Tag Archives: apple

Zingy green smoothie: cucumber, spinach, apple, mint, lime, ginger

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I know there are loads of debates about smoothies and how much sugar they contain. I agree that you should consume more vegetables than fruit. But, if you eat the whole fruit – either by actually eating it or blitzing it into a smoothie – then you get lots of fibre (both insoluble and soluble), vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The rise in diabetes isn’t due to people eating too much fruit in its whole, natural form; it’s eating too much refined sugar in sugary drinks and too many refined carbs that busts your pancreas.

Anyway, this smoothie is really zingy and my partner loved it, but my youngest struggled with it – she prefers something that contains banana/berries at its base.

I always put a cube of frozen spinach into my smoothies. Okay, not always, but mostly.

Anyway, for this one you need, for four small glasses:

About 20g frozen spinach (or fresh of course)

Half a thumb size of ginger – be careful, if it’s fresh and good it’ll be quite powerful. I used half a thumb size and it was a bit too much for the children, adults loved it though

The juice of one lime

Half a bunch of mint, you know those bunches you get in the supermarket that cost about 85p (rip off)

Half a small cucumber, washed, not peeled and cut into chunks

One medjool date to bump up the sweetness and fibre a bit but you can leave this out

Apple juice. I get mine from our local farmer’s market, it’s really good but if you can’t get really good apple juice then blend in an apple (not the pips) and some water

Put all the ingredients in a blender/Nutribullet and taste it: because lime sizes vary and the recipe isn’t precise, you may need to add that date, or a bit more apple juice or water or cucumber. The ginger and mint are strong tastes, the cucumber calms it all down, the apple juice adds liquid and sweetness.

i think this would be really good if you had a cold. I can still feel the zingy effects over an hour later.

 

Toffee apple apple crumble (updated October 2025)

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I have become slightly obsessed with this apple crumble. It appeared in Good Food magazine in October (I cannot find a link to it on line) and my photograph doesn’t do it justice. But it’s one of those puddings that, once served up, I itch to eat and cannot be bothered to really photograph.

I have made this a lot recently and my partner says it tastes really Christmassy. I agree, but it only really started tasting Christmassy as we got into late November…

The ingredients for the underneath bit:

100g raisins

100g pitted soft dates, chopped up

85g light muscovado sugar

3 tablespoons of dark rum (I have also used sherry or marsala)

25g unsalted butter (you can leave this out to make it vegan and it doesn’t suffer for it)

1 teaspoon of mixed spice

Zest and juice of one lemon

A large dollop of marmalade (optional)

4 Bramley apples, about 800g in total, peeled and cored and cut into wedges or rings

The ingredients for the crumble topping:

125g plain flour (I mix a bit of wholemeal flour in there too)

100g unsalted butter (vegan butter works really well too)

50g light muscovado sugar

3 tablespoons of jumbo oats

25g flaked almonds – totally optional

What you do:

Heat the oven to 190C.

Put everything for the underneath bit into a large pan and cook on the hob until the butter (if you’re using but you don’t have to) has melted and the sugar is syrupy and it looks nice. I do this slowly for about 20 minutes.

Then toss into the pan a suitable dish. I use a Le Creuset thing that is approx 20cm square or an enamel roasting dish that is quite large (sorry to be vague but you will be okay). I let this cool.

To make the topping I put the flour and butter into a food processor and go past the fine breadcrumb stage and pulse until big clumps form. Then I stir in the sugar, oats and almonds (if using). Spread this on top of the fruit mixture. At first it will look like you don’t have enough mixture but don’t panic as it all works out. Cook for 30 mins until the top is bubbling and golden.

Leave to stand for about 10mins before serving with custard or cream or ice cream or all three. Oink, oink. It also works really well with non-dairy versions.

It’s delicious and wonderfully comforting and warming. I hardly make crumble any other way now, although I might find it all a bit much come the spring time.

*note: you can easily make this a few hours ahead, assemble, cover with foil and then put it in the oven as you sit down to main course.

Apologies again for the not great pic…

Making it suitable for anyone on a low-sugar/non dairy diet (ie me), method as above but slightly altered ingredients.

The ingredients for the underneath bit:

50g raisins

100g pitted soft dates, chopped up

3 tablespoons of dark rum (I have also used sherry or marsala), or water

25g vegan butter

1 teaspoon of mixed spice, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Zest and juice of one lemon

A large dollop of marmalade (optional)

4 Bramley apples, about 800g in total, peeled and cored and cut into wedges or rings. You can also do apples and pears, if using pears add them a bit later as they soften quicker.

The ingredients for the crumble topping:

125g wholemeal flour (I also add 20% Diversity XXX flour)

100g vegan butter

two tablespoons of light brown sugar

3 tablespoons of oats

3 tablespoons of ground almonds