Chef Naturelle

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Chef Naturelle

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Naturopathic chef based in Hertford and specialising in delicious and nourishing plant-based whole food cooking offering cooking lessons, retreat catering and pop-up events.

23/03/2025

Dinner for my 20 month old - bibimbap with wild rice, sautéed carrots and courgettes, tamari hen of the woods, steamed purple sprouting broccoli, wild garlic and pine nut pesto, clementine pickled red onions.

I take so much pleasure in preparing food for him, and plating it up beautifully. I have always served him the same food as me, believing that he too deserves a lovely looking and delicious plate of food.

He loves hanging or helping in the kitchen when I am cooking, because he gets to taste each ingredient while I am cooking it. I discovered he adores clementine pickled red onions, saying “more” after he tried it, same with the wild garlic pesto which does pack a punch and when he got served the bibimbap, he tasted it and said “good”, with a nod of approval 🤍

15/03/2025

Huge congratulations to and for the publication of their new book - 19th Handbook, all about Bees and honey 🐝 🍯 and for the launch party on Wednesday at the beautiful Holland Park.

Such a delight to be celebrating my dear friend Rachel and sampling some of the recipes she shares in the book - the halva were divine, tahini and honey a favourite pairing making a great snack and satisfying for the sweet tooth.

Importantly, I love that this book, like all River Cottage books, is much more than recipes. It is informative, and helps us understand the earth we live on and the nature we are part of, a little better in order to look after it, a little more too.

03/03/2025

Hummus - what are the differences between blending a can of chickpeas or using dried chickpeas?

Better taste, better texture, more nutrients and a better absorption of them, full satisfaction and 100% gourmand!

What I call a proper hummus - using good quality dried chickpeas, soaked for at least 12 hours in filtered water, then cooked for 50 minutes. The skin is removed, a lengthy but necessary process for a silky finish. In the blender goes fresh lemon juice, very good organic whole tahini (high in calcium), sea salt flakes, fresh garlic and a couple of ice cubes, a game changer trick learnt from . This is the canvas of a multitude of versions but already a very good hummus.

In a world that is fast paced and where quick alternatives and fixes are celebrated, taking the time to prepare food properly is an act of rebellion!

27/01/2025

Forced rhubarb is here and it feels like the cycle of the season is starting all over again. Who else is excited? I certainly am, because forced rhubarb brings with it the bright, cheery jolly promise of Spring and delicious, fresh-tasting dishes after what felt like a long Winter!

I cooked the first Yorkshire forced rhubarb of the year with its great companion the blood orange. Both snuggled in a dish, I sprinkled a touch of coconut sugar and drizzled the juice of a blood orange mixed with the seeds of a vanilla pod before roasting until just tender. I served it with a cacao-Piemonte hazelnuts-coconut buckwheat granola and almond milk for my client. It would also be very delicious as a dessert with coconut yoghurt, a drizzle of honey and a few thyme leaves.

05/12/2024

Winter Essentials - going outside first thing in the morning to regulate the circadian rhythm, breathe some fresh air and notice every little beautiful thing that nature has in store for us, and then going back inside and cooking a warming spiced apple porridge while drinking a matcha latte.

02/12/2024

This is with great honour and pleasure that I baked this cake for .is.yle ‘s father’s 60th birthday. I met Ylenia at CNM school, as a teaching role, she’s helped me on workshops and we’ve since become friends. She asked me if I could make a cake for her dad’s 60th who is visiting from Italy and pick it up… from Marlow! If I had any self-doubts (they do creep in from time to time), this is my reminder to quieten them.

Back to the cake, an orange scented gluten free sponge made with brown rice flour and ground almonds, topped with coconut labneh delicately flavoured with orange blossom and vanilla. The addition of golden kiwis is a welcome fresh touch packed with the vitamin c and sunshine we all need at this time of year! Finally, a simple decoration of dehydrated yuzu slices for what I hope will make a glorious birthday cake for Lorenzo.

26/11/2024

Late Autumn in the kitchen. A variety of food cooked for clients, for the family, for friends. Preserving the season by dehydrating and fermenting, creating some natural ornaments with leaves coated in beeswax. The oven is often on, squash roasting for cakes and soups; breads, brioches and endless squash cakes baking. Pancakes and porridges on the stove, while the kettle is a reliable friend for wild brews to nourish and bring warmth in the colder days and nights.

30/10/2024

If you’ve been carving pumpkins, then using up the flesh to make a pumpkin pie is a delicious way to use what would otherwise go to waste. I went to a local pumpkin farm for the first time in my life this year - my 16month-old son loved it and the sight of all the different squashes and pumpkins on a sunny Autumn day was magical, but I got sadden at the sight of hundreds of rotten pumpkins in the field… and also worried about how many more would go to waste, unpicked.

For those who haven’t been carving, I would choose red onion squash and kabocha squash for their dense and flavourful flesh. Butternut squash offers a more subtle and fresher taste but it’s too wet so I would avoid it.

Making the squash purée from either roasted (bolder flavour) or steamed (fresher taste - personal favourite) squash delivers the best taste, texture and nutrition.

I add freshly grated ginger to a gluten-free crust for a spicy lift, and serve it alongside a cream flavoured with freshly grated nutmeg.

Perfect dessert for the celebrations of the harvest season! 🍂 🎃

26/10/2024

One of those slow autumn days. The golden seasonal light. A rare and delicious day when I don’t cook. I couldn’t help myself but capture the meal my friend cooked which I thought was perfectly composed. It’s about the food, but also about the plates, the table, the colours, the textures 🍂

19/10/2024

“We first eat with our eyes”

As chefs, how we plate a dish is a way to express our creativity and to tell a story. As a guest, that first impression is going to impact our whole experience of the dish.

There’s no right or wrong way of plating, but it needs to be considered whether the aim is to create a sophisticated or a rustic look and whether we serve food to clients or loved ones.

Thank you to the lovely group of students today who used their creativity, love and skills to create beautiful looking plates.

Hazelnut financier, crème pâtissière and blood orange gel made at today’s Food Photography and Presentation class taught alongside the one and only

15/10/2024

In my kitchen during the Autumn season, one of the dishes I love to make on repeat is this creamy butterbean mash with rose garam masala butternut squash and green oil. Good to make ahead for everyday lunches as part of an Autumn abundance plate, or to serve for a dinner party as a dip with fresh sourdough bread. It’s a warming, pleasing and satisfying dish.

If you would like to make it, the recipe is in the Autumn e-cookbook, link in my biog!

24/09/2024

Autumn is here 🍂 As the days get shorter, baking cookies, biscuits and other tastebuds ticklers becomes a recurring soothing, contemplative and creative activity. This is the season of harvest, and with harvest comes sharing. Even if you don’t have a garden, allotment or a farm to harvest from, you can gather ingredients, bake something you love, wrap it nicely and gift it.

Photographed are some (seriously addictive - both the smell of them baking and the taste!) golden tahini cookies gifted to the wonderful

19/09/2024

Oh the joy of cooking again for this family! Last time was May 2023, before baby Joshua arrived. I planned on going back a lot sooner but if there’s one thing that I have learnt in the last year, it is that motherhood creates the biggest changes in a woman. What hasn’t changed however is my love of cooking for others. If anything, it has expanded.

My time in their kitchen, uninterrupted by a curious little man, was meditation. Connecting with the beautiful produce from , working in harmony with knives and pans, the cooker and oven as my co-workers.

First up on the menu was a last hurrah for nectarine with a nectarine and chamomile chia pudding.

As a snack, a beautiful wild mushroom and walnut pâté, with thyme and homegrown tarragon weaved through, ready to be spread on super think super crunchy seeded buckwheat crackers.

The salad was a mix of bitter leaves - red dandelion, nasturtium, pea shoots and laces of the fragrant shiso leaves, maple and tamari roasted Kabocha squash, fresh and grilled figs, toasted Piemonte hazelnuts (the very best), to be generously drizzled with a creamy courgette, lime and basil dressing.

The warm main - a plant version of a Peruvian dish called cau cau with potatoes, green beans, Romano peppers served with golden quinoa and fresh coriander and mint.

30/08/2024

COURGETTE RIBBONS & WATERMELON SALAD / Crunchy, refreshing and with an umami dressing, this is the salad I like to make on those last warm days of late Summer, served as an accompaniment to a tomato tart + a buckwheat and rice salad. I wrote this recipe for last year and it is accessible on their website.

26/08/2024

JOYFUL PANCAKES / My cooking these days is without gluten due to my auto-immune condition, including when I cook for clients as I need to be able to taste the recipes. Instead of seeing it as a limit and a frustration, this limit feeds my creativity - I love experimenting with ingredients!

I wanted a protein rich recipe, so for these pancakes I used quinoa, brown rice and red split lentils which I soaked overnight before blending with filtered water to form a batter. A sprinkle of sea salt, et voilà! The result is a super flavourful, protein rich and slightly chewy pancake, delicious eaten plain or served with coconut yoghurt, a sprinkle of bee pollen for energy and B vitamins, fresh berries making the most of the last weeks of their season and a generous drizzle of maple syrup for good measure.

I also like eating these for lunch or dinner, they can replace a piece of bread or some crackers!

24/08/2024

LATE SUMMER PLATE / Pea hummus, boiled beetroot, juicy tomatoes, caramelised red onions and an aromatic dressing made of EVOO, brown rice vinegar, mustard, mint and tarragon.

I wished you were in my kitchen to smell the aroma of the onions as they were caramelising, in my garden to feel the soft leaves of the tarragon as they were picked and at my table to share this dish as we tucked into it.

A good dressing is often the answer to make a good dish a great one. No recipe for this one, put all the ingredients in a dish and blend using a hand blender. Taste, season and add more of one ingredient or another as you taste until you are happy with it. Follow your instincts, and have a delicious time!

21/08/2024

RASPBERRY, CHOCOLATE & FENNEL / After reading an earlier post from , I decided to flick through my camera roll too. There are thousands of photos in there (which really need sorting, storing and editing!), just in the last year, almost equally split between baby Joshua and food in all its forms - ingredients grown, foraged, dishes cooked, dishes eaten out.

When this photo came up, it transported me back on a hot August Sunday when I made a cake to celebrate my sister-in-law’s birthday as Joshua was 7 weeks old.

A gluten-free sponge slightly citrus scented, topped with a chocolate ganache, raspberry coulis, fresh fennel seed pods and calendula flower petals. A sweet memory indeed.

15/08/2024

PRESERVING / Ah, late Summer! The season which is as much a time for preserving than it is about enjoying. When the light is deliciously radiant, the evenings cooler and the garden abundant, we are beckoned to preserve some of that golden time and store it for the darker months to come.

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