Welcome to the Blog

Hi everyone! If you're here for the deliciously fun and easy Curried Root Veg Soup with Beet Crisps, then please scroll down to the end of the blog post. You'd find the mouth-watering vegan recipe there. If you're happy to read my musings on my eye-opening recent trip to the US, then please read on and get to the recipe later.

Earlier this year, my 4-year-old son and I (my husband joined us later) took an epic journey to the Americas. We’d talked about the trip for weeks and were both beyond excited as we boarded our plane on a Thursday evening and set off to the first of many destinations: Miami, Florida. 

To be frank, I had been quite nervous about travelling and especially about visiting the States (You know, I always feel rather overwhelmed and saddened by the excessive availability of cheap, unhealthy convenience foods on offer when I enter the US  and I was worried about how my son would manage this new and surely tempting experience. (He was fine by the way)). 

I knew that cooking and eating healthily far away from the comforts of my own kitchen wouldn’t be straight forward, so I needed to do lots of pre-planning and thinking about how best to make it all work. Sure, I didn’t want to obsess about food either, but I certainly wanted to be cautious and avoid any processed, (factory farmed) animal-based foods, if at all possible.

The flight went well. I brought a lot of healthy food with me and bought some water at the airport, meaning we ate really well and stayed hydrated for the whole of the plane journey. What I hadn’t expected was what happened at passport control…

We were met by a grumpy, but chatty border control officer who questioned me about why - as an American Citizen - I had chosen to live permanently in London. He told me that the idea of living in the UK repulsed him (WT??!!). I asked him why and he explained that he thought British food was awful – pickled eels, toad-in-a-hole, mad cow disease. I was gobsmacked! After a 9.5 hour flight all I could come up with was a bitchy stammer which went something like this: ‘Gosh I think British food has moved on since then [insert – I pulled some faces and muttered some inaudible nonsense].’ And his comeback was – horse meat! 

I was so furious but annoyingly couldn’t utter a single word beyond the ones noted above. I have jet lag as my excuse OK?! But of course the responses I should have given him came thick and fast hours even days later as the scene played itself out in my mind again and again:

''Have you ever even been to the UK? Have you ever tried picked eels or toad in a hole or any other traditional British dishes? Have you thought about where your meat comes from and how it is produced? You a…..e!''

Of course, I have no chance to go back and say these things. So the best comeback I have got is to post 2 cracking dishes on the blog for British Food Fortnight, dedicated to the place I currently call home. I hope my food speaks louder than any words I could have said, as I aim to show that British food can be sexy, tasty and good. 

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HOME-MADE PITA BREAD (V, NF, ChF)

I have been really keen to use this blog as a space to experiment and to explore what I am capable of in the kitchen. I feel The Little Plantation is the perfect excuse to step out of my comfort zone and just go for it, like this delicious home-made pita bread. If I can’t be a daredevil in real life, I better be one in cyberspace, right?

My biggest fear has always been baking bread. I know it’s a bit ridiculous but I just never knew how or where to start and frankly I thought all that kneading business looked rather complicated. Plus I believed that you needed lots of patience (something I lack) and heaps of time (something I never have enough of) (SPOILER ALERT: I was right, you need both but it’s totally worth it and it ain't as bad as it sounds). 

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Sometimes all your stars align, destiny firmly grabs hold of the steering wheel and you are lead in one direction and one direction alone. Guess what? That’s exactly what happened with me and this pistachio yoghurt. Personally, I even think the pistachio yoghurt fairies were calling my name super loudly cuz this yoghurt just had to happen and this is the story of how everything came about:

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Tada, so here it is! THE post I’ve been hinting at for a quite while now - Goldilocks's Raw Vegan Porridge! I am beyond excited about the video (watch it here) and I’m so keen to hear what you all make of it. I do you enjoy it.

The day of the shoot was loads of fun (with some boring and repetitive bits in between, but it’s all for a good cause, right?). I got to work with the lovely husband and wife team, Jo and Raf from Joasis Photography, who also took the pictures of me on my ‘about’ page. They are talented with a good eye for detail and they are always the people I turn to for anything to do with photography. So when the idea of a video came up, it felt natural to approach them about it. They were super enthusiastic and had lots of ideas and this, my friends, is the end product!

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In a perfect world and in the perfect home, I’d be the perfect wife, perfect mother and perfect cook who does all her meal plans weeks, no, MONTHS in advance. There would never been over-ripe fruit lingering in the fruit bowl or unused veg in the fridge as everything would be bought at the right time and in the right quantity. Of course, that’s not what happens in our house! Instead, I buy what catches my eye, a little more if it’s on at a special price and too much if I’m super greedy. 

That’s the story behind the papayas I used for this recipe. I just went crazy and bought LOADS. A week after my purchase they looked rather neglected, but smelled sweet and inviting. So I did what I often do, go to a magical place called Pinterest (I LOVE it there by the way) and typed in ‘vegan papaya dessert’. There was just 1 dessert that really caught my eye – a recipe by Medha who write the stunning blog Farmonplate. Thank you Medha for your continual inspiration.

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NOTE: The pictures for this blog post were in part updated in June, 2016.

Hi everyone!  If you're here for the fresh, summery and sexy watermelon gazpacho recipe, then please scroll down to the end of the blog post. You'd find the easy vegan recipe there. If you're happy to read about my wonderful visit with my amazingly talented sister, then please read on and get to the recipe later.

Question: What’s even better than making some fabulicious, seasonal plant-based food? Answer: Making it and sharing it with someone you ADORE. And for this week’s blog post I got to do just that as my gorgeous and über-talented little sis’ Sumera flew all the way from Berlin to come and visit hubby, son and ME in our humble London home.

Sumera might look familiar as she was one of the finalists on the Dutch X Factor a few years ago and apart from being graced with a voice that sends chills down my spine, this little tweety bird can put together a fierce plate of food too. We were ‘cooking’ up a storm in the kitchen, preparing a recipe handed down to us by my mama. So a true family affair all the way ‘round which resulted in a bowl full of LOVE.

 

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The avocado is a bit of a star in the raw vegan world, isn’t it? And it is easy to see why - avocado is so versatile, wonderfully nourishing and utterly delicious. Consequently, it is often used in green vegan smoothies and luscious raw ‘cheese’ cakes. Essentially, what the avocado does to perfection is lend all these desserts a smooth, creamy texture without impacting negatively on their taste. 

It’s mind-blowing all that it can do, but my husband says that we’re corrupting the poor avocado; that it was never meant to be hidden in some sweet drink or worse still a raw vegan chocolate mousse. Instead he feels avocado should take centre stage in a savoury dish, the good old fashioned way. (Although ironically, on a recent business trip to Indonesia the locals were appalled when they saw my husband sprinkle salt on his avocado. After much persuasion, they tried it, apprehensively, with a polite smile, before quickly scraping the salt off and reverting back to using their avocado where it belonged – in a sweet smoothie, thank you very much! LOL!)

But I’m with my husband on this one. Though I love raw vegan desserts that use avocado, I think it’s most enjoyable as part of a savoury dish without sugar overpowering its delicate and subtle flavours. I just like to keep any recipe involving avocado super simple, so that the avocado can really shine. Hence why I love this recipe so much and love sharing it with you; it ALWAYS turns out marvellous, it is ALWAYS a big hit at parties and it is ALWAYS so satisfyingly yummy!

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