Berry baked oatmeal

Breakfast is without a doubt my favourite meal of the day. I love running, coming home, putting on the coffee and pondering what to feed myself with. Luckily, I have a pretty strong morning stomach and thus no food are off limits. Brown rice with miso, greens and chilli. Leftover quinoa pizza. Anything goes. Breakfast to me is a quiet time. I normally eat alone as Alex is off training and I like the calm ritual of it. I like the thought of starting your day well, building foundations and all that. I like that it is, for me, a private meal. A time to indulge my tastebuds and when I really only need consider my own stomach.

Breakfast became especially important to me when I was sick because I found it hard to eat after 4pm. The combination of overtiredness, stress and medication meant post 4pm was a culinary dead zone. It was like this for almost two years. So breakfast held significant value. I would often wait a long time, allowing my body to stretch and wake before eating. I would enjoy the hunger and the thoughts of all the delicious foods that lay ahead. And then I would indulge.

Breakfast is still vital to me. I could happily miss dinner and instead make a plate of nibbles to tide me over to the morning. I could even skip lunch as long as a hearty breakfast had preceded it. There are many ideas as to what meal is best and when we should eat it, but really surely it comes down to your own body and its needs. Maybe its best to simply stop and listen and see when and what you need and want. To me it seems logical to eat when you are hungry and not when you are full.

This baked oatmeal recipe is for those evenings when breakfast seems a long way off. Perhaps your dinner wasn’t as tasty as you had hoped or perhaps it was eaten too early and now the evening seems to be stretching on without a promise of supper.

This baked oatmeal recipe is sweet and filling. It is pure comfort food. I like mine baked the night before, left to cool and then sliced in thick pieces in the morning and served with a dollop of rich coconut yoghurt and some dark berries. It makes the perfect breakfast for overnight guests just simply mix, bake and serve warm with a drizzle of maple syrup and a mug of strong coffee.

Baked Oatmeal- Serves 6

Ingredients
200g rolled oats
100g chopped almonds/pecans plus some additional for sprinkling
3 tbsp maple syrup (honey/agave)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
250ml almond milk
1 chia egg (or one large free range egg)
3 tbsp. coconut oil melted
200g berries (fresh or frozen)

Method
Preheat your oven to 180
Grease a baking dish or a loaf tin with a little coconut oil
Mix the dry ingredients together (oats, almonds, carrots, baking powder, cinnamon and berries) and in a seperate bowl whisk the wet ingredients together
Slowly combine the two and stir well
Pour into your form and sprinkle the top with the extra nuts and any additional berries
Bake for 35mins until the edges are golden brown
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving
This will keep for 5 days in the fridge and can be reheated before eating

Enjoy

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Verbena Harissa and roasted vegetable swiss roll

As much as I love a little bite of something sweet, at this time of year all I want is spice and warmth. I really really feel the cold. I never used to. As I kid I could happily play for hours outside at minus 15C. Now I need multiple layers. Im not sure what changed, maybe it was being so ill for so long, but I relish cosiness more than ever. As autumn arrives we start to change things at home, just as we did growing up.

The summer clothes are packed away, the winter coats brought up from the basement. The bowls on the dining table are replaced with tea light holders and the cushions on the sofa get bigger and fluffier. Sheep skins appear suddenly on the footstools in which to nestle your toes and we put out a basket of slippers for guests to wear. The ends of the beds become weighed down with thick blankets too and you can find me curled up somewhere, wrapped in an oversize man repeller cardigan drinking oversized mugs of ginger tea.

In the kitchen things change too and I find myself adding more warming flavours to dishes. Ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon spice up cakes and bread and vegetables are dressed with chilli. This swiss roll is inspired by last nights Great British Bake Off. Their ‘roulades’ were sweet and you could certainly use the sponge here and roll it with pumpkin spiced cream and apple, or you could do as I did and spread it with a thick layer of verbena harissa and roasted vegetables.

The verbena harissa is delicious and is simply made by blending a handful of spinach with some harissa, and a few shoots of lemon verbena and coriander. It packs a little heat that pairs well with any seasonal vegetable. If you don’t feel like making it you can buy this super tasty version. You could also mix harissa with some hummus or use tapenade instead. I rolled it with roasted carrots, courgettes, peppers and some shallots but you could do pumpkin, butternut squash, leeks and any other veggies that you fancy, you could also add in spinach or watercress too. This is an autumn lunch, warm, roasted and spicy. Enjoy

Ingredients
5 eggs or 6 tbsp of aquafaba if vegan
5 tbsp plain flour
3 carrots peeled and finely sliced
1 courgette finely sliced
1 shallot quartered
1 yellow pepper finely sliced
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
3 tbsp verbena harissa

Method
Preheat the oven to 18OC
Place the vegetables into a large baking dish and rub with the oil
Place into the oven for 35mins or until soft
Place the eggs or the aqua faba into a large clean bowl and whisk until white and fluffy (will take approx 15 mins)
Slowly fold in the sieved flour a little at a time
Tip the mixture onto a baking paper lined baking tray and gentle spread out
Place into the oven and bake for 15mins or until golden brown
Remove and set aside to cool
Once cool spread with the harissa and layer with the vegetables
Using the baking paper for grip, rolls the dough up into a spiral
Keep it wrapped tightly in the paper and leave for 15mins to ‘set’
Slice and enjoy

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Baked celeriac

I love the audacity of a single ingredient meal. The fact that one product can, with a little love, provide total nourishment.

Ive thrown my back out again, I think it’s emotional. The baby turned one, the husband turned a corner, the family returned home after a blissful weekend. I haven’t had the energy or desire to cook properly but I also know that my soul needed something good even if my belly wasn’t sure. I needed something that didn’t need me. Nothing that required measuring or stirring. No weighing. No checking.

This baked celeriac simply needed a clean, then a good glug of olive oil and then to be parceled up with some rosemary & a couple of garlic cloves, salt & pepper.I put the oven on, I forgot about it. As with most root roasts, the longer & slower the better. I gave this one a good 90minutes.

This is as comforting as a jacket potato. The outside is slightly taught & crispy, the inside perfectly fluffy. You simply dive in, mix in a little of the roasted garlic & a knob of butter. If you have any good bread to hand then spread some of the fluffy celeriac on, add a sprinkle of tangy sheep cheese & a extra grind of pepper.

This is comfort food. This is food that says it doesn’t matter that your back hurts, that the baby’s teeth are annoying or that the husband let the summer pass him by. This is food that warms your belly & gives you a little hug from the inside.

One ingredient, pure comfort.

Ingredients
1 cleaned & trimmed celeriac

2 – 4 cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive/rapeseed oil

Salt & pepper

2 sprigs rosemary

Method
Preheat your oven to 160C

Place the cleaned celeriac onto a piece of tinfoil

Rub with olive oil & season

Add the garlic & rosemary to the foil and then wrap up into a parcel

Place into the oven & bake for approx 90mins

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Butternut squash soup with cumin, ginger and crispy butternut

When I was making this soup I was thinking about the food I eat. I grew up eating the simplest of foods. I was reminiscing about how simple the food was when we were little. We ate rye bread with a slice of goats cheese and pepper every day for lunch. No packed lunch boxes, our open bread sandwiches were wrapped in brown paper and sealed with an elastic band. We got an tangerine or an apple as our pudding. There were no special drinks just the water fountain at school. Treats were baked at home or a simple raisin bread bun from the bakery. We had weekly meal planners on our fridges and dinner was cooked at home. Breakfast was porridge or homemade muesli with plain yogurt and berries. Bread was thick and dark and wholesome.

Eating whole, fresh, natural food isn’t a fad to me. It was the way I was raised and is the way that I understand. It is the way I know how to nourish myself and those around me. It isn’t anything revolutionary or exciting. It is just stripping away, holding back and making the most delicious combinations. It is eating food in its natural, unrefined state, not because someone tells me to, but rather because its best that way. Its food as energy, love, togetherness and nourishment. Its the opposite of a diet, its eating more of the good.

This soup is simple. It is based on one vegetable that is in abundance at this time of year. Butternut squash packed with nutrients known as carotenoids which are often shown to help protect against heart disease. Butternut boasts very high levels of beta-carotene which your body converts to vitamin A. Vitamin A is important for healthy eyes and a strong immune system. This soup uses ginger to give the soup a little bit of heat and also to help keep us winter fit. I love this butternut soup served with crispbreads or chunky slices of sourdough. If you are extra hungry then simply add in some cooked butterbeans or chickpeas for an added boost. The crispy butternut peel takes the place of croutons..extra delicious, extra nutritious. To make the butternut ‘croutons’ all you have to do is simply rub the peel with a little coconut oil and then roast in the oven for 10 minutes at 180C.

Ingredients
1 medium butternut squash – peeled and diced
1 onion
1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp grated ginger
1ltr vegetable stock

Method
Place the oil into a large pan with the cumin seeds
Over a medium heat stir the cumin seeds until they begin to pop
Add in the diced onion
Stir for a few minutes until the onions just begin to soften
Add in the butternut squash and stir for a minute or two
Add the stock and stir well
Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes before adding in the ginger and simmering for a further 5 minutes
Place into a blender and blend until silky smooth

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Sexy roasted cauliflower

Have you had a nice weekend? We had a lovely one as my sister and her family came to visit. We headed down to Tegernsee one morning to have time at the lake, to drink locally roasted coffee and drink pale beer. We cycled the kids around in the bike box, hung out at the swings and celebrated the littles ones first birthday again. My sister made the most epic cake topper version of our bull terrier Nanuk and we had round two of lemon cake this time with fresh strawberries in the middle.

Each night once the kids were asleep we could sit and eat together. One night we had german ‘brotzeit’ but the second night I made sexy roasted cauliflower. I have been making roasted cauliflower for a few months now. Alex had a ‘cauliflower steak’ in California last year dressed with herby,tahini lemon salad and it had been on my ‘must recreate’ list since then. Its called sexy roasted cauliflower because Alex thought that cauliflower was an aphrodisiac…I had to break it to him that most of the cabbagy/brassica family is probably considered the opposite for rather unfortunate reasons.

This meal though. Seriously. This meal. Firstly cauliflower has never been top of my food list. Its one those vegetables that I normally ignore if I am honest, but all that has now changed and this is now my go to dinner/dinner party/easy meal. Somehow boiling and then roasting a cauliflower turns it into a thing of beauty and there is also a actual beauty to it when you place it down on the table. The entire head, slightly charred and golden. We have been serving it up with lemon dressed salad but it is delicious with a tangy goats cheese too. A large cauliflower head with serve 4 adults but dont be afraid to make it just for two, its delicious cold the next day…and you might be surprised how much you eat. You can use a standard cauliflower or a romanesco….or do both when you have friends over. Place them on the table whole, slice like a loaf of bread, serve with a huge salad and a chilled rose.

This is simple,delicious week night meal or a phenomenal alternative to a sunday roast. Let me know if you make it…we love it!

Ingredients
1 large cauliflower head
1 tbsp salt
3 tbsp olive/rape seed oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C
Place the whole cauliflower (leaves removed) into a large pan of salted boiling water
With the lid on, simmer for 10 mins
Remove the cauliflower, drain, and then place onto a large baking tray lined with baking paper
Coat the cauliflower in salt, pepper and olive oil
Place into a hot oven for approx 40mins or until golden brown

 

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