Nasturtium Pesto

Nasturtium pesto might sound a bit strange, but if you like the slightly bitter taste of nasturtium leaves (or rocket/arugula, if you’ve never tasted nasturtium leaves), you’ll love it. In fact the basic recipe is very similar to that of traditional basil pesto, only we’re varying the leaves.

Traditional pesto can be pricey though, which is not surprising given some of its original ingredients – parmesan cheese and pine nuts, neither of which is particularly cheap. Luckily, you can create something that tastes quite similar using more reasonably-priced ingredients, in this case, cheddar cheese (leave this out if you want a vegan or pure paleo version) and toasted sunflower seeds.

Quick and Easy Hummus Recipe

Hummus (also spelled houmous or hummous, amongst other variations) is a fantastically quick, easy, healthy and delicious dish which can be served as a snack or as a meal with accompaniments. There are many different recipes for it but this particular version is one of my favourites.

Honey-Roasted Nuts

Apparently it’s good for productivity to take regular breaks from work during the day – which is lucky as I love my coffee/tea breaks and would probably take them anyway. 🙂 Since I like a nibble with my beverage (and that can lead down a dangerous road if you work from home a lot), I am always on the look-out for relatively healthy snack ideas.

I have a really good (and reasonably-priced) supplier of raw nuts so have been experimenting lately with different ways to use them to create yummy bites, and I came up with these honey-roasted nuts. Yes, you can buy something similar but they are ridiculously expensive and not nearly so delicious!

Star Ingredient: Coconut Oil

I first heard about coconut oil when I attended a raw food course run by Soaring Free Superfoods a few years ago. It’s a key raw ingredient and is known as a ‘superfood’ as it’s so good for you. It’s not only for raw food ‘cooking’ though – it’s extremely versatile and I use it all the time in many different ways.

Coconut oil has been widely used in the East for thousands of years, but here in the West we have been lagging a bit behind (as usual with this sort of thing). For many years, we were told that all saturated fat is bad for us and causes high cholesterol. Research has now more finely tuned this information though and, as it turns out, it’s only long-chain saturated fat that’s harmful.