900g organic carrots (chopped small)
400g onions (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (crushed)
2 tsp ground coriander
25g butter
25g plain flour
1 litre stock (chicken has great flavour but vegetable is fine too)
125ml double cream

Sweat the carrot, onion and garlic in the butter until soft (about 20mins), adding the coriander halfway.

Season with salt and pepper and stir in the flour until well combined with the butter and juices.

Gently work in the stock, so that you are not left with lumps of flour and then simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend until smooth, stir in the cream and bring back to simmer if required.

Serve garnished with fresh coriander leaves if you have any.

Even my husband, who claims to hate carrots, loves this soup.

Tomatoes
Red onion
Olive oil
Basil
Garlic
Bread - Small bloomer or baguette

I'm not sure how you're actually meant to make bruschetta, but this is how I do it and its always very popular. It's great for using up left over bread and makes a really quick starter.

Cut the tomatoes into small pieces (half or quarter cherry tomatoes if you're using those).

Finely chop some red onion and mix into the tomatoes.

Season with salt and pepper and add a tiny amount of olive oil.

Rip a few basil leaves into small pieces and stir those in too.

Leave the flavours to infuse while you prepare the bread.

Slice the bread 1 ½ to 2 cms thick and toast under the grill.

Rub a clove of garlic over the surface of the bread, the rough texture acts almost like a tiny grater. One clove is probably enough for 8 or 10 slices but it depends on the size and how garlicky you like it.

Either pile the tomato topping onto the bread and serve immediately, or serve the bread and tomato mixture separately with a spoon so that everyone can add their own topping and the bread won't go soggy.

6 medium tomatoes
1 Red Onion
1 Green / Red Chilli
Big Handful Coriander
Lime Juice to taste
Sugar to taste (optional)

This hardly counts as a recipe, but it's something I make all the time and it's really popular. For parties and barbecues etc, it's so nice to have a really fresh homemade dip. This one is really easy to make and costs a fraction of what you would have to spend to get the same quantity of a shop bought salsa. It's really good with tortilla chips or homemade potato wedges.

Quantities above are all approximate and I never measure when making this at home, just adjust to suit your own tastes, but the above should work fine as a starting point.

Wash the tomatoes, chilli and coriander, deseed the chilli, and peel the red onion.
If you have a food processor, just blitz the tomato, onion, chilli and coriander to the desired size then add lime juice and sugar to taste. (Tomatoes can sometimes be a little bitter so a pinch of sugar can help balance things out).
If you don't have a food processor, then chop all the ingredients finely and mix together.
Cover and chill until needed. This will make quite a lot, so if there are only a couple of you then reduce the ingredients to suit.

Summer evenings are coming so it's time to dust of those recipes best saved for balmy nights. Well I've just been handed a really scrumy and easy as pie (actually, it's quite a lot easier than fiddly pie) courtesy of my partner's mother Heather. Given Heaths Australian I've kept the Zucchini name as is.

This recipe is great for those that can't eat wheat or dairy. Vegans could omit the egg if they wish as it's not essential. It about 8 patties and so is good for two. It goes lovely with fresh Greek Salad and a bottle of biodynamic white... sitting in a leafy garden, in the early evening preferably.

All you need for my new favourite summer recipe is:

1 zucchini (courgette) grated
2 potatoes grated
1 onion chopped finely
1 garlic clove grated
1 cm cube of ginger grated
2 tablespoons of soya flour
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Mix all the ingredients into a large bowl. Heat pan on moderate temperature. Add oil. Add large tablespoon dollop of patty mixture into pan. Cook lightly on both sides and serve. Doesn't get much easier than that!

Last Sunday I met some friends at a great little organic gastro pub in North London. The Duke of Cambridge is a dime. Comfortable, affordable and noisy (in the people enjoying their food and their company kind of way), the best bit about this pub is the menu! It's won all sorts of awards. In 2008 alone it won seven awards including The Natural and Organic Awards in association with The Soil Association - Winner of 'Best Restaurant' category, Islington Giant Green Environmental Awards - winner for 'Waste Minimisation' and Good Pub Guide - 'London Dining Pub of the Year'.

Nursing a ‘sore' head and an empty stomach I immediately jumped at the roast. I rarely have a hankering for meat but I couldn't help but choose the same meal as our neighbouring table. It was organic pork, red cabbage, duck fried potatoes, carrots with a dollop of fresh applesauce. Filling in every sense of the word - taste buds and tum, it met my expectations and beyond. As my dining friend commented, ‘it looks straight out of the middle ages' and she meant that in the best possible way - wholesome, delicious and practically straight out of the ground!

The Duke of Cambridge is the UK's first and only gastro pub to be certified by the Soil Association and 80% of their fresh produce comes from the Home Counties. Everything is organic. Well almost. Everything except the wild fish; this is sourced from sustainable fisheries. Home-baked bread, homemade ice cream and pickles, locally brewed beer and sustainable and locally caught fish are on the menu which ranges in prices from about £7 to £25.

From an environmental slant The Duke of Cambridge are, in their words, ‘obsessed with having the lowest carbon footprint possible'. They don't airfreight anything and they re-use and recycle as much as they can. The pub is also run on wind and solar power.

Go green gastro!

Duke of Cambridge
30 St Peter's Street
Islington, London
N1 8JT