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Mackerel Ceviche

It’s pretty much the last of our summer posts. It’s now September and along with the shift in weather we at Feed are moving into our next topic – Winter! So here’s one of our favorites – ceviche! Ceviche is essentially a seafood dish where the fish is ‘cooked’ through marinading in citrus juices. As mackerel is quite a rich fish it really pairs nicely with the fresh, tart flavours in a ceviche. It’s also surprisingly quick to make, and can be made in less than half an hour. The only real important thing is that you have a good quality fishmonger to hand, who can provide the freshest mackerel, caught that day or overnight. Check out our previous mackerel post on the health benefits too of this wonderful local fish to our British shores!

Ingredients

  • 1 x lime squeezed
  • ½ lemon squeezed
  • ½ red onion diced small
  • 1 x red chilli diced very small
  • 2 x peach or mango diced medium
  • 1-2 tomoatoes diced medioum
  • ¼ cucumber diced medium
  • 2 x whole mackerel fillets **must be freshly caught that day, check with your fishmonger**
  • 1-2 little gem lettuce or other leaves whole, washed and dried
  • 20g coriander, washed, dried

Method

  1. Mix the lime, lemon, red onion, chili
  2. Dice the mackerel into small cubes
  3. Add the mackerel to the marinate and set aside for 15 minutes, or until the mackerel turns white
  4. Whilst the mackerel is marinating, lay out the lettuce leaves on platter
  5. Scatter the tomatoes, peach/mango and the cucumber over the top
  6. Spoon over the mackerel ceviche
  7. Garnish with the coriander and some black pepper, serve

Enjoy!

 

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Red Cabbage Slaw

We love this recipe – super quick and versatile, you can eat it for lunch, as a side with dinner or munch at any time for a snack! Plus you can pretty much add in anything you like! As well as its versatility the core ingredient is the humble red cabbage and we simply don’t eat enough purple, so a great way to up those vital phytonutrients you find in purple foods.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 to 1/2 red cabbage
  • 2 to 3 carrots
  • Any nuts for topping and added crunch

Dressing

  • 1 tablespoon of tahini
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon of dijon mustard
  • 1 lemon
  • 2 tablespoons of water (you can increase depending on the consistency you like)
  • Salt and pepper to season

Method

  1. Wash and dry all the ingredients
  2. Make the dressing first. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk together, you can add more water to reduce the consistency (you can also blend all the ingredients if you prefer)
  3. Grate the carrots and add to a large bowl
  4. Finely chop (or using a mandolin) the red cabbage add to the bowl with the carrots
  5. Add the dressing to the bowl with the chopped carrots and red cabbage, mix, add the nuts and serve

About purple fruits and vegetables

They contain a phytonutrient called anthocyanins which is an antioxidant that helps fight oxidative stress.  Oxidative stress is when free radical activity and antioxidant activity in the body is out of balance. Free radicals are helpful but we need them in balance. Put simply we need to eat as many antioxidant foods as possible to support our bodies. The more colours we eat from fruit and vegetables the wider the range of  different types of antioxidants we will eat having many beneficial effects, helping to protect us.

Eat the rainbow!

 

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Mighty Mackerel

We love mackerel! It’s such a tasty fish and its packed full of omega-3, which is essential for our skin at this time of year. We’ve mentioned omega-3 quite a lot recently… so what is it and what does it do?

Omega-3 is a polyunsaturated fatty acid that is crucial to our diet and our body does not make it, therefore it is defined as an ‘essential fatty acid‘ – we must eat it! There are many health benefits to omega-3 fatty acids supporting multiple organs in our body including our heart, eyes, skin, brain and more!  It is also known for its anti-inflammatory properties helping to reduce inflammation. Inflammation can be the root cause of many illnesses! Lots of us just don’t eat enough of it – if you take anything away from this little post please aim to eat more omega-3! Just 2-3 portions of fatty fish a week (wild is best). Other great sources include walnuts, flaxseed (freshly ground to eat is best) and chia seeds.

Here’s a lovely tasty, simple way to eat mackerel. Ask your fishmonger to fillet it for you. We sourced ours from Spiny Lobster, Whiteladies road in Bristol.

Mighty Mackerel Salad

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

  • 2 whole mackerel, filleted
  • 2 x courgettes (we used green and yellow)
  • Spinach leaves – washed and dried
  • ½ red pepper
  • 100g black beans (soaked if using tinned)
  • Fresh mint (about 20g), thinly sliced
  • Dressing: 2 tbsp Coconut yogurt mixed with half squeezed lemon, 1 crushed clove of garlic, salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. Using a peeler slice the courgette length ways
  2. Dice the pepper into small dice
  3. Make the dressing by combining the ingredients above
  4. Warm a griddle pan so its hot
  5. Add the courgettes and char slightly, moving them around the pan (you may have to do this in batched)
  6. Set the griddled courgettes to the side
  7. Put a little oil onto the mackerel’s skin side and season with salt and pepper
  8. Griddle the mackerel skin side down for 3 minutes, turn carefully using a spatula and griddle the flesh for a further 3 minutes (don’t despair if you lose the skin but try and keep it intact!)
  9. Assemble the salad in a big bowl or on a platter, scatter over the black beans, spoon dollops of the dressing on top and serve with the warm mackerel on top and scatter with the mint
  10. Serve immiediately!

 

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Here’s some other lovely ways to make use of griddled courgette (which will last a good few days in the fridge) in summer salads.

Mix with:

  • Cooked frozen and cooled soya beans and garden peas, sliced spring onion and chopped parsley
  • Good quality mozzarella torn up, extra lemon (preserved if you have it!), chopped garlic, chopped mint and plenty of black pepper
  • Bulgar wheat, chili flakes, chopped red pepper and red onion
  • Blanched broccoli florets, toasted almond flakes and parsley
  • Grated carrot, grated red cabbage, tossed in a tahini, garlic, lemon dressing with toasted seeds

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Simple Celery, Lemon and Courgette Shot

This refreshing, zingy shot is great in the morning to kick your body into action and wake up your organs! Its best if you have a juicer so you only take the juices from the ingredients but if you don’t mind the bulkier texture you can always use a blender.

Drink immediately to consume the maximum nutrients!

Ingredients 

  • 5-6 Celery sticks
  • 1 Courgette
  • 1 Lemon (peeled)
  • Ginger (optional)

Method 

Simply feed everything through the juicer and serve immediately!

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Simple Raw Chilled Summer Soup

We love a blender. It’s a super quick way to get gorgeous nutritious veggies into your body in no time! The only important thing we recommend is that you use the best local, fresh, organic vegetables. We use Riverford. They have local farms around the country and deliver them weekly in a box, sometimes grubby and always plastic free!

Ingredients

  • 5 x ripe tomatoes
  • 1/2 red pepper (seeds removed)
  • 1/2 green pepper (seeds removed)
  • 1/4 cucumber
  • 1/4 white onion
  • 1 thick slice of slightly stale bread
  • 1-2 garlic cloves (depending on how garlicky you can take it!)
  • 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper (add more if you like a real kick)
  • 1/4 tsp of cumin
  • 1 tsp of cold pressed vinegar, red wine or cider

To serve

  • Small cubes of cucumber and pepper
  • Basil leaves
  • Seeds and crushed nuts

Method 

  1. Wash and dry all the ingredients
  2. Roughly chop the vegetables and put them in your blender, with the spices and season, add a glass of cold water and an ice cube
  3. Blend
  4. Serve in small bowls and sprinkle on the garnish

Did you know that tomatoes contain the amazing phytonutrient lycopene. Lycopene gives tomatoes its red pigment and is a powerful antioxidant that helps fights toxins – aim to include red colour vegetables in your diet daily.

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Smokey Veggie Chilli Bowl

This week in the UK its National Vegetarian Week  and we are sharing tips and ideas to increase your fruit and veg intake as part of our Feed to Cleanse month. Now, the vegetarian chilli is definitely not a new idea, it’s been around for many many years! But here at Feed we have some tips. Ultimately we want you to be happy and confident in the kitchen and we want you to tailor your meals to your own taste buds. Also we are keen to reduce waste in the kitchen, and a vegetable chilli is a great way of using up any leftover vegetables and pulses. A great tip for pulses, is that you can freeze them. So when you prep a batch of dried pulses through the soaking and simmering process you can freeze a few servings for a later date. And we literally pulled a portion out 30 mins before we cooked this to throw in at the right time.

Traditionally the kidney bean is used in a chilli but for us the kidney bean can be a bit tough. We like a creamier bean, and for those who haven’t tried them borlotti are a perfect alternative. We are also great advocates of the cannellini bean so we have added both of these to our chilli for colour, texture and taste.

When preparing your ingredients – make sure you cut all your veggies to roughly the same size, that way they will all cook evenly.

Ingredients

1 x Chopped onion (we used white)
3 x Chopped carrots
2 x Chopped courgette
1 x Chopped  pepper (we used red but green works too!)
4-6 x Chopped Portobello mushrooms
1 x Cup of borlotti beans
1 x Cup of haricot beans
3 x Chopped garlic cloves
1 x Sliced red chilli (or 2 or 3 if you like it hotter like us)
1 x Tbsp tomato paste
1 x Tin of good quality tomatoes
1 x Tsp ground cumin
1 x Tsp ground cinnamon
1 x Tsp smoked paprika

Method

  1. In a large heavy bottom sauce pan heat some good quality olive oil or coconut oil on a medium heat
  2. Add the onions and a pinch of salt and gently fry for around 10 mins to soften
  3. Add the harder veggies next, the carrots and peppers, cook for a further 5 mins
  4. Add the garlic and chilli, cook for a further 5 mins
  5. Add the courgette and mushrooms, gently cook for another 5 mins
  6. Now add the spices and cook off for 1 min to release the aromas
  7. Add the beans, then the tomato paste and cook for 1-2 mins, then add the tin tomatoes
  8. Bring to a simmer then cook for around 30 mins until the chilli takes on a deeper, richer colour – you can’t overcook it but you want your veg to still have a slight bite but make sure you stir now and again
  9. Taste, check the seasoning and serve

We like to serve ours with whole grain rice, a dollop of natural organic yoghurt and sprinkling of coriander.

We also like to serve our chilli with a tomatoe salsa. This is made with some chopped red onion, baby tomatoes, radish (and its currently in season) chopped chilli to taste, squeeze of fresh lemon, chopped coriander, pinch of cumin, salt and pepper.

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Delicious Dips

We love hosting at Feed, and these delicious dips are super quick and easy to make and brighten up your dinner table!

Feta and Pistachio Dip 

Ingredients

  • 100g pistachios, shelled
  • 75ml olive oil
  • 200g organic feta cheese
  • Handful chopped parsley
  • Handful chopped coriander
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 1/2 red chilli, chopped
  • 3 tbsp Greek yoghurt or natural/coconut/dairy free yoghurt
  • Zest of 1 lemon, juice of 1/2
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Pinch of paprika

Method 

  1. In a food processor, blitz the pistachios and then drizzle in the oil
  2. Mix for a further 30 seconds
  3. Add in all the other ingredients, reserving a few parsley leaves for garnish
  4. Pulse for a chunkier mixture, blitz for a smooth mixture
  5. Season to taste
  6. Serve and sprinkle with some paprika and coriander or parsley leaves

Spicy Pepper, Onion and Tomato Salsa Dip 

  • 4 ripe tomatoes (beef tomatoes are the best)
  • 1 red onion
  • 1 red pepper, deseeded
  • 1 green pepper, deseeded
  • 1 finely chopped garlic
  • 2 red chillies, deseeded
  • 1 x 20g packet of flat leaf parsley, leaves picked, washed, dried and finely chopped
  • 2 tsp sumac
  • 1 tsp pomegranate molasses
  • 2 tsp organic raw (if possible) red wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp crushed sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Handful of mint (to serve)

Method 

  1. Carefully chop the tomatoes, peppers, onions in very small dice (you will need a very sharp knife and a steady hand!)
  2. Crush and chop the garlic, slice the chilies
  3. In a bowl mix all the ingredients and let them rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes
  4. Season to taste
  5. Bring to room temperature before serving
  6. Spoon into a serving dish and scatter over some mint

We like to serve the dips with our oat multi-seed crackers or crusty sourdough thinly sliced and toasted!

Delicious Dips

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Raw Peanut Butter Salted Cookies

These delicious, simple, no bake cookies are full of the good stuff! Refined sugar free, gluten free and vegan. Plus they keep up to a week in the fridge so get making a batch for a guilt free snack.

Ingredients

  • 140g of almonds
  • 125g unsalted, smooth peanut butter (organic if possible)
  • 175g Medjool dates pitted
  • 2 tsp of pure vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • Flakey sea salt to sprinkle
  • 2 bananas to serve
  • 2 tbsp cacao nibs

Method 

  1. Grind the almonds in a food processor on high until you have coursely ground nts
  2. Add the peanut butter, pitted dates, vanilla and lemon juice to the food processor
  3. Pulse until the mixture forms a dough
  4. Remove from the food processor and immediately roll out between two sheets of parchment paper to the desired thickness (we like it to be about 1/2 cm thick)
  5. Using a small cookie cutter cut out to size then form together the remaining and roll out again and repeat
  6. Place all the disks in the fridge to chill
  7. Serve when chilled with a slice of banana on the top and a couple of cacao nibs

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Cheerful Chickpea Tagine

This warming chickpea tagine is super simple to make and goes really well with brown rice and loads of herbs and flaked almonds. We made ours in a slow cooker overnight. We like it spicy but feel free to omit the chilli if you prefer a milder flavour.

Ingredients

  • 400g chickpeas (if tinned ensure you soak for at least 2 hours and rinse)
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1 small butternut squash, peels and chopped into cubes
  • 2 courgettes, chopped into cubes
  • 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 12 dried organic apricots, quartered
  • 1 sliced red chilli or 1 tsp of chilli flakes
  • 1 tsp of coconut oil
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 500g jar of organic passata
  • 1/2 preserved lemon, chopped small
  • Handful toasted flaked almonds to serve
  • Handful of chopped parsley to serve

Method

  1. Place the vegetables, chickpeas, garlic, apricots, red chilli, passata and preserved lemon in the slow cooker
  2. In a small heave bottom frying pan melt the coconut oil on a medium heat
  3. Add the paprika, cumin, ginger and cinnamon and cook for about 30 seconds taking care not to burn
  4. Add the toasted spices to the slow cooker
  5. Cook overnight on low for about 8 hours or on high for about 3 hours
  6. Serve with flaked almonds and chopped parsley

 

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Oat and Multi Seed Cracking Crackers

These crackers are a delicious combination of oats and lots of different seeds. Seeds and oats are high in tryptophan. Feel free to change the varieties of seeds as long as you keep the volume the same. They are super easy and super quick to make. They look really nice just broken up at the end in odd shapes and sizes and will last up to 1 week in an air tight container so you can snack on them throughout the week. Serve with one of our nutritious dips!

Ingredients

  • 90g organic oats
  • 100g pumpkin seeds
  • 90g sunflower seeds
  • 100g sesame seeds
  • 3 tablespoons chia seeds
  • 3 tablespoons poppy seeds
  • 1 teaspoon kosher or good quality sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
  • 170ml room temperature water
  • 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

Method

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees
  2. Line a baking tray with parchment paper
  3. In a bowl mix together the oats, seeds and salt
  4. Mix together the liquids
  5. Pour the liquids into the oat and seed mix and let it rest for 10 minutes
  6. Form into a dough using your hands
  7. Roll out onto the baking sheet (it might be best to roll out between two sheets)
  8. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown
  9. Cool
  10. Break into big shards and serve

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