It’s been an extra-ordinary couple of months for everyone. (finally understand what that word really means…)

Cutting our holiday short wasn’t the greatest thing that we’ve ever done. That aside we’ve been trying to make the best of lockdown by spending more time in the kitchen, a no-brainer really. To see more about our trip to the Caribbean and what we discovered, become a VIP for free by following the link.

This month 

We would definitely recommend getting busy in the kitchen if your looking for something to occupy your time with. There’s no better moment to invest in your health than now by taking control of what you eat. Make it exciting and nourishing – it helps.

Scarcity of flour aside… it’s OK food wise .
Trying to keep shop trips to a minimum keeps us on our toes.
We’ve got a few great meal ideas to share: this is our lockdown pizza .

Method:
1) Blend dates, water, apple cider vinegar and sea moss in a blender to make smoothie.

2) Sift flour, yeast and bicarbonate into a large bowl (if you have a dough mixer it’s so much easier).

3) Add oil to flour. Then combine boiled water with smoothie to make a warm mixture.

4) Make a well in the flour and slowly add liquid until a dough ball forms. If your using a dough mixer, mix on a low speed for 2 minutes, scraping the sides of mixing bowl.

5) Dough mixer: mix on a high speed for 3 minutes.
By hand: knead for 10 minutes until you get a smooth dough.

6) Cover your mixing bowl with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm dark place for a minimum of 1.5 hours.

Sauce Ingredients:
3 sun dried tomatoes
150 ml water
3 dates
Seasoning peppers (if unavailable use 1/2 bell pepper de-seeded)
1 medium tomato
1 tbsp tomato purée
1/2 clove garlic
1 tbsp oregano
4 pitted olives

Method:
1) Combine all the ingredients together and blend in a blender or with a handheld immersion blender and set aside.
There’s no need to pre-cook this sauce it’s ready to go .

Wild Garlic Pesto Ingredients:
Wild garlic season is here so keep your nose out on walks in case you come across some. Check your favourite foraging book for tips on how to locate and harvest this. We were looking for old trees in a damp environment and we smelt it before we saw it! Give it a thorough wash before using (or buy some if you see it).

1 handful of wild garlic
15 g basil
1 handful of rocket
1/3 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp agave

Simply combine all these ingredients and blend to the consistency you prefer, we like a mixture of textures in ours so not too smooth.

Remember less is more with pizza toppings!

Our Toppings were:
olives
mushroom
courgette
ground walnuts
wild garlic pesto
fresh rocket

Assembly:
Thinly roll out dough to 12 inches diameter.
To top pizza, add sauce first, spreading evenly across the base. Then sprinkle ground walnuts. We liked to then stuff thinly sliced olives in the crust of the pizza by pressing them down on the slightly thicker dough on the outside.
Simply scatter the remaining toppings evenly across the pizza being careful not to over-do it.

Put pizza into a pre-heated oven as hot as it goes for 8 – 10 minutes and you have a pizza worth staying home for.

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Next Month

• We will be looking at urban gardening and the best way to maximise your space. Hopefully we will have some sprouts to show from our vegetable patch.

Is it just us or did January feel like a long month! We are welcoming in the shorter month of February and the lighter days. This month has been all about chocolate and sea vegetables (sounds like a strange combo, but suspend your disbelief). If you’d like to know more about what we’re cooking then become a VIP for free by following the link.

This month 

Our smoothie challenge started off great, but then life got hectic, so we probably averaged 4 smoothies a week. This led us to discover a little life-hack with our marine phytoplankton supplement. When we couldn’t make a smoothie we started to mix 1/4 tsp of this nutritious sea vegetable with a shot of water and a shot of ginger pressé. The juice disguised that sushi seaweed flavour really well. So far eczema is improving, but we’re not sure if it’s the plankton or increased water consumption. Fingers crossed it keeps improving.

Seamoss, while being mineral rich, also acts as a great emulsifier and preservative. We’ve been using our seamoss gel and sous-vide machine to create delectable truffles. We hope to be receiving  taster pack of seamoss from St Lucia soon. When we do, we will let you know if it is The One!

We have almost finished our e-book based on ideas from our sold-out pop-up, More Thyme for Plantain. For those of you on our VIP Mailing List, we will be sharing some of the recipes for free.

We have been experimenting with ways to cook mushrooms and are totally reconsidering how we see this delicious fungus. Rather than a side, think of it as the star of your meal. This means using chunky portions and trying to buy the mushrooms clusters that are now available through the Wicked brand and some farmers markets. Interestingly, mushrooms that have been grown outside in partial sunlight, contain well over your RDA of vitamin D. If you’re not sure about your shrooms, place them in midday sun for 15 minutes.

We are starting to get inspiration for a very special pop-up dining experience. We will let you all know when details are finalised, but let’s just say it will be elegant, delicious and educational.

Next month

This March we will be jetting off to St Lucia and Dominica to visit our families and introduce them to our little man. We are VERY excited, although a little nervous about the long haul flight with a 20 month old. We will also be doing some flavour research into street food and island food history. We will be sure to share some stories with you on our return.

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A new year, a new start and lots of resolutions! We’d like to share some of our Veganuary life-hacks and recipe ideas, so read on for food inspiration. If you’d like to know more about what we’re cooking then become a VIP for free by following the link.

Oh-Mega Pancakes

This month 

We celebrate the little guys and all the strength they bring. Marine phytoplankton is an incredibly nutritious and sustainable food source. It is packed with vitamins, omega-3 and all of the amino acids (protein) you need. It helps your body to create new healthy cells, and isn’t that what a New Year is all about? Renewal, growth and healing. Marine phytoplankton is a micro algae found in our oceans. It is responsible for 90% of the earth’s oxygen! Say what? That’s right- 90%. This month we have been introducing this little fella into our diet, cloaking the pond flavour in ginger, banana & peanut butter smoothies. We’re really hoping the plankton helps eczema as some research suggests- we will keep you guys posted.

Oh yes we’ve done it… we’ve joined a gym. We actually joined in December because we didn’t want it to feel like a New Year fad. So far, so good. Combining classes, swimming, workouts and spa time, we’re managing to stop it from feeling boring. We are loving those exercise endorphins and are somehow finding a way of balancing childcare with self-care. Take that, 2020!

We have set ourselves the target of producing a PDF of our cookbook by April. So many people have been approaching us to ask about its release. It seems like you guys really want some fast, easy, tasty and nutritional plant-based recipes. So, as publishing takes a while, we are going to get you a digital version ASAP. The morning after our New Year’s eve party, we mastered our Oh-Mega Pancakes recipe… we say party, but it was more like a toddler’s sleepover, with all adults crashing out at just gone midnight. Rock ‘n’ Roll baby. At least it meant we were clear headed when feeding our guests on the first morning of the year. Join our VIP mailing list for a sneak preview of the pancake recipe and to be the first to hear about the PDF release.

Next month

• We will be experimenting with chocolate making, using our favourite mineral booster, seamoss. Let’s see how many truffles, chocolate bars and cakes we can get ready for February 13th, Black Love Day.
• Can we commit to a smoothie challenge? We are aiming to create a smoothie a day (all with marine phytoplankton). We are determined to set 2020 off to a beautiful start.

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This month the cold has really started to set in. The British climate means that the tastiest fresh veg you are going to find at this time of year is squash and kale. We’ve been adding warmth to our evenings with vibrant soups packed full of goodness.

Green Soup

What We’ve Been Cooking | Seasonal Soup

We were supposed to work at our Crystal Palace Market stall and had bought lots of kale to make our Kosmic Kale Salad. Unfortunately we were all ill and so had to cancel. This left us with a kale heavy fridge! We decided to make an iron & vitamin A rich soup, to help us with our recovery.

Creamy Kale Soup | Serves 10

What you need:
2 packs kale
1/2 pack watercress
1/2 pack spinach
1/2 plantain
4 spring onions
dash of rapeseed oil
1/2 pack coriander
1 lime
2 large white onions
1 block cream of coconut
1 litre boiling water
1 tbsp thyme
1 large clove garlic
salt & pepper to taste

saucepan
wooden spoon
blender
pairing knife

How to:

1. Roughly chop onions and soften in a large pan with a little oil.
2. Add thyme, chopped plantain and garlic; sauté until onions caramelise.
3. Add coconut cream block in pieces and stir until it softens.
4. Add boiling water and simmer until coconut dissolves.
5. Add kale and simmer for 2 minutes
6. Add spinach, watercress and coriander. Blend
7. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, squeeze of lime, spring onion finely sliced and some crusty sourdough bread.

Here is a round up of what we’ve been doing this month. If you’d like to know more about what we’re cooking, get discounts and special invites, then become a VIP by following the link.

This month

Matoke Green Bananas: originate from East Africa

We have rediscovered soups. We have some really tasty recipes, using seasonal veg… in the U.K this is limiting us to squash and kale. But you know there’s a lot of life you can breathe into meals using the right seasoning and sourcing the best veg you can.

We’ve tried out British hemp flour in our pizza dough- a great source of protein and omega-3 don’t-cha know. We’re really getting into the power of hemp. It’s much overlooked, but if you’re plant-powered it’s well worth doing some research into how you can get it into your life. We’re using hemp oil and flour to give our bodies a boost. We’re also learning about hempcrete- an alternative to concrete that is sustainable and actually helps to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

We have cooked Matoke green bananas in so many different ways your head would spin. You can use them as a potato alternative. They are a great source of B6 and help your body to absorb calcium. We find cutting off the ends and boiling them in skins for a couple of minutes helps us to peel them more easily.
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Next month

We will be planning our plant-powered cooking class with Life After Hummus. VIP’s will receive a gift from us if they attend.

We will take our foray into hemp products to the next level and create a British hemp oil pesto, all locally sourced. Become a VIP to find out more

To become a VIP and enjoy free recipes, special offers, and invites to private events please click here.