I wouldn’t exactly call scones a superfood, but they can certainly be made into a vaguely healthy snack: they’re home made, delicious, especially with home made jam on an autumn or winters afternoon, and can be easily be made dairy and gluten free.
There are countless recipes for scones, but the basic method is extremely simple, which means you can knock out a batch in less than 30 minutes: 5 minutes preparation and approximately 20-25 minutes baking time.
Some recipes add egg to the mixture, but I’ve never found any advantage to doing this, and adding sugar is completely unnecessary – you’re about to cover them in jam!
I’ve given the basic scone recipe below, which is very quick and easy, but check out this other recipe for a more interesting variation.
Basic scone recipe:
Ingredients:
- Self-raising flour (gluten free works fine) – 3 cups
- Olive oil or butter – 3 tablespoons
- Milk (cow’s milk, rice milk, oat milk, it doesn’t matter) – 1 cup
That’s it!
Instructions:
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C
- Mix the flour and oil/ butter in a bowl
- Rub together with your fingers until you get a fine breadcrumb-like texture. (you can sift the flour if you want but I find it doesn’t makes a great difference to how the scones rise)
- Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the milk
- Mix, just enough so you get a smooth dough, but try not to over-mix or knead
- Flour your hands and roll out the mixture into a slab about 3-4 cm thick
- Use a cookie cutter (or knife) to cut out your scones – you should get about 6-8 depending on size; place on a baking tray
- Brush the tops of the scones lightly with milk
- Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes, or until a light brown colour
- Serve immediately with jam or honey
(Tip: pack the scones tightly together on the baking tray – they will rise better)
A great way of using up excess veggies. You can make the tomato sauce (and even the dough) in bulk and freeze for future meals.
Ingredients:
Pizza Dough
- 250g Wholegrain Bread Flour
- 250g Strong White Bread Flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon raw sugar
- 2 teaspoons dried yeast
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 350ml warm water
Tomato Sauce
- 2 x 400g (2 tins) chopped/ whole tomatoes
- 1 red onion – finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic – roughly chopped or pressed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon raw sugar
- Handful of basil leaves
- Salt and black pepper for seasoning
Pizza topping (suggested, but try making up your own)
- Red onion – finely sliced
- Mushrooms – finely sliced
- Broccoli – chopped into small pieces
- Red pepper – thinly sliced
- Olives – chopped
- Feta cheese – 125g
Instructions:
Pizza base:
- Add the flour, yeast and sugar to a large bowl and mix together well
- Then add the olive oil, salt and water, and mix into a rough dough
- Flour your hands and place the dough onto a floured kitchen bench
- Knead for about 5 minutes until smooth (it will be very sticky initially)
- Place the dough into a clean bowl, and cover with a tea towel
- Place the bowl in a warm place and allow the dough to rise for at least 1 hour
- Once the dough has roughly doubled in size, poke it with your fingers until it collapses
- Take your collapsed dough and cut it up into 4-5 pieces which will be used as your pizza bases
Tomato sauce:
- Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, then add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes over a low-medium heat
- Add tomatoes, sugar, salt and black pepper
- Simmer for 30 minutes until you have a thick sauce
- Tear up the basil, add to the sauce and cook for another couple of minutes
- The sauce can be used immediately, kept in the fridge for a couple of days, or stored frozen for up to 6 months
Making up the pizza:
- Preheat your oven to 240ºC and put in a large baking tray/ pizza tray to heat up
- Place one of your dough pieces onto a floured sheet of baking paper and roll it out very thinly with a rolling pin to create your pizza base
- Spread a few tablespoons of your tomato sauce over the base, not too thinly
- Now start adding your toppings – mushrooms, broccoli, red pepper, olives etc
- If adding onion or leek, add them last to ensure they are cooked properly
- Remove the baking tray from the oven and slide your pizza and baking sheet onto the hot baking tray, and return to the oven
- Cook for 7 minutes, remove, crumble over the feta cheese and return to the oven for another 3 minutes
- Remove/ slice/ serve
Not quite as handy, but so much better than tinned baked beans.
Ingredients:
- 1 onion – small, finely chopped
- 1 carrot – medium, finely diced
- 1 red pepper or courgette – finely diced
- 3 garlic cloves
- 400g/ 1 tin chopped tomatoes
- 2 x 400g/ 2 tins butterbeans
- Tomato paste – 2 tablespoons
- Fresh thyme leaves – 1 handful
- Oregano – 1 teaspoon
- Feta cheese – 100g
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C
- Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a casserole/ ovenproof dish
- Add onion, carrot, red pepper, garlic, thyme and oregano
- Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes
- Then add the tomatoes, tomato paste, and approximately 1/2 cup of water
- Cover and cook for another 10 minutes
- Then add the butterbeans and stir
- Finally, crumble the feta over the top and place the dish in the oven
- Bake for 30 minutes (uncovered)
- Serve on toast
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Homemade Baked Beans
Essentially this a big bowl of goodness – rice, quinoa and veggies, set off with plenty of fresh herbs. As always, swaps and variations are possible; I like to add peas and tofu to the mix.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 small leek
- 1 large clove of garlic
- 1 tsp of ground cumin
- 1 tsp of ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 cup quinoa, washed
- 1 cup brown rice, washed
- 1 tsp miso paste
- 1 small can corn (160g)
- 1/2 can black beans or kidney beans (200g)
- 1 small red pepper, chopped
- 1 avocado, diced
- Handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered
- Small bunch each of fresh coriander, mint and parsley, chopped
- Squeeze of lime
- A pinch of dried chilli flakes
Instructions:
- Add the leek, garlic, cumin, coriander and smoked paprika to a large pan and soften over a low heat for a few minutes, with a splash of olive oil or water
- Then add the rice, miso paste and 3 cups of water
- Increase the heat, and bring to the boil, then cover and simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes
- Then add the quinoa and simmer for another 20-25 minutes until the rice and quinoa mixture is cooked
- Next, add the corn, beans and pepper, and up to 1 cup of water to prevent to mixture becoming too dry
- Cook for another further 5 minutes, until all the water has absorbed
- Remove the pan from the heat and add the chopped herbs, avocado and cherry tomatoes
- Finally, add a squeeze of lime and a pinch of dried chilli flakes and serve
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Burrito Bowl
A delicious and easy-to-prepare dip. Ideal for getting your kids (and yourself) to eat more veggies. Also good with flatbreads.
Ingredients:
- Chickpeas: 1 tin (400g)
- Chickpea liquid: 1/2 cup
- Garlic: 1 clove
- Tahini: 1/2 cup
- Juice of 1 lemon (1/3 cup)
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- Large pinch of Sea Salt
- Large pinch cayenne pepper
- Large pinch paprika
Instructions:
- Place ingredients in a blender and blend until desired consistency is reached
- Serve as a dip with chopped vegetables of your choice (eg. carrots, cucumber, celery)
Breakfast of champions!
Prepare the night before.
Ingredients: (for 1 serving)
- Oats – 2 cups
- Sunflower seeds – 1-2 tablespoons
- Raisins or sultanas – 1-2 tablespoons
- Almonds – 1-2 tablespoons
- Chia seeds – 1 tablespoon
- Cinnamon – 1 teaspoon
Instructions:
- Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl or kilner jar and soak in water overnight (variation – soak in apple juice overnight instead)
- In the morning, add some grated apple and seasonal berries, and stir through a couple of tablespoons of natural yoghurt for a creamier texture
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Bircher Mueseli
Most of us could do with eating more vegetables, and blending them into a smoothie is a quick and easy way of improving our daily intake.
There are of course endless variations on the green smoothie; here’s one:
Basic ingredients:
- 5 kale leaves
- A handful of spinach leaves
- 1/2 frozen banana
- 1.5 cups rice milk or coconut water
Try adding:
- 1 teaspoon hemp protein
- 1 teaspoon flax seeds
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds
Place in a blender and whizz for 30 seconds.
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Green Smoothie
