I love a nice salad, so many possibilities and combinations, but one thing that is an absolute essential is a delicious dressing, which adds flavour, good fats, vitamins, minerals and polyphenols!
This also has the added benefit of probiotics and its absolutely delicious too!

If you brew your own kombucha then I'm sure you have let a batch ferment too long, resulting in rather sour and vinegary kombucha, which isn't very pleasant to drink!

Sour kombucha still contains probiotics and lends itself very well to salad dressings, in the same way that vinegar and lemon juice do!

So this amazingly fresh and vibrant dressing is packed full of polyphenols from the basil, vitamins from the lime, good fats from the oil and probiotics from the kombucha.

It works really well with any green salad so watercress, rocket, lettuce, cucumber, spinach, chard, sorrel, kale, endive, fresh herbs, or any other combination of greens is sublime with this vibrant punchy dressing. It just screams summer!!
Basil is one of my favourite summer herbs, and I also love lime so this is right up my street!!

So here is my recipe

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (60mls) plain kombucha
• juice of 1/2 lime plus zest
• 1 tablespoon raw honey, maple syrup or agave
• 1 clove fermented garlic, garlic or 1/2tsp garlic powder
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 100mls of your best oil, avocado or extra virgin olive oil work well
• 1/2 cup (20g) fresh basil leaves

Method

In a blender, combine the kombucha, lime juice, honey, garlic, salt and pepper and blitz until well blended.
With the machine still running, slowly add the oil through the hole in the lid and blend until emulsified.
Add the basil and blend for a few seconds, don't overblend or the basil will lose its vibrant green colour.
Taste and add more lime juice and/or salt if needed.
Will keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days in a covered jar.
​Serve with any green salad.

I made these rather delicious wee pastry rolls for lunch last week, using some puff pastry I had in the freezer, which conveniently is vegan!

My thoughts are always on how I can nourish my wee gut bugs and enjoy delicious food at the same time.

Now we all know that puff pastry isn't very healthy and even less so when filled with a greasy assortment of dodgy ingredients so my delicious gut healthy version is harnessing all the prebiotic power of leeks, red onions, spinach, garlic, courgette and chick peas. I also added some cubed vegan feta cheese which we are all loving, its so creamy and delicious!

Adding great flavour and polyphenols with lemon zest, flat leaf parsley and thyme from the garden.

A wee extra garnish of sesame, poppy and linseeds makes these look most appealing and of course, adds more nutrition!

So its not that difficult to make better choices for our health and keep our wee gut microbes well nourished, so they will be working hard on our behalf.

We all enjoyed these, so I am sharing my recipe, so you can enjoy them too!

We just love a puff pastry but no-one wants a soggy bottom so the key thing to remember is to make sure your filling is fairly dry and cool it a bit before you make up your wee rolls.
You don't need to add the vegan feta, some frozen sweetcorn or peas would also be good to bulk the filling out and could easily replace the courgette. Just use what you have available!

I am sure these would be equally good eaten cold for a picnic lunch but we ate the lot straight from the oven!

So here is my recipe, hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients

• 1 pack of ready made puff pastry
• 2 to 3 medium leeks, washed, halved lengthways and sliced
• 1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
• 1 medium red or white onion, finely sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
• 1/2 bag of baby leaf spinach
• 1 courgette, grated
• 1 tin chickpeas, drained
• 100g vegan feta, cut into small cubes (optional)
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons fresh herbs, flat leaf parsley, sage, oregano, thyme or rosemary
• couple tablespoons plant milk
• 1 tsp linseeds, 1tsp chia seeds, 1 tsp sesame seeds

Method

1. Heat a tablespoon of rapeseed oil in a large pan, with a pinch of salt, add the leeks and onions and cook gently for 10 minutes until soft and sweet.
2. Add the grated courgette, garlic, spinach and cook for another 5 minutes or so then add the drained chickpeas.
3. If your mixture is wet then drain any excess liquid, then transfer to a large bowl.
4. Add the chopped herbs, lemon zest and some sea salt and black pepper.
5. Add the cubed feta, if using.
6. Leave the filling aside to cool
7. Heat the oven to 220C
8. Unroll the puff pastry onto a floured surface, then cut in half lengthways so you have 2 long thin rectangles.
9. If you are using a block of puff pastry, then you will have to roll it out into a thin rectangle, then cut it into 2.
10. With the long side toward you, spoon half your filling mixture along the middle of the rectangle, shaping it into a sausage shape with your hands.
11. Brush the far away edge of the pastry with some plant milk.
12. Pull the near side of the pastry over the filling, then carefully pull the milk washed side on top and press it to seal.
13. Carefully turn the whole thing over so the join is at the bottom, then cut the roll into 6 or 8 equal pieces.
14. Repeat with the other rectangle.
15. Put the rolls onto a lightly greased baking tray, brush with plant milk and sprinkle with the seed mix.
16. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and crispy.
17. You may have to turn the tray halfway through for even baking, if your oven has a hotspot.
18. Enjoy.

Who doesn't enjoy a delicious cookie for a wee treat? But there are healthy cookies and extremely unhealthy ones! 

So as you can imagine mine are extremely healthy cookies but also delicious and a wee treat for my gut microbe buddies as well as my taste buds!!

So these have a mix of white and rye flour, chia seeds, raw cacao powder, dark chocolate, hazelnuts and tahini, along with coconut sugar so plenty of fibre and polyphenols for my gut microbes!

My new game is trying to add as many prebiotics to my food as I can, so even my baking gets a gut makeover!

It's all about healthy swaps, not denying yourself a well deserved treat!

 I had just thought of another addition which would have worked well, some orange zest, which is high in pectin and also polyphenols, so I will add some to my next batch!

Also some people prefer crisp cookies and some prefer a more cakey texture so you can do either option!
For crisp cookies, use the smoosh method, which is bake them for 10 minutes, then take them out and smoosh them with a fork, then bake for a further 5 minutes.

For thicker cakey cookies just lightly flatten the dough before you bake them.

These are really delicious and healthy too so I hope you try them! Your gut and your taste buds will thank you!

So here is my recipe

Ingredients for 20 cookies

• 125g plain flour or spelt flour
• 125g wholemeal rye flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tablespoon raw cacao powder
• 200g coconut sugar or brown sugar
• 100g vegan spread or coconut oil
• 70g tahini
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 chia  or flax eggs (2 tablespoons chia or flaxseeds mixed with 6 tablespoons warm water) 
• 125g dark chocolate chopped into small pieces or use dark chocolate chips
• 75g lightly toasted hazelnuts, walnuts or pecan nuts, roughly chopped
• zest of an orange (optional)

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C/gas 5/375F and lightly oil 2 baking trays or line them with greaseproof paper.
2. Make the chia or flaxseed eggs and leave aside for 10 minutes to thicken.
   
3. Put the flours, cacao powder and baking powder in a bowl and stir to combine.
4. Melt the vegan spread, tahini, sugar and salt in a pan or in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water.
5. Leave to cool for 10 minutes then add the chia or flax eggs and stir well to combine.
6. Add to the flour mix with the chocolate chips and chopped nuts, mix with a wooden spoon then just use your hands to incorporate all the chocolate and nuts. The mix is fairly dry so persevere until you have a nice ball of dough with evenly distributed chocolate and nuts.
7. Take spoonfuls of the dough (roughly 50g) roll into balls and put them on the trays, leaving at least 2 inches between them. You should have enough for around 20 cookies.
8. Lightly flatten the balls, sprinkle a pinch of sea salt on each one and bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes.
9. If you prefer flatter crispier cookies then bake them for 10 minutes, take them out and smoosh them with a fork, then return to the oven for a further 5 minutes.
10. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
11. Will keep in an airtight container for up to a week but they will become softer the longer you keep them.