Infinitely Adaptable Salad with a Smashing Hemp Seed and Ginger Dressing

I am rather chuffed with meself today. Husband No:1 (not sure if I’m keeping him, 23 years of marriage and he is still annoying 🙂 )came in and announced that he wants to follow the 5:2 diet (he has no need to lose weight at all – he is a damn near physically perfect specimen – but he wants to be healthier) and he is really keep for those 2 days to be fully raw, vegan days. I know for sure now that he has been enjoying those foods along with all the other delights I proffer.

I did promise on my FB page that I would share this recipe. It is, as I say, infinitely adaptable, I would always suggest you use seasonal fruit and veg and if you can get locally grown then do so. You know if you can’t grow stuff yourself you can pop along to the local allotments or communal veg gardens and either buy the excess that they are probably selling or else go along and introduce yourself, tell them you are wanting to eat more locally grown foods and that theirs looks gorgeous (a little flattery will go a long way) and offer to buy what they have over each week. Not only will you be getting some fantastic produce, but you’ll be getting inspired by what these old boys and girls can produce and you’ll probably make a couple more friends 🙂

In all honesty, the food may well not look as perfect as the stuff in the supermarkets – I take that as an excellent indication that the food has been grown with due respect to the flora and fauna of the veg garden – and I kinda like bees …. and wasps … and even spiders 🙂

Mix this up … use what is good right now
1 cup fresh beans (broad, french, runner- in the winter you can go for sprouted mung, kidney or chick peas)
3 ears of corn (just slice the kernels off the cob with a sharp knife (in the winter you can use 2 cups of frozen – it can be our secret)
1 sweet red pepper
2 cups of chopped tomatoes (I currently am loving the very fleshy italian varieties)
2 large carrots (I am currently loving the globe variety I have in my garden – so…. carroty!)
1 corgette/zucchini
1/2 a sweet white onion/shallot

Give it all a good scrubbing wash and then chop it all into small pieces (so a few pieces could pile onto a teaspoon)
And mix in a bowl.

Hemp Seed and Ginger Dressing
4 medium carrots
a 2cm hunk of ginger (peeled and sliced)
3 tbsp coconut palm sugar (or whatever you like to use as a sweetener – this adds such a nice warm base to go with the hemp seeds)
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp himalayan salt (you can use sea salt – but I like the iron hit)
1/3 cup Hemp seed oil
1/2 cup shelled hemp seeds

Pop everything bar the hemp seeds into a good strong food processor/blender and let it go until everything is a nice soft sauce. If it needs a little more water to blend it then just add it in 1/4 cup at a time.

Now just taste it, adjust the seasoning (does it need a little more sugar, vinegar, salt? Or all of them?)

Tip into a bowl and stir in the hemp seeds (my absolute favourite seeds)

Now use it to dress the above salad or use it as a dip. I love it smeared onto raw veggie wraps with some naughty avocado and apple – yum

😀

5 Day Detox – realistic for normal human beings :)

Hello there m’dears. Been a while, I hope you are all doing well.

This is a bit of a special one as an aid to anyone that really wants a detox and has tried the commercial diets and extreme fasting detox’s and it’s all just been too much one way or another.

This will give your body enough of a break to get you feeling like everything is working well again and you can stride into the rest of the season feeling fighting fit.

Just so you know, myself, I had a small cup (125ml) of the alkalising green and some of my medicine balls this morning and I am pinging off the wall! So I am hoping that these recipes will do the same for you 🙂

So, to start here are four juices to have ready for the next 3 days, I will add into the recipes the various organic powders that I add when I make them, but you may not have them …. no matter, just make them without, they’ll still be really good for you 🙂
Each recipe is enough for the 3 days, you can cut the recipe into 1/3 and make them fresh each day, or make the batches, divide between cups for each day and freeze . Then the night before you need them take them out into the fridge and allow them to defrost ready for you to consume the next day. However you think about it, this is still a much better option than the pasteurised juices in the shops or the ‘fresh’ juices made from EU allowable blended stocks that allow them to still be called fresh.

Alkalising Green Restores balance to an acidic system.

1 cucumber
1 lime (well scrubbed with 2/3 of the zest removed)
a pinch of himalayan or sea salt
4 stalks of celery
a large handful of fresh parsley
3 eating apples
1/2 cup shelled hemp seeds
1 tbsp organic barley grass powder
1 tsp organic wheat grass powder
1 tbsp organic spirulina powder
1 tsp organic kelp powder
1 tbsp organic maca root powder
1 tbsp organic lucuma powder
1 x 2cm piece of fresh ginger

Juice the fruit and vegetables. Grind the hemp seeds. Put 1/2 the juice and the powders, seeds and ginger into a blender and blend for 3 minutes. Push through a fine sieve collecting all the pulp from the underside.
This can be diluted with equal quantities of fresh, filtered water.

Radical Reducing Blood Builder

Nice sweet taste disguises this iron rich, infection fighting juice, high in betacarotene and the natural fungicide falcarinol. Great if you have skin problems 🙂
4 good local seasonal apples (what is close and fresh to you)- (scrubbed)
1 medium sized beetroot (scrubbed)
2 medium carrots (scrubbed)
2 small parsnips (scrubbed)
1 lemon (well scrubbed with 1/2 the zest removed)
1 tbsp organic lucuma powder (or 1 tsp local honey if you like)

Again juice the fruit and veg then blend with the powder.
This can be diluted with equal quantities of fresh, filtered water.

Fluid Balancer Great for that afternoon energy hit you need. This is rich in a diverse combination of nutrients, will help with fluid retention as it sorts out the imbalance between cells. And then the lemon scarifies the gut to make sure you feel all fresh and new 🙂
3 eating apples (seasonal and local)
2 sticks celery (scrubbed)
1 cucumber (scrubbed)
1x 2 cm piece of ginger
1 lemon (well scrubbed with 1/2 the zest removed)
1 tsp purple corn extract
Same process as before.

Soothing Cinnamon

Nice for the end of the day, settling the stomach and preparing the body for rest (I do hope you aren’t trying to lead a crazy life over these 3 days – be nice to yourself!) The bromalain in the pineapple will does great things in removing mucus from the body (great if you have a cough or cold) and the cinnamon does good things to blood sugar levels and helps the body readjust back to a healthy mode 🙂

1 medium sized pineapple
2 good local seasonal apples (what is close and fresh to you)- (scrubbed)
1/4 medium sized beetroot (scrubbed)
1 medium carrots (scrubbed)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp organic mucuma powder

Peel the pineapple.
Same process as before.

I will also mention something called ‘Medicine Balls’ these are my own recipe and if you are a regular purchaser of mine you may well have had them. You do see similar items in wholefood shops and some supermarkets and there is a wealth of recipes elsewhere on WordPress, they are called things like energyballs, or powerballs. Mine have no added sugar and the others I have mentioned rely very heavily on dates in the ingredients. I love dates, use them lots, but they are very high in naturally occurring sugar and my personal experience is that they cause a massive sugar high and crash – so mine do not contain any. But if you want to use them do. Otherwise at the point where I suggest eating a Medicine ball, you can perhaps have a herbal tea, or even a raw carrot 🙂

Day 1
On rising warm water with a slice of fresh lemon added (I cannot tolerate this so I have …) or a warm water and a few leaves of fresh mint.
1st Juice: Alkalising Green. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take before 11.am.
2nd Juice: Radical Reducing, Blood Builder. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take after Midday.
3rd Juice: Fluid Balancer. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 3.pm. and 4.pm.
4th Juice: Soothing Cinnamon. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 6.pm and 8.pm.

2 hours before bedtime (this may well coincide with your final juice of the day) Gojiberry Ginger & Bee Pollen Medicine Ball

Day 2
On rising warm water with a slice of fresh lemon added or a warm water and a few leaves of fresh mint.
1st Juice: Alkalising Green. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take before 11.am.
2nd Juice: Radical Reducing, Blood Builder. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take after Midday.
3rd Juice: Fluid Balancer. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 3.pm. and 4.pm.
4th Juice: Soothing Cinnamon. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 6.pm and 8.pm.

2 hours before bedtime (this may well coincide with your final juice of the day) Super Seeds & Super Berry Medicine Ball

Day 3
On rising warm water with a slice of fresh lemon added or a warm water and a few leaves of fresh mint.
1st Juice: Alkalising Green. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take before 11.am.
2nd Juice: Radical Reducing, Blood Builder. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take after Midday.
3rd Juice: Fluid Balancer. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 3.pm. and 4.pm.
4th Juice: Soothing Cinnamon. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take between 6.pm and 8.pm.

2 hours before bedtime (this may well coincide with your final juice of the day) Hemp & Purple Corn Extract Medicine Ball

Day 4
On rising warm water with a slice of fresh lemon added or a warm water and a few leaves of fresh mint.
1st Juice: Alkalising Green. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take before eating anything. This is just a really great juice to get into the habit of having every morning – or perhaps just on a weekend morning – just start making it something you would want to include in your weekly food intake – in the same way as lots of people think about toast (I do not eat bread everyday and mostly I don’t even eat it once a week but I understand that people eat bread every single day of the year).

Green Medicine Ball: Now allow 20 minutes before you eat any breakfast.

Breakfast: Gluten Free Oats, soaked in warm water overnight. Add a little honey or agave nectar, a heaping tablespoon of sunflower and pumpkin seeds and as much soya, almond milk, coconut milk, goats milk, ewes milk or
any live yogurt you prefer.

Lunch: RAW! Kale & Sauerkraut Salad (from me)

or Nicoise Salad, made with a big handful of spinach leaves, a ripe tomato, a cold hard boiled egg, 2 anchovy fillets, a small can of tuna (drained), or a fresh one (seared for 2 minutes either side). Mix as a salad with a few olives if you like.

Dinner: 3 Bean and White Chard.

You can make this as a stew or as a soup. Very tasty, extremely good for your entire system. Small can of kidney beans, 1 small can of chick peas, 1 small can of flagolet beans. 1 red onion, 1 small carrot, 1 stalk of celery, 1 clove of garlic, a can of tomatoes, 8 leaves of white chard, a good tablespoon of rapeseed oil. Warm the oil and fry the vegetables (not the chard). Add in the other ingredients and 500ml of vegetable stock. Cook for 10 minutes. Really quick and good for you too 🙂 Make enough for tomorrows lunch.

Day 5
On rising warm water with a slice of fresh lemon added or a warm water and a few leaves of fresh mint.
1st Juice: Alkalising Green. You may dilute the made quantity with an equal measure of fresh/filtered water. Take before eating anything.

Breakfast: A ripe tomato, a slice of red onion. Fry in a tbsp of olive oil, add a handful of chopped parsley leaves and then stir in 2 large free range eggs to scramble.

Lunch: 3 Bean and White Chard. From last nights dinner 🙂

Dinner: 3 Chick Pea & Sweet Potato Bake. 2 large sweet potatoes (well scrubbed), boiled then mashed. Set the oven to 200˚C or Gas4. Heat a spoon of olive oil and add a diced onion in to soften, then add a clove of garlic, stir, 4 big handfuls of spinach and stir over the heat until they wilt. Add in a large can of chick peas and crush all together slightly. Pop into a oven dish. Top with the mash and bake for 20 minutes.

You are now good to go for the rest of the year 🙂

Come see me on Bermondsey Market in London on a Saturday.

Autumnal Pumpkin Stew

So here is the first dish I made with the pumpkin 🙂

It was eaten that night (as were all the dishes) and we felt we had seriously entered into an autumn state of being 🙂

I was aiming to make enough for 4 people, but I just made extra and popped the other half into the freezer. This is giving a good idea of how much food there is to be had from just one pumpkin.

Autumnal Pumpkin Stew

serves 8 people

1 kg / 2 lb roasted pumpkin flesh
3 medium onions
5 medium carrots
3 sticks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
120g / 4oz creamed coconut
2 tbsp sunflower oil
4 tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
(or 4 tsp Garam masala if you prefer a more curry flavour)
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp brown sugar (optional)
1.5 lt / 3 pt hot vegetable stock or water

(Not the garlic!) Peel the raw vegetables and cut them all into a 1 cm chunk – not too small, this isn’t a soup 🙂

Chop the cooked pumpkin flesh to be about 2 cm chunks.

Heat the oil in a large heavy based saucepan.
Add the raw vegetables, keep the heat as high as possible and allow the vegetables to start to brown.
Turn the heat to low and add the pumpkin, spices, herbs, sugar and tomato puree.
Give it a stir, allow that it 10 – 20 seconds to open the flavours.
Turn up the heat and either chop or use a garlic press to process the garlic to a fine mince and add to the pan.
Add the hot stock. The liquid should not quite cover top layer.
Now add the coconut and to bring this to the boil.
Turn the heat down to medium low, cover with a lid and allow to cook for 10 -15 minutes.
If it looks too soupy after this then take the lid off and allow it to boil on a high heat for 5 minutes to drive off some of the liquid (you will also intensify the flavour).
Keep a check on it, give it a stir every so often to make sure it’s not catching on the bottom.
That’s it, it’s ready – but, as with so many tomato based foods – this is so much tastier if you allow it to cool and have it thoroughly warmed through the next day.

I served these with the Savoury Pumpkin Cakes 🙂

Pumpkins’ Are Enormous – And What To Do With Them

As you know, I do like a seasonal bit of produce and there are lots of enormous pumpkins around and most are bought (here in Blighty) just to make lanterns.

I have had an intrigue and fascination of pumpkins for way too long (considering I am an adult) and it is all down to Linus and his obsession with the Pumpkin Patch in Peanuts (I want to be Snoopy). But I am not exactly successful at growing them myself, however they are plentiful and cheap at the moment.

So I bought some and thought I’d make a sensible attempt at seeing what I could make to feed a family of 4 from one pumpkin.

There was more pumpkin than I could cook dishes with in the time I had but I did get 3 good ones 🙂

Preparing the Pumpkin 🙂

I wanted to cook it in a way that would get rid of some of the moisture and intensify the flavour, so I knew I would roast it.

Cut the pumpkin in quarters and take out the seeds.

Wash away the membranes and any sticky juice and allow them to dry on a tray. The seeds can be roasted with soy sauce or spices to make a tasty topping or snacking food.

I did cut away the skin, but I know some people like to leave the skin on as they roast. I can’t see any benefit to leaving it on unless you want to scrap the skins of all flesh once it has finished cooking.

As you can see, I got a lot of flesh from the one pumpkin. Put it in a single layer on the tray and roast at 425˚F/220˚C/Gas7 for about 20 minutes – until the flesh is tender.

Allow it to cool – ready for what ever it is you want to cook.

And here are the recipes 😀

Autumnal Pumpkin Stew

Pumpkin Savoury Cakes

Spiced Pumpkin Cake

Linseed Crackers No Added Fat No Added Sugar Gluten Free Wheat Free Dairy Free Soya Free No Nut Vegan Egg Free

This is a kind of mercy blog. I have had lots of people coming to buy various RAW! products from me, and they like the taste and quality but they find them expensive – which is fair enough, in a world of 2:4:1 offers in the supermarkets and their ability to crush producers down to minuscule margins then all RAW! products will feel more expensive.

In defence of RAW! foods it is really helpful to remember that because the foods are nutritionally dense there is not the need to eat to excess in the way that is normal with more conventional foods (better not even start on some of those terrible diet plans, where you pay to attend, are told you are not eating enough, routinely overeat, increase your tolerance of those quantities and when you are no longer on the diet you overeat on the calorific foods you were used to and suddenly you are 10% heavier than ever you started!) Also RAW! foods are very satisfying and you will have a spring in your step 🙂

Well, this is a recipe for a basic Linseed cracker, follow the recipe and you will have crisp, tasty crackers that will not get stuck in your throat or cause you a belly ache.

It is not exactly the recipe I use (as that would be telling) but you can add in various herbs and spices as you like – you will then have your own unique cracker. I have scaled back the recipe size to make 1 standard tray to fit either a Sedona or Excalibur dehydrator. This recipe will not work in an oven (really sorry – but it just won’t) or if you have your own sun-drier then spread it out to 1-2 linseeds thick.

A word about the dehydrator. I have a Sedona 9 tray. In the manual it says that it will function for 36 hours continuous use. I have had mine running continuously for 2 weeks and never had a single problem with it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I do not have any photos of the process -as I say this is being posted because there is a need for a good recipe.

I recommend you eat these with a fresh dip but as an emergency pack in your bag for those moments when all there is on offer is deep fried or covered in cheap chocolate – then these are worth their weight in gold.

Enjoy!!

😀

Linseed Crackers
No Added Fat No Added Sugar Gluten Free Wheat Free Dairy Free Soya Free No Nut Vegan Egg Free

500g golden Linseed
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tsp dried parsley

Soak the Linseeds in 1 Lt water for a minimum of 4 hours but no more than 12 hours.
Place mixture in a large bowl.
Add other ingredients and mix until well-combined.
Spread dough over the dehydrator tray.
Dehydrate at 54°C for approximately 24 hours.

These are photos of my RAW! Sweet & Spicy Pepper Crackers – they’re very nice too.

Scapece (Zucchini)

This is a treat we would have right at the start of the summer. My Mum would only ever make it with the first zucchini/corgettes of the summer – before the seeds have a chance to thicken. I have made it as she used to with malt vinegar.

We would eat them after a day of steeping, simply on bread with a pinch of salt.

Sunflower or Extra-virgin olive oil enough to fill the pan you use to 1 cm depth
8 first of the season (young) zucchini
12 leaves fresh mint, torn in 2
4 cloves garlic, in thick slices
malt vinegar (coeliacs please use red or white wine vinegar)
Salt

Wash the fruit and cut off the stem. Then slice into a 1cm thick (not too thin not too thick)

Heat the oil in your chosen pan for frying.
Once it is hot add the zucchini to make a single layer in the pan. If you prefer you can do this in a larger pan deeper in oil 🙂

Fry until turning golden, then turn each slice to colour on the other side.
Allow the zucchini to cool on some kitchen paper.

Into a bowl or jar make the marinade of garlic, mint and the vinegar.

Do not add the salt at this stage.
Add in the zucchini, cover with a lid or cling film.
Leave in a cool spot (not the fridge though) and eat up over the next 3 days.

🙂

Lovely

🙂

Mushroom & Wild Garlic Tart with Chestnut Crumble. (Vegan and Gluten & Wheat Free)

My lovely girl has decide to take Cookery as her GCSE exam, but at school she struggles. She cannot eat wheat and although the school have said they will accommodate this, they don’t really know how to use Gluten Free flour and so she is frustrated and feels she is no good at cooking.

When really all that is the matter is that she needs to be taught how to cook with Gluten Free flour as opposed to just following a wheaten recipe and subbing in the Gluten Free flour – mostly that doesn’t work, allowances have to be made.

Anyway, so I wanted to help her see she is very capable. SO we set about making this tart with a few fresh organic(!) ingredients I was able to pick up at the market on Saturday.

It all turned out fab, not only did it give her a little boost, we all got a lovely late breakfast – perhaps not a perfect nutritional balance – but utterly joyous!

I hope you all like it

😀

Mushroom & Wild Garlic Tart with Chestnut Crumble.

Filling
120g/4oz wild garlic

3 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, finely diced

2 cloves of garlic pressed
6 portobello (field) mushrooms, diced

Pastry

500g/1 lb Gluten Free plain flour
½ tsp sea salt

250g/8oz sunflower margarine at room temperature

75g/2½oz/heaped ½ cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds, finely chopped

250ml/10fl oz water with 1 tsp ground linseeds soaked in it

Tofu filling
400g/14oz tofu, patted dry

30ml/2 tbsp olive oil

40ml/3 tbsp lemon juice


1½ tsp sea salt

1½ tbsp dried thyme

1½ tbsp dried tarragon
1½ tbsp nutritional yeast (Engervita B12 is the one to find)

3 tbsp cornflour

Crumble
250g/8oz Chestnut flour
125g/4oz Cashew nuts
90ml/3 floz olive oil

Set the oven to 190°C/375°F Gas5
Make the pastry. Super simple to make this. Blitz the marg, salt and flour together until it is crumby. On a slow speed pour in the water and it will form a ball.
Use this to line a 29 cm flan case. When you roll the pastry do not worry that it break, there is not gluten so you can easily patch this pastry as you would when you were little playing with playdough. It will not suffer at all for it. It does not need to rest or be chilled as there is not stretchy gluten to make it misbehave. Line it with the parchment paper, fill with baking beans and bake for 35- 40 minutes until it is set.

To make the Tofu filling, process all the ingredients together in the food processor and set aside.
To make the Filling, heat a frying pan over a high heat. Add the oil and cook the onions until they are starting to colour. Drain from the pan but leave in the oil and then fry the diced mushrooms until they brown too. Add the garlic and wilt in the chopped wild garlic. Tip in with the onion and set aside.

To make the crumble just blitz the ingredients until they make a nice crumble, set aside.

Take the case from the oven.

Mix the tofu and filling parts together and pour into the case. Top with the crumble and return to the oven for another 20 minutes until it is nice and brown.

You can serve it hot, warm, cold or chilled. We had it on it’s own (with a side of fresh fruit jam parts made from the scraps of pastry and a loaf of Fennel & Caraway Sourdough on the side 🙂

National Vegetarian Week

This week is National Vegetarian Week and as part of my commitment to great Vegetarian food I wanted to share a recipe for each day.

I shall endeavour for it to be Vegan. But we all have to start somewhere and if you are not vegetarian then just give a few recipes a go! I honestly believe you will be surprised.

Below are links to some of my previously blogged recipes and I will add more this week (as I can – I still have ‘no camera’ issues).

If you have any questions or queries then please do ask.

I myself an not exclusively RAW, Vegan, Paleo or Vegetarian but I appreciate that they are a great addition to our weekly food habits.

I hope you enjoy them

🙂

And so to start:

Baba Ganoush

‘Meaty’ Spicy Rice – A Vegan Treat We All Love To Eat!

Pistachio Cake (Vegan)

Millet and Mushroom Loaf (Vegan, Gluten & Wheat Free)

Creamy, Dreamy Onion Soup (Vegan and Gluten Free)

Deeply Tasty Borlotti Bean Noodles with Cashew Nuts (Vegan)

Potato Cakes (Option for Vegan and Gluten & Wheat Free)

Have a great week

😀

Heaven Sent Hummus & Scarlet Rosita Fuls

What a weekend! Got robbed again – do I look loaded?

So just have to keep going hey, what else is there to do?

Also got the online shop ‘live’. And that has been well received.

In case you would like to join in on the chance to win a selection of goodies then go to the FB page
https://www.facebook.com/ScarletRosita
and ‘like’ it, then share the below status to your own page 🙂

The draw is on the 24th May 🙂

Then have a bowl of this, the most divinely creamy hummus and fuls you will have eaten

😀

Heaven Sent Hummus

1 medium white onion
450g / 15 oz chickpeas 
30 ml / 1 fl oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cloves garlic crushed through a garlic press
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
125 ml water or reserved chickpea cooking water
125 ml Olive oil

I suggest you use a can of chick peas but you are very welcome to use dried chickpeas if you can get hold of good dried ones. There are lots of very nasty dried chick peas that never seem to cook properly, so I leave that decision to you. But please note what I say. Not all dried chickpeas are born the same, do not feel that you have in any way cheated by using a can 🙂

To cook from dried: put the chickpeas in a large bowl and cover them with at least twice their volume of cold water and leave them to soak overnight. The next day, drain the water and, pop them in a medium saucepan, cover with fresh water and bring to a boil. Skim any foam that floats to the surface – otherwise it will boil over. Cook for 30 to 50 minutes, sometimes even longer, depending on freshness, to become tender. When cooked they will break up easily between your thumb and forefinger.

Peel the onion and cut into quarters, slather in olive oil, wrap in foil and roast in a hot oven for 20 minutes until it is tender and sweetly fragrant.

Scoop a cup of the cooking water and set to one side. Now drain the chickpeas and refresh in cold water to cool completely.

Now if you have used the dried or canned chickpeas you will gently squeeze each pea to remove it’s skin. If you have chickens they will love these skins.

In a food processor, blend the chickpeas with the cooled , roasted onion and add in through the funnel the lemon juice, garlic, salt and olive oil and blend until pureed. Check the consistency (you’ll want it like a nice thick custard as over the next few hours, if left in the fridge, it will firm up nicely). If its too thick drizzle in some water or the reserved chickpea cooking water until you get the texture you want.

Pour it into a bowl and pop it in the fridge for at least an hour to allow the garlic to develop and the texture to firm a bit, but if you can’t hold off, then just grab a cracker.

Scarlet Rosita Fuls
1 Romano Red pepper
450g / 15 oz kidney beans 
30 ml / 1 fl oz balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic crushed through a garlic press
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
125 ml water or reserved cooking water
125 ml Olive oil
1 handful of fresh flat leafed parsley

Again I suggest you use a can of kidney beans but you are very welcome to use dried if you prefer.

To cook from dried: put the kidney beans in a large bowl and cover them with at least twice their volume of cold water and leave them to soak overnight. The next day, drain the water and, pop them in a medium saucepan, cover with fresh water and bring to a boil. Boil very ferociously for 2 -3 minutes, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 40 to 60 minutes, until they are nice and tender.

Wash the pepper and remove the green top and inner white seeds, slather in olive oil, wrap in foil and roast in a hot oven for 20 minutes until it is tender and sweetly fragrant. Allow to cool.

Drain the kidney beans and refresh in cold water to cool completely.

In a food processor, blend the kidney beans with pepper and add in through the funnel the vinegar, garlic, salt and olive oil and blend until pureed. If its too thick drizzle in some water until you get the texture you want.

You can add in a teaspoonful of Engervita B12 as it is essential for anyone following a Vegan diet to make sure they have a certain source to supplement this vitamin as it is not for sure that it will be eaten from natural yeasts etc.

Frugal Feast, Gorgeous Green, Super Simple, Meatless Monday

Just a quicky – cheapy- nutritious – delicious dish.

This brings together the sweet and salty with the mellow and sharp, perhaps not to everybodies taste, but I like those contrasts.

Get yourself down to the market and you will save yourself a fortune. Have a look here

However I concede that some trendy food markets are more expensive than shops. I popped into Borough Market yesterday and they were charging £26/Kg for Medjool dates and they were nowhere near as good as the ones I bought on my local food market.

Everyone says they are broke, so let’s save money and eat really well too

😀

Frugal Feast, Gorgeous Green, Super Simple, Meatless Monday

2 heads of Calabrese
1 large Sweet potato
3 cloves of garlic
1 dssp rosemary
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
125 ml olive oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
Seasalt
500g Penne Pasta
12 -15 leaves of fresh basil, washed and torn.

Pre heat the oven to a furnace like 475˚F/240˚C/Gas 9.

Wash the Calabrese and cut into thumb sized ‘trees’.

Peel the sweet potato and cut into 1- 1.5 cm cubes.

Place the potato onto a baking sheet and add the Rosemary, a slick of the olive oil , the vinegar and a sprinkle of sea salt.

Roast for about 15 minutes, shaking and turning the pieces once every 5 minutes. You want them nice and caramalised on the outside.

Cook the Calabrese in salted boiling water for 5 minutes, so it is softened but not totally collapsing.

Cook the pasta as instructed on the packet.

Peel the garlic and crush in a press.

Once the Calabrese is cooked, drain it, refresh with cold water, drain and set to the side.

Remove the sweet potato from the oven and set to one side.

Drain the pasta and save 125 ml of the pasta water. Leave the pasta to one side.

Add the remaining olive oil to the now empty pasta pan and quickly cook the garlic for maybe 30 seconds to a minute – just enough to take away the acrid bite of the garlic.

Add the tomato paste and cook for a few seconds. NAd the basil, just to wilt it.

Add the reserved pasta water, bring up to the boil.

Add in the pasta, the potatoes and the Calabrese, the basil and mix with little pity so that the green and the orange of the vegetables starts to break down around the pasta.

This is delicious.

Come and see me on Saturdays’ at Bermondsey Square Farmers Market in Southwark. It’s just off Tower Bridge Road, a short walk from The White Cube, Southbank and Borough Market.
All new customers will get a lovely washable cotton shopper as a ‘Thank you and please come again next week’ (Whie stocks last!)

Every Friday at about 6 pm GMT I publish photos of the items I have cooked for market. Have a look at the Facebook page.

email me scarletrositafood@btinternet.com
phone or text 0792 310 9170
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ScarletRosita
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