Join me on Substack! I’ll be deleting this website shortly but you can continue to access my recipe drops over on Substack. Hope to see you there!

Salads & Suppers

Christmas for Vegetarians

The mere mention of Yuletide normally has me sweating sequins. I hate feeling like a week-old party balloon before Santa even arrives. So I prep my Christmas menu in advance, and massage my synapses with an extra large vermouth. Vegeterian favourites include dishes like Beet Bourguignon, and buckwheat blini & beluga lentils . These mushroom-based scallops are out of this world, and will rock December 25th for vegans and carnivores alike.

For my GF and vegan friends, you’ll find a recipe for irresistibly-easy Florentines here. And my wholefoodie Christmas Cake, using W.B.Yeats’ favourite tea lapsang Souchong and the genius of Amy Chaplin.

This year, we’re doing Hassleback Squash (below) covered with festive pomegranate seeds and extra pecans. It works both as a side to the turkey, or as a centerpiece for vegans /vegetarian tables.


Hassleback Squash

1 butternut squash, preferably organic

1 teaspoon of olive oil

3 sprigs of rosemary

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

1 fat clove garlic, grated

Good handful of pecans or walnuts

Flaky sea salt and freshly crushed black pepper


1. Fire up your oven to 190-200C. Peel the squash using a potato peeler and long strokes. This is easier than it looks and sounds! (Organic squash skins tend to be thinner and have considerably less chemical coating).

2. Carefully cut the squash in half, lengthways. Scoop out and compost the inner nest of seeds.

3. Rub oil all over your hands and each half. Pop each half onto a large roasting tray, cut side down, and cook in your preheated oven for 20 minutes only. You don’t want the squash to be too soft to cut.

4. Remove the squash from your oven, and carefully transfer each half onto a chopping board. Place wooden spoons either side of the squash half (I’ll show you this in the cookery class). You’ll need to find wooden spoons with similar width handles, but use whatever you have! Chopsticks work beautifully too.

5. Slice the squash from top to toe, all the way to the wooden handles (this will stop the blade cutting right through the butternut and falling apart). Take a peek at the picture, which will give you a good idea.

6. Tuck in tufts of fresh rosemary, followed by butter or olive oil mixed with grated garlic. You’ll need a good few cracks of the salt and black pepper mill too. Bake until the squash begins to colour on top (15 mins). Then parachute over your nuts, and return to the oven to bake a further 5-8 minutes. If you want to sprinkle some brown sugar over the nuts, or dried cranberries, I’m not going to stop you! 

7. Serve in the baking tray/dish, resting on a chopping board to protect your table. Go ahead and pile Brussel sprouts around it, or whatever else is on your Christmas menu.


Vegetarian Scallops

Events

xmas ideas …For the Irish Food Freak

... and for the health conscious and/or eco warriors in your life.


For the foodie:

You can book fabulous pottery classes with Aaron St East in Dublin. Or order their iconic mugs online with an extra thoughtful coffee box subscription from 3fe or Brew Box.

Check out Open Hive raw Irish honey, bee’s wax candles, and wild flower bee bombs. We took a tour of our nearest hive with Kyle and Sadhbh (photographed above) and fell in love with the majesty that is the Irish black bee. It’s a population that needs nurturing, so please consider supporting the work of bee keepers protecting native Irish bees.

Mushroom growing kit or foraging event with Ballyhoura Shrooms.

My next cookery demo, as a gift! 3-class course of celebrating veggies for €41. Just message me if you want a Christmas card posted with the order 😉 There are lovely courses by Terri Ann in River Run Ferments here too, for a kickass afternoon fermenting your own veg and baking sourdough.

Clever Batch cookbook on sale this month for €16! I also love The Irish Cookbook by JP McMahon. And The Farmette Cookbook by Imen McDonnell.

Nibbed Cacao and their raw chocolate melting spoons for €2.95, made my auntie and niece duo in Wicklow.

Ot something celestial from the genius that is Bean and Goose. I usually get their 3 month tasting club as the ultimate gift for friends. (The gift that really does keep on giving!) Or a chocolate slab through the letterbox of someone you love.

Irish vintner Roisin Curley making mindblowingly good wine from the Burgundy region in France. Go Roisin! There’s also a unique Irish strawberry wine, perfect for foodie freaks like me, made locally in Wicklow.

Fermoyle pottery makes my food look 100% more beautiful. And if it looks better, it tastes better too!

Ireland’s first biodynamicly produced whiskey, called Luna. How awesome is this! And an outstanding vermouth made on Valentia island by two totally fabulous women. Your local Supervalu probably stocks Valentia Island Vermouth, or check here if you’re purchasing from oversees and would like a bottle delivered to an Irish address. Glint Studio make the most amazing glasses that are upcycled from Dublin pubs and bottlebanks. Check them out!

GIY grow boxes including a very special kids version, early spring edition, salad leaves grow box, all sorts of amazingness to help us connect with Mother N.

Organic blueberry bushes (2 are needed to pollinate) from Quick Crop Organic.

Two Wooden Horses hand carved and torched serving boards. You’ll see mine hanging in my kitchen, they are that beautiful.

Nobo Christmas selection box, dairy-free chocolate with compostable wrappers and designed to fit through standard letterboxes. All you need is your pal’s postal addy!

Loose leaf tea like no other. Try Lapsang Souchong, WB Yeats’ favourite tea, and Solaris legendary loose leaf camomile. Small company on the West coast of Ireland.

Handmade Soap Co. for foodies who want to smell of mint, thyme and rosemary!

.


Skin food freaks:

Reuzi sell all The Greats, with less packaging.

Bodhi Blends, fabu food for the skin. I’m using Glow Drops right now, and love it.

Gua Sha tool at Oxmantown based in Dublin. Lots of face oils too, and fabulous scents if you want to smell as fresh as your kitchen garden.

Dublin Herbalists never disappoint. Sustainably packaged, and thoughtfully curated gift packs.

Baressential goodies for the face and the soul. Grá Mór.

Sprouted broccoli juice for glowing skin and a battery boost! I’ve been taking this for nearly 10 years, when my system feels under attack or my skin feels dull. A box of sprouted broccoli shots will make a really thoughtful gift to someone cocooning over winter. Admittedly they are not designed to casually sip and drink, I shoot mine back and chase it with a slice of lime (had plenty of practice for that in my twenties!)


Hmm … Black Friday feels like junk food for the soul. It muscles artisans, small producers, Irish growers, and sustainable eco brands out of the market. Now, more than ever, our local economy needs support as does our culture, our artists, our environment, the very fabric of our towns and cities need cheer leaders. I was on Amazon.de checkout last night with a freaking bobble head of Dwight Shrute for goodness sake! It’s so easy to end up buying rubbish under time pressure. I don’t know how it happens, but it does.

So I compiled this list to keep me on track. I’m not perfect, but I’m trying my best!

And I thought you might appreciate it too.

Lunchbox, Treats & Snacks

Lunchbox Brack

Some get theirs following Wim Hof into iced water. Others rely on several espressos. The sensible among us find it hiking in nature. But I get my high from sneaking vegetables into family favourites. And brack is no exception.

My boys eat thick slices of brack at a speed that would rival a half-price sale at JD Sports. This made brack very vulnerable to a make-over, and a sly introduction to my Veggie Dance.

The result? Beetroot bombed. Parsnip wheezed. And courgette flopped like an exhausted backing dancer. Finally I figured we needed a sweet and spicy groove, the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of baking. We found it in carrot and, yes, ginger. Feel free to add some crystalised ginger to raise the temperature like Fred would have wanted. We leave it out, to avoid screaming children.


320ml cooled rooibos tea

350g raisins

100g plain flour

100g wholemeal flour (or more plain flour, but GF flour won’t work sorry)

55g coarsely grated carrot

140g light muscovado or coconut sugar  

1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground allspice or mixed spice

1 egg


1 Soak your raisins in cooled tea overnight (or for 6-8 hours). Hot tea may sound preferable, but you’ll end up with no soaking liquid and a drier loaf.

2 The next morning, fire up your oven to 180°C. Line a 1lb loaf tin with non-stick parchment.

3 Beat the egg and stir through your puddle of soaked raisins.

4 Tumble in your flours, the grated carrot, your preferred sugar, some baking powder and a delicious smattering of spice. Rake through carefully. Spoon into your lined loaf tin and bake the brack for 75-80 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (Soggy centres are a common problem for brack beginners, so leave it in an extra 5 minutes if you’re unsure.)

5 Remove from the oven once cooked, leave to settle in the tin for 5-10 minutes, and turn out onto a wire rack. Let your nostrils twerk and boil the kettle! We love it toasted with a scrape of butter and a hot cuppa. If you want it to look really shiny on top, professional bakers brush it with a simple sugar syrup, which you can too.

.

.

In other news, I’m holding a special vegetarian cookery demo on November 16 . Want to learn how to make some swift midweek vegetarian meals? That don’t break the bank or your tastebuds?! For more details, or to book your spot, click here. Come join me in my Zoom kitchen!

A special announcement

Join me on Substack

Howdy! I’ll be deleting this website shortly. Gah! But please stay in touch – I so appreciate your loyalty and lovebombs.

You can continue to access my recipe drops over on Substack.  Hope to see you there, and to continue frolicking on this veggie-fueled dance floor.