Raw gluten free vegan chocolate & coconut cookies

Ingredients 1 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup dessicated coconut, 1 tbsp cashew butter, 1/4 cup Planet Organic chocolate coconut butter (or 1 tbsp ground cacao nibs, 1/2 cup coconut oil) 10 dates.

Serves: 24 Preparation: 10 minutes

Do you ever have a craving for something sweet? Rather than reach for some hideous, unhealthy snack food from a vending machine because it's there RIGHT NOW ALREADY, take 10 minutes to prepare these delicious, soft, nutty crumbly sweet morsels of completely sin-free pleasure. If you are dairy or gluten free or, like me, don't give your child sugar or processed foods then these will be right up your street. So quick, so simple, so so good.

1) Put all the ingredients in a blender and blitz thoroughly until sticky crumbs form.

2) Press firmly into ice cube trays or silicone moulds, then remove and eat! These are good when stored in tupperware in a cool, dark place for about a month before they start to dry out a little.

Gnocchi with cashew & avocado sauce

Ingredients Gnocchi: Potato, pasta flour, egg, plain flour. Sauce: 4 tbs cashew cream, 100ml water, 1 avocado

Serves: 2 Preparation: 10 minutes (plus 1 hour for gnocchi, overnight for cashew cream preparation)

This is a combination of two of my recipes: gnocchi and cashew cream as a serving suggestion, but it's also a great way to use up a ripe avocado. If like me you eat them pretty much daily, there will always be one in your fruit bowl (ahem... bucket might be a more apt description in my case...) and this is a great, healthy supper with a protein-rich sauce.

1) My recipe for gnocchi here. If you would like to make this vegan, just omit the egg.

2) My recipe for cashew nut cream here.

3) Bring the gnocchi to the boil in a large pan of salted water. Once the little dumplings float to the surface, they're done.

4) Slice the avocado in half and use a tablespoon to scoop it from the shell. If the avocado is ripe enough the stone will pop out with a spoon but another good method is to prick it with a knife and pull it out. Pop into your food processor, squish through a potato ricer or mash with a fork/masher and add to the cashew cream. I like to flavour this up with a little mustard and salt sometimes but the delicate creamy flavour is lovely just as it is. Drain the gnocchi and stir into the sauce.

Vegan cauliflower cheese

Ingredients 6 tbsps cashew nut cream, 50ml water, 1 cauliflower, 1 tsp mustard

Serves: 4 Preparation: 30 minutes

My approach to cauliflower cheese is unparalleled. Indulgently finished with cream and two kinds of cheese, richly flavoured with Guinness and mustard it is everything a person could want. For vegans however, one would think cauliflower cheese was... well... impossible! But it's not and what's more it's absolutely delicious. I used cashew cream flavoured with no more than a teaspoon of mustard and a teaspoon of salt and black pepper and was blown away by the creamy, delicate sauce topped with a fine crispy crust.

1) Prepare the cauliflower by removing the leaves and slicing the stem to the base. Slice around the stem to release the florets.

2) Steam or parboil the cauliflower for about 6 minutes, strain and set aside to rest in an ovenproof dish.

3) Spoon the cashew cream into a pan, pour in the water, add the mustard, salt and pepper to taste and reduce on the hob for 5 minutes.

4) Pour the sauce onto the cauliflower and bake for 20 minutes at 220 degrees until a golden crust begins to form and serve!

Cashew nut cream

Ingredients 500g cashew nuts

Preparation: 30 minutes (plus overnight for soaking)

If you are a vegan, nuts are not just a magical source of fat and protein - they are also dairy substitutes. Milk can be extracted from coconut, almonds and cashew nuts, is naturally sweet and incredibly can even be whipped just like cream to use in puddings. Cashew nut cream is perhaps the most versatile of all - with a little seasoning it becomes a savoury bechamel-style sauce and when reduced in a pan it becomes a perfectly respectable cheese substitute for pasta. It can be frozen or kept for a few days in the fridge.

1) Put the cashew nuts in a bowl, cover with water and leave overnight.

2) Pour into a pan and simmer for 5 minutes.

3) Pour the nuts and water into a blender and pulse thoroughly.

4) Parse through a sieve and decant into a kilner jar or tupperware box to store.

Melting plantain & cashew burger

Ingredients 1 Plantain, cashew nuts, cheddar,  1 jalepeno, oregano, salt, pepper, olive oil

Plantains are fabulous. They're a kind of savoury banana that grow in tropical climates and are used quite a lot in Caribbean and Mexican cooking. When shopping for plantain please remember that the best ones are the ripe, almost completely black ones. Don't cook with unripe ones as the flavour and texture will probably put you off for life! This burger has a gorgeous thin crust, slightly sticky soft plantain and a spicy melting centre. Definitely an ideal introduction to plantain if you've never tried it.


1) Bring a pan of water to the boil and drop the entire plantain into it. Boil for 25-30 minutes. You will know it is ready as the skin will split and virtually peel itself!


2) Blitz a handful of cashew nuts in the blender until you have rough chunks of nut. Add the peeled plantain into the blender and pulse until it combines with the nuts and a slightly sticky ball is formed.


3) Using your thumbs, depress a hollow into the ball and fill with grated cheddar and finely chopped jalepeno. Reform into a ball ensuring that the cheese is locked away in the centre. Season with chopped oregano, salt and pepper.


4) Add a few drops of olive oil into a frying pan and sizzle the burger for a few minutes before flipping over. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes and serve.

Spinach, stilton & cashew cannelloni

Ingredients   Spinach, stilton, cashew nuts, hazelnut butter, bell peppers, red wine, passata tomatoes, white onion, cheddar, basil, basil oil

1) Crush a few handful of cashew nuts in a blender, stir in a teaspoon of hazelnut butter to bind into a paste and then add the spinach and blue cheese. Stuff the mixture into cannelloni tubes and set aside.


2) Remove the top and seeds from 2 bell peppers and slice into chunks. Roast in the oven, drizzled with basil oil for 20 minutes, or until the edges just begin to blacken.


3) Finely dice a white onion and sautee in butter until soft. Add a glass of red wine and reduce, stirring regularly until half the liquid remains. Gradually add the passata tomatoes, chopped basil and parsley and season with a pinch of salt.


4) In as casserole dish, first place the cannelloni tubes, side by side and then spoon a layer of roast peppers, followed by a few ladles of the tomato and red wine sauce. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then add a layer of grated cheese. Bake in the oven for a further 10 minutes and serve.

Turkey roulade with apricot & cashew

Ingredients  Turkey steak, cashew nuts, hazelnut  butter, dried apricot, black pepper, basil oil, dried basil.

1) Crush a few handful of cashew nuts in a blender (or using a mortar and pestle), stir in a teaspoon of hazelnut butter to bind into a paste and set aside.


2) Grind some black pepper, dried basil, a pinch of salt and stir through some basil oil. Give your turkey steaks a good pounding with a meat mallet and then spread the pepper and basil oilto one side.


3) Flip over the turkey steak and add a tablespoon of the cashew nut mixture and a dried apricot. Roll the turkey steak around the filling. Repeat for each turkey steak and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, basting with the juices after 7 minutes.