Fancy something a little different this Christmas? Here is my Festive Mincemeat stuffed Panettone French Toast. Rich and indulgent, this is sure to put a smile on your face.
Ingredients
1 thick slice of panettone
Mincemeat – use my quick and easy recipe to get the most delicious mincemeat for this dish
1 egg
50ml milk of choice
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1 small knob of butter
To serve
Extra mincemeat
Yoghurt of choice
Berries of choice
Method
Take your thickly cut panettone and make a small pocket in the centre with a knife (like a pitta bread). Fill the pocket with 1-2 tsp mincemeat.
In a large dish crack the egg and add the milk, cinnamon and vanilla. Mix well.
Soak the panettone in the egg mixture for 5 minutes on all sides.
Heat a frying pan over a low heat and add the butter.
Cook the panettone for 2-3 minutes per side till golden brown.
Serve topped with extra mincemeat, yoghurt and berries.
For me, sausage rolls come out 2 times during the year; picnics and Christmas! While I do love a meat-based sausage roll, I wanted to create something which non-meat eaters could also enjoy without simply turning to a ready-made vegetarian sausage. This also means I’m having the benefit of plant foods, and less processed red meat which we know can be bad for our health.
You can make a bigger batch of these, partially cook them for 15 minutes and then reheat before your guests arrive for 10 minutes. Alternatively, you can freeze them down for longer-term storage. Simply cook from frozen for 15-18 minutes till crisp and piping hot.
These are also perfect for young children as they are naturally lower in salt in comparison to most shop-bought sausage rolls. Additionally, they are a softer texture inside in comparison to meat, which might be more pleasing to younger children.
To make the sausage rolls egg-free, swap the egg glaze for a milk-wash glaze.
Makes 12
Ingredients
5g dried mushrooms
50ml boiling water
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
250g mushrooms, finely chopped
200g firm tofu
10 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs sage
1 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
250g ricotta
50g breadcrumbs
1 sheet puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
a few pinches of seeds e.g. nigella seeds, sesame seeds
Method
Pour the boiling water over the dried mushrooms to rehydrate them.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a saucepan and cook the onion for 5 minutes over a low heat till soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Add the fresh and rehydrated mushrooms to the onion mixture and cook till all the liquid evaporates off.
Add the tofu, herbs and spices and cook till dry again.
Drain any excess liquid off the ricotta. Add to a large mixing bowl with the breadcrumbs and the mushroom mixture. Mix well and allow to fully cool to fridge temperature.
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/ 200°C convection
Meanwhile, cut the pastry sheet into 2 pieces through the longer edge to create two smaller rectangles. Shape the mushroom mixture into the centre of the two pieces of pastry, leaving a large gap on either long edge.
Using the egg, paint across one edge to act as glue. Take the edge without the egg on it and fold it over the mushroom mixture, rolling it onto the egg-washed edge to seal.
Cut each log into 6 pieces and place on a lined baking tray. Brush the tops with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle with seeds.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes till golden brown and crispy.
Enjoy hot, or cold
Vegetarian Sausage Rolls
Per sausage roll: 255kcal/ 16g fat/ 7.3g saturated fat/ 14g carbohydrates/ 2.1g fibre/ 12g protein
No tricks, all treats here. Using dates to naturally sweeten these muffins with roasted pumpkin, autumnal spices and sultanas. Delicious as they are, they also can be topped with orange mascarpone icing for the final touch.
Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients
200g pitted dates
50ml boiling water
200g roasted pumpkin flesh
175g vegetable oil
3 eggs
Zest and juice of 1 orange
100g sultanas
200g self raising flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon of grated nutmeg
200g mascarpone
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/ 200°C convection
In a jug add the dates and boiling water. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before blending to a paste with the roasted pumpkin flesh.
In a large mixing bowl add the oil, eggs and date pumpkin puree. Mix together before adding the orange zest and sultanas. Mix again to combine.
Sieve the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda into the wet mixture and fold in.
Line a muffin tray with 12 muffin cases. Evenly divide the batter between the 12 cases and bake for 25 minutes, or till a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out clean.
Remove from the tray and allow to completely cool on a cooling rack.
Just before serving mix the mascarpone and 1/2 the juice of and orange till smooth. Spoon onto the top of the muffin, and if desired decorate with more orange zest.
Spiced Pumpkin Muffins
Option to freeze the muffins once they are cooled for up to 3 months.
Per muffin: 364kcal/ 24g fat/ 6.4g saturated fat/ 31g carbohydrates/ 2g fibre/ 5.2g protein
Sometimes food can be a little fun. Use your leftover carved pumpkins from Halloween to make this tasty treat without the trick!
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the gnocchi
2 potatoes (around 250g)
500g pumpkin
200g pasta flour (plus extra for dusting)
Nutmeg
30 mini sage leaves (option to use slices of larger sage leaves or rosemary)
For the kale grass
300g Cavolo Nero or kale, cut into 1cm slices including the stems
7-8 cloves of garlic, skin removed
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
For the crispy sage
2 tbsp extra virgin oil oil
12 large sage leaves
To serve
Parmesan (optional)
Pea shoots
Method
Take the potatoes, pierce the skin and microwave for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180°C fan/ 200°C convection. Place the pumpkin and the partially cooked potatoes on a roasting tray and bake for 45 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing the flesh from the skins.
Take 200g flour and pour it onto your work surface. Make a well in the centre. Using a potato ricer (option to mash in a separate bowl if you don’t have a ricer) and add 200g cooked pumpkin and 80g cooked potato flesh to the well. Season with a pinch of salt and freshly grated nutmeg.
Using a dough scraper, cut the pumpkin and potato into the flour till a rough dough is formed, before bring together with your hands, kneading as little as possible. If needed, add a little extra flour. The mixture shouldn’t be dry. Cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the kale grass by bringing a large pan of water to boil. Add your garlic cloves and kale, cooking for 7-8 minutes. Reserving the cooking water, add the kale and garlic to a high-speed blender with a little cooking water and olive oil. Blend till an even rough grassy texture throughout.
In a small frying pan, heat the remaining oil with the sage leaves till crispy and fragrant.
Shape the gnocchi dough by cutting strips and rolling into a log. Cut into little pillows (option to use these as they are) around 10g each. Shape into a little ball, and use a piece of cooking string to make indentations across the surface like a pumpkin. Push a baby sage leaf into the top for the pumpkin stem.
Bring a large pan of water to boil and cook the gnocchi for around 5 minutes. Once they float to the top they are cooked through.
Serve by plating up the kale grass, adding an optional sprinkle of parmesan to make it look frosty, followed by the pumpkin gnocchi, sage leaves and oil, and pea shoots for tendrils.
Per serving: 423kcal/ 16g fat/ 3.2g saturated fat/ 54g carbohydrates/ 6g fibre/ 12g protein
It’s World Pasta Day so I’ve created an easy, nutritious and delicious pasta sauce for the occasion. Easily adaptable to make it vegan and gluten-free by swapping parmesan for a vegan hard cheese and pasta for gluten-free pasta.
Roasted Red Pasta
Serves 4
Ingredients
600g tomatoes, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, left in their skins
1 red pepper, cut into quarters, seeds removed
1 large red onion, cut into quarters
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
100g red lentils
300ml water
To serve
300g pasta
Parmesan
Fresh basil
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan/180°C convection
In a large baking tray add the tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onion and oil. Mix and roast for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, in a saucepan add the red lentils and 300ml water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes till soft.
Once the vegetables are cooked through, remove the skin from the garlic and transfer everything to a high-speed blender with the cooked lentils and their cooking water. Blend till smooth, seasoning to taste.
Stir through freshly cooked pasta, using a little reserved pasta water to let the sauce down to your desired consistency.
Serve topped with parmesan and fresh basil.
Per serving: 530kcal/ 15g fat/ 3.6g saturated fat/ 74g carbohydrates/ 7.7g fibre/ 20g protein
Combining deliciously roasted and sticky garlic with vitamin D-enriched mushrooms (read my previous post on enriching your mushrooms with vitamin D by clicking here) for a delicious and nutritious spread. Make a large batch and I promise you won’t regret it! Try serving these up as little canapes on thinly sliced toasted bread at your next dinner party.
Roasted MushroomsRoasted Garlic
Makes 17 portions
Ingredients
1 bulb of garlic
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
500g mushrooms of choice
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
20 sprigs of thyme
300g cream cheese
15g chives, chopped
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan/ 180°C convection
Slice the top off the garlic bulb to expose the very tops of the cloves. Place in a mini cocotte or on double-layered tin foil. Drizzle with the olive oil, cover and place into the oven.
Meanwhile, add the mushrooms to a large tray, drizzle with the rapeseed oil and 10 sprigs of thyme. Roast in the oven for 1 hour till the mushrooms are sticky and shrunken.
Once the mushrooms are cooked check the garlic is soft and remove from the oven to cool – it may need a further 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your bulb and your vessel.
Once cooled, to a food processor add the mushrooms, remove the thyme leaves from the roasted thyme, chives, white pepper, and lemon. Add the remaining fresh thyme leaves and 5-6 cloves of roasted garlic. Blend to the desired consistency, checking the seasoning is to your taste.
Serve with crusty bread, crackers or stir into a risotto just at the end. Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days, or frozen for up to 2 months.
Roasted Mushroom Pate
Per serving: 58kcal/ 4.8g fat/ 2.9g saturated fat/ 1.6g carbohydrates/ 0.5g fibre/ 1.7g protein
An easy one-pan dish means cleaning up after eating is easy. Any leftovers are delicious the next day for lunch or dinner so don’t be put off by the large volume you make.
If you ever have stale sourdough bread, here’s the easiest way to use it up. No food waste in this house, they keep in an airtight container for a few weeks ready to sprinkle on anything that needs and extra piece of crunch!
The recipe is super easy, I roughly uses 1 sprig of rosemary, 1 clove of garlic and 1 tablespoon of oil for every 100g of bread. But of course you can change this up according to your taste.
Ingredients
Sourdough bread, cut into 1″ cubes
Garlic cloves, crushes
Rosemary, roughly chopped
Olive oil
Method
Preheat the oven to 150°C fan/ 160°C convection
Mix the oil, garlic and herbs together in a large bowl. Add the bread cubes and mix to completely coat the cubes.
Transfer to a baking tray, spreading the cubes out and bake for 25-30 minutes, till golden brown and crispy.
Sprinkle over your favourite soups or salads, or allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Blackberries are a quintessential fruit of British summer. Growing wildly in hedgerows all over the UK, these delicious dark jewels can be easily picked at your leisure for both sweet and savoury dishes.
Serves 4 as a starter
Ingredients
180g log of goats cheese
200g blackberries
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp honey
A few sprigs of thyme
To serve
Bread of choice, toasted if desired
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/ 200° convection
Slice the goats cheese in half and place in an ovenproof dish.
Scatter the blackberries around the edge, then drizzle the oil, honey and thyme over the top. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Serve immediately with your choice of bread.
Baked Goats Cheese and Blackberries
Per serving: 198kcal/ 13.0g fat/ 8.2g saturated fat/ 9.4g carbohydrates/ 3.4g fibre/ 9.8g protein
We’re in the middle of a heatwave, and you’d be forgiven for thinking I had lost the plot as it may sound like a weird combination, but honestly you have to try it before you judge. I also think the secret is the perfect pairing is with the use of Alpro Soya Vanilla drink. Completely unendorsed, I fell in love with this product many moons ago whilst at university studying for my undergraduate nutrition degree and stumbled upon this. The combination of flavours which worked so well it became my signature drink of choice. Perfect as both breakfast on the go, or as a mid-morning snack along side a coffee pick me up when packaged away in a thermos flask to keep it nicely chilled.
It’s the perfect smoothie for a heatwave where you would love a coffee but don’t want a hot drink. Also great for preventing any banana wastage as once they start turning spotty brown simply peel and freeze in chunks ready to make this drink.
Each serving provides you with:
1 of you 5 a day
35% of your daily calcium requirements
18% of your potassium requirements
Source of fluids for hydration
Serves 1
Ingredients
1 banana, frozen overnight
50ml coffee of choice
200ml Alpro Soya Vanilla drink
Method
Place all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender till smooth.
Pour into a glass, or into a thermos flask to save for later.
Do you like broad beans? I think they’re a little bit like Marmite, you either love them or hate them. And I also firmly believe that those leathery little jackets surrounding each green bean is responsible for so many people not liking them, including to some extent, myself. They’re currently in season (from the end of June to the middle of September) so why not pick up a bag.
Many people will peel each bean out of its leathery jacket, revealing a bright green bean inside. I, however, do not do this because it’s time-consuming, wastes food, but also impacts the nutritional content. Those papery jackets actually contribute to the phenolic compounds as well as the fibre content.
However, the good news is that I have a delicious recipe with doesn’t remove the skins which both saves time and also keeps the maximum nutrition of the beans in the dish. It’s delicious, I promise that if you’re a fan of hummus this is going to be right up your street.
Serves 10
Ingredients
750g broad beans in their pods, or around 300g depodded
Bring a large pan of water to a boil. Cook the broad beans for 2 minutes before draining and plunging them into iced water. Drain once cool, reserving a few for decoration if desired.
In a food processor, add the cooked broad beans with all of the remaining ingredients.
Blitz till the desired consistency, adding a little extra water if needed. I like mine a little chunky.
Serve on toast dressed with extra broad beans, mint and olive oil, or with crudites.
Any remaining hummus can be stored in an airtight container for 3 days in the fridge.
Per 50g serving: 97kcal/ 8.0g fat/ 1.1g saturated fat/ 3.2g carbohydrates/ 1.9g fibre/ 2.8g protein
I adore asparagus season, fleeting as it is. Therefore having it for breakfast seems the perfect way to enjoy the season to the max.
I love having asparagus soldiers dipped in a soft-boiled egg. But if I have the time I love nothing more than griddling it over a hot pan and serving it with a beautifully soft poached egg and some sourdough. For me this is the perfect springtime brunch.
Seasonal British asparagus also emits 5 times less CO2 in comparison to those transported from abroad. Therefore if you want to reduce your food carbon footprint, enjoy British asparagus in its peak season from mid-April to the end of May.
Serves 1
Ingredients
1 small bunch of fresh British asparagus
1 slice of sourdough
Extra virgin olive oil
1 egg
Butter (optional)
Salt and pepper
Method
Prepare the asparagus by snapping off the woody ends
Preheat a griddle pan
Oil one side of the sourdough and place on the griddle pan to cook.
Lightly oil the asparagus and place it in the griddle pan alongside the bread
Before flipping the bread, oil the second side.
Cook for a few minutes till charred
Meanwhile, bring a pan of water to a gentle simmer, gently swirl and poach the egg for 3-4 minutes depending on your taste
Assemble the asparagus on the sourdough, adding the optional knob of butter on the asparagus if desired before topping with the poached egg
Season with salt and pepper to your taste and enjoy
Dr Pippa 