Happy Earth Day - have some gorgeous squash soup to celebrate!

Whilst every day really should be Earth Day, it is good there is a day once a  year which highlights the absolute amazingness and beauty of this gorgeously unique planet we live on.  We need a reminder to pay attention to something that we just take advantage of and abuse every moment. If there was a galactic Social Services, I think our precious Earth would have been taken into care by now!

Even though there are those who still refuse to acknowledge the existence of global warming (like those in the past who refused to believe the Earth was round…..), it's difficult to escape the effects that we, the human race, have on our eco systems. As Brits, we just love discussing the weather, and there's been lots of that going on to raise a few questions! Most of us try to make adaptations to help the environment - reduce plastic, recycle, shower instead of bathe etc - but these actions will only have a small impact on a global scale. 
However, changing to a plant based way of eating is the single more important change we can make that can have a direct impact on the environment. Whilst this may seem like a huge claim, you just have to look at the environmental impact of meat production to see where vast amounts of natural resources go.
Bearing in mind less than 50% of the world's population eat meat in the first place, the shear number of livestock which need supporting is immense - 17billion! Just check out these other statistics:
   * 30% of the world's land mass is used for raising animals for food
   * 11 times as much fossil fuel is needed to create meat products compared to plants
   * In the US, 70% of the grain grown is for animal feed
   * It takes 2400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, whereas is takes 25 gallons to 
   produce a pound of wheat
   * By not eating that pound of meat, you could save as much water as not showering for 6 months!
A plant based whole food diet is not only good for our health, but our environment's too. Even making small changes will have an impact - if everyone reduced their meat intake by a few pounds a week, look how much water alone could be saved. But don't replace processed meat with processed meat alternatives, rather care for yourself as well as your environment and eat real food, complete with all the nutrients and gorgeousness that our wonderful planet provides.
So to celebrate, have some gorgeous soup that's just bursting with flavour and nutrients - a tasty reminder of what our Earth so generously provides. 
Roasted butternut squash, ginger and coconut soup
500g butternut squash, peeled and cut into large chunks (or any small squash or pumpkin, preferably local if possible)
few drops olive oil
1 onion
good thumb sized bit of ginger
2 cloves garlic
400g tin of coconut milk
salt and pepper
First, roast the squash chunks in the oven for 25 minutes or so until soft but not crispy brown. Roughly chop the onion, ginger and garlic, and pop in a small food processor. Blitz until very finely chopped. Heat the oil and add the onion, ginger and garlic mix, gently frying (add a little water to stop it burning). Cook for 10 minutes or so until soft, then poor in the coconut milk and heat through well. Add the roasted squash, salt and pepper to taste and lower the heat right down. Leave to simmer gently for another 10 minutes or so then turn off the heat. Once cooled a little, puree with a stick blender, adding a little more water if it's too thick, reheat gently and serve. 

Green smoothie and blue skies

The spring weather is just beautiful. Blue skies, birds tweeting, bluebells in the woods and new life sprouting out everywhere. I'm so fortunate to live near the countryside, but pretty close to town as well. It takes only a couple of minutes to be out in the fields and woods.

I used to go to the gym to exercise, but have gone right off it now. In India, there wasn't really an option, as it was either too hot outside or too chaotic and polluted on the crazy roads. Since coming back, though, I've just not wanted to go back inside. Maybe it's just my 'hippy tendencies' that make me want to convene with nature, but there's so much more than just burning calories by exercising outside.
For a start, it's visually stimulating - I get to see real life rather than garbage on a TV screen or someone elses backside (sometimes a good view!). I catch snippets of conversations, people deep in discussion, men at work - all carry my imagination off in random directions piecing together what their story might be. Then there's the "morning" calls and "beautiful day for it" comments from dog walkers and fellow runners - as humans we need to interact; it helps us realise we're not alone.
And then there's trees. Maybe I lived deep in a forest in a previous life, but I find trees so soothing. Nurtured by nature; I always feel so good once I've been out through some woods, even if there is still lots of mud to navigate.
Research studies have concluded that exercising outside is really beneficial to our mental and physical well being - trials show that people feel more revitalised, positively engaged and have increased energy as well as have reduced levels of anger, confusion, tension and depression.   Mother nature provides once again.
As I was beginning to struggle near the end of my run today, I remembered an article I read earlier in the week about this incredible guy called Scott Jurek (http://scottjurek.com). He's an ultra-marathon champion who does crazy things like run 165 miles in one day. Made my 10km look more than pathetic! Why this stuck in my mind is that he's a vegan, eating a plant based whole food diet - 5000 calories a day of it when training hard (that's a lot of beans!).  So much for vegans being fey and wimpy (although don't think anyone would say that to Serena Williams' face!).
Once back home, I needed some instant energy, especially as I had gone out early before breakfast and run further than I meant to. So I whizzed up this green smoothie; it definitely hit the spot. Spinach is packed full of beta-carotenes, folate, manganese, magnesium, iron and a whole range of other B vitamins, to name a few. I added the lemon juice to help the absorption of these goodies in the gut. Flaxseed is a fabulous plant source of omega 3 fats as well as protein to help cells repair and cinnamon is a great anti-inflammatory, so should help with some of the inevitable post run aches. On top of all that, it just tastes great, and as everything is all whizzed up and broken down, starts getting absorbed and hitting the spot pretty quickly.
Next time, I'm going to drink this before I go out for my run!

Running green smoothie
1 banana
200mls almond milk
couple handfuls baby spinach
1 tablespoon flaxseed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
squeeze lemon juice
Bung all the ingredients into your blender and whizz until all the spinach is fully broken down and blended into a vibrant green. Dairy free and delicious - enjoy!

Just what I needed - lemon drizzle cake

I had a real craving for lemon drizzle cake tonight. No idea why, or what even made me think of it, but once I had, it had to be made.
Researching and trying out new recipes and ideas is great, but it  does take time - and sometimes it's just an excuse not to be doing something else as I'm very easily distracted, which in tonight's case was write some posts for this blog. So to appease my conscious, I've decided to share the cake with you (virtually that is - shame you can't taste it as well, it's gorgeous!).

Unfortunately, I can't claim that this cake is free from refined sugar and oil, because it's definitely not! But it is dairy free and egg free, and easy to swap to gluten free flour if needed, so it meets a whole variety of 'free from' needs. Making cakes without egg is always a challenge, as the protein in the egg binds the other ingredients together.
A great alternative is some ground flaxseed soaked in a little water for a few minutes. It swells and goes really gloopy, great for sticking everything together. However, I've found that for many cakes, you just need to whisk the wet ingredients together really well before you add them to the dry, and use an extra shaking of baking powder to make sure it rises and becomes light and fluffy.  It can be a bit hit and miss, as sometimes the mix is just too lose and light, and collapses as you take it out of the tin. Tonight was a lucky night though, and the cake stayed together beautifully whilst being incredibly light - no regrets about leaving out the flax.
One other great thing about flaxseed is that it is a fabulous source of omega 3 fatty acids. There's not many plant foods which provide such good amounts, so it's worth adding in to your cooking where ever you can.
Having already confessed that this cake is not free from refined sugars and oils, I feel the need to make a quick comment on agave syrup. Although it's marketed as a healthier sugar alternative, it's not. Apparently it has a higher fructose content than high fructose corn syrup, which is thought to be one of the major contributors to the obesity problem as it appears in a large amount of processed foods.  The agave syrup we buy is not a natural sap from the blue agave plant (a type of yucca plant - tequila is made from it too!) but a commercially produced highly processed, highly calorific sweet gloop. The problem with processed fructose is that it doesn't get broken down and digested in the gut like simple sugars; rather it goes straight to the liver where it's processed into fat, completely by-passing the energy producing molecule stage.
The fructose in these syrups is not the same as natural fructose, the sugar that's found in whole fruits. This type is ok, partly because it's accompanied by so many goodies like vitamins and fibre. It's the processing that creates the bad stuff.
So if it's so bad, why have I not just used normal sugar? It's still all nutrient-empty calories. For this cake, it's to help bind everything together. Plus there's not much of it - apparently, it becomes metabolically significant if you eat more than 25g of fructose a day*. So if you've been an eating angel all day, you can get away with it. Or, as I look at it, I only eat it on occasion so it's ok to use it now and then.
If I've put you off the agave, omit it and just add a little more sugar. Or replace the agave with flaxseed as mentioned above; can't say how it will come out though (that's my disclaimer!).
But if you just want to make a gorgeously light and tasty lemon drizzle cake that's vegan and 'free from' then do give this a try - it's worth it!
Lemon drizzle cake

250g self raising flour/gluten free flour

1 extra teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
170g unrefined caster sugar
2 tablespoons agave syrup
85mls organic rapeseed oil
1 cup non-dairy milk
zest of a lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
For the topping:
juice of a lemon
2 tablespoons demarera sugar
Grab a loaf tin, grease it and line with baking paper. Pre-heat the oven to 170oC. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Put the sugar, agave, oil, milk and lemon juice into a separate bowl and mix together well with a whisk. Add the lemon zest, stir well.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together well. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes or so until a toothpick comes out clean. Take out the the oven, but leave in the tin.
Mix the topping lemon juice and sugar together. Prick lots of holes into the cake with the toothpick and pour the mixture evenly over the top. Leave in the tin to cool for at least half an hour - it becomes easier to handle once it's cool.
Enjoy!

* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/agave-this-sweetener-is-f_b_537936.html

Thanks Delia!

Home economics was not one of my stronger subjects at school. I enjoyed the lessons, but the teachers felt my talents lead else where. Not that I couldn't produce tasty dishes, it was more that I didn't really follow their instructions that well, and made a real mess in the process. I vividly remember my teacher solemnly informing me that I would be wasting my time if I chose it as an O'level subject!
Even then, I was more of an instinctive cook, throwing things together to see what happened, enjoying the experimenting rather than the formal step by step process.This is something I continue to do today - as well as make a massive mess!
So although there are some key cooking techniques I learnt at school, I have developed so many more by pouring over a diverse range of cookery books. And one major influence has been the wonderful Delia Smith.

Delia taught me how to bake gorgeous cakes, make sumptuous summer dishes and (so key in our house) how to have a successful Christmas dinner with accompanying puds and pickles created in the build up to the ultimate day of festive over-indulgence. Our family dining experiences would be so different without Delia!!
As my eating preferences have taken a rather different direction to Delia's more traditional eating approach (she's really not known for her dairy free food!), I refer to her cook books less and less. But, all is not lost, as hidden amongst her butter laden pages you can find the occasional gem that, if not already dairy free and plant based, can be easily converted into a Karen-friendly meal!
One of these surprisingly pops up in her Christmas cookery book - roasted red pepper stuffed with fennel.
For some people, fennel is a bit of a 'marmite' vegetable - love it or hate it. Personally, I'm on the love side (unlike marmite which I hate!).  With its fabulously crisp texture and mild aniseed flavour, it tastes wonderful raw or roasted. I even made a fennel cream earlier in the year - whole and dairy free of course, and bursting with flavour. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down how I made it so need to start again with that one!
Fennel is a member of the umbellifereae family and is related to parsley, carrots and dill. It's carries a good amount of vitamin C, manganese, potassium, folate and fibre, but the key nutritional feature is it's packed with various phytonutrients, particularly flavonoids that act as antioxidants which reduce inflammation and cancerous cell changes (through turning off the intercellular signal for tumour necrosing factor in case you were wondering!). I always tend to associate fennel with summer and Italian food, but it's available during winter and early spring too.
Combining fennel with red peppers makes this a nutrient-packed meal. Delia's original recipe calls for loads of olive oil poured into the peppers, but personally, I feel this unnecessarily increases the fat content of an otherwise perfectly healthy dish. A few chopped walnuts would be a better option, for flavour, fibre and fat quality. I also prefer to use fresh tomatoes, although tinned is fine (as in original recipe) - just remember that the tinning process increases the sodium content of the tomatoes, so you will need much less seasoning.
Everyone I've fed this to loves it, so why not give it a go and glory in the delight of a bit of Delia magic!
Roasted red peppers stuffed with fennel (inspired by Delia)

4 large red peppers
2 bulbs fennel
4 large juicy tomatoes, chopped
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
splash olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
First, pre heat the oven to 180oC. Chop off any brown bits of the fennel and cut into quarters, trying to keep the stem at the bottom to hold the pieces together. Par boil or steam for a few minutes until the fennel softens just a little. Drain and put to one side to cool a little. Cut the peppers in half length ways and deseed. Keep the stalk if you can - it looks good! Pop pepper halves on a baking tray or dish - one which they all fit in to snuggly if you have one so they don't fall over. Pop a spoonful of chopped tomatoes into each pepper half, season and sprinkle on fennel seeds and Italian seasoning plus a little salt and pepper. Add one piece of fennel to each pepper half, add another spoonful of chopped tomatoes and drizzle a splash of olive oil over the top. Bake in the oven for about one hour until soft and slightly browned. Serve hot with vegetables or salad, and some fresh wholemeal bread or chickpea bread to mop up the juices.