Orzotto: roast vegetable & goji berry

Ingredients 1 cup pearl barley, 1 pint vegetable stock, 3 sun dried tomatoes, 1 bell pepper, 1 courgette, 1/4 cup goji berries, rosemary, thyme, butter, white onion.

Serves: 2 Preparation: 1 hour

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. Using spelt or pearl barley as an alternative to rice makes a wonderful change to the Italian classic but pearl barley, unlike spelt and rice can be left to cook with the whole pint of stock making it less high-maintenance to cook. This flavour-packed combination of roast courgettes, peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and juicy goji berries is perfect to fight Winter lurgy.

1) Dice the bell pepper and courgette and roast in a little olive oil for 15 minutes in a covered dish. Dice the sun-dried tomatoes and add them along with the goji berries to the roasting dish to allow them to rehydrate in the roasting juices.

2) Finely dice the white onion and sautee until soft in a little butter. Season to taste with rosemary and thyme and add the pearl barley. Stir through until coated in fat, then add the roast vegetables and vegetable stock.

3) Leave to simmer with the lid on for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally until the stock has almost all been absorbed, leaving a wonderful silky, fragrant sauce.

Roast carrot & goji berry soup

Ingredients 5 carrots, 100ml orange juice, goji berries, rapeseed oil.

Serves: 2 preparation: 2 hours

This soup is LOADED with vitamin C and A and I just love the vibrancy of it. When you boil carrots to soften them for soup, the colour always leaches away and they loose that lustrous orange hue. By roasting the carrots they maintain their natural sweetness and don't lose any of the flavour.

1) Peel the carrots and top and tail them. Drizzle with a generous glug of rapeseed oil and roast in the oven at 200 degrees for an hour and a half, until the surface begins to colour and they become "bendy"

2) Pulse the carrots in a blender, adding the orange juice about half way through. Thin out with a little water, though personally I like this soup to be quite thick. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3) Either transfer to a pan to warm through, or zap for a minute in the microwave, adding the goji berries before serving. Stir them through, allowing them to soften in the soup as they're really quite unpleasant (tough and chewy!) otherwise.

Spinach & goji berry broth

Ingredients 400g spinach leaves, 1 cup goji berries, 1 carrot, vegetable stock, 3 cloves garlic, chilli flakes, butter.

When I'm sick I always go to this as a little pick me up - goji berries are chock full of antioxidants, iron, zinc and masses of vitamin c. A true superfruit!

1) Peel and finely dice the carrots and add to a pan with a little knob of butter and 3 cloves of minced garlic. As the garlic begins to sizzle, add 200ml vegetable stock and stir through.

2) After 5 minutes, add a handful of goji berries and the spinach and stir through.

3) Serve with a sprinkle of chilli flakes.

Sweet chilli soba noodles

Ingredients Soba noodles, broccoli, goji berries, sweetcorn, rice vinegar, garlic, salt, lime, lemon, honey, 2 serrano chillis, 2 birds eye chillis.

1) To make the sweet chilli sauce: deseed and finely dice the chillis then add into a pan with a good splash of rice vinegar, 3 cloves of minced garlic, a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, stirring frequently and then turn down the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens.
Squeeze in some lemon and lime juice to taste.


2) Steam some broccoli florets


3) Drop the soba noodles into into hot water and add a handful of goji berries and sweetcorn. Goji berries taste repulsive when dried, but once they have rehydrated they become sweet and delicious. After 7 minutes strain the water from the noodles and stir in the sweet chilli sauce and broccoli.


Serve!