Spooky Soup (Hallowe'en 2007)
Celeriac, Apple and Chestnut Soup (October 2007)
Perfect Sauce for Pasta (September 2007)
Tabbouleh (August 2007)

I love feedback on my recipes so if you try this please do let us know what you think, especially if you have other variations that you'd recommend.

Spooky Soup!

A pumpkin is a type of squash and cultivated in North America, Europe and many other countries. Although orange is the most common colour with squash, some of the fruits are various greens, orange-yellow, white, red and even grey!

I think sometimes people are put off by pumpkins due to their size, but it is, at the end of the day, just a squash, like a courgette or a butternut squash.

Inside the hard orange or yellow skin, the bright orange flesh is sweet and honied. They are a good source of fibre, as well as Vitamin A. Go for pumpkins that feel heavy, with a smooth, firm skin.

Maybe I'm being a little predictable making a pumpkin soup, but its such a good winter warmer for your kids out Trick or Treating, and it's a great way to get vitamins into your kids. Adding apple to the soup balances out the sweetness of the pumpkin. How about making it a fun treat as opposed to chocolate, add raisins and pretend their witches eyes, and disguise a giant bowl as a couldron!

Don't throw away the seeds either, they're great to roast and sprinkle on top of the soup! Heat oven to 150ºC/ 300ºF. Rinse the pumpkin seeds in cold water. Remove as much of the pumpkin strings and flesh from the seeds as possible and dry thoroughly. In a bowl combine the pumpkin seeds, a little oil and seasoning (optional, but you can add anything from cinnamon to chilli flakes). Stir well and place on a single layer, foil lined baking sheet. Roast until golden brown and dry, about 30-40 minutes. Stir seeds every 10 minutes during cooking to prevent them from burning. Leave to cool.

Serves 6 (or loads of children!)

750g pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, diced
2 sticks of celery, chopped
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1 bramely apple, diced
1 large potato, chopped
1.5 litres of Vegetable Stock
Pinch of Nutmeg

Gently fry the onion, celery and garlic in a little oil and butter for about 10 minutes then add the pumpkin and coat the with the onion mixture. Add the stock, apple and potato and simmer until the pumpkin is tender (about 30 minutes). Blitz the soup in a food processor or the trusty hand blender. Re-heat on a gentle simmer. Season to taste.

Adding coconut milk towards the end of cooking gives the soup a distinctive taste and maybe adding a little chilli (only if the kids let you!)

Celeriac, Apple and Chestnut Soup

Cold, dark mornings, the clocks are going back...yes, winter is on its way. Which means one thing...home-made soup! I love winter because it means you can curl up on the sofa with those comfy tracksuit bottoms, baggy tops, those novelty hot water bottles and some fantastic home-made soup.

Personally, I think it's the most nutritious, economical way of cooking. Well, its not cooking really is it? It's just throwing some ingredients in a pan, bit of stock, blitz, done!

And the start of winter brings out those fantastic root vegetables, like parsnips, squash, turnips, beetroot and of course celeriac. All fantastic for soup. A little funny looking and also known as celery root, celeriac has a flavour similar to that of celery and parsley. It has a tough outer skin so its always best to peel it. It's great used in roasting vegetables or mash with potato for a slightly different flavour to your mash. Try grating celeriac for a slighty unusual salad.

Celeriac is also very nutritious, containing Vitamin C, potassium and phosphorus.

I chose this recipe because root vegetables and autumn fruit have this fantastic pairing; the creaminess of the root vegetables go perfectly with the tart fruit. Think parsnip and apple, carrot and orange, even beetroot and orange. I find chestnuts give it that slight nuttiness and crunch too. So wrap up well and enjoy!

Serves 4:

- 1kg of celeriac, peeled and chopped.
- 1 large bramley apple, chopped.
- The Organic Collection, Cooked and Peeled Chestnuts 200g, chopped
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 2 sticks of celery, diced
- 1.2 litres good quality stock
- Wayfairer Fairtrade & Organic Whole Nutmeg, just a pinch.
- A little butter and oil for frying

Fry the onion and celery for a few minutes until translucent then add the garlic. Cook for a further few minutes. Add the celeriac, apple and chestnuts and coat in the onion mixture. Add the stock and cook on a simmer for about 45 minutes. Blitz in a blender (in batches as there's quite a lot of soup, but then those hand blenders are great and saves on that fiddly washing up for those industrial blenders!).

Put back on the heat, add the nutmeg and season to taste. Add some cream for a more luxurious soup or even some milk for the weight watcher!

I like to sprinkle some chopped chestnuts and celery leaves on each bowl for fancy decoration. Or if you're feeling adventurous, deep fry some peeled celeriac shavings and sprinkle these on top. Those root vegetable crisps are good too. Crumbled blue cheeses make this soup extra rich.

Experiment with different types of seasonal root vegetables and fruit. Even try grating the fruit and add to the soup once it has been blended.

Oh, and don't forget the warm, crusty bread!

Perfect Sauce for Pasta

Tomatoes and garlic are coming to the end of their season in October so get cooking!

I love this recipe because it's so versatile, which is why you don't even need to stick to the proportions...no-fuss cooking, which is what it should be about.

It is also such a good recipe because it's a dish that I would make in advance and freeze until needed. You'll have a perfect pasta sauce made in 10 minutes, and so healthy. Sometimes the trusty tin of tomatoes gets a bit boring so jazz it up with this recipe!

Firstly, buy your peppers and tomatoes. I always try to go to my local fruit and veg shop as I think it's pretty important to support your local producers and most of the products are better value for money and fresher, with less packaging than your supermarket.

I tend to use red peppers as they're a little sweeter. For the tomatoes, any are good. Plum, cherry or regular salad tomatoes all work just as well. But if you're being really extravagant the vine tomatoes taste and smell amazing, but these tend to be a little more expensive. Peppers and tomatoes are coming to the end of their season at the moment so this is the best time to get cooking and freezing this sauce ready for those cold winter nights when only a warming pasta dish will do!

Serves 2:

- About 3 peppers and 2 tomatoes (I find more peppers than tomatoes makes the sauce a little richer)
- Bulb of garlic (adjust to taste - sounds like a lot but it's not as potent when cooked)
- Woody herbs such as thyme, rosemary etc.
- Good lug of olive oil!
- Whole chilli (optional)
- Good sprinkle of Billingtons Fairtrade Demerara Sugar

Cut tomatoes in half and the peppers in large chunks and place on a roasting tray, with the garlic bulb (don't remove the skin, leave it on!), herbs and chilli (if using). Pour over a generous drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle over the sugar, any sugar is fine, I use fine Demerara or caster. Season, and roast for about 45 mins at 190 deg. If you have the time, roast on a really low temperature, say, 120deg for a few hours, the tomatoes and peppers will be lovely and sweet!

Leave to cool then blitz all ingredients (remember to remove skin from garlic!). This will then freeze brilliantly. Take out the freezer when you need it. Perfect!

It might look like there's not a lot of sauce for your pasta but I like to add half a tin of tomatoes to it once I've taken out of the freezer, just to pad it out and make it go a little further. But if you like only a small amount of sauce, sometimes a little goes a long way with a pasta like spaghetti, then don't add the tin of tomatoes.

For an extra treat, I like to add a little crème fraiche, cream or soured cream just before serving.

Yummy.

Why not add:

- Cooked chicken, bacon, or sausages to the sauce.
- Olives, feta and basil is a really good combo. Or any chesse like goats cheese or parmesan.
- Use as a bruschetta topping (keep quite chunky rather than blended to a sauce) or use on a base for pizza.

Tabbouleh

Basil, garlic and tomatoes are all in season in August so this dish is perfect for those late summer months.

Tabbouleh is a Middle-Eastern dish traditionally made with bulgur wheat and mint. There are many varieties of Tabbouleh (and many spellings!). With any dish, it will change as to whichever region or country you're in, especially in the USA, where Tabbouleh is made with majoritively all parsley and hardly any grain. This is debatable in the Middle-East; they would not use parsley, rather mint and more of the bulgur grain.

This is such an easy recipe to make and so versatile and even keeps well in the fridge, so I tend to make a big batch in advance to go with any meal! I like to be controversial and use loads of different herbs to get a variety of flavours. Tomatoes are also in season at the moment so go for the best and have local, organic tomatoes. Latest research also shows that organic tomatoes contain more flavonoids (quercetin and kaempferol) than tomatoes grown with fertilisers, and because they're in season they shouldn't be that much more expensive than your regular salad tomato. You could even try growing your own. All you need is a packet of seeds, a growing bag and a sunny place.

Don't stick to my recipe or the traditional bulgur, mint, lemon juice and tomato either. This is just a good base to start your creation!

I have also used Quinoa in this recipe, mainly because of its health benefits. It's packed full of protein and unlike other grains contains all essential amino acids. But you could use the traditional Bulgur Wheat, Cous Cous, or the wheat-free grain Millet.

I use Fairtrade and organic local products where available. We have a great range of fairtrade & organic spices - why not experiment with the recipe below.

Serves 3

- 150g Fairtrade Quinoa (rinsed before cooking, just to remove any natural saponins that are left on the skin).
- 1 tsp ground Fairtrade Cinnamon.
- ½ large or 1 small red onion, finely chopped
- Zest of 1 Fairtrade lemon
- Juice of ½ Fairtrade lemon
- 3 tomatoes, finely chopped (I don't bother removing skin but you can if you prefer)
- Loads of fresh herbs, more the better!! (I use mint, parsley, coriander and basil)
- 1 tablespoon of any healthy oil, i.e. Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Rapeseed Oil or Equal Exchange Amazon Flame Brazil Nut Oil
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 2 inch stick cucumber, finely chopped (You may want to salt the cucumber if your tabbouleh is being made far in advance, so most of the liquid is drawn out of the cucumber and does not make your Tabbouleh watery, but to be honest, this is not really that necessary).
- 2/3 tablespoons Suma Vine Fruit Mix

Cook the Quinoa as per instruction with the ground cinnamon. It's normally twice the volume of water and simmer for 20 minutes or until the water is absorbed.
Add remaining ingredients. Season if required. This will keep for a good few days in the fridge.

Additional ingredients for a bit of variety:

-Handfuls of other dried fruit are really good too. Such as dried apricots (un-sulphured variety), cranberries, Fairtrade dates or prunes.
- Nuts and Seeds such as toasted almonds; walnuts; Fairtrade cashew nuts; sunflower, pumpkin or poppy seeds. Or even Alfalfa Sprouts or any sprouted seeds.
- Fruit is a great thing to add to up your vitamin intake too. Try pomegranate, grapes or diced apple (mixed with some lemon juice to stop discolouration)
- Diced or grated vegetables also make this healthier. How about grated raw carrot, griddled aubergine or cooked peas.
- Cooked or tinned pulses make it more filling. Try chick peas or cooked soya beans.