Vegan-Paleo Feast

We're a loving lot us vegans, so I want to show our paleo friends some love by sharing a meal we can all enjoy together, here are some great recipe ideas perfect for vegans and paleos alike.  Lets focus on how we're similar rather than on how we're different and share the love.

                     

     

    

  

    

   

  

  

  

7 Days of Vegan Breakfasts - Peanut butter and banana on toast

Since I have been eating a plant based diet people have been asking me what I am eating.  I know how hard it is to imagine eating meals without meat and dairy ( I used to eat them remember?) but there is more to being vegan than tofu and kale.  I love food, I didn't become vegan because I don't like meat, I used to love meat, and cheese and butter!  So it is important for me to eat meals which are really tasty.  

If you are looking to move to a plant based diet or reduce the amount of meat and dairy you consume then breakfast is a really good place to start because more often than not people don't tend to have meat for breakfast, and dairy and eggs are really easy to switch out.  

So I have put together a weeks worth of vegan breakfasts which are all really tasty and (mostly) healthy.  I hope you will find something that you can enjoy and maybe some which will surprise you.  This is of course not an exhaustive list of breakfasts, virtually ANY breakfast can be made vegan, so get on those veggies, get those carbs in and start enjoying your life without causing suffering to other beings, low fat and full of energy. 

Sometimes toast feels like just the right thing to have for breakfast.  You can really maximise this simple, quick and easy to put together start to the day with some peanut butter and a chopped banana, so delicious and a brilliant boost of protein and vitamins to go with your all important carbs, not to mention the banana which as we all know is a power house for potassium, vitamin B6 and vitamin C (to name but a few of the fantastic nutrients in bananas).  What a great start to the day.  Up-size the nutrition with a sprinkle to chia seeds and sesame seeds on top and you will be winning.  

I really love this breakfast.  I make the peanut butter myself by roasting a few plain peanuts and whizzing them up in the blender with some peanut oil.

I am sure it goes without saying that peanut butter and bananas also work well in a sandwich, or rolled up in a tortilla like a spice of sushi!

Oh my goodness my mouth is watering.  If you want to have a go at making this, but can't be bothered with making your own peanut butter, check the label before buying and try to go for a peanut butter made with nut oils rather than palm oil. It tastes nicer and you will hopefully be saving some rainforest from deforestation. 

Hope you will pop back soon to see another tasty vegan breakfast recipe.  You can keep up to date with posts by subscribing via email (right hand side near the top of the blog)  or by liking my facebook page. 

My Skincare Routine

If you have met me you may be wondering why people might be interested in learning my skincare routine, I'll be honest, my skin doesn't look great, it's not especially smooth (I am 31, there are wrinkles) and I get the odd spot.  But the reason I wanted to share it with you is because for years I suffered with terrible eczema, particularly through my teenage years, it's sensitive, flare-ups of eczema still happen from time to time, but I know how to deal with them now without a load of toxic chemicals and I wanted to share my routine and the products that I use so that if you, or your child has a tendency towards eczema you can have some ideas of how to treat it without the use of prescription medicines.

It all began a few years ago when I read a book called Skin Deep by Pat Thomas.  Until then I had been using Nivea soft as my main moisturiser and rather shockingly (but at the time I didn't think that much of it) after applying it my skin would burn (why did I think this was ok?!)

After reading the book I realised the damage I was causing to my skin and body by slathering it with chemicals, and not just my moisturiser but also toothpaste, deodorant and shampoo.  I immediately switched to using natural oils on my skin and gradually changed all my other toiletries to more natural products too.  There was definitely a transition period with my skin where it felt dreadful, it lasted about a week but once I got through that, I haven't looked back.  

Commercial skin care products contain many ingredients that can be harmful to the body.  One of the most commonly occurring being mineral oils such as paraffin oil.  According to Pat Thomas mineral oils can "Impede the skin's ability to breathe, attract moisture and detoxify.  It can also slow down cell renewal and promote premature aging".  This is just the tip of the iceberg, and moisturises that claim to access deep layers of skin contain chemicals that drive the moisturisers further into the skin which therefore drives the nasty, sometimes carcinogenic chemicals further into the skin (and the body) too.  And that's before we even start to talk about ingredients like perfumes, preservatives such as parabens and foaming agents like Sodium Lauryl Sulphates which can all be harmful to the body.

So I began by using natural oils on my face initially olive oil, then wheatgerm and jojoba oil.  I found a fantastic website called Akamuti that sold natural oils and moisturisers made from natural oils that suited my skin perfectly. I also found you could buy some natural oils in bulk such as shea butter (which is fairly traded with Ghanaian women)  and coconut oil.

Before I shower in the evening I do a quick bit of body brushing, it exfoliates, gets the lymphatic system moving, it improves circulation and releases stress.  I wash with just water and a bit of organic soap where I need it.  I wash my hair about every other night.  I have had about as many problems with an itchy scalp as I have with eczema and have tried many many shampoos.  At the moment I am using Avelon organics scalp normalizing shampoo and conditioner, and inbetween I am treating my scalp to an overnight coconut oil mask which also includes a few drops of lavender oil, eucalyptus oil and tea tree oil.  All of which have anti-viral, anti-fungal and antibacterial properties.  I wash it off in the morning with the shampoo.  It has really helped a lot, though I don't feel like my scalp is totally normal it is much better.

Sometimes I have a detoxifying bath using pink himalayan salt (or epsom salts if I am out of the pink stuff), bicarbonate of soda and fullers earth clay.  This treatments is really good for drawing out toxins and heavy metals and soothing irritated skin.  It's also really relaxing and just feels like such a treat.

After my shower I use the Akamuti Avocado Night Cream on my face and coconut oil on my chest where I also get dry skin from time to time, which I buy from a website called Real Foods. Coconut oil is an excellent moisturiser because it is the most similar to the skins natural sebum, the small molecular structure of coconut oil allows it to be absorbed easily into the skin.  I also use Shea butter on particularly dry areas such as my heels and lips.  Shea butter is a rich, creamy, hard moisturizer when unrefined and melts into a smooth oil on the skin, is rich in vitamins A, E and essential fatty acids.

I begin my day using Akamuti Evening Primrose Day Cream on my face.  If my skin is going through a bad patch I might use some of their Replenishing Rose Face Cream or another natural oil such as Pomegranate Seed Oil. I also use some organic unrefined coconut oil as a moisturiser on my chest.

As for deodorant, I stopped using them years ago in favor of a deodorising crystal.  Weirdly I don't get too much body odor now, compared to when I was teaching anyway.  I think I am a bit like a skunk; if I am put in a particularly stressful situation my body reacts like a skunk does in the presence of a predator and releases a ghastly odor from my arm pits to scare off the predator.  I don't face the same stresses as a fulltime-mother as I did a teacher (still stressful but different types of stress) so I find I don't even need to use the crystal deodoriser.  I do use some coconut oil and if it's a special occasion I might use a dab of essential oil such as lavender. I also use a bit of coconut oil on my armpits in the evening before bed.

Millions of plastic toothbrushes end up in landfill every year here in the UK, so my teeth are now brushed with natural bristles held a bamboo tooth brush (I bought this one) and I brush with a non-foaming (slight phobia of bubbles) fluoride free toothpaste called Sarakan which I also buy from Real Foods.

So there you have it.  That's how I roll as far as my skin goes, it's working for me at the moment, and I feel good about the fact that I am not using nasty chemicals, which are harmful to me and the environment, they are also all vegan.  I highly recommend switching over to more natural skincare products, many of which can be made at home which also minimises packaging. Check out Trash is for Tossers' home made tooth paste and whipped body lotion.  By the way I am not affiliated with any if these products. I just genuinely love them.

40 Soups - Spicy lentil with pumpkin and sunflower seeds

Since I have been cutting out dairy this new year I am having to challenge myself more in all areas of cooking, without meat and dairy in my diet you would think the options for meals would me more limiting but I am exploring all sorts of new flavours and textures that I never used before.  Soups are no different, I am trying out all sorts of combinations of ingredients, some not so successful (using the pump from the juicer) and others like this, have been a huge success.  I don't mean to blow my own trumpet or anything, but this soup was AMAZING!!  Was pretty chuffed with myself.  It's vegan, super nutritious, high in protein and tastes fantastic. And of course it was dead easy to make.

(photographed half way through eating!)

Ingredients:

(serves 2)

1 red onion,

2 cloves of garlic,

1 courgette,

3 carrots,

1 stock cube,

1 tbs tomato purée,

1/4 tsp harrisa paste,

1/2 tsp mild curry powder,

1/2 tsp ground cumin,

1/2 tsp mustard powder,

1/2 cup red lentils,

1 tbs sunflower seeds,

1 tbs pumpkin seeds.

Gently fry chopped onion and garlic in olive oil, when softened add carrots and courgette, cook on low heat for 10 minutes, add water to cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add purée, paste and seasoning, simmer for 5 minutes.  Blend the soup with a stick blender.  Add lentils and seeds and 1/2 cup water and simmer for a further 15 minutes or until lentils have softened but still have a little bite, add more water if it's getting too thick, it should have a soup like consistency. Eat with crusty bread for a delicious lunch or dinner.  

40 soups - Souper Green soup!

This soup is completely delicious and so so healthy, full of lots of detoxifying chlorophyll, vitamins and fiber amongst other things, it's really easy to make, give it a go for a refreshing, filling lunch served with homemade toast.

Ingredients:
1 onion,
3 cloves of garlic
Handful of spinach,
Large handful of kale,
5 florets of broccoli,
Any other seasonal greens you have hanging round,
vegetable stock.

Chop and fry your onion and garlic in a saucepan,
Add the green veg and some freshly boiled water,
crumble/sprinkle the stock into the soup,
Leave to cook for about 15 mins,
Blend,
Eat and enjoy all the health benefits of dark green leafy veggies.

Becoming a Vegetarian

On the 21st of February I consumed my last Satay Chicken Chow Mein from my local Chinese takeaway.  I was pretty sad about it, it was a really really good one!  The chicken was so juicy which somehow made it worse, if it had been dry and chewy I wouldn't miss it so much!  But I had made the decision to become a vegetarian and it was a decision that needed to be made and I would like to explain how and why I came to this decision.

Here are the hows:

• My sister has been a veggie for about two years and she has been a great example to me, she has shown me that it is perfectly possible to live as a vegetarian and she is so positive about it, saying how she never misses meat and eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.
• One of my Facebook friends  is a vegan and often puts up pretty horrific images of animals being killed etc.  Two particular things she put up were triggers for me; THIS essay by Gary Yourofsky and THIS video of pigs being abused (this is a really horrific video, you have been warned).
• For Boris' birthday we visited the Sea Life Centre in London, and while I have some concerns over the keeping of animals in captivity, I was really impressed by their conservation message.  There were loads of signs around saying which fish were in decline and what to eat instead.  It made me realise that eating fish is really damaging for the ocean and there is no easy way to ensure the fish you are eating aren't becoming extinct. 

And as for the why:

• My health - or more specifically cancer.  I am pretty scared of it, people I know keep getting it.  I don't want to get it so I am going to do everything I can to avoid it.  Statistically vegetarians are less likely to get cancer and a number of other health ailments including heart disease and strokes. This all sounds pretty good to me.
• The Planet - There are so many reasons why eating meat is harmful for the planet, here are just a few examples: Rainforests are destroyed to make land to graze cattle for meat resulting in around 1000 species per year becoming extinct, the burning of forests contributes to 20% of all green-house gases, it takes 2500 gallons of water to produce 1lb of meat. The raising of animals for meat produces millions of tons of toxic waste which is quite often released into waterways. As a self professed environmentalist, I couldn't in good conscience continue to eat meat knowing the damage it causes.
• People - Eating meat is harmful to other human beings on this planet, people are starving to death (approximately 60 million each year) because their countries sell grain to feed animals for meat. If everyone ate a vegetarian diet there would be no reason for anyone to go hungry. As a Christian the thought of people dying because I like the taste of meat is abhorrent to me and becoming a vegetarian is a first step towards causing less harm to my fellow human beings.
• Animal welfare - Unless I can absolutely guarantee without any doubt that the animal I am about to eat hasn't suffered I am not going to eat it.  I don't want to cause pain and suffering to animals, any more than I do people, if I ate meat I am causing suffering by proxy because of creating demand. 

So there you have it, a very brief account of my journey to vegetarianism.  And do you know what, I feel much better, I feel like a great burden has been lifted.  I feel like a more honest person now, I feel like a more empowered person I am not lying to myself any more that the way I eat meat is ok because it's free range or organic, or I don't eat it very often, I can have a more un-hypocritical love for all animals and I am no longer in denial about their treatment.

So why am I sharing this with you?  Well even though I have only been a vegetarian for a very short time, I already feel a burden of responsibility to share the facts about the meat industry that I have learnt so that people can make an informed choice about whether they want to eat meat of not.  It isn't about beliefs, opinions or judgement it is about facts and information, and if people can hear these facts then I have at least given them the opportunity to re-evaluate their position, even if they choose not to change it. And how can I be judgemental of anyone eating meat when I ate it for the last 30 odd years?

And finally, here are some awesome memes about how great being a vegetarian is:

If you are thinking about becoming a vegetarian but not convinced it is for you, watch THIS video and see what you think then.

Halloumi, hummus and sundried tomato pesto sandwich

In an attempt to make our lunches a bit more exciting, and more specifically our sandwiches; which had become a sad combination of processed ham and limp lettuce leaves, I took in Pinterest and discovered this delectable ensemble. 

Simple toast two slices of brown bread, place some slices of halloumi on one piece and grill, then layer with sundried tomato pesto, sliced tomato, cucumber, lettuce and a good tablespoon of hummus (preferably home made) and voila, a delicious lunchtime treat which is both healthy and tantalizing to the taste buds. Plus it turns out my toddler loves halloumi!  As per usual I troed to use all organic ingredients in this sarnie, coldn't source any organic halloumi though.

40 Soups - Bean and vegetable

Life with a toddler and a small baby is HARD, by far the hardest thing I have ever had to do, and I thought parenting one child was hard, adding another to the mix takes parenting to a whole new level.  It can be very easy to forget to look after yourself when you are giving so much energy to your children.  In spite of my somewhat optimistic new years resolutions to take care of myself, my diet has been starting to slide, I had stopped planning meals and we were winging it at dinner time, cue lots of frozen veggie burgers, baked beans and *hangs head in shame* pot noodles.  So I realised it was time to inject some much needed vegetation into our diet.  So I planned a couple of veggie soups into our reestablished meal plan, one of which is this delicious and really healthy soup that takes hardly any time to make - Bean and vegetable soup.  

Isn't it colourful? It's easy, just get:

1/2 an onion,

2 cloves of garlic,

1 big carrot,

4 leaves of cavolo nero (or any type of kale),

Big handful of young spinach leaves,

1 carton of kidney beans,

1 chicken stock cube,

Fry the onions and garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil,

Add the carrot chopped into small cubes,

Add the finely chopped kale and spinach,

Add kidney beans,

Add enough boiled water to cover the vegetables and make it nice and soupy,

Add the stock cube, 

Cook on a medium heat for about 15 minutes or until the carrots feel soft,

Partially blend with a stick blender.

Enjoy your colourful soup with buttered toast. Yum, and at least 3 of your 5 a day!

P.S. I use all organic ingredients because I prefer not to consume all those yucky chemicals.  

40 Soups - Mushroom

Over on my old blog Serendipity Child I started a series of posts call 40 soups based on a theme on a blog I follow by Elise Blaha, although I didn't get far with it, I loved it and have decided I would like to carry it on on this blog.  I really love soup and as it is coming into Autumn and winter when soups are the perfect warmer I thought I would share them with you.
Not only are soups easy to make they are also nutritious, enabling you to eat a few portions of your five a day in one easy meal.  My toddler usually likes them to, I give him the unblended version so he has pieces of food to pick up with his fingers and leave out cream because he has a dairy sensitivity.
This week I made mushroom soup for the first time. I didn't follow a recipe (I rarely do for soups) I just thought about what I would like to do and went ahead.  It isn't the cheapest soup to make because it required a whole pack of mushrooms, but was very very tasty.

I used:
One pack of organic chestnut mushrooms,
One large organic onion,
Three cloves of allotment garlic,
One kallo chicken stock cube,
1 tbs organic olive oil,
A dash of organic double cream.

To begin I chopped the onion and garlic and fried it in the olive oil.  I then chopped the mushrooms and addded them till they went soft and watery.  Next I added enough water to cover the mushrooms plus a bit more and added the chicken stock cube.
After cooking for about 15 mins I blended the whole thing and added the cream.
Served with crusty white bread it was absolutely delicious and tasted just like a bought fresh mushroom soup.
What soup recipes do you love?

Allotment Update

Or - What went down at the allotment in 2013:

I originally took on my allotment from the local council about 5 years ago, shortly after we moved into the area, things have changed so much there over the years, but I am still not on top of it.  I wonder if you can ever be "on top" of mother nature?  This year I knew that I didn't want to over do it by planting loads of different, exotic vegetables, so stuck with what I know works and what I could manage.  With it being such a dry hot summer things didn't flourish as much as they could have if I had watered on those dry days but I still
harvested a modest amount of food considering how little work I put in.  It is so difficult to get down there with a toddler in tow, he is so curious and loves to explore so I have to either go there and hope he falls asleep in the car on the way or wait until I can go there with someone else who can watch him while I get on.  I am still so thankful to have it though it will be wonderful when Boris is a bit older and I won't have to worry about him eating something he shouldn't or wandering into other peoples' plots.

So now I am just starting to shut everything down at the allotment in preparation for both winter and my impending childbirth, covering the ground in plastic and picking the last of the harvest, a few small beetroots and, some runner beans and a couple of courgettes.  My mum helped me a couple of weeks ago, tidying the edges, tucking everything under the plastic and laying more plastic to keep the weeds at bay.

So I thought it was a pretty good time to do a little review with some photos of the allotment I took a few weeks ago.  I can't believe how much the weather has changed in such a short amount of time!  We were in the heart of summer what seemed like yesterday and now it seems like everything is closing down.
So here is what went down:

The last of the courgettes

The last of the rather straggly looking runner beans,

Small harvest

View of the whole allotment, my mum helped me put down the black plastic. 

What are you currently doing at the allotment?  Are you putting anything in?  Or just taking things out and covering things up? 

This Weeks Menu

Last week we didn't stick rigidly to our menu.  We had friends over on Saturday which was a change of plan to what we were expecting so I had to do a quick top-up-shop to get enough in for them, then my sisters came to stay for the weekend and we visited Edenbridge Agricultural Show where we had a picnic, so there was quite a bit in the way of leftovers for lunches and dinners that followed. But having this menu isn't about being strict or restrictive, we are flexible with it and we make IT fit into our lives we don't make our lives fit into IT. I think that is quite an important distinction to make and one which flows through all aspects of our lives, I hope to talk more about routine in the future.
When I shared our menu with you last week I forgot to mention something that is quite important for our meal planning.  We have the sames meals each week!  I know that sounds really boring, there is  a little more to it than that.  We have the same basic food but made in different ways.  So for example on Sunday evening we always have a pasta meal, but that could be a pasta bake, a bolognese or a pasta and sauce dish etc.  It gives a bit of predictability to the week and makes meal planning and budgeting easier (I got the idea from reading Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne).  I don't intend on sticking rigidly to this week in week out, just like the meal plan, some weeks I will swap days around and I intend on altering it slightly with the changing seasons, but it gives me a basic template to follow.
Here is how the week looks at the moment:

Lunches:
Monday - Soup,
Tuesday - Egg,
Wednesday - Sandwiches,
Thursday - Soup,
Friday - Egg,
Saturday - Leftovers or Sandwiches,
Sunday - Fish.

Dinners:
Monday - Pizza,
Tuesday - Fish,
Wednesday - Jacket potatoes,
Thursday - Meat,
Friday - Takeaway or ready meal,
Saturday - Vegetarian dish,
Sunday - Pasta and Sauce

So here is this weeks menu:


Wednesday:
Lunch - Egg mayonnaise and tomato sandwiches,
Dinner - Jacket Potatoes with baked beans, cheese and home made coleslaw,

Thursday:
Lunch - Home made courgette soup with wholemeal toast and butter,
Dinner - Chicken with Salad, home made coleslaw and potato salad,

Friday:
Lunch - Eggy bread with home made coleslaw, chutney and cheese,
Dinner - Takeaway,

Saturday:
Lunch - Plough mans lunch with ham, cheese, chutney, salad, coleslaw and bread,
Dinner - Veggie Quorn chunk wraps with salad,

Sunday:
Lunch - Fish finger sandwich on wholemeal bread with ketchup,
Dinner - Pasta and home made tomato sauce with artichoke hearts,

Monday:
Lunch - Courgette soup with wholemeal bread and butter,
Dinner - Pizza with bacon, mushrooms, onion and cheese,

Tuesday:
Lunch - Egg mayonnaise sandwiches with tomato,
Dinner - Home made salmon fish cakes with rice and salad,

 This weeks Courgette soup

What do you have planned for meals this week?  Do you do a meal plan?

Shopping and Meal Planning

Up until about a year ago I had no system for buying food and planning meals and I often lamented how difficult it was to stick to a budget and to decide what to buy in the supermarket.  I would often come out of the store with several bags full of shopping and a much lighter purse and I would look through my bags and think "what on earth can we have for dinner". 
That was until I had a conversation with one of my friends.  She complained about how annoying it can be to get stuck behind someone in the supermarket who is just browsing, not knowing what to buy and going from one end of the supermarket to the other. And I thought "oh, that's me".  She explained to me how she planned her meals for a week and made a shopping list of what she needed.  The shop took a lot less time and it helped her stick to a budget.  Can you believe this idea have never occurred to me before?!
So I started writing a meal plan for the week and a shopping list of things to buy and it has made things so much easier.  It also means we eat a wider variety of meals and are much less likely to run out of things mid week and need to do top-up shops. I don't always stick to our budget but I am pretty sure we spend less than we did before making a list. 

I thought I would share our weekly meal plan for this week, it includes lunches and dinners.  For breakfast I switch between porridge which I make with rice milk and have with golden syrup and a glass of orange juice (most days), cereal, normally some variety of granola with soya milk (when I am out of porridge or rice milk) and drop scone pancakes once a week, usually on a Saturday).

So why am I sharing this with you?  Well writing a meal plan and shopping list every week is one of the few things I do as a matter of routine which I really think help to make our lives simpler, help us stick to a budget and reduce our stress, so surely it can't be a bad thing it someone reads this and takes it up and makes their life simpler and less stressful? I am certainly not saying "look how great I am, everyone should be like me"  I am openly "imperfect" after all, I really just want to share the things in my life that seem to work.  This one ritual really keeps me grounded and, like cleaning the bathroom is a ritual that keeps me centered throuhgout the peaks and flows of certainty and uncertainty that come and go throughout the week.  It is nice to know that this one thing will almost always be there to ground me, ready for whatever the week may bring.

I do my weekly shop on a Wednesday so the week runs Wednesday to Tuesday, here is this weeks meal plan:

Wednesday:
Lunch - Cheese and tomato sandwiches on wholemeal bread,
Dinner - Jacket potatoes with bakes beans and grated cheese with homemade coleslaw.

Thursday:
Lunch - Home made leek and potato soup with wholemeal toast,
Dinner - Quorn mince with homemade veg and tomato sauce in wraps with salad and grated cheese.

Friday:
Lunch - Omega 3 Pollock fish finger sandwiches on wholemeal bread,
Dinner - Takeaway.

Saturday:
Lunch - Egg mayonnaise and tomato sandwiches,
Dinner - Sausage with mashed potato, broccoli, carrots, peas and gravy.

Sunday:
Lunch - Home made pea and ham soup,
Dinner - Pasta with homemade tomato sauce and bacon with grated cheese.

Monday:
Lunch - Ham salad sandwiches on wholemeal bread,
Dinner - Home made pizza with ham and mushroom.

Tuesday:
Lunch - Eggy bread with grated cheese, chutney and home made coleslaw,
Dinner - Home made salmon fish cakes with potato wedges, homemade coleslaw and salad.

When I make my shopping list I divide the items I need into categories to make going round the supermarket easier, I don't have to dash from one end of the shop to the other.  My categories are typically: Fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, bread and other.  I won't bore you with the shopping list, if you want to use this meal plan you can probably work out what you need, and besides, I already had some of the things I needed in the house so it wouldn't be a complete list anyway.

So there we have it, I hope it is useful.  I plan on sharing more of my weekly meal plans because I hope that making it public will help me to take responsibility for what we are eating a bit more, it might make me make more healthy, seasonal choices if I know others are potentially judging what I am buying, eek!!

So do you write a shopping list each week?  How do you make sure you stick to a budget? What are some of your favourite meals?  I would love to know.

Zesty Beetroot Chutney

This post was first published on Serendipity Child on 08/09/2012, this year I have grown my own beetroot at the allotment specifically for this recipe, I can't wait for them to be grown and I can make some, it is delicious with cheese on toast:

We often end up with a glut of vegetables in our fruit boxes (which is one of the reasons we aren't getting it any more) and a few weeks ago we had one too many beetroot, along with a growing collection of empty jars I was inspired to make some chutney.  I find that beetroot can be a bit muddy tasting sometimes, even when fresh, and don't even get me started on the picked variety, yuck!  So I was pleasantly surprised to find that this recipe transformed the beetroot into delicious fruity chutney that goes perfectly with cheese on toast. 

You can find the full recipe here,

1 1/2kg beetroot trimmed and peeled and chopped,

3 onions chopped,

3 eating apples peeled and cored and chopped,

Zest and juice of 3 oranges,

2 tbsp white or yellow mustard seeds, 

1 tbsp coriander seeds,

1 tbsp ground cloves,

1 tbsp ground cinnamon,

700ml red wine vinegar,

700g granulated sugar.

Mix ingredients together in a pan and cook until the beetroot is tender and the mixture parts when you run and spoon along the base of the pan,

Sterilise jars then put the chutney into the jars.

Eat! (It gets better with age.)