil
• 250g Coconut palm sugar
• 250g Gluten free flour
• 6 over-ripe kiwi fruit
• Soya cream, oat or nut milk

Method

1. Melt the oil if is solid and add to a mixing bowl
2. Add the sugar and flour
3. Mash up the kiwis in a separate bowl, I used a fork and took out the slightly hard bits you get at the base of the fruit.
4. Add the kiwis to the mixing bowl and stir well
5. Add soya cream or another form of plant milk to achieve a dropping consistency – the kiwis have a lot of moisture so you won’t need much.
6. Grease a loaf tin with coconut oil and line with greaseproof paper to make it easier to get out
7. Bake at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean if inserted into the middle of the cake.

I enjoyed eating this on its own, but my husband buttered his, find your own way 🙂

Bean burgers are very satisfying and quick to make. Their beauty is that you can combine all sorts of beans, vegetables and seasonings into the mix depending on what you have to hand and what you fancy. The recipe below uses mushroom, onion, pepper and courgette with borlotti beans, which are a favourite of mine, with chipotle as the seasoning.

Ingredients

• Can of borlotti beans, drained and washed
• 3 chestnut mushrooms sliced (if you want it very mushroomy add more, and any type is fine)
• Half a romano pepper chopped small (a bell pepper would be fine too but Romanos are less fleshy)
• Half a small courgette grated
• 1 smallish onion finely chopped (though more won’t hurt if you like onion)
• 1 tablespoon of chickpea (or gram) flour
• Chipotle powder to taste
• Dash of Tamari (or soy sauce) which is my preferred way way of adding salt
• Olive oil for frying

Method

1. Mash the beans, and veg together in a mixing bowl making sure to blend it all well together
2. Add the chickpea flour, this will help the mix stick together. Stir thoroughly
3. Take handfuls of the mix and create balls about 7cm round.
4. Heat olive oil in a frying pan – it does not need to be deep, just covering the surface of the pan to prevent the burgers sticking – use a high heat at first.
5. Add burgers to the pan and once the underside of the patties have sealed (it only takes a minute or so) turn the heat down to medium.
6. Continue cooking for about ten minutes turning frequently to get both sides well browned and the middle cooked.
7. Serve with salad or indeed any way that you like

Any burgers that you don’t eat can be cooled down and refrigerated or frozen and reheated in the oven when you want them.

In the days when I went out to work, rather than now when I stay in to work, my colleagues frequently suffered from salad envy. My lunch most days would comprise a large jam jar layered with salad and beans or seeds for substance and protein. Rainbow jars full of fresh vegetables became a bit of a signature for me. However, my love of salad developed late in life, it was prompted by illness and trying to eat a cornucopia of multi-coloured fruit and veg every day. Having discovered it though I have never looked back

In my parents home salad with a meal meant a lettuce leaf and maybe slices of tomato and cucumber. My grandfather, originally from Germany, made great salads and used exotic things like dandelion leaves and endive and I remember his salads fondly, but I was too young to really appreciate them and he died before I had much interest in foods other than salad cream on toast and tinned peaches.

In my twenties I recall many gatherings where the ritual setting out of lettuce, tomato and cucumber heralded the advent of a light tea, usually accompanied by slices of egg, cheese or ham, depending on one’s preference. I can still picture the aunties of my first boyfriend flocking together, setting out the smaller plates with their green and red fare. Having become vegetarian at 17 and vegan a year or so later, I did encounter salad when eating out, I have fond memories of falafel and salad from Gaby’s by Leicester Square tube station – sadly no longer there, but the aspiration to create the kinds of salads found there passed me by.

Now though, salad has become a go to meal, something to put together when I really can’t be bothered to cook and which, when I do, always makes me feel better. Salad now is a multi-coloured extravaganza, something that just requires a few fresh ingredients in the fridge and which, from a meagre selection of parts, magically comes together to create a visual feast.

I am a great fan of grated root vegetables in salad, they add dashes of colour but are easy to eat and digest. Carrots and raw beetroot are my staples for this, if you have never eaten raw beetroot give it a try, combined with all of the other ingredients it adds a sweet, slightly earthy, note. I have also added young turnips grated which have a slightly spicy taste.

Leaves of some kind go without saying in salad but are not obligatory. Lettuce will, of course, do the job but there are so many other forms of leaf that will too, baby spinach, young beetroot tops or crunchy leafy veg like red, white or pointed cabbage.

Tomatoes add some great nutrients to salad, and red pepper can add colour and texture. Other possible additions include, celery, apple, avocado, radish and cooked ingredients such as sweet potato, butternut squash or lightly cooked thin stem broccoli.

Onion or not onion is a consideration, I like a little spring onion or chives if I have them, but the large lumps of onion sometimes found in salads accompanying pub meals, are in my opinion too much and their overwhelming taste lasts for hours to come

There really are no rules with salad, just whatever vegetables you have to hand and a dressing. For a more substantial meal I like to add chickpeas or kidney beans, both of which work well with salad (if using canned beans then wash them first so they are not too starchy). I also keep a jar of sunflower and pumpkin seeds by the stove and toast them in my crepe pan for a crunchy topping.

For dressing salads, a simple mix of cider vinegar and olive oil usually hit the spot, but sometimes I add a dash of tamari or a splash of ginger, chilli, smoked paprika or chipotle. Another favourite dressing in our house is tahini mixed with lemon juice.

Eaten with rice or pitta bread (gluten free in my own case), a salad can be a satisfying meal in itself a long way from the uninviting garnishes of yesteryear.