Monthly Archives: April 2015

Spring Clean

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DSC_4553Happy 1st April! A little eager for summer, I’m welcoming Spring with a crisp white attire – which, a green smoothie, some turmeric and a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter later, won’t be very white for long, I can assure you. Wearing white-on-white almost makes me feel as though I’m not wearing monochrome and feel a little less bad about avoiding colour…even though I very clearly am still wearing monochrome? I’m liking the contrast between the ragged, frayed jeans and the tailored look of the dress; definitely an easy way to dress down the open-back Zara number.

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Maybe it’s vitamin D getting to my head from the brief appearance of the sun, but I’m feeling a little bit of spring ‘optimism and youth’ and re-living my childhood sartorial choices with the dress and jeans combo – a mix that has somewhat evolved from the days of floral Boden dress and pink corduroy trousers. Someone get the S Club 7 CD on quick.

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ZARA dress
ASOS jacket + shoes
TOPSHOP jeans

Coconut yogurt + roasted beetroot dip

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Inspired by part of a lunch I had at Raw Press last month – a divine baked beetroot with a blob of coconut yogurt on top – I wanted replicate the melt-in-the-mouth delicious-ness in the form of a sweet yet spicy dip. This is a perfect side to accompany some baked rosemary sweet potato fries or fresh crudités. I’ve used the natural coconut yogurt by the Coconut Collaborative for an incredibly creamy flavour. Although here I could only get my hands on the purple packaging which comes with a small packet of seeds and berries, the flavour of the yogurt is still natural and I have just reserved the seed mix for breakfasts/smoothies.

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Behold, yogurt made from the milk of the coconut!

The dip:

2 small beetroot, roasted
1/2 cup coconut yogurt
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp. tahini
1 tsp tahini
Juice of 1/2 lemon/lime
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 spring onion
A handful of fresh coriander
1 tsp cumin
Pinch of cayenne, paprika and chilli flakes
Sea salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Scrub and dry the beets then wrap each one in tin foil. Bake them for about a hour, until soft on the inside. Once cooked, leave to cool and assemble the rest of the dip ingredients. Once cool, place the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Adjust the spices to your liking. As I’ve said before, I’m a spicy food kinda gal so used quite large pinches of spices, but just go with your instinct. To serve, drizzle some extra chilli flakes, olive oil and some sesame seeds (toasted or raw).

I served the dip with some baked fries, made by slicing 1 sweet potato and 1 large carrot and roasting in ghee/coconut oil, S+P, cayenne, rosemary and cumin. Simply bake for about 30-40 minutes, whilst the beetroot cooking! This would also be lovely with a sprinkle of feta and a fresh rocket salad.

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