Recipes

Crunchy Granola

400g whole rolled oats (eg Harraways Traditional Wholegrain Oats)
500g mixed nuts and seeds (eg walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts; sunflower, pumpkin, sesame seeds)
60ml honey
60ml oil (eg rice bran)
60ml water
Optional: 200g mixed dried fruit (eg raisins, dates, dried apricots)

Preheat the oven to a moderate temperature (eg 160C fan bake).
Combine everything but the dried fruit, and spread on two large baking sheets (or you can put it in a roasting pan - but then you need to stir it often).
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Turn after 10 minutes so it browns all over.
Leave to cool.
Add dried fruit if you are including it.
Store in an airtight container.

For extra buzz, you may like to add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and/or ginger.

Muesli Slice

1 cup crunchy granola (click here for last month's recipe)
1 cup soft rolled oats (eg Harraways Porridge Oats)
1 cup mixed nuts and seeds (I like chopped brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds and currants)
1 1/2 cups desiccated coconut
1 cup flour (wholemeal is good)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar (or add honey to melted ingredients)
100g coconut oil (extra virgin is great!)
100g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 large eggs or 3 small ones

Preheat the oven to a moderate temperature (eg 160C fan bake).
Prepare a baking tin - butter or oil it. Or make it easy to get the slice out by lining the tin with baking paper.
Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well, till thoroughly combined.
Put coconut oil, butter and golden syrup (and honey if used) in a small saucepan and melt very gently on a low heat.
Beat the eggs lightly with a fork.
Pour melted ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well.
Mix in beaten eggs.
Spread evenly in the baking tin.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Leave to cool, then cut into pieces.
Store in an airtight container.

This is one of those recipes which is easy to adapt. I've made it with all coconut oil (no butter), which tastes great but falls apart when it gets warm - it almost has to be eaten out of the fridge. If you have a sweet tooth, you can use up to a cup of sugar. As with crunchy granola, you may like to add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and/or ginger. But keep the ratio of dry ingredients to oils about what it is here, or you'll produce a pile of crumbs!

Vegetable Soup

Soup is a wonderful winter food. Satisfying, nutritious, comforting, hydrating –after a winter run, you will enjoy it for all these reasons!
This soup relies on good quality, fresh vegetables for its flavor and aroma. If you’re not already a soup fan, you’ll be astonished at how sweetly delicious it is.
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A crock pot or slow cooker enables your soup to be cooking while you’re at work, but a big pot simmering gently on the stove is just as good.

100g butter, or 50/50 butter and olive oil
1 large leek
2 – 3 sticks celery (200-300g)
carrots (300-500g)
pumpkin (400-800g)
1 large kumara (peeled, or washed well)
stock or water (or water + stock cube)

Finely slice the leek, celery and carrots.
Heat the butter in a large pot, and add the veges once it is sizzling.
Stir regularly to prevent them burning. Once they have heated up, cook quite gently until they start to look different and smell delicious – no longer raw. They may be a bit golden.
This stage creates a delicious mouth-filling warmth of flavour.

While the veges are frying, chop the kumara and pumpkin. Any kind is good – butternut, squash, whatever you have.
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Add the kumara and pumpkin to the pot, cover with water (or stock), and simmer gently until all the vegetables are tender.
You decide the final texture:

leave it as is
give it a mash with a potato masher
thicken it a little: take some out, puree it, and stir back in
blend it all to a smooth puree

The soup keeps for three or four days in the fridge.

Why butter?

Butter from grass-fed cows is a healthy, traditional fat that creates delicious food and enables maximum absorption of minerals. Veges sizzled in butter are the basis of many delicious dishes from cuisines around the world, from cordon bleu to cajun.

A note on stock

Soups need liquid, and there are great-tasting nutrient-rich alternatives to water and a stock cube.
Creating your own stock is easy, but you do need to plan ahead. For this recipe, we’ll make a 100% vegetable stock. Water is an extraordinary substance - water that has been full of simmering veges changes into something new and different.

Parsley growing at home? Perfect. You can pick a massive bunch (older leaves are fine). If it’s from the shop, a few sprigs are fine. (You can make a stock with just parsley – tastes great once it’s in with the veges!)
A couple of carrots bring goodness and flavour – chop roughly.
A stick of celery – the same.
If you are a keen potato person, try this. Select a few spuds with good healthy skins and wash them well. Peel thickly, and include the peels in your stock (and have mashed potato for dinner!)

Put your ingredients in the slow cooker or pot, cover with boiling water, and put the lid on. Simmer very gently till it looks cooked – anything from 30 minutes to an hour is fine. (Add more water if some boils away.) Strain off the liquid, and put the mushy veges in the compost bin or worm farm or a hole in the garden. The stock won’t taste fabulous now – but wait till the veges are added! The stock will sit happily in the fridge for a few days until you’re ready to use it.

Honey Sports Drink

1L liquid (water, coconut water, or a herb tea such as tulsi)
¼ tsp Himalayan sea salt (choose it for its trace minerals)
¼ cup fruit juice (your choice)
1 – 2 tbsp honey

Cool the herb tea (if used), combine all ingredients, and keep in the fridge until ready to use.