Green Cyprus

Serves 4

400g organic cooked chickpeas or for ease, 2 tins organic chickpeas
50 ml organic olive oil plus extra for drizzling
1 small organic onion, chopped
1 litre filtered water
1 tbsp organic rosemary, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
Freshly ground organic black pepper
1 large organic lemon, juiced
Fresh organic rosemary sprigs for garnish

Sauté onions in olive oil until onions soften and start to turn golden. Stir in chickpeas, water and the chopped rosemary. Bring to the boil, turn down heat, and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Add the salt and pepper and puree the soup until smooth with a blender. Stir in lemon juice, taste and add additional salt, lemon juice and  rosemary, as needed. If soup is too thick, add more water until it’s the texture you prefer. Drizzle with olive oil, and garnish with rosemary sprigs before serving.

Craving something sweet but as healthy as possible? Here’s a quick recipe you can whip up in 15 minutes. Tastes delicious and won’t leave you feeling too stodged-out or guilty (and it’s gluten-free)!

Organic Coconut Rice Pudding

2 cans Organic Coconut Milk
1 cup Organic Pudding Rice*
3/4 cup Organic Coconut Sugar* (regular organic sugar may be used)

In a medium saucepan, combine the coconut milk and rice.

Ingredients:

175g organic muscovado sugar

175ml organic sunflower oil

3 large organic eggs , lightly beaten

140g grated organic carrots (about 3 medium)

100g  organic raisins

grated zest of 1 large orange

175g organic self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)

For the Frosting:

175g icing sugar

1½-2 tbsp orange juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with eco-friendly baking parchment.

Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.

Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients – when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack.

Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth – you want the icing about as runny as single cream. Set the cake on a serving plate and boldly drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides.