I’m a bit like a broken record but here I go again – I’m super proud of so many of our Ballymaloe Cookery School alumni who are making a difference in food and farming in a myriad of different ways all round the world. They find all sorts of ways to use their food knowledge for the betterment of mankind, not just in the restaurant, café and hospitality business.
How about Sophie Morris?
Perhaps, you are already one of her 500,000 plus followers on Instagram, if not, she’s definitely one to watch…particularly now, as we all become increasingly confused and desperate to find real food to feed to ourselves and our children. How do we avoid calorie dense, nutrient poor, ultra-processed food that leaves us over fed and under nourished.
Sophie who comes from a family who love to cook, did a 12 Week Cookery Course here in 2008.
She loved the super delicious food and really understood the value of sourcing really good quality chemical-free produce to cook with.
Seeing is believing, she saw with her own eyes the increase in her friends energy, vitality level and ability to concentrate and was convinced of the of the life enhancing quality of real food.
Sophie is an entrepreneur through and through. After she graduated, she set up a cookie dough business which was wildly successful not just here in Ireland but was also exported to the UK, France and the United Arab Emirates. Having turned down an offer of a €70,000 investment on Dragons’ Den. She was approached by one of the major multinationals to produce an ‘own brand’ Kooky Dough. Soon there was pressure to dumb down her original delicious cookie dough.
The subsequent, behind the scenes experience gave her a deep understanding of what goes on in the food industry to produce ever cheaper, hyper palatable, addictive food often at the expense of our health. She saw firsthand the pressure on producers to reduce costs by using ever cheaper ingredients and the huge power that the multinational food brands have. She gained an industry level insight into the skill of food labelling language, misleading health claims and strategic marketing.
The time she spent immersed in the food industry made her determined to help others to make sense of our current food system.
Eventually, the constant pressure to make the Kooky Dough cheaper was too much, as it is for many who are really passionate about the flavour and quality of the product they create. She was fortunate to sell the business to a large bakery, unfortunately, not the outcome for every small producer, many of whom give up in frustration and disillusionment as their product becomes more and more dumbed down to produce ever cheaper food.
She went on to help launch Cool Beans with friends, completed two diplomas in nutrition and fulfilled her dream to write her first cookbook, the bestseller, Sophie Kooks. Sophie was named Image magazines Young Businesswoman of the Year in 2012.
Fast forward to now…
In the meantime, Sophie has earned extraordinary trust among Irish consumers which in turn has drawn significant interest from the retailers who approached Sophie to work exclusively with them. However, Sophie made the decision to stay independent. She turned down all the opportunities in order to create change within the food industry. She is best known for scanning and highlighting ingredients in products on the shelves of our supermarkets, translating the labelling into plain English and highlighting the ingredients not found in a normal home kitchen- colourings, emulsifiers, preservatives….
Best of all she identifies less processed alternatives, often cheaper and better quality.
In her newly published cookbook, aptly named Sophie’s Swaps, she shares her top product tips from the five biggest supermarket chains in Ireland and 50 of her favourite recipes for fuss free family cooking at home, how about that?
What a contribution? This book may well change the way you shop, inspire you to cook and hopefully start a food revolution, one trolley at a time.
Sophie’s Swaps published by Gill Books is widely available in all good local bookshops.
Here are a few recipes to whet your appetite.
Miso Creamy Mushroom on Toast
Miso in another great fermented food that will keep your gut bacteria happy! I love to mix miso paste with butter and keep it in the fridge as a quick topping for things like potatoes or steamed veggies: it tastes amazing and you’re getting your fermented food in – win-win!
Miso and mushrooms complement each other so well with their umami flavour, and this makes a delicious, speedy lunch you can whip up in less than 15 minutes! You can leave out the cream cheese if you prefer.
Serves 1
Ingredients
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
large handful of mushrooms of your choice, finely sliced
½ tbsp white miso paste (Fused)
1 large slice of good-quality sourdough
1 tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp finely chopped chives
freshly ground black pepper (optional)
Method
Heat a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the olive oil. When it is hot, add the mushrooms to the pan and fry for 5 minutes, stirring continuously.
Next add the miso paste with a splash of water. Turn the heat down and cook for a few more minutes until you’re left with a thick glaze around the mushrooms.
Meanwhile, toast the sourdough and spread the toast with cream cheese. Top the toast with the miso mushrooms and the chopped chives. Season with pepper, if you wish (there will already be enough saltiness from the miso).
Sophie’s Tip
I like to use a combo of chestnut mushrooms and shiitake for this recipe.
Salted Chocolate Berry and Peanut Butter Bark
Bark recipes like this are my favourite way to prepare delicious treats. Not only do they taste INCREDIBLE, but they’re also so quick and easy to make. With no baking or any need to roll the mixture into individual balls. The measurements don’t need to be too exact, either – you can messily throw it together, place it on a baking tray in one single layer, and it will always turn out perfectly! You can also easily swap out ingredients – if you don’t like peanut butter, try almond or cashew butter, or swap the raspberries with blueberries.
This bark is also a really nutritious treat as it’s high in fibre and other important nutrients like magnesium. I guarantee it will become one of your staples once you try it, and it’s also a showstopper to offer to guests who come round for tea.
Makes about 16 Squares
Ingredients
230g dark chocolate, broken into squares
1 tsp coconut oil
80g raspberries
1 tbsp 100% nut peanut butter (Nutshed or Lidl’s 100% nuts peanut butter)
sprinkle of ground cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
Method
Put the chocolate and coconut oil in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan filled with a few centimetres of water (making sure the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water). Turn on the heat and let the water come to the boil and then turn off the heat. Leave the chocolate to melt, stirring gently now and again to help it along.
Grease a 20cm square baking dish using butter or coconut oil and line it with baking parchment.
When the chocolate has melted, pour half of it into the base of the baking dish and spread it out evenly. Sprinkle an even layer of raspberries over the chocolate. Drizzle the peanut butter on top of the raspberries. Add a sprinkling of cinnamon and then top with the remaining half of the melted chocolate, coating everything in an even layer. Finish by sprinkling a pinch of sea salt flakes on top.
Put the baking dish in the freezer for about 45 minutes to set.
Remove from the freezer and cut into whatever sized squares you wish! Store them in the fridge and they will keep well for 5-6 days.
Three-Ingredient Mango Ice Cream
When deciding on what recipes to include in this book, I asked my oldest son, Wrio, what his favourite recipe was and he said straight away, ‘mango ice cream!’ So that will tell you just how popular this recipe is with both my boys! So much so that I really wanted them to be in the photo for this recipe, which I know will be such a treasured memory.
This recipe is technically frozen yogurt, so it’s a really nutritious swap from ice cream, and it’s really simple to make! You can buy frozen mango in most supermarkets, and I prefer using mango to other fruits in this recipe before frozen mango makes the most perfect texture for ice cream. You can of course try it with other frozen fruits too, and it would also be gorgeous.
Makes 4 Servings
Ingredients
320g frozen mango
220g full fat Greek yogurt
1 tbsp honey
Method
Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz together. Leave the food processor on for a few minutes, as it takes time to break down the mango and get rid of all lumps. Be patient at the start – it might look like it needs more liquid to blend, but don’t be tempted to add any as it will start to break down and come together.
Taste and add more honey if you prefer it sweeter.
Enjoy this as a soft-serve style ice cream or smoothie bowl, or transfer to a container and allow to harden in the freezer for 1-2 hours. Once frozen, it scoops perfectly, just like ice cream!
