This week my daughter made a wonderful bean stew that's perfect for the blustery, cold and wet weather we're experiencing at the moment. Made with a selection of nourishing, sweet, seasonal root vegetables, this stew is very delicately spiced and yet very warming. There's nothing more satisfying than stews and soups in the Winter months.
I love fruit cakes and this cake is almost guilt free since it derives its sweetness from natural, unrefined sources. The almonds provide a nutritious boost to the cake making it ideal for breakfast, snacking and afternoon tea.
Courgettes or zucchini to my friends across the pond, have only really become popular in the UK over the past ten years. The first time I discovered them though was about twenty years ago when a French teenager came to stay for a few weeks one Summer, he sliced a couple and fried them in a pan, YUM!!!!
This soup is a taste of the sunny Mediterranean, created by combining the intense, concentrated flavour of roasted tomatoes with courgettes and Italian herbs.
Carrots and Courgettes are packed with nutrients so you can feel really good about yourself when you eat these muffins! Courgettes are rich in vitamin C and Carrots are rich in Vitamin A and by combining the two together you also benefit from Vitamins B1, B2, B6, E and K as well as folic acid and the minerals potassium, manganese, phosphorous, magnesium and copper.
A highlight of our Toronto holiday was our meal at Raw Aura in Port Credit, just down the road from where I was staying with my son, his lovely wife and my beautiful, sweet grandson. We don't have a raw food restaurant near where we live in Yorkshire. I think people prefer a more Northern Diet however Yorkshire born Alistair Brownlee did state that he thought his diet of puddings and pies helped him to win the Triathlon at the Olympic Games. Really!
As Autumn approaches I look forward to preparing brightly coloured, nutritious root vegetable soups. While most vegetables are available all year round, for foods which can be considered to be "in season" then I think Autumn is possibly my favourite season of the year. Root vegetables top my favourite vegetable list and they contain all the necessary vitamins and anti-oxidants to give a boost our immune system, protecting us in the cold months ahead.
