Gluten, dairy & sugar free chocolate cake

Ingredients 150ml coconut or olive oil, 50g raw cocoa powder 100ml boiling water, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 150g ground almonds, ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 1/4 tsp salt, 200g coconut palm sugar, 3 large eggs.

Serves: (whoever you love enough to share it with) Preparation: 1 hour

Whether we like it or not, food intolerancy is a thing. A very big thing. Whether you believe that it's through years and years of poisoning our bodies with chemicalised and processed foods or some sort of voodoo, we all know far more people these days who have to be careful about what they eat.  
This recipe is adapted from a gluten and dairy free Nigella cake to make it sugar free and a little less moist than her slightly flabby flourless cake. It is absolutely DELICIOUS and the texture is FABULOUS. For any gluten free person who has made you eat a polenta cake or some other mad textured cake, do share this and tell them to put down the xantham gum because all is not lost.

1) Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3 (170 degrees) and grease a 9 or 10 inch springform tin with a little oil. I have also made this split into two mini 4 inch cake tins and it works perfectly.

2) Sift the cocoa powder into a bowl and whisk the boiling water and vanilla extract in until you have a smooth chocolate paste. Try not to eat it immediately, you get to lick the bowl after...

3) Measure out the ground almonds, bicarb of soda and salt into one bowl and the sugar, oil and eggs into another, then whisk the latter thoroughly for 3-4 minutes until you have a thickened, aerated and emulsified liquid.

4) Add the cocoa and vanilla paste and beat thoroughly, then add the almond mixture a little at a time.

5) Don't panic about the consistency, this is a liquid batter. Make sure your cake tin base is in the right way round (we've all done it but this cake is considerably less delicious when eaten off the floor of your oven...) and pour in the batter. Bake for 45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, has a bit of a wobble to it. I usually give the oven door a bit of a kick and if it wibbles alarmingly, give it another ten minutes or so. When you stick a skewer in it should come out with a few sticky crumbs clinging to it rather than a smear of batter but be warned, this cake rises up beautifully and then sinks back a bit so if you skewer it before it's ready, it's going to sink faster than the Titanic! The good news is that this cake is FABULOUS eaten hot with ice-cream, or leave it to cool in the tin until you're ready to scoff it.

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.

Cauliflower and celeriac soup with pistou

Ingredients 1 white onion, butter, 1 cauliflower, 1 celeriac, 1 pint vegetable stock, basil leaves, basil oil, almond slivers.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 30 minutes

I love soup. I find all the chopping, stirring and pureeing very soothing, the warm smells that fill the house comforting, and I love ladling out steamy bowls of soup for people to dunk hot crispy bread into, dressing it with ever more creative croutons or swirls of cream and yoghurt. This soup has a velvety smooth texture and a wonderful earthy flavour which is beautifully contrasted by the swirl of pistou (a French equivalent of pesto made of almonds, which are the cauliflower's perfect flavour partner).

1) Peel the celeriac with a sharp knife by cutting about a centimetre off both ends and sides, leaving a squareish core. Prepare the cauliflower by removing the leaves and slicing the stem to the base. Slice around the stem to release the florets. Dice both and set aside.

2) Peel and dice the onion and sautee in a little butter until soft. Stir in the cauliflower and celeriac, then add the vegetable stock and simmer on the hob for 20 minutes.

3) To make the pistou, add a good handful of fresh basil leaves to a mortar bowl and grind to a fine pulp. Lightly toast the almond slivers, shaking and turning the pan until they just turn golden brown, before adding to the mortar bowl with a glug of basil oil and grinding thoroughly.

4) Separate the vegetables from the liquid using a colander and puree thoroughly in a blender.

5) Pass the pureed cauliflower, celeriac and onion through a sieve and back into the stock, then stir through until the soup has been incorporated. Serve with the pistou.

Lavender-almond croissants

Ingredients Croissants: 220g plain flour, 7g yeast, 160ml milk, 2 1/2 tsp caster sugar, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tbs vegetable oil, 150g butter.

Glaze: lavender jam Filling: 2 eggs, 100g ground almonds, 100g caster sugar, 100g butter, 1/2 tsp lavender

Serves: 12 Preparation: we're talking well over 8 hours...

Croissants aux amandes were invented, I believe, to revitalise day-old/stale croissants so you could buy croissants and just glaze and fill them if you prefer. Lord knows making croissants is a labour of love, one which will leave a sheen of butter on your table and leave you with aching hands from the lamination (layers of butter and dough which produce that magical flakiness - if your croissants don't fill your bra with crumbs, you aint doing it right!). Whether you bake or buy your croissants, my lavender jam makes the perfect glaze and the lavender almond cream in the centre is OUT OF THIS WORLD. Just look at those lovely shiny crescents, the effort is so worth it!

Baking the croissants

1) Combine the yeast, 3 tsps of warm water and 1/2 tsp sugar in one jug and set aside until it begins to froth. Add the vegetable oil. In a separate jug, dissolve 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp salt in the milk.

2) Sift the flour into a bowl and add the two jugs of liquid. Mix thoroughly and then kneed for approximately 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover with cling film and leave in a warm room for approximately an hour until it has TRIPLED in volume.

3) Knock the dough back, gently with your fingertips, cover and set aside again to double in volume. Finally knock back the dough again and chill for 20 minutes in the fridge.

4) Now comes the fun part... roll out the dough into a rectangle (about 30 x 20 cm in size) and using room temperature butter, spread liberally over the left 2/3 of the centre of the dough, leaving a half centimetre unbuttered border. With the unbuttered 1/3 at the left, fold to the right, and then fold again. Roll back out then dust with flour, cover with cling film and chill for 2 hours in the fridge.

5) Roll dough back out and repeat the buttering and folding, dust with flour, cover with cling film and return to the fridge to chill for 2 hours.

6) Finally, roll out to a rectangle approximately 50 x 10 cm and slice in half lengthways. Return one half to the fridge to chill and roll the other out to approximately 40 x 10 cm, then cut into 3 squares and cut these squares diagonally to leave 6 triangles of dough. Repeat with the dough in the fridge.

7) Roll the dough into croissants by rolling each triangle gently from the long side towards the point at the top, thus creating the classic layer pattern, and then bring the two edges together to form almost a circle. Allow to sit for a few minutes until the dough begins to puff back up a little, then bake in the oven at the highest setting (mine is 240 for 15 minutes)

Preparing croissants aux amandes

1) Cream the equal parts of butter, sugar and almonds together, then beat in the eggs. Grind lavender in a mortar and pestle and stir in. (If you wish, you could substitute the sugar for lavender jam in order to get the flavour)

2) Poke a small hole into the croissant at the side of the central layer and use a piping bag to fill with the lavender almond cream.

3) Dip a pastry brush into your lavender jam and glaze the outside of the croissant. From here, you can also scatter with slivers of almonds but personally I find this a little bit overkill! Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 5-8 minutes, until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Banana nut flapjacks

Ingredients 1 banana, 1/4 cup oats, 1/4 cup sultanas, 1/4 cup toasted almond flakes, 1 tbsp dessicated coconut, pinch cinnamon.

Serves: 8 Preparation: 20 minutes

These totally tropical vegan flapjacks are ridiculously quick and simple and consist literally of oats, bananas, nuts and whatever else you want to bulk them up with. I chose sultanas and coconut but you could substitute different nuts and different dried fruits - or add in some spices or even chocolate chips. My next recipe (for the world's best banana and peanut butter cookies) which will cause you to WEEP for joy when you try them was derived from this concept.

1) Mash the banana with a fork and add in the other ingredients

2) Using a tablespoon, portion out the flapjacks and drop onto baking parchment. I think these work best as rough cookie shapes because they crisp up better, but you could spoon onto a tray and cut out flapjack bars.

3) Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees

Chocolate macarons

Ingredients 100g double cream, 100g dark chocolate, 2g butter, 25g chocolate powder, 2 egg whites, 65g ground almonds, 60g caster sugar, 85g icing sugar, salt

Serves: 10 Preparation: 1 hour

This recipe is dedicated to the lovely Shanda! See I promised I would make something conventional instead of a crazy lavender concoction... though I promise my lavender macaron recipe is coming... it's too good not to share!
I'm not going to lie to you, macarons are hard to get right and I've heard a million and one different ways to make them - French style, Italian style, even adding powdered eggs of all things but I think macarons are quite quick to make once you get the knack, don't be put off!

1) Whisk the egg whites along with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form, then add in the caster sugar, continuing to whisk until stiff peaks are formed.

2) Sift the icing sugar, chocolate powder and ground almonds together, fold it into the egg whites and then beat the holy crap out of it until it's a good piping texture.

3) Line a baking tray with baking parchment, then pipe the mixture into blobs. This next stage sounds weird, but trust me it's necessary - drop the baking tray a couple of times onto your worktop to flatten the blobs. Leave to rest for half an hour to allow the mixture to dry.

4) Bake for 5 minutes at 180 degrees, then open the door for a few seconds to let out some steam. Bake for a further 5 minutes before opening the door again, then a further 5-7 minutes.

5) The macarons should slide straight off the baking parchment if they're ready - if they stick then give them another minute for good measure.

6) To make the filling, melt your chocolate into your cream and set it aside to cool. Beat in your butter until a stiff ganache has formed, then pipe it onto half of your macarons and sandwich together with the other shells.

Personally I think fresh macarons are underrated - make them a day in advance so that the ganache makes the centre soft and the outside dries a little.

Apple & lavender crumble

Ingredients  1 tbsp lavender, 1 Bramley apple, 100g rice flour, 25g ground almonds, 50g butter, 50g caster sugar.

Serves: 2 Preparation: 20 minutes

As some of you may have seen from Twitter this evening, I have just eaten an entire crumble to myself. This crumble to be precise.
Apple and lavender is an absolutely luscious combination of flavours - fresh, sweet, juicy fruit - the exotic perfume of the lavender complimenting the tartness of the apples. I cannot recommend this enough. And don't worry - for those of you who struggle with white flour, this combination of rice-flour and ground almonds make a light, tummy friendly crumble.

1) Add the lavender to 150ml water and bring it to the boil. Remove half of the lavender and discard.

2) Peel, core and dice the apple, then add it to the lavender water along with 1 tsp caster sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes and strain the lavender and apple from the water.

3) Cut the butter into small cubes and either blitz in a blender with the rice flour, ground almonds and caster sugar or rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers until rough crumbs have formed.

4) Spoon the apple and lavender into a baking dish and sprinkle over the crumble. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until the topping has turned golden brown.

Allergic to eggs? Instead of custard, why not serve with Rachel's Organic Greek Yoghurt

Pancakes - Asparagus almond & gruyere

Ingredients 120g plain flour, 2 eggs, 210ml milk, 90ml water, 1 tbsp vegetable oil, butter, 200g asparagus, handful toasted almond flakes, grated gruyere to taste, basil oil.

Makes: 6 pancakes Preparation: 40 minutes


I have combined almonds and asparagus several times in this blog and there's a blimmin good reason for that! They're made for each other and with a gooey helping of gruyere this pancake is oh so good.


1) Mix the flour with a pinch of salt in a large bowl, make a well in the centre and crack in the eggs.


2) Measure 90ml water in a pyrex jug, then top it up to 300ml with milk.
Beat the eggs into the flour with a wooden spoon and gradually beat in the milk and water mixture until smooth.


3) Stir in the vegetable oil and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes but preferably an hour.


4) Drizzle the asparagus with a little basil oil, sprinkle with salt and grill for 5 minutes.


5) Heat a non-stick frying pan until very hot, then add a small knob of butter. Pour in one ladle of batter, quickly turning the pan off the heat to coat the base evenly with the batter. Return to the hob and cook for about one minute, until the base is lightly browned. I like to use a spatula or palette knife to just loosen the edges of the pancake - once the air gets under it you will find it does not stick to the pan but slide about which helps it to flip!


6) Flip over the pancake (if you have a clumsy wrist, slide the pancake onto a plate, then tip the pan over the plate and turn it upside down. No one will ever know!


7) Once the pancake has cooked on both sides, serve filled with grated gruyere, the almonds and the asparagus.

Truffled white asparagus with almonds & poached egg yolk

Ingredients White asparagus, truffle oil, flaked almonds, egg yolk

Preparation: 8 minutes


Though not as pretty as the more developed, green asparagus - white asparagus is sweeter, juicier and more tender. It is merely asparagus that has been deprived of light (a process called etoliation) and therefore can't produce chlorophyll to become green. This recipe is gorgeous, simply put.


1) Snap or cut the bottom of the stalks from the asparagus and peel them with a vegetable peeler.


2) Drizzle with truffle oil and sprinkle with salt, the flaked almonds, then roast in the oven for 8 minutes.


3) Serve with a poached egg yolk

Chocolate & almond tart

Ingredients    Filling: 75g butter, 75g caster sugar, 75g ground almonds, 2 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 egg, 2 tbsp milk    Pastry: 250g butter, 100g caster sugar, 500g plain flour, 1 tbsp milk.

Serves: 6 preparation: 1 hour 30


Almonds go so perfectly with chocolate, the nuttiness really works with the strength of the cocoa beans and the texture of the tart filling contrasts beautifully with the crisp casing.


1) To make sweet shortcut pastry: sift the flour and sugar and add small cubes of the cold butter into your blender and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the milk and pulse until a dough ball forms. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge to cool for an hour.


2) To prepare the filling: mix the sugar, almonds and cocoa powder together and cream in the butter. Beat in the egg and milk until the mixture is smooth.


3) Roll out the pastry and cut out circles of dough. I made some tarts with very thin crusts and some like the picture with the thicker casing and both work equally well.


4) Press into the tart cases and pour in the filling. Bake for 25 minutes at 200 degrees and dust with icing sugar.

Olive & almond tart

Ingredients 3 eggs, 150g   ground almonds, 100g kamalata olives, 250g plain flour, 1 tsp salt  250g butter.

Serves: 6 Preparation: 1 hour and a half


The sweet nuttiness of almonds and the savoury strength of the olives make a beautiful combination in these lovely tarts.


1) To make the pastry - Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and rub in the butter. Make a well in the centre and mix in about 100ml cold water until you have a firm rough dough. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge to chill.


2) Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until it's no more than 1cm thick. Cut out circles of dough and roll out into thinner pastry about half a centimetre thick and blind bake for 10-12 minutes.


3) Break 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk into a mixing bowl and beat together. Fold in the ground almonds and season with salt and pepper.


4) Pit the olives and pulse in the blender and fold in to the egg and almond mix.


5) Spoon the mixture into the pastry cases and level out. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 200 degrees until golden brown.


This is perfect served with halved olives and my lemon thyme & goats cheese mousse.

Lamb, mint & almond meatballs

Ingredients    500g Lamb mince, mint, 6 tbsp toasted ground almonds, 1/2 small white onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp cumin, coriander seeds

Makes: 16 meatballs Preparation: 20 minutes

Put out of your mind the sweet perfumed taste of almond and think of the seductive, exotic spices of Moroccan cooking. Lamb and almond is a classic combination and these fragrant meatballs are absolutely wonderfull.

1) Toast the almond slivers and coriander seeds in a dry pan until they are lightly golden, ensuring you shake the pan regularly to ensure they're evenly cooked. The seeds will begin to pop when they're ready, about the same time as the almonds. Grind in a mortar and pestle until they resemble fine crumbs.

2) Peel and dice the onion, then add half of it to a blender, along with 2 cloves of minced garlic, salt, pepper and the chopped mint. Blitz for a few seconds and then add the minced lamb, cumin, coriander seeds and almonds.

3) Pulse thoroughly until the meat has combined to form a ball, then remove from the blender, divide into 16 and roll in the palm of your hand to form small meatballs.

4) To cook the meatballs, add a little drizzle olive oil into a pan and add the meatballs, shaking the pan regularly to ensure they roll around and become evenly coloured. It should take no more than 5 minutes to cook them.

I served these in just a little tomato and red wine sauce with a little extra chopped mint - coated in the sauce they make a fantastic filling for pitta bread!

Almond & asparagus risotto

Ingredients Asparagus, 75g almond slivers, 1 pint vegetable stock, 50g gruyere, 1 1/2 cups risotto rice, onion, butter, vermouth.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 30 minutes

This might just be the best risotto I have ever created. Toasted almond and asparagus are perfect partners - the nutty, buttery flavour components of both ingredients fuse together perfectly and the triple hit of the nutty, caramel flavour of gruyere makes this risotto a completely hedonistic treat.
All risottos (no matter what the ingredients) can be made in 3 simple stages. The first is called tostatura - coating the rice in fat, the second involves cooking off some alcohol and the third involves releasing the starch from the rice one ladle of stock at a time.

1) Finely dice the onion and sautee in a little butter until soft. Add the risotto rice and stir until the rice becomes transparent, revealing a white dot in the centre and pour in a glug of vermouth.
2) Once the alcohol cooks off, add the first ladle of stock and stir through.

3) In a seperate pan, lightly toast the almond slivers, shaking and turning the pan until they just turn golden brown. Keeping a few to garnish the risotto, crush the toasted almonds in a mortar and pestle until they resemble fine crumbs.4) Continue adding the stock to the risotto, one ladle at a time, adding the ground almonds and aspragus with the second to last ladle of stock.
5) Stir through the grated gruyere, finish with freshly grated black pepper and the remaining toasted almonds and serve.

If you don't have any almonds, you could stir in a teaspoon of almond butter instead.

Cauliflower & almond soup

Ingredients 1 cauliflower, 1 pint vegetable stock, 1 potato, 10g toasted almonds, 1 white onion.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 30 minutes

I love soup. I find all the chopping, stirring and pureeing very soothing, the warm smells that fill the house comforting, and I love ladling out steamy bowls of soup for people to dunk hot crispy bread into, dressing it with ever more creative croutons or swirls of cream and yoghurt. This winter I have created 10 new soups to warm you through on a cold day. This soup has a velvety smooth texture and delicate flavour. A gorgeous winter warmer!

1) Peel a small potato and finely dice it along with half a califlower and half a white onion. Add to 1 pint of vegetable stock and cook on the hob for 20 minutes.

2) Separate the vegetables from the liquid using a colander and puree thoroughly in a blender.

3) Pass the pureed cauliflower and onion through a sieve and back into the stock, then stir through until the soup has been incorporated.

4) Stir through a little double cream, then serve topped with toasted almonds and black pepper.

Courgette linguine with pistou

Ingredients Linguine, 1 courgette, 50g parmigiano, basil oil, 50g toasted almonds, 50g basil, salt, 1 lemon

Serves: 4 Preparation: 15 minutes

Pistou is a French version of pesto, traditionally spooned onto soup - I happen to also think it is pretty fabulous stirred into pasta as a change from pesto.

1) To make pistou; Roughly chop some basil and then grind in a mortar and pestle thoroughly, adding a pinch of salt, the toasted almonds and a squeeze of lemon to taste.


2) Cook the linguine in hot, salted water for 10 minutes , then strain.


3) Using a vegetable peeler, peel strips from the courgette and add to the pasta along with a squeeze of lemon juice and a little basil oil. Stir through the pistou and serve with freshly grated parmeggian.

Green bean pistou

Ingredients Linguine, green beans, toasted almonds, basil oil, basil, lime, parmigiano.

Pistou is a French version of pesto, traditionally spooned onto soup - I happen to also think it is pretty fabulous stirred onto pasta as a change from pesto.


1) Roughly chop some basil and then grind in a mortar and pestle thoroughly, adding a pinch of salt, the toasted almonds and a squeeze of lime to taste.


2) Cook the linguine in hot, salted water for 10 minutes, adding the green beans after 2.


3) Strain in a colander and add back to the pan. Stir through the pistou and serve sprinkled with parmeggian.