Wild Garlic & Butter Bean Soup with Roasted Buckwheat

Wild garlic has become all the rage recently and, along with forced rhubarb and asparagus, it has come to symbolise the arrival of spring. It has even become a staple at selected shops – although who doesn’t like to go for a bit of foraging for themselves? 

I loved going with my mum to pick wild garlic as a child – we had an abundance in the woody bit of our garden so we didn’t have to walk far. 😉 She put it in absolutely everything: salads, risottos, polenta, with chicken and fish…just about anything that would respond to a bit of a garlic punch. Looking around on social media, it seems that wild garlic pesto is a firm favourite amongst many but please don’t stop yourself there, as you will see with this soup it works well in many dishes. The sky is your limit with this little green leaf!

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Roasted Beetroot with Greek Yoghurt & Wasabi Peanuts

The ‘Roasted Beetroot with Greek Yoghurt & Wasabi Peanuts’ is such a simple dish to make and, although it only uses a limited amount of ingredients, it is quite a looker – thanks to its striking combination of strong colours. Added to that…it is simply delicious!!! Finally, eating beetroot has a lot of benefits for your gut health – read more below! Keeping all this in mind, there is a high chance that this dish will become one of your household staples! It is actually my mum who introduced me to this recipe; It is from Annemarie Wildeisenthe Swiss Editor of a monthly cooking magazine, author of several cooking books and and principal of a cookery school. As you can see from this recipe, her cooking style is simple, quick and perfect for your everyday needs. 

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Rose Buttermilk Panna Cotta & Drunken Rhubarb

Overall, Panna Cotta must be one of the best desserts to experiment with! It is a very easy dish to prepare (although it doesn’t look it) and you can make it ahead of time, which is fantastic when you have guests to deal with. It also has a great shelf life – some sources mentioned 10 days, although that sounds a bit optimistic! 😉 It is just so versatile! Once you have found a good base recipe, you can customise it to your taste, either by adding: fruits (passion fruit, strawberry…), flowers (rose, lavender, chamomile…), herbs (basil, rosemary…) or spices (cardamom, cinnamon, star anis…); steep the cream with tea bags (matcha, earl grey…) or exchange the milk with yoghurt, buttermilk or even soft goat cheese – the possibilities are endless!!!

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