​I've been experimenting a bit with options for our Christmas dinner and I've decided on this rather delicious dish!

Plus it looks great too and is sure to impress your guests!

We tend to have lots of options and a Christmas table full to overflowing with festive fare but we all love cooking and have the time to spare but food is a priority in our house.

The saying there are those who live to eat and those who eat to live and we definitely fall into the first category! We love food! 

So back to this really simple but elegant dish. The most difficult part is cutting holes in the butternut squash! I have a really good plain round cookie cutter which worked really well. I also tried a fluted option which although more difficult to cut through, left a lovely flower shaped hole, although the hole is filled with stuffing mix so just go with the plain option! 
Cut slices about an inch thick and buy a butternut squash with a long neck end so you can cut a good few slices out!

I decided also to try the stuffing mix with portobello mushrooms and it worked really well and was simpler and quicker since the mushrooms don't need pre cooking prior to adding the stuffing and you don't have to cut a hole in them! You just give them a wipe with a damp cloth, put them on a lightly greased baking tray and spoon generous amount of stuffing mix and a wee drizzle of oil then bake them for around 20 minutes or so!
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Doesn't get much easier than that!

Okay so the stuffing has a lovely festive flavour from the cranberries, chestnuts and herbs. If you can't find chestnuts then you can replace them with walnuts or hazelnuts. I used Merchant Gourmet vacuum packed cooked chestnuts from Waitrose.

Another time saving tip is to use a can of cooked lentils! Then its simply a matter of frying an onion, garlic, herbs then adding the other ingredients and heating it through.
I am going to make up my stuffing mix and freeze it so I'll be good to go on Christmas day.
If you have fresh sage, rosemary or thyme in the garden then add a good chopped spoonful of all of them. Alternatively you can use dried herbs.

I served a slice of squash and a big mushroom with a delicious gluten free, extremely healthy mushroom gravy, which is made with cooked brown rice, mushrooms, stock, herbs, garlic, tamari or balsamic vinegar and  optional nutritional yeast flakes! 

All you do is simmer the mushrooms, stock and cooked rice for 10 minutes then add herbs, garlic and seasoning and blend the lot into a delicious vegan gravy. No faffing around with lumpy flour and butter for me!!


FESTIVE STUFFED SQUASH 
Ingredients to serve  6

• 1 large butternut squash, or 2 medium, preferably with a long neck end
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 or 2 tablespoons good quality oil, olive, rapeseed or avocado

• 150 g puy lentils or 1 can of cooked lentils
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or crushed
• 125g button mushrooms, finely diced
• 30 g dried cranberries
• handful baby spinach
• 60 g cooked chestnuts, walnuts or hazelnuts, chopped
• 2 or 3 sprigs thyme
• tablespoon finely chopped sage & rosemary (optional) or 1 tsp dried herbs
• large pinch nutmeg
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. If using fresh lentils, then rinse them, add to a pan with double the amount of water to cover and gently simmer for 25 minutes until cooked, then drain them.
3. Wash the buttternut squash and cut 1 inch slices from the long neck end. You should get between 4 and 6 depending on the size of your squash.
4. Now the tricky bit! Cut a hole in the middle of each slice using a cookie cutter. You may have to press quite hard to get it through or cut it from both ends and use a knife to loosen the edges but remember the hole will be covered with stuffing mix so it doesn't matter if its perfectly neat or not.
5. The pieces of squash you have cut out, cut them into small dice to add to the stuffing.
6. Lightly grease a baking tray and place the slices of squash on it, drizzle or brush with a little oil and season with sea salt and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Add the diced squash to the tray and drizzle with a bit of oil.
7. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pan and add the onion, diced mushrooms, garlic and fresh thyme leaves. Cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes or so until soft.
8. Add the cranberries, chopped chestnuts and drained lentils, good pinch of nutmeg and fresh or dried herbs. Check the seasoning.
9. Take the squash slices out of the oven and add the cooked diced squash to the stuffing mix. Add a good handful of baby spinach and stir until it wilts. 
10. Fill each squash ring with a good spoonful of stuffing mix, drizzle with a little oil and return to the oven for another 20 to 30 minutes until the squash is cooked through.
11. If you are using Portobello mushrooms then just wipe them, remove the stalks, place on a greased baking tray, fill with the stuffing, add a drizzle of oil and bake in the oven for around 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the mushrooms. You can just omit the cooked diced squash from the stuffing mix if you are only using mushrooms. One large mushroom per person should be fine! 

VEGAN MUSHROOM GRAVY

Ingredients

• 1 cup of cooked brown rice
• 125g mushrooms, wiped with a damp cloth and diced finely
• 500 mls veggie stock
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon tamari or  balsamic,or apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes (optional)
• sea salt and black pepper
• 1 tsp dried herbs or fresh sage or thyme

Method

1. Simply put the rice, chopped mushrooms, stock, garlic and herbs into a small pot and simmer gently for 10 minutes until the mushrooms are cooked.
2. Blend with a stick blender until smooth then add tamari, vinegar or lemon juice.
3. Add nutritional yeast flakes, if using, taste and adjust the seasoning.
4. Pour into a gravy boat and serve!

                                     

 It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, well it is in our house, apart from the fact that we all have a sore throat, so we've not been singing festive songs as much as usual!
I've been having sea salt baths with lavender and tea tree, downing shots of turmeric, ginger and lemon and eating loads of Immune boosting soup and fermented garlic!
I always use drugs as a last resort once I've given all my natural remedies a chance to work! I'm feeling better but now Kathryn and Laura have a sore throat!! Its always the same at this time of year!

Anyway I'm still in full on festive food mood and have a few more brilliant recipes to share before Christmas!

I came across this recipe on the awesome Kellie Andersons excellent blog food to glow
she has some incredible recipes, mostly plantbased and all delicious and healthy.
Her blog is well worth a look, I love her style of cooking and the flavour she manages to pack into her recipes is amazing!

So back to this great recipe... 

These wee crackers would make a great gift, presented in a wee bag and tied with twine or ribbon. You can be creative and cut out all sorts of shapes. That's the brilliant thing about making your own stuff, you know exactly what the ingredients are and you can personalise most recipes to suit your own tastes and preferences. 

Kids would also love making these and they make a nice change from sweet biscuits covered in icing! These crackers actually taste a little sweet and have a lovely crunch and festive flavour. They would be perfect with a Christmas cheese board (lots of dairyfree vegan cheeses around too) or as an accompaniment to dips or just plain as a wee snack!
The recipe makes lots of crackers so I have frozen half the dough and will make more crackers next week when we've eaten all this batch!

I used avocado oil in mine but olive oil or any mild tasting oil would work. Kellie's original recipe added 50 ml orange juice and the zest of a small orange but I didn't have any so I added a bit more water instead and used 1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice instead of ginger.

The trick is to try and roll the dough out fairly thinly for nice crisp crackers. Just be sure to flour your work surface well or use 2 sheets of greaseproof paper and roll the dough on the paper with one sheet on top. You can then put the greaseproof paper directly onto an oven tray.

I just lightly greased and floured 2 baking trays and the crackers crisped up nicely and didn't stick at all!
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So here is the slightly adapted recipe..

CRANBERRY & HAZELNUT CRACKERS

Ingredients

• 120 g wholemeal flour
• 100g porridge oats
• 50 ml olive, avocado or rapeseed oil
• 50 g chopped hazelnuts, lightly toasted
• 2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds or linseeds
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 25 g dried cranberries, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup, rice syrup or honey
• 120 ml warm water
• 1/2 to 1 tsp mixed spice, cinnamon or ginger

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160 C for a fan oven/ 180 C conventional / 350 F
2. Put the flour, oats, salt, flax seeds and poppy seeds in a large bowl.
3. Toast the hazelnuts for 10 mins in a moderate oven, then cool them and rub them between your fingers to remove the skins. Either put them in a bag and bash them with a rolling pin to break them up. Put a tea towel underneath to deafen the noise!
4. Add the hazelnuts, chopped cranberries and mixed spice to the bowl and mix it all together.
5. Add the oil, syrup and the water and mix until you have a cohesive dough. You can just use your hands for this. Add extra warm water if the dough is a bit dry. Similarly if the dough is too wet or sticky then sift a bit more flour and mix it in until the dough is smooth. It depends on the flour you use, exactly how much water you need but its not crucial to use exact amounts. Just use your own judgement!
6. Put the dough in the fridge for at least 30 mins to firm up and make it easier to roll.
7. Cut the dough into 2 pieces and work with one piece at a time. I actually froze half so just used half the dough which makes plenty of crackers!
8. Dust your work top well with flour and your rolling pin and roll the dough out as thinly as you dare! Cut out shapes using whatever cutters you fancy or if you don't have any cutters you can use the top of a glass dipped in flour or just roll the dough into a rectangle shape then using a sharp knife mark the dough into squares, rectangles or fingers.
9. Transfer your crackers to a lightly oiled and floured baking tray and bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, turning the trays halfway through to bake evenly. 
10. Cool on a cooling rack then store in a tupperware container, where they will keep happily for around 2 weeks, if they last that long!!

                   .....your health in your hands.....

Christmas is almost upon us so I thought I'd do a wee round up post of recipes to see you through the festive season. Almost all the recipes are vegan and some are also gluten free which means you can cater for most dietary needs!

It goes without saying that all of these recipes are tried and tested, simple, nutritious and extremely delicious!
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A lot of the recipes can be made or assembled in advance so you don't have to spend too much time in the kitchen, leaving you free to enjoy yourself!

At Nourished by Nature this year, we will be well fed, as always, without any animals being harmed.

We are still trying to decide between a puy lentil and mushroom pie with sweet potato topping or a puff pastry roulade, filled with leeks, mushrooms, butternut squash and spinach. We may well end up with both!

As always there will be lots of veggies to accompany our dinner, oven roast parsnips and carrots are always delicious, especially drizzled with some maple syrup and himayan sea salt. 

Brussel sprouts are also delicious oven roasted with some garlic and red onions!

I will be baking some delicious sourdough bread to accompany our soup, which we haven't decided but will probably be based on leeks, which we all love but not boring Leek & Potato! See below for my two favourite leek soup recipes!

As well as lots of new delicious ideas to try out this festive season, here is a collection of recipes from last year as well as a few others that are great for entertaining.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Soups
leek chickpea soup
leek oat coconut soup

Main meals
beet bourguignon
oven roasted veggie puff pastries
carrot seed loaf with mushroom gravy
super festive burgers

Snacks and nibbles
delicious dips 
oven baked falafel bites
quinoa broccoli bites
best ever kale crisps

Sweet treats
festive chocolate truffles
delicious decadent chocolate cake
magical chocolate mousse
quinoa brittle
​apricot fig mini tarts
christmas chocolate crunch 
chocolate ganache pot 
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                                          ...your health in your hands...

​

I'm sharing another sweet recipe this week but I promise to move on to healthy savoury dishes and main courses suitable for a plant based Christmas next week!
Who doesn't love a chocolate truffle...? We love healthy, delicious chocolates but not so much the dairy and refined sugar kind! Last year I shared this recipe for festive chocolate truffles which are nut free and lovely too, but these ones
​are a bit fancier and more festive in flavour.

The base for these delicious truffles are dates and nuts, two of my favourite ingredients and packed with fibre, protein, minerals and good fats so as well as tasting great these truffles do your body good as well!

These also make a lovely gift, packaged up in a nice box or a wee bag. I just think there is something special about a home made gift and just love to receive them!

I am very lucky that my daughter Jenna always makes special gifts for the whole family, she is a very talented and creative young lady! Handmade chocolates, chutneys, jewellery, lip balms, body scrubs and lotions, hats, place mats and beautiful natural floral arrangements have all been given and received with love. One year Laura, my youngest daughter, gave everyone a voucher for home made cakes, to be redeemed throughout the year! She is an ace vegan baker so her cakes are a real treat!! Kathryn writes lovely poems and puts such thought into them and that only leaves Emma, my oldest daughter who although she says she isn't good at making stuff, made delicious sloe gin last year with a handmade label!

It's just so nice when someone takes the time to make something.

We are fortunate in that we spend a lot of time trying out recipes and having lots of fun in the kitchen, one of the great things about writing this blog actually! So I hope that the recipes and stories I share are of interest and inspire someone out there to try something new!

So back to these very simple and delicious Festive Truffles, Chocolate Mint and Ginger, two flavours which I love, especially chocolate and mint which is a winning combination!  

The method for making both flavours is the same so here are the ingredients you will need!

Ingredients

Gingerbread Truffles - makes 12
1 cup of soft pitted dates
pinch sea salt
1 cup of almonds, walnuts, brazil or pecan nuts or a mixture
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger or 1 inch piece of freshly grated ginger
pinch of ground nutmeg and cloves
coconut or finely chopped nuts for rolling

Chocolate Mint - makes 12
1 cup of soft pitted dates
1 cup of almonds, walnuts, pecans or brazil nuts
pinch sea salt
2 tablespoons of raw cacao or cocoa powder
1/2 to 1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract (taste and add accordingly)
cocoa or raw cacao for rolling

Method
1. In your food processor, pulse the nuts until they are finely chopped. Put into a bowl.
2. Add the dates and sea salt and process on high until a smooth paste forms.
3. Add the processed nuts and the remainder of the ingredients. Process until thouroughly mixed.
4. Roll the mixture into balls ( makes 12 truffles) and coat in chopped nuts/coconut/cocoa.
​5. Store in a covered container in the fridge or the freezer.
6. Enjoy!

                                                    ...your health in your hands...