serves 8

• 1 can red kidney beans (or half kidney beans, half chickpeas)

• 1 red onion, diced

• 2 (or more) cloves of garlic, finely chopped

• 8 fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped

• 1 red pepper, diced

• 1 courgette, grated

• 3 slices of bread, grated into crumbs

• ½ teaspoon (or more) hot chilli powder

• Olive oil

• Salt and black pepper to taste

Try using grated carrot or squash, pureed broad beans, mushroom, peas, spring onions, or sweetcorn.

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.

2. Heat some oil in a large saucepan, the gently sauté the onion and garlic for 3 or 4 minutes.

3. Add the red pepper and sauté for another minute, then the grated courgette, and then the spices and cook for another couple of minutes.

4. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chopped tomatoes.

6. Puree the beans in a blender with more of olive oil and a tiny splash of water if it’s too thick.

7. Stir the puree into the cooked mix along with the bread crumbs, adding the breadcrumbs in a little at a time until the mixture is holding together like a dough.

8. Taste and adjust seasoning / spices for your preference.

9. Use your hands to create eight equal sized ‘patties’. If the mix gets really stuck to your palms and fingers, you probably want to add more breadcrumbs, otherwise the burgers will be more like dollops that won’t hold together – your hands should stay relatively clean.

10. Place the patties onto a lightly oiled baking tray and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes on each side.

11. Serve the patties hot on a bed of fresh salad leaves.

This quick and simple recipe takes about 10 minutes to cook, cost a couple of quick and can be made with almost all local, seasonal ingredients. Perfect!

250g bean sprouts (try aduki or chickpeas) Here’s how to sprout your own!
250g egg noodles
250g beef (go for an inexpensive cut of local, organic beef)
3 tbsp oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
6 spring onions
2 sticks of celery
1 tsp ground ginger
4 tbsp beef stock or bouillon
2 tbsp soy sauce
salt

1) Cook egg noodles to directions
2) Cut beef into very thin strips, 5cm long.
3) Heat oil in large pan to very high temperature. Add meat and fry to seal for 1min.
4) Lower heat to med-high. Stir in finely chopped onion, crushed garlic, finely chopped spring onions and finely chopped celery.
5) Add ginger, stock, soy sauce and fry over moderate heat until meat is tender (about 15mins). Season.
6) Lower heat to low-med and add drained noodles and bean sprouts. Heat through, stirring well. Serve.

This is a generic non-recipe for a hummus type protein source. It isn extremely good replacement for meat, as the protein concentration is high, and the smooth texture means it gets fully digested. Add a few spoonfuls of this to a bowl of salad leaves and a slice of bread for a complete and filling meal.

In order to make a flexible recipe we need to understand what makes Hummus, so let’s it break down into it’s constituent parts.

1. The protein – gives the dish bulk. This can come from chickpeas, broad beans, lentils, split peas or any other legume.
2. The fat – gives it a creamy and slightly sticky texture. Tahini is commonly used for this, but any Nut Butter works equally well as a fat source.
3. The oil – makes the protein and fat mix together in that hummus’y way we all love and helps it spread smoothly.
4. The flavour – makes it so delicious 🙂 Traditionally garlic and lemon juice is used here. However, chilli, balsamic vinegar, coriander, smoked paprika, wild garlic leaves, and basil are all worthy replacements. Just remember that there needs to be two strong flavours here, of contrasting types e.g. balsamic and chilli, or wild garlic & coriander.

How to make it:

• Select and soak the peas, beans, or lentils of your choice. Once softened, cook them until they are mushy. Don’t add too much water, we aim to have a little left in the pan to moisten things if necessary, not so much that we pour it away along with the flavour.
• Next blend the fat, oil and flavour together first then spoon in the protein bit by bit, blending as you go.
• That’s basically it but once it’s at the right consistency, I like to make it even more flavourful by browning a finely chopped spring onion  or shallot in a little coconut fat and stirring it in right at the end.

– Thommy (Food Hub Volunteer)

Organic peanut butter is probably quite good value at £3.50 for a 300g jar, which is just over £10 per kilo. Not bad but considering that most of us own a blender and organic peanuts can cost less than £3 per kilo we may be missing a trick!

Why stop at peanuts. Here’s an extremely simple recipe for a luxurious, healthy and tasty nut butter which can be spread, used in cooking, or my favourite; half a teaspoonful blended with half a cup of water for 20 seconds to make fresh milk for my cereal each morning.

You will need:

• A cupful of peanuts with their skins still on
• A handful of cashew nuts
• A handful of walnuts
• A tablespoonful of olive oil
• A half teaspoonful of Himalayan or Maldon salt
• A half teaspoonful of honey if you wish

Place the nuts together in a baking dish, and pop into a preheated oven at 180 for 20 minutes, no more! We don’t want them burnt, but just cooked through.

Empty into the blender, add the honey, salt and olive oil and blend until smooth. You need quite a good blender to do it in one hit so be prepared to keep spooning it back down to the blade as this mixture can get quite stiff. After a while something miraculous happens however; the nuts break down small enough that their oil is released and the whole thing becomes more malleable.

Once it feels smooth and creamy to the touch it is ready to go into a jar.

– Thommy (Food Hub Volunteer)