Home » Catalog » Essential Recipes

LAYERED SALAD WITH SPROUTS AND TAHINI DRESSING

Created by Rose Elliot for EthicallyEssential

It’s easy to sprouts beans and seeds and both the Essential 3-day sprout mix, and the 6-day sprout mix are delicious, and so easy to do and energising. Soak your seeds, get them sprouting in a sprouter, large jar or even a seed tray, rinsing and draining them twice a day and then, 3 days or 6 days later, enjoy them in this pretty salad. The exact ingredients are really up to you; include what you like, and what is in season and good, but aim for a lovely bright colour contrast, and either present this layered up in rough piles on individual plates, with the tahini sauce drizzled around, chef-style; or, as I’ve described here, in a clear glass bowl as a stunning centrepiece.

For the Salad

SERVES 2-4

250g mixed salad leaves including lettuce

2 large carrots, coarsely grated

4 tomatoes, sliced

A few chopped chives

1 large avocado, stone and skin removed

1/2 Cucumber, peeled and sliced

2 handfuls of sprouted seeds, 3-day sprout mix or 6-day sprout mix, or both

For the light dressing

2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons Essential organic olive oil

sea salt

Mix up a light lemon dressing by combining the lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt.

Put the salad leaves into a bowl and toss lightly in about a third of the light dressing.

In a separate bowl mix the grated carrots with another third of the dressing.

Slice the avocado and sprinkle with the remaining dressing.

Now start layering: put half the salad leaves in your bowl, then a layer of tomatoes and a sprinkling of salt and chopped chives.

Put half of the sprouted seeds in a layer on top of the tomatoes, then a layer of the avocado.

Follow with all the carrot to make a thick, orange layer, then a layer of cucumber. Put the rest of the salad leaves on top, then the rest of your beautiful sprouted seeds.

You can either drizzle some of the tahini dressing over the top, or serve it separately in a small container, for people to help themselves.

TAHINI SAUCE

Created by Rose Elliot for EthicallyEssential

This creamy sauce is optional, but adds a richness to the salad. I like to use Essential’s dark tahini for this; it has a delicious nutty flavour and is also packed with calcium: pale tahini – and hulled sesame seeds – contain only a fraction of the calcium present in whole sesame seeds and dark tahini. If there’s any of this over, it keeps for at least a fortnight in the fridge.

SERVES 4

2 tablespoons Esssential organic Fairtrade dark tahini

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice

6 tablespoons water

sea salt

Put the tahini into a small bowl along with the garlic.

Stir in the lemon juice; the mixture will become lumpy. Don’t worry, keep stirring, gradually adding the water. As you stir, the sauce will become pale, thick and smooth, just like a beautiful, natural mayonnaise.

Season with sea salt to taste. You can adjust the thickness of this sauce by adding more or less water; make it as you like it.

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

Created by Rose Elliot for EthicallyEssential

This tastes just like a conventional chocolate mousse made with eggs and cream, and yet it's completely vegan! I don't think anyone will guess the main ingredient is avocado, unless you tell them. The coconut oil helps to firm up the texture, and the agave syrup supplies the sweetness; alternatively, you could use pure maple syrup.

SERVES 6

300g 11 oz) ripe avocado, weighed without skin and stone: about 2 really large ones

125g (4 oz) Essential organic cocoa powder

2 tablespoons Essential organic virgin coconut oil

200ml (7 fl oz) agave syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

pinch of salt

To decorate

1-2 tablespoons Essential organic cacao nibs

a few fresh strawberries with their green calyx still attached

This recipe is made really quickly and easily with the aid of a food processor.

Simply put in all the ingredients: the avocado, cocoa powder, coconut butter, agave syrup, vanilla extract and salt, and blend until thick and smooth. You will need to open the food processor and push down the mixture from the sides a couple of times.

Spoon the mixture into small bowls and put in the fridge until required: it will keep for several hours. Serve decorated with the cacao nibs and strawberries, whole or sliced into a fan with the stem still attached.

GENEROUS MINCE PIES

Created by Rose Elliot for EthicallyEssential

Mince pies are about celebration, goodwill and kindness, so if you're going to the trouble of making them - and they're easy and fun to make - why not make them generous mince pies? GMPs are filled to the brim with delicious fresh and spicy fat-free mincemeat, sweetened with just the natural sugar in the fruits and a little maple syrup (with a little marsala or brandy thrown in because it's Christmas!) and wonderful light pastry made from wholemeal spelt flour. They're a real treat.

The fresh and spicy mincemeat recipe makes enough for 24 mince pies, and the pastry recipe will make 12. You could double the pastry quantities and make 24 mince pies all at once, or you could keep the remainder of the mincemeat in the fridge for up to a week and make another batch later. (The mincemeat is also lovely with vanilla ice cream!)

If you want to make a batch of 24, you'll need 2 shallow bun trays (each holding 12 mince pies), non-stick if possible That way you can leave the mince pies in the tins until you want them; saving a last minute rush. I sometimes get them all ready then freeze them, uncooked, in the tins, ready to finish off in the oven days or, if I'm really well organised, a week or two later.

FRESH AND SPICY MINCEMEAT

ENOUGH FOR 2 DOZEN MINCE PIES

125g (4oz) Essential dried fruit salad mix, including apricots and apple rings

175g (6oz) Essential super-fruit mix

50g (2oz) Essential apple-juice infused dried cranberries

4 tablespoons marsala, brandy or orange juice

2 tablespoons maple syrup

½ teaspoon ground Essential organic ginger

½ teaspoon Essential organic mixed spice

½ teaspoon Essential Fairtrade organic cinnamon

1 small banana, peeled

Chop the fruit salad mix using a knife or snipping it with scissors. Put into a bowl with the super fruit mix, dried cranberries, marsala, brandy or orange juice, maple syrup and spices. Mix well, then cover and leave for 12-24 hours, stirring occasionally.

Put the mixture into a food processor along with the banana and pulse until the mixture is chopped and blended, but still has some texture.

Keep in a covered bowl in the fridge for up to a week.

FOR THE PASTRY

This pastry is richer than a normal shortcrust, really easy to make, and comes out very light and crumbly, just how I like wholemeal pastry to be. If you can get wholemeal spelt flour - that is, flour milled from the original, oldest variety of wheat - do use that; it has a lovely sweet, nutty flavour. Otherwise, use a finely-milled wholemeal flour.

250g (9oz) Essential wholemeal spelt flour

175g (7oz) soft, salted butter or pure vegetable margarine

Put the flour and butter into a bowl. Using a fork, lightly blend them together until they form a dough.

Gather the dough up into a ball, knead it lightly on a floured board and roll it out, not too thinly.

TO MAKE THE GMPs

MAKES 1 DOZEN PIES [F]

Pastry as above

½ quantity (300-350g (10-12oz) of Fresh and Spicy Mincemeat, as above

3-4 tablespoons soya milk for brushing

a little caster sugar, for sprinkling

Set the oven to 220°C (425°F), gas mark 7.

On a lightly-floured board, roll the pastry out fairly thinly, but be gentle with it: this pastry is not supposed to roll out extra thin.

Cut circles to fit small tartlet tins; for my tins I use a 7cm (23/4in) round cutter for the base of the tins and a 5.7cm (21/2in) cutter for the top.

Ease the larger circles of pastry into the tins and fill with a good teaspoonful of mincemeat. Cover with a smaller pastry circle to fit the top, press down lightly.

Brush the tops of the pies with soya milk and sprinkle quite thickly with caster sugar. With a skewer make a steam-hole in the centre of each pie.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until the pastry is set and the sugar on top looks crisp.

Cool slightly, then carefully ease the GMPs from the tin using a palette knife.

TO FREEZE

You can do this after cooking, once the GMPs are completely cold, or freeze them in the tins before brushing with soya milk and sprinkling with sugar. To cook, de-frost, brush with soya milk, sprinkle with caster sugar and bake as described.

GOURMET RICE WITH PAK CHOI, WILD MUSHROOMS AND LEMON CREAM

Serves 4

This looks and tastes wonderful: a mound of red, brown and wild rice topped with tender pak choi and glossy wild mushrooms swirled with a smooth, rich lemon cream made from tofu (who would have thought tofu could ever taste this good!) and curly sprouted seeds. The dish consists of several parts, each of which is easy to make; you can get the mushrooms and the sauce prepared well in advance if convenient. You need to start sprouting the detox mix about 5 days in advance; alternatively you could use bought sprouted alfalfa seeds, pea shoots or rocket.

For the mushrooms

50g pack dried wild mushrooms

3 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

4 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

4 tablespoons shoyu

1 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice

For the lemon cream

250g firm tofu, broken into pieces

2 tablespoons light-flavoured oil, eg sunflower or grapeseed

1 garlic clove

1 teaspoon honey or agave syrup

2 tablespoons lemon juice

6 tablespoons water

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

250g (9 oz) gourmet rice mix

700ml (1¼ pints) water

2 packets (4 heads) pak choi

1 handful of sprouted de-tox mix, or alfalfa, pea shoots or rocket

Cover the mushrooms with cold water and leave to soak for at least 20 minutes: the longer the better, even overnight is fine. Drain, reserving 4 tablespoons of the soaking water.

Put the ginger, sesame oil, shoyu and lemon juice into a pan with the reserved soaking water and bring to the boil, then add the mushrooms, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Set aside.

To make the lemon cream, put all the ingredients into a high-powered blender or food processor and blend thoroughly until very smooth, adding a little more water if necessary to achieve the consistency of double cream: thick, but pourable. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Wash the rice in a sieve, put into a pan with the water and bring to the boil. Cover and leave to cook over a very gentle heat for about 40 minutes, until the rice is tender and all the water has been absorbed. Remove from the heat but leave covered.

Quarter the pak choi, cutting from the tip of the leaves to the root. Cook in 2.5cm (1 in) of boiling water, covered, for about 4 minutes, or until tender. Drain well.

Add the pak choi to the mushroom mixture and reheat gently, turning the pak choi so that it is coated with the delicious juices.

Divide the rice between 4 plates heaping it up attractively. Pile the pak choi and mushrooms on top, letting the juices run down over the rice. Drizzle the sauce over, and top each serving with some sprouts.