Four simple recipes to energise you and nourish your soul.

Over two decades of running wellness experiences has shown us that the food we serve is the most talked about and often the most memorable part of the retreat. International celebrity private health chef and retreat owner Stephen Johansson shares four simple recipes that can underpin and enhance anyone’s daily nutrition.

“ I make everything from scratch with the finest local organic produce. No chemicals, no ‘E’ numbers and no refined sugar. We are definitely and UPF free zone.”

Roasted Almond Butter

There is nothing quite like velvety warm almond butter on a fresh baked spelt roll. Like most food that sits on the shelves of our health stores and supermarkets, with a little time and confidence it can be made from scratch in its purest form. Almond butter is no exception. You’ll need a blender or food processor for the blitzing of the almonds and a little patience.

Ingredients.

400g of organic almonds.

Method.

Pre-heat a fan oven on 185 degrees. Line a small flat baking stainless steel (avoid anything Teflon at all costs)baking tray with a non bleached parchment paper.

Layout the almonds flat on the tray and bake for seven and a half minutes on a middle shelf.

Remove from the oven and set aside for ten minutes to cool down a little.

Pour the almonds into the food processor and blitz. The trick is once all the almonds are crushed into a fine powder give the blender a little shake so the sides of the almonds hit the blades. Once the lower section of the blitzed almonds starts to turn into paste, stop the blender, remove and using a spoon mix the sides into the middle again. This process of nudging the less blended sides to the middle where the blades are needs to be repeated until all the almonds form that familiar creamy texture. Once creamy, I recommend you leave to stand for ten minutes and the blitz one final time so to really create a wonderful creamy consistency.

Using a big spoon, scoop into a glass jar and label. It’s freshness will last about two weeks, so keep this in mind.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Granola

For many years the whole idea of making my own granola seemed like a complete faff and a step too far with my day to day time in the kitchen. With so mush bad press on granola being too sugary and high in calories I’ve never really gave it much thought. Then I started experimenting with date syrup on my breakfasts and more by error than design my amazing gluten free granola was born. It’s crunchy, super tasty and of course can be adapted to your personal taste.

Ingredients - all organic

4-6 servings depending on how hungry you are!

175g Gluten free rolled oats

30g Sunflower seeds

30g Pumpkin seeds

20g Flaked almonds

30g Dried apricots

30g Flaked toasted coconut

30g Medjool dates

Handful of raspberries, strawberries

Greek yoghurt

Squeezy honey

Method.

Granola.

Put the olive oil and date syrup into a small pan on a moderate heat. When it bubbles slightly add the gluten free oats. Take off the heat and stir thoroughly until all the oats have absorbed the sticky liquid.

Tip onto a baking tray lined with unbleached parchment paper. Using a pallet knife or flat spatula and create a rectangle of oat approximately half a centimetre thick. Place on a middle shelf and bake for around 12 minutes or until the edges brown off. Once baked, lift the parchment paper off the tray and set aside to cool.

Whilst the granola is baking, toast off the seeds and nuts until slightly brown on the edges. Tossing the pan continuously to avoid anything burning. Once toasted, tip the nuts and seeds into a bowl to cool.

Rough chop the dates and apricots.

To serve.

Add a good handful of granola to a bowl. Then top with two heaped spoons of Greek yoghurt. Then add two teaspoons of nuts and seeds, a scatter of apricots and dates with a heaped dessert spoon of coconut flakes.

Finish off with a few raspberries and a chopped strawberry and finally a good drizzle of honey.

Enjoy!

Vegan Pancakes

I recently did a whole summer looking after a vegan client and his family. Although the young kids tried to enjoy the macro specific food I prepared, they would only get excited on pancake day, which ended up being twice a week for breakfast. This super easy recipe is a show stopper in any household and ANYONE can deliver it. Tradition suggests we use berries as the fruit of choice but I found great joy in adding roasted figs to the stack and caramelised pear. What ever you choose make sure the fruit is all chopped, ready and prepared so you can multi stack multiple plates.

Ingredients. Enough for 16 small pancakes to serve four people and takes around 15 minutes.

200g of self -raising flour- I use Doves Farm.

1 teaspoon of baking powder.

50g of coconut sugar.

170ml of filtered water or homemade nut milk. You want to avoid all boxed nut milks. The fact they are processed to stay alive for months on a shelf can’t be good for you.

Agave syrup or maple syrup.

1 banana.

1 cup of strawberries.

1 cup of coconut yoghurt.

Coconut oil.

1 teaspoon Vanilla extract.

Almond butter

Method

Pop the oven on 100 degrees to keep the pancakes hot as you cook them.

Mix together all the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder and coconut sugar. Measure out your liquid and gently heat until warm in a pan. It will take one minute. Add the vanilla extract to the liquid in the pan.

Create a well in the dry ingredients and pour the liquid in. Whisk like crazy, with a balloon whisk for two minutes.

Heat your stainless steel frying pan with two teaspoons of coconut oil. When its hot, add using a dessert spoon the pancake mix into digestive biscuit size circles. Turn the heat down one or two notches and cook on one side for 2-3 minutes until brown. Use the tip of a spatula to check if they are cooked. then flip and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Once you have cooked them all pop them in the oven to keep warm.

Blitz in blender the banana and half the blueberries to create a fruit compote style sauce. Place raspberries and strawberries on the our circle of your plate.

Then you can start to stack the pancakes in the middle. One at a time drop a spoon of fruit compote onto a pancake and then stack another. Once the fourth is in place add generous spoon of coconut yoghurt and a teaspoon of almond butter. It will all drizzle down the stack. finish with a squeeze of agave syrup or maple syrup.

Delicious.

Baked Cod and tomato bean sauce on steamed spinach.

Simplicity and speed is everything. I was parachuted into a clients house after their chef had let them down last minute. This superstar golfer and his wife were entertaining a fellow golfer and wife. With no time to organise my own menu, I surveyed the fridge and pantry and came up with this main course. They wanted a three course dinner, healthy, high protein, low carb and they were unsure when they would arrive. “Around seven” they said. At nine thirty, I served this dish after gambling that they indeed would be late. In the time it took to eat their starter I’d baked the cod perfectly and delivered the goods. A pet hate is serving cold food, so I took great pride in getting the spinach perfect too, not to wet and piping hot.

Ingredients. Serves 4 and takes 30 minutes

Cod loin x 4 . Go to a fish mongers if you can. Supermarket cod loins tend to be thin and underwhelming.

1/2 lemon.

Cannellini beans - 400g - I use tinned as often there is little time to pre soak.

Vine tomatoes 300g.

1 Small red onion.

2 cloves of garlic.

1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence.

1/2 teaspoon Ras el Hanout.

1 small celery stick.

1 stock cube- I use Kallo low salt veggie cubes

100g unwashed spinach.

Salt and pepper to season.

Method

Cod loins

Using paper towel blot any excess moisture off of the flesh. Gently coat in a thin layer of olive oil season with salt and pepper. Place on a baking tray and set a-side in the fridge.

Cannellini bean sauce.

Fine chop the onion, garlic and celery. Slowly soften in skillet with a dash of olive oil until the onion starts to brown. Not too high heat so to over cook the garlic. Whilst this is cooking half the vine tomatoes and add to a bowl adding the Herbs de Provence and Ras el Hanout to a splash of olive oil. Using your fingers lightly turn them so the tomatoes are coated. Then turn the heat down a couple of notches and add the tomatoes to the onion mix to sauté, tossing in the pan every few minutes.

Boil a kettle and half a pint of water to a jug with the stock cube in it and whisk with a fork before adding to the tomatoes. Drain the beans and rinse. Then add them also to the mix. You will cook for around 30 minutes constantly reducing the liquid until you have a thick stew like consistency. Once cooked to your liking turn the heat off and let the sauce stand.

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees.

Add the cod to the middle of the oven and bake for between 14 and 17 minutes depending on the thickness. Whilst the fish is cooking, add water to a large saucepan with a steaming basket. Wash the spinach and , remove the central stalk, not chopping the leaves too small and add to the nest and wait. Wait until you are ready to serve as spinach takes literally 1 minute to soften.

Serving

On a large white plate. Use two forks to lift a portion of spinach to the centre of the plate. Add two large spoons of sauce on top of the spinach and fish slice the cod on top adding a twist of black pepper.

Easy as you like.

These are just a small selection of our repertoire, a snip-it of how much love we put into our food to help you heal, recover, energise and flourish. When you get your food right, there is no better feeling. You are synchronised to your sleep, your physical and your mental health.

Complete inner harmony gives you the foundation to explore your true self, your intuition and your deeper subconscious mind, where anything is possible.

Come and join us on retreat, get some vitamin D, some clean air and detox from your busy life.