Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
fuel that adventure
In collaboration with Expedia and their #WorldonaPlate Challenge. It’s funny how our tastes change as we grow up. My childhood diet was quite limited – baked meat and mashed potatoes being the staple, supplemented with seasonal wild fruits harvested ourselves (one wild strawberry for the basket, three for me!). I was very reluctant to try …
A Redmond Multicooker recipe. I was never really a fan of cabbage up until a few years ago. I had a fantastic Sunday dinner at Busta House Hotel in Brae, Shetland, and they served an incredibly delicious braised red cabbage on the side. I’ve been hooked ever since, especially since red cabbage often makes an …
Freshly toasted and ground cumin and a touch of cayenne give this hummus recipe a nice kick. There must be at least a hundred different ways to make hummus, and we each tend to have our favourite version. Mine includes plenty of toasted and freshly ground cumin seeds and a generous pinch of cayenne for …
A delicious creamy green soup showcasing the humble broad bean! The first time I’d ever tried broad beans was in a Moroccan inspired chicken tagine recipe some years ago. The only broad beans I could find at the time were frozen ones – and they were awful; tough, rubbery, inedible. These supermarket brand frozen broad …
A refreshing blend of kohlrabi, cucumber, celery and apple. Ah, the humble kohlrabi – the sputnik of the vegetable world – what do we do with you? I have to confess that when this bizarre vegetable first made an appearance in my vegetable box I had to take to Twitter to identify it. I had …
In collaboration with Rennies. The summer growing season is officially in full swing! Poor weather for the first half of this year has meant that many gardens in Shetland have been suffering. Things haven’t been growing as well as they could be and so we’ve only started receiving weekly (instead of fortnightly) vegetable box deliveries. …
A quick, summery salad dressing made with the Zyliss Easy Pull Food Processor. I love playing with new kitchen gadgets, I really do, so when Zyliss approached me some time ago and asked if I would like to test out their brand new Easy Pull Food Processor I jumped at the chance. Their new manual Zyliss …
My very first excursion foraging for wild garlic! It’s funny how things work out. When I first moved to Shetland in the Spring of 1999, the first book I bought was Shetland’s Wildflowers: A Photographic Guide, by D. Malcolm (1998). This well thumbed guide as been my go-to book when trying to identify local plant …
In collaboration with Villa Plus. I do believe spring is officially upon us, here in Shetland. The days are growing longer, and my eldest and I noticed that the sky was still bright to the west come 10:30 pm recently as we were driving back from our sea kayaking lessons in the local pool (we’re …
Our House of Spice – an authenic Indian masala curry spice blend with a medium spiced tomato and onion sauce. I absolutely love spicy food; not too spicy that you can’t taste the flavours in the dish, but spicy enough to get those taste buds going and warm up the cockles on a cold, windy …
aka: what to do with all those ignored vegetables at the bottom of the fridge! Let’s talk Lego! My husband, bless his cotton socks, doesn’t do a lot of cooking. He can peer into a full refrigerator and not come up with a single idea for dinner. Shelves of vibrant vegetables get ignored in favour …
All the flavour and nearly half the calories! I love a hearty, creamy bowl of soup, me. Especially when the winds are howling outside and you want something warm and comforting. Alas, most creamy soup recipes use a ridiculous amount of double cream – something I just can’t afford to eat right now while I’m trying …
100% plant power! I absolutely love weight lifting. Lifting heavy weights is not something I ever thought would interest me when I was younger, when my active trim self never had to pass a moment’s thought about the food I put into my mouth. I stayed slim naturally. Age, growing three babies, laziness and a …
Packed with the flavour of lycopene rich tomatoes and slow roasted garlic. Nothing beats the humble tomato. Packed full of lycopene, its antioxidant properties and health benefits are well documented. Plus, a bowl of steaming hot tomato soup is the perfect comfort food, wouldn’t you agree? Especially when accompanied by a gorgeous, oozing, freshly made …
A vegan post workout protein smoothie. Dear Reader, I have a confession to make. I’ve become fat. I’d always been one of those skinny people. When I left high school I weighed just over 7 stone. I was very active: swimming, cycling, skateboarding, horseback riding, climbing (and falling out of) trees in the summer, skiiing, …
Remember, remember the 5th of November. I may lament about the scaled down UK Halloween and lack of trick or treaters (we only had two this year – they left with loads of sweeties) compared to my rural Canadian upbringing, but do you know what? Bonfire night totally makes up for it. I hadn’t even …
It took me a very long time to appreciate the awesomeness that is the humble avocado. I wasn’t introduced to the fruit until I was well into my twenties, I am sure, and my first response to it, served on its own, was blergh! I persevered though, and I began my love affair with the avocado …
A vegan, all natural, refined sugar free frozen dessert. My ice cream machine died last year. It was a gruesome, horrible death with a cracked bowl and bright blue coolant oozing all over the contents of my freezer. This was the second time this happened (same model) and I haven’t replaced it yet. I’ve had …
A delicious comfort-food vegan shepherdess pie. There is a definite hint of Autumn in the air. The days are getting cooler and the Shetland landscape is turning from leafy green into shades of burnt umber, russet and gold while the peat hills are covered in glorious flowering purple heather. Colder days require comfort food.
A deliciously wholesome pizza made with 16th & 17th century heritage wheats, grilled vegetables and a roasted red pepper, mozzarella and rocket pesto. Pizza doesn’t have to be plain, boring and ordinary. Jazz it up a bit with some grilled vegetables and pesto!
