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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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Pretty Pulses

Pulses are a good source of vitamin B6, magnesium and tryptophan, which are essential nutrients needed to help boost our serotonin – the happy neurotransmitter! Boost yours with simple and moreish dips, which can be enjoyed any time with oat cakes, carrot sticks or with a salad. Super quick to make, here are a couple of examples which we served up at our Feed Your Happy event in January as a starter.

Roasted Red Pepper, Walnut and Haricot Bean Dip

Ingredients

  • 2 x large roasted red peppers*
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 100g toasted shelled walnut halves
  • 400g haricot beans (if using tins ensure you soak them for a couple of hours in fresh water)
  • 125 ml (½ cup) extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp of ground cumin
  • Pinch of smoked paprika
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper
  • Pomegranate seeds

Method

  1. Simply blitz all the above ingredients in a food processor until smooth
  2. Place in a serving bowl and drizzle with olive oil and dress with pomegranate seeds

* To roast red peppers simply brush with olive oil and roast in the oven at 180 degrees until the skin starts to blister (about 40 minutes). Remove from the oven and place into a heat proof bowl and cover with cling film for 5 minutes. Remove from the bowl and peel off the skin.

Roast Broccoli, Leek and Haricot Dip

Ingredients

  • 1 x large broccoli with the florets removed
  • 1 x leek cut into slices
  • 1 x tablespoon heat-tolerant oil, such as cold pressed organic rapeseed or avocado
  • 400g haricot beans (if using tins ensure you soak them for a couple of hours in fresh water)
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp of fresh thyme leaves
  • Sea salt and ground back pepper, to taste
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 3 x tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 125 ml (½ cup) extra virgin olive oil plus some for drizzling
  • Sea salt to finish, such as Maldon
  • Chopped chives

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
  2. Line a baking tray with parchment paper
  3. In a bowl mix the olive oil, Dijon, 1 tbs of lemon juice and the zest and season
  4. Add the broccoli florets and the sliced leeks and mix
  5. Place the brocolli and leek on a baking sheet and roast for aourn 20 mins until they start to go golden brown but keep an eye on them to ensure they don’t burn
  6. Once cooked, remove from the oven and plac e in a food proseccor with the hbeans, thyme leaves, nutritional yeast, remaining olive oil and lemon juice and zest and whiz up to a smooth or rough consistency, whichever is your preference
  7. Taste to check the seasoning
  8. Serve with chopped chives or parsley

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Feed Your Happy Event Bristol