Sweet, Spiced, Baked Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkins are not something that you would necessarily affiliate with late spring but organic kent pumpkins are available all year round. I had a quarter of one in my fridge and a very strange hankering for pumpkin muffins at 10 o'clock at night and....here we are, pumpkin muffins.

These are quite good with currents through them too.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 12 regular sized muffins

1 cup of pureed baked pumpkin about = about 500g of raw pumpkin Jap or Kent are good choices

1/2 Cup of muscavado sugar

2 Cups of spelt flour

1 Tsp baking soda

2 Tsp of ground cinnamon

1/2 A whole nutmeg finely grated

1/2 Cup of oat milk (or almond, raw or biodynamic milk)

1/2 Cup of grapeseed oil

1 Egg local and organic or biodynamic or better yet, home laid

A pinch of salt

A big handful of chopped pecans and a small handful of organic sugar mixed together to top

Organic butter and a cup of tea to serve

DIRECTIONS

Seed the pumpkin and cut it into four chunks leaving the skin on. Place on a baking tray and bake at 200 degrees celsius until a butter knife can go though a piece of the pumpkin. Allow to cool a little then skin and puree in the blender

Sift the flour and baking soda into a large mixing bowl add the rest of the dry ingredients and then the wet ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until well combined. Place patty cases into a muffin tray, fill with mixture then top with your pecan/sugar mix. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 20-25 minutes and cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then place onto a cake rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Enjoy!

Butter Bean Soup with Spring Garlic & Spring Vegetables

There is a few things I'm loving in food land this week and they have pretty much all ended up in this soup. Butter beans are my current favourite legume. They're soft buttery and sweet. Not only are they delicious but they are a good nutritional choice. Butter beans also known as Lima beans are a very good source of dietary fibre, manganese, folate, protein, potassium, magnesium and thiamin as well as other trace minerals and vitamins.

Secondly, Spring Garlic! You might need to look around for this at your local market and you'll have to get in quick as they're not around for long. If you buy organic food it should be a little easier. It's well worth the search. It's sweeter, fresher and milder than the dried variety and it deserves to star in a dish. If you haven't tried it before I urge you to, it's a real treat. If you can't find it, you can of course use regular garlic.

And thirdly spring vegtables in general. In this soup I used thin fresh leeks, small dark green zucchinis and very firm fresh spring green beans. This soup has very minimal cooking. So it really needs super fresh produce.
I have served the soup here with some sourdough that has been rubbed with some garlic and olive oil and grilled. Although the soup in equally satisfying on it's own.

INGREDIENTS

500g Of butter beans

2 Handfuls of green beens top and tailed and cut into 1cm lengths

2 S-M zucchinis diced

2 S-M leeks thinly sliced

1 Tbs of good quality sea salt

1300ml Water

Half a bulb of spring garlic (about six cloves) and the inner stems of one bulb or three cloves of regular garlic

Olive oil

Cracked pepper and fresh oregano to serve

DIRECTIONS

Put the butter beans in a large pot full of water and leave them to soak for 8 hours or overnight. Boil the  butter beans on medium to high heat until they are soft but still holding they're shape, this could take anywhere between 30 mins to 1 hr you'll just have to keep an eye on them. Drain and set aside.

Remove any tough bits of skin around the garlic and remove the green stems from the outer husk. Thinly slice the green stems. Put a small pinch of salt over the garlic cloves and smash them with the flat part of the knife and then chop very finely until it's quite minced.

On a medium to high heat slowly cook the leeks until they are translucent, you don't want anything to brown in this soup. then add the zucchinis, green beans then the spring garlic. Cook for a minute or two then add your butter beans, the water and the salt. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a medium heat so it's a slow boil and cook for 5-10 mins until the veggies are just tender.

Serve and top with cracked pepper, fresh oregano and some grilled bread.

Enjoy!

Broccoli, Avocado & Sumac Salad

This was one of the first inventions I came up with when I started to get serious about keeping my intake of raw fruit and vegetables high. This dish is entirely raw but also stands alone as a very delicious and impressive salad. The broccoli in this recipe is raw but left to sit with salt rubbed into it. The salt draws moister out and slightly cooks the broccoli. This is now my favourite way to eat broccoli. You can have this salad as a meal, a side or as part of a spread. If you happen to come across some young spring broad beans these are great freshly popped over the salad but they're are not crucial. Thinly sliced radish works well with this too.

On another note I had the pleasure of attending my friend Beci Orpin's book launch. Her lovely new book Find and Keep has insights into her design process and 26 craft projects one of which served as insipation for the styling of this weeks recipe. If you love design and craft you'll love this book, I can't stop looking through it!

INGREDIENTS

Serves 1 as a main meal or 2-3 as a side

Half a medium head of broccoli

1 Avocado

1/4 red onion thinly sliced

A big handful or so of mixed salad leaves

Good quality sea salt

Good quality local olive oil

A handfull of mint thinly sliced

Juice of half a lemon

A chive flower (optional)

A few young broad bean pods (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Firstly chop your broccoli into small pieces including the steam. Place in a colander and sprinkle with good a pinch of salt, rub the salt into the broccoli and leave to stand for 20-30 mins. Place the broccoli in a clean tea towel and squeeze and dry the broccoli.

On a serving plater arrange salad leaves, broccoli, avocado and onion. Top with mint, broad beans and chive flowers if using, a good pinch of sumac, a good squeeze of lemon juice, olive oil and some cracked pepper.

Enjoy!