RECIPES

We truly believe in the power of healing ourselves through nature and nutrition. We love to share this empowering knowledge on our Retreats and always get asked for the remedies and recipes. So here they are for now, while a book is being created with love behind the scenes. We hope these nourishing, healthy, high vibrational, hormone balancing, gut-friendly recipes inspire you. They are all created to lower inflammation, support digestion, boost well-being, and bring balance to your plate and hormones.

Spring Beans on Toast

This is a fresh and delicious take on beans on toast, celebrating some of the very best seasonal spring ingredients.. Capturing all the goodness of foraged nettles, packed full of cleansing goodness and nutrients. This is also a gut-loving recipe as its full of natural seasonal pre-biotics - asparagus and leeks that feed the good microbes while wild garlic helps keep any bad ones at bay with all its anti-microbial qualities.

Ingredients:

splash olive oil
2 medium leeks
bunch asparagus
basket of fresh foraged nettle tops (or spinache substitute)
2 Lemons juice and zest (or orange or 1 of each)
2 tins of beans I usually choose cannellini, haricot or butter
300ml tub creme fraiche (plant based version if dairy free)
Parmesan cheese grated to taste (3tbsp of nutritional yeast if dairy free)
Salt and Pepper to season
Handful chopped wild garlic (2 garlic cloves if not in season)
Toast of your choice (see below for life changing loaf or mung bean bread)
Method:
Serves approx 4-6 servings
Forage fresh nettle tips (first 4 inches) if spring, if its not you can substitute with spinach fresh or frozen). Pour boiling water over the nettles and leave to steep for 5 - 10 minutes). Chop and wash leeks while letting the oil warm in a pan. Then sauté the leeks on low. Chop asparagus in small chunks on an angle, leaving the tips whole, then add to the pan. Drain off the nettles and chop off any chunky stalks then chop and add to the softened leeks and asparagus. Add in your handful of chopped washed wild garlic or cloves and stir in. Zest the citrus and squeeze the juice and add to your greens. This will both activate the colour and flavour but also the Vit C will help you absorb all of the iron, minerals and nutrients from the greens. Give a good stir, then add in your drained and washed beans. Add creme fraiche and stir through. Grate in your parmesan cheese to taste, I like a good generous handful. Then generous amounts of salt and pepper. Taste test, then serve and garnish with wild garlic flowers salt and pepper and parmesan if feeling fancy.
I love to serve this on Spring Retreat’s on mung bean bread to support the cleansing process, but other options are the GF life changing loaf recipe also below or good old sourdough is my favourite gut friendly favourite.

Spring Soup

This is just a lovely one to have the excuse to get a basket out if you have one or even a linen bag and get yourself out for a forage which is the real medicine. Enjoying that spring energy and gathering some goodness. Wild garlic and nettles are so beneficial for hormone and gut support and this is a soup I love to make a big batch of and freeze for when you need that boost of cleansing greens.

Ingredients:

4 large handfuls of nettle tops
4 large handfuls of wild garlic
500g of frozen peas
2 Handfuls of fresh mint
Dried seaweed for stock (optional)
Poached egg for serving (optional)
Salt and pepper to season
Method:
The key with this soup is not to over cook the nettles and wild garlic. So have everything ready to go. If you do have seaweed stock it just makes this soup the ultimate nutrient dose, plus adds a little umami taste. So if you do have, make a 1 litre and leave to infuse. Set a pan to simmer for poaching eggs. Pour boiling water over the nettles and leave for a few minutes to remove the sting while you wash and chop the wild garlic and mint. Drain the nettles and remove any thick stalks. Add the nettles, wild garlic and mint to your stock and heat gently for a few minutes. Add the frozen peas towards the end to preserve their colour and flavour. Season well and blend until smooth. Serve with a poached egg and crusty bread or a wild garlic and cheese scone.

Life Changing Loaf

This really is a little life changer as it's a great bread alternative that not only cuts out inflammatory gluten but also helps increase your intake of nuts and seeds, healthy fats and plant protein. It’s so filling and a great way to start the day heaped with breakfast items or with soup or even topped with banana and peanut butter if you fancy sweet. I like to make a loaf, slice it, then freeze and pull out one slice at a time and toast a few times. I sometimes add fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme or dried like fennel or nigella seeds for more flavour and herbal goodness.

Ingredients:

1 & 1/2 cup oats
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
3/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup linseeds (ideally blitz to digest better)
3 tbsp chia seeds
3 tbsp physillium husk
3 tbsp melted coconut oil
Pinch salt
1 & 1/2 cup water
Method:
Serves 8-10 slices
Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, mix well then add the water and coconut oil at the end. Mix well and leave a few minutes to absorb fluid. Place in a silicone loaf tin and leave for at least 20 minutes in the fridge to help set and bind. Sometimes I leave overnight where possible. Place in oven on 180c for 25 mins then tip out of silicone mould onto wire oven shelf leave in oven for another 35-40 mins, turning once again half way through if you can for an even golden bake. Leave to cool before trying to slice, try and use a finely serrated bread knife if you have one.
If you’re wanting to try seed cycling to support your hormones, you can use a mix of sunflower and sesame instead of sunflower and pumpkin and eat this in the nurture phase (10 days before bleed due to start) of your cycle. Then switch to pumpkin and linseeds (grind these) once you start your period and enjoy this in week 1 and 2 of cycle to boost relevant hormones.
There are many podcasts available to listen to about seed cycling and how this can help support up the right nutrition and the right time of your cycle to support the production of hormones. I have done this when I felt out of balance and suffering with symptoms and found it helped.
I buy all of my dried ingredients from a company called BuyWholefoods I think they are brilliant and they sell physillium husk which is tricky to find. I have a discount code for 10% off enter at check out BWFO-INF-RETREATREMEDIES10 it can be used one time per email address.

Mung Bean Bread

Ingredients:

250g (1¼ cups) whole mung beans, soaked overnight
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing and to serve
½ tsp garlic powder or crushed fresh garlic or fresh or frozen cube of wild garlic
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, plus 1 sprig to decorate
1 tbsp maple syrup
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp sea salt, plus extra to serve
Juice of 1 lemon (about 4 tbsp)
20ml (½ cup) lukewarm water
Freshly ground black pepper, to serve

Method:

Serves 8-10 slices

Soak the mung beans in water overnight till soft. Drain and divide them into two equal portions. Blend one portion to a soft purée with a dropping consistency. Add the second portion and blend for a few seconds so that you get a rough texture with no whole mung beans remaining. If you have time, leave the mixture for a few hours before baking to encourage further activation of digestive enzymes and increase digestibility. Preheat oven to 180ºC (fan 160ºC/gas mark 4). Add the oil, garlic, rosemary, maple syrup, bicarbonate of soda, salt and lemon juice. Then add the lukewarm water, this will create the bicarb and acid from lemon to foam up, which always feels like a bit of alchemy. When you mix it through it creates a light fluffy texture. Place mixture in a silicone tin or grease a metal tin, sometimes I go for a round cake tin for triangular crispy slices. Or you can go loaf tin and slice once cooled. Bake in the oven for 30 - 35 minutes or until lightly brown on top and springy to touch.

Golden Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

2tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, washed trimmed thinly sliced
Pinch Salt
4 cloves garlic - chopped finely
2 tbsp Retreat Remedies Golden Goodness (if you don’t have just 1tsp turmeric powder)
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1 Cauliflower
1kg Bag Frozen Sweetcorn
2 tins Coconut Milk
400ml water
1 Bunch Spring onions
Cauliflower greens
Pumpkin Seeds
1tsp chopped dried Seaweed (optional for extra nutrition and umami flavour)
1tbsp Tamari

Put the olive oil in the pan, and start to sweat off the leeks for 5-10 mins with the pinch of salt. Add hot water to the seaweed to cover and soak if you have it set to one side. Then add the turmeric (Golden Goodness) and garlic to the leeks for a further few minutes, as you chop the cauliflower into small florets and add them to the pan (keeping the cauliflower greens to one side). Then add the bag of frozen sweetcorn to the pan. Add the coconut milk and then add the seaweed stock for more nutrition, measure it out in the tins to wash them out about another 1-2 tins worth of liquid, enough so the veg is all covered with at least a inch or two of liquid above. Bring to a simmer and cook until the cauliflower is soft, add lots of salt and pepper, take off the heat and use a stick blender to blitz up to a nice chowder texture.

Chop the cauliflower greens into small chunks and pan fry for a few minutes then add the spring onions. Add the seaweed and a splash of tamari. Then for the final few minutes add in the pumpkin seeds til they start to pop. Spoon the crispy cauliflower greens, spring onions and pumpkin seeds over the chowder before serving for extra texture and flavour.

Method:

Fiery Smokey Beans

Ingredients:

2tbsp olive oil
1 red onion
2tbsp sun dried tomato
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1tbsp smokey chipotle paste (optional)
1tbsp Retreat Remedies Fire Fighter Choppings (optional)
1/2 jar sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 Jar Roasted Red peppers (optional)
3 tins Beans of your choice I used mixed and butter beans
1 tin of chopped tomato
1jar/carton tomato passata
salt and pepper to season
Hot sauce if you want more fire
Method:
Soften the onion, sun-dried tomato in a pan with the olive oil for 5-10 minutes. Add the spices, paste, Fire Fighter and red peppers if using and give it another 2-3 minutes. Add the chopped toms and tomato passata and let flavours infuse and heat through for about 5 minutes. Add beans of choice to bulk out. Season to taste and serve…I love serving these beans on toasted Life Changing Loaf with slices of avocado for extra healthy fats.

Peanut Satay Veggie Bowl

Ingredients:

Satay Sauce

200g Peanut butter
2 limes Juice and zest
40ml soy sauce
40ml maple syrup
1 garlic clove
2cm fresh ginger
50ml water
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1.5 tins coconut milk
2tbsp coconut oil
2 lg sweet potato
2 red onion (sliced top to bottom in crescent moons) red
Tin chick peas (Support building good estrogen’s)
Baby sweetcorn
Sugar snap peas or mange tout
Red pepper
Yellow pepper
Broccoli
Spinach
Beansprouts
Garnish dried onions or purple chive flowers like in the photo

Method:

This dish is high in magnesium, protein, healthy fats and fibre, all things we NEED to produce hormones. Vegetables full of antioxidants to support the liver and diversity to support the gut microbiome.

Peel and chop sweet potato into cubes and put on a tray with melted coconut oil and air fry (20 mins) or roast in oven (30 mins) till turning colour. Meanwhile place all ingredients into a nutri bullet or food processor with just half a tin of coconut milk. Blend and put to one side, warning if you taste, you will want more! Chop the onions soften in pan in coconut oil, add baby sweetcorn chopped in halves then into 2cm chunks and allow to sweat for a while whilst you boil kettle. Chop broccoli into small florets and pour boiling water over and let sit for a few mins (saves over cooking in pan and keeps that fresh green colour. Chop peppers into chunks and throw into the pan and mange tout in half and add. Drain and add chick peas and broccoli then add sauce and other tin of coconut milk. Then wash spinach and beansprouts and stir well. Bring to simmer, taste and serve when hot.

Peanut Butter Banoffi

Ingredients: serves 4-6

10 medjool dates
250g Brazil nuts
100g desiccated coconut
pinch of sea salt
500ml Greek or Coconut yoghurt
4tbsp heaped peanut butter
8 Bananas
Coconut oil for frying
4tbsp Maple syrup
Coconut chips (optional)
1tsp Black sesame seeds (optional)
Method:
Blitz the Brazil nuts, then add the dates, coconut and salt, until you have a sticky crumb mixture, then add maple syrup to bind and sweeten to taste. This mixture can then be placed in individual serving dishes/glasses. Blitz 4 of the bananas to mush then add yoghurt and peanut butter. Distribute evenly to pots. Slice bananas on an angle and heat non stick pan and melt coconut oil in pan and fry off bananas. Add some maple syrup towards the end to help caramelise them and then place on top. Finish with chopped Brazil nuts, coconut chips and black sesame seeds if using.

Homemade Chocolates

Ingredients:

200g Coconut oil

90g Maple syrup or honey

3tbsp nut butter

90g cocoa powder

Method:

Melt down the coconut oil and the peanut butter in a glass jar or jug sat in a pan of water on the hob. Then stir in the maple syrup and cocoa powder and stir well off the heat until it goes all silky and smooth. You can just leave the chocolates plain and pour them into silicone ice cube trays and leave to set. In the picture opposite I made a mixture to put in the middle of a banana blitzed up with a few medjool dates and peanut butter for that snickers effect. Or you could simply just put an almond or hazelnut in the middle with sultans so a healthy version of fruit and nut

Or leave to cool a little then you can add in a few drops of wild orange or peppermint Doterra Essential Oil (I would only ever ingest Doterra Essential oils) or you can add in sultanas, nuts and pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Pour into moulds or onto grease proof paper and make a large bark. They can be stored in a tub in freezer or fridge for quite some weeks.

If you have too much mixture and not enough silicone trays and don’t want to do a big bark you can just leave in a jar and let set then melt again when ready to reset.

Once you start making these, you'll be amazed at how simple they are and how much better they taste than most shop-bought chocolate. They are a great way of getting healthy fats in, dark cocoa powder which is full of polyphenols and magnesium, all things we can be low in and important for hormone production, keeping cholesterol low and feeding the gut microbiome. They are just a great sweet treat that you can trust to not be full of rubbish and they taste SO much better than normal chocolate that is full of sugar, emulsifiers and is getting extremely expensive. I buy green and blacks cocoa powder or I stock up on all these ingredients at BUY WHOLEFOODS who I think are great and because I recommend them so much they gave me a 10% off code BWFO-INF-RETREATREMEDIES10 it can be used one time per email address.

Wild Garlic & Cauliflower Macaroni Cheese

Ingredients:

1 cauliflower
2 leeks
1 Large handful wild garlic
500g macaroni cheese
300g mature cheddar
500ml milk
100g butter
2 tbsp plain flour
salt and pepper

Method:

First put a pan of water on hob to boil and place in macaroni for 10 minutes. Put oven on 180.C and get a steamer on the hob with water heating. Chop the cauliflower into florets and put in the steamer for 5 minutes. Chop and wash leeks and add them to the steamer for another 3-4 minutes, till they are al par cooked. Once cooked drain and place in an oven dish mixed together.

For the sauce, melt the butter first, take off the heat whie you mix in the flour with a wooden spoon and then add in a splash of milk and stir to a paste, add a little more and you will probably find it thickens, this is normal. Place back on the heat and gradually add n the rest of the milk using a whisk to stop it from getting lumpy. Meanwhile grate the cheese wash and chop the wild garlic. When the sauce is starting to thicken as the flour cooks, season and then add the cheese gradually (keeping back a third to put on the top. Once the cheese has melted add in the wild garlic to the sauce, stir through for a minute so it has wilted and turned dark green then pour over the macaroni leeks and cauliflower. Grate cheese on the top, season again and then place in the oven for approx 25 mins till the top has turned golden.

Salmon & Wild Garlic Fishcakes on Pea Puree

Ingredients:

1 generous handful washed wild garlic leaves (or spinach and a few spring onions if not in season)
2 medium white potatoes
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 salmon fillets
Juice of 1 lemon
2 eggs, whisked (plus extra eggs for poaching to serve)
Salt and pepper
Sourdough breadcrumbs
Approx. 250ml vegetable or sunflower oil, for shallow frying
1 avocado
300g frozen peas
Small handful fresh mint and basil

Method:

Makes 10–12 Med Fishcakes ( I tend to freeze some for another day.)

Peel and chop the potatoes into small chunks and boil in lightly salted water until soft. Meanwhile, squeeze lemon juice over the salmon, season with salt and pepper and bake for 8–10 minutes until nearly cooked through.Drain and mash the potatoes. Remove the skin from the salmon, flake into the potatoes and add the chopped wild garlic (or spinach and spring onions). Season well and mix together. Add some of the whisked egg and a handful of breadcrumbs until the mixture comes together and is not too wet.

I always keep a stock of breadcrumbs in the freezer. Whenever I have the ends of a loaf or a few leftover slices, I simply blitz them and freeze them for recipes like this.

Heat the oil in a frying pan so it comes 1–2cm up the sides. Shape the mixture into fishcakes, dip into the remaining egg, then coat in breadcrumbs. Fry until golden brown on both sides.While the fishcakes are cooking, defrost the peas in boiling water and bring a separate pan of water to a gentle simmer for poaching the eggs.

Blitz the avocado with the lemon juice until smooth, then pulse in the peas, mint and basil, leaving a little texture. Season to taste.Transfer the fishcakes to kitchen paper to absorb any excess oil and serve on the pea and avocado purée with a poached egg on top.