Soupologie. It's dairy and gluten free

Soupologie. It's dairy and gluten free. So, one might say it is "dairy and gluten negative" but it's also highly "taste positive."

In the 600 gramme range there is Broccoli and Matcha Green tea soup, Adzuki Bean Soup, Beetroot and Pomegranate, Roasted butternut and red pepper, Curried sweet potato, Three mushroom broth, Ancient grains, Amaranth, flaxseed and millet,  Celery apple and ginger, Cauliflower and kale with black garlic, Wartercress, courgettes and quinoa, Spirulina greens, Pea and leek, plus Spinach and kale with garlic.

They were exactly like the soups that our ancestors used to make on the range many years ago.

Well, except for the fact that many of the above highly health-giving and nutritious ingredients were, sadly, unknown to our ancestors.

But each soup tastes like a little visit to Soup Heaven as they all taste so utterly deliciously divine!

But there's much more to the great tastes. Each soup recipe is entirely plant-based, there is on added sugar (incidentally, the lack of sugar made no difference to the taste, so other soup producers could take note of how Soupologie makes their soups!) and each 600 gramme serving is two of your five a day, so what could be wrong there? Not a blessed thing!

Soupologie describes their soups as: "Soups with benefits" and it would be very difficult to argue with that, packed as they are with a variety of supergreens (Shouldn't that be soupergreens? Sorry!) and highly important and highly nutritious vitamins and minerals.

They have also recently introduced a range of Raw Soups, a first for the UK. They are designed to be eaten without cooking and are chock full of  important enzymes, vitamins and minerals.

These are available as Beetroot and mint, Strawberry, tarragon and lucuma, Watermelon and chilli, Spinach, mango, lime and baobab, plus Cucumber, avocado and kale.

 You can buy the soups online (the 600 gramme tubs cost £2.99) other sizes are available.

For details email info@soupologie.com, visit www.soupologie.com or call 020 7435 2245.

Super Greens From Heck

Super Greens are vegetarian meat(less) balls from North Yorkshire's very own Heck Foods.

They are made from a range of superfood green vegetables, Quinoa, Spinach, Kale and to add some spicing up to the whole recipe, some tasty ginger, too.

And they are guaranteed to be gluten free, too.

They cook within 20 to 25 minutes, but if you have a microwave you need to use the combination oven setting -if it has one- as Heck tells us that the Heck Super Green Veggie meatballs are not suitable for microwave cooking. (So, no ping cuisine for them!)

When you have cooked them you will be just bowled over by the taste.

The taste is hard to describe. It's 'meaty', yes, but there's no meat and all of the different vegetables crowd together on your tongue, to dance a dance of savoury goodness!

You can serve them with fried eggs, with poached eggs, or maybe an omelet. Or how about a nice, fresh salad?

Heck recommends a crisp beansprout and cashew nut salad, and I do not think I could argue with that idea, to be honest.

Though a large plate of nicely buttered mashed potatoes very liberally seasoned with freshly ground black pepper and a light sprinkling of Pink Himalayan Sea Salt or Welsh sea salt, plus a good portion of baked beans would also be an ideal way to serve these Heck Super Greens.

They should cost £3.00 from all good stores and from https://www.heckfood.co.uk.

Fava Beans. Finland's Nordic Superfood

Fava Beans. Finland's Nordic Superfood?

You could have heard it here on That's Food and Drink, first. The Fava bean from Finland is reputedly the new Nordic superfood.

Why and how? Because it's low in salt and low in sugar and high in fibre, but it has more protein than an egg.

The Fava Mill has a range of very tasty and very filling granolas based on the Fava bean in the following flavours:


Fava Mill Crunchy Granola

Fava Mill Cranberry Granola

Fava Mill Apple and Cinnamon Granola

Fava Mill Apricot and Papaya Granola

and

Fava Mill Berries and Beets Granola.

All of the above are utterly delicious and if you enjoy a bowl at breakfast time, you'll remain fuelled and focused for a long time thereafter!

But breakfast meals made with wholesome and sustaining  Fava Mill Fava Bean Granolas are not the only use that you can put Fava beans to.

For also in the range are Fava Mill Ground Fava Beans, which can be used as a substitute in vegetarian or vegan recipes which normally use soya beans. A boon for those vegetarians who are allergic to soya products.

You can find out about a whole host of recipes (soups and starters, desserts and savoury meals, snacks, smoothies and more) at http://favamill.com/recipes.

J. J. Whitley Elderflower Gin

J. J. Whitley Elderflower Gin is what a good gin should be.

No distilling in giant vats for J. J. Whitley Elderflower Gin! Indeed not!

For J. J. Whitley Elderflower Gin is batch distilled in a proper and very traditional copper pot still.

It is the type of gin my wife prefers and recommends to people who ask her the best gins to try.

There's a reassuring sound as the cork is pulled from the bottle and then there's the heavenly scent that wafts from the contents of the bottle.

There are floral scents -is that a hint of an English hedgerow, there? I rather think there is!

But the difference is the first taste. Oh, my word, that first taste!

It's a gin, so yes, there is juniper... but there's a depth of character, too. There's the taste of the elderflowers, plus the added spiciness of the coriander and cinnamon. But not too much, and other  there's just the right amount to take this gin out of the ordinary and to elevate it to the sublime gin drinking experience.

It's smooth and sweet. In fact the smooth easy drinking of this gin belies the fact that it is 38.6% volume of alcohol!

Drink it neat with some ice, or drink it with a nice tonic (Fevertree is a good one to match this gin)  or use it to make some exquisite cocktails. The choice is yours.

The J. J. Whitley family have been distilling gin for eight generations, and there experience shows in this most excellent gin, which contains 8 distinct botanicals.

It should cost around the £25 mark for a 70cl bottle.

If you can't find it in a local shop, you can find it at https://www.masterofmalt.com/gin/halewood-international/j-j-whitley-elderflower-gin and other online retailers.

Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream

Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream is a truly amazing drink.

It is a strawberry cream liqueur with just a hint of Tequila.

You can serve it at room temperature, or chilled, which is probably the best way, to be honest.

My wife is not a particular fan of either strawberries or Tequila for that matter, so her liking for Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream is a matter of some wonder.

Basically, it is a strawberry based cream drink with just enough Tequila to make things a little bit more interesting.

You can use it to make cocktails (we'll include some recipes) but many people just prefer to chill it and sip it. Sat outside on a hot, summer's day, there's nothing like a chilled  bottle of Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream to help the day pass more smoothly.

And at only15% alcohol by volume, it's lighter on the alcohol than you might think.

So, what about these recipes, then?

Mix it with Irish cream, or coconut flavoured rum, or vanilla or toffee flavoured vodka, serve with ice, crushed or chunked, add some real dairy cream and you have a wide and perhaps wild range of cocktails.

And here's an off the wall idea, when you are making a strawberry cheesecake, add some Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream into the mix and chill well before serving. Obviously you'll need some glasses of chilled Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream to help it go down!

It's distilled in Missouri and is imported exclusively into the UK by those very nice folks at Halewood International in Liverpool.

It should be available in all good stores throughout the UK.

For details of Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream and other products please visit http://mccormickdistilling.com/tr/

Heck! If you like cheese, you'll go Nuts about these!

Yes, indeed! Heck! If you like cheese, you'll go Nuts about these!

There are a number of different types of vegetarian sausages that are available.  But there is only one Heck Nuts About Cheese!

These sausages are made by Yorkshire's Heck Foods and they are made from cashew nuts, two types of cheese, some flax and chia and a tiny bit of chilli to add a bit of zip and zing to the proceedings.

You can taste the cashew nuts, there's a hint of the flax, plus the chia comes through with a little hint of chilli (but not too much, thankfully!)  but the predominant flavour is that of the cheeses.

The cheeses are Mozzarella and Cheddar and the taste combination is utterly sublime!

You can have them as sausage sandwiches or served in the traditional way, as bangers and mash (perhaps with fresh green beans or baked beans, with a fried egg or two?)  or you can use these as the vegetarian option next time you do a BBQ, perhaps with seeded baps?

However, you'd better get extra packs in as the meat eaters may well be tempted to start wolfing these down, too!

Learn more about them and the other sausages in the range by visiting www.heckfood.co.uk.

English Heaven in a can from Folkington's

Folkington's is a modestly sized and utterly independent drinks firm based in the English county of Suffolk.

They have launched a new range of effervescent (but not too gassy)  drinks.

They are charmingly called Folkington's Garden and are a range of four fruit pressés.

There's an utterly delicious and very traditional elderflower drink, with just enough Sicilian lemon juice to add a little bit of a zip to it. Works very nicely with the genuine wild hedgerow elderflowers.

There's a fiery ginger beer that uses some awesomely hot West African ginger root. Very refreshing! (That one was my wife's favorite.)

There's a very nicely created English Rhubarb and Apple drink. Often when drink firms make anything with rhubarb, they tend to overdo the rhubarb, which can create an over tart taste, that sets one's teeth on edge.

This is simply not the case with Folkington's English Rhubarb and Apple drink. The predominant flavour is that of real English apple juice with just the right amount of rhubarb juice to add a very pleasing tart zing to the drink.

Then there is the more than excellent Lemon and English Mint drink which has a perfect combination of  refreshing lemons and calming mint.

Each can is guaranteed free of things that many children can't have (artificial this, that and the other!) and as each can contains less than 100 calories, even those who are on a diet can sip their way through a can without any guilt.

They make ideal companions on a picnic or at a family garden party or BBQ and they make excellent mixers for artisan gins and the like. Or as part of a delicious range of mocktails for those who do not want any alcohol.

They also make a packed lunch in the office taste just a little bit more special.
 
You will find Folkington’s Garden range in independent shops, cafés and delis.

To learn more about the wide range of drinks that are available please do visit them at
http://www.folkingtons.com.