Lots of the soups you see in Supermarkets are loaded with dairy (cream normally), wheat and often high in salt and sugar, so a big thumbs up to this soup.

Follow link for more: Free From Soups (recipes and product reviews)

Dairy Free Carrot Soup Ingredients

Vegetable Stock (Water, Vegetables (Onion, Carrot, Leek, Celery, Garlic), Sugar, Salt, Cornflour, Sunflower Oil, Spice Oil), Carrot (26%), Coconut Cream (8%) (Coconut, Water), Potato, Butternut Squash, Onion, Sweet Potato, Ginger Purée, Vegetable Oil, Coriander, Cornflour, Fish Sauce (0.5%), Red Chilli (0.4%), Sugar, Salt, Lime Leaves, Lemongrass (0.2%), Garlic Purée, Turmeric.

I got my Glorious dairy free carrot soup from Sainsbury’s but you can also buy from ASDA and Morrisons.

Well New Covent Garden Heart Warming Soup ticks alot of boxes, and it tastes great too, check out this wheat and dairy free tomato soup

Dairy Free Tomato Soup Ingredients

Water, tomatoes (19%), onions, green lentils (6%), tomato paste, carrots, red peppers, courgettes, celery, sugar, vegetable oil, garlic, salt, thyme, rosemary, parsley, white pepper. Vegetables (20%).

The soup is tastes great, tomato(y) as you would expect but the lentils give it a lovely texture and depth of flavor – big tick to New Covent Garden Soup.

As well as tasting great The Heart Warming soup is also promoting the British Heart Foundation.

Now I normal just wing this recipe, but this was today’s version:

Celery Soup Ingredients

Serves: 2 as a main

• 1 celery heart, finely sliced (I included stalks and all)
• 2 inch cube of potato diced (optional – for thickening)
• 1 garlic clove diced
• 1/2 teaspoon of celery seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon of mixed herbs
• 1 tbls of olive oil
• 1/2 Free From Stock Cube (I used Kallo)
• Pepper

Nb. You will also need a kettle of boiling water.

In a saucepan heat the olive oil and add the celery seeds and garlic glove, stir briefly then add the celery and potato. Saute everything in the pan for a few minutes.

Add the mixed herbs and stock cube and season to taste with pepper. Cover everything with boiling water, to just below the ingredients (too much water and the soup will be too watery).

Bring to boil and cook until the vegetables are just soft, mine took 11 mins. Blend, check for seasoning and tasty celery soup done.

What makes Free From Fish Fingers so great is that they suit a variety of restricted diets including dairy free, gluten free and wheat free. They are also suitable for coeliacs.

Ingredients: MSC Certified Pacific Cod, Batter; Crumb Coating; Palm Oil

Batter contains: Cornflour, Maize Starch, Water, Modified Maize Starch, Salt, Mustard Powder, White Pepper, Stabiliser: Zanthum Gum, Colour: Paprika Extract

Crumb Coating contains: Rice Flour, Dried Potato, Salt, Emulsifier: Mono and Driglycerides of Fatty Acids

After a quick 12 minutes under the grill or 15 minutes in the oven, the Free From Fish Fingers are ready and smell divine! Served with a few chunky potato wedges and salad, they make a very tasty, satisfying and comforting dinner reminiscent of days gone by where food restrictions where not an issue. I am one very happy fussy foodie - Free From Fish Fingers made my day!

So keen to give them a go I riped open my new box of .Low and behold they taste just like I remember a crispbread to taste like (does anyone else have food memories, had one last night re spaghetti bolognese at school – was the one good thing on the menu) – they have the same texture and taste but with a buckwheat kick – so if like me you like the taste of buckwheat you will love these.

Gluten Free Crisp Bread Ingredients

Corn flour* (50%), rice flour* (49%), sea salt
*= certified organic ingredients

Just checked online and you can buy them from Goodness Direct for £1.79

NB On the Goodness Direct website it says they contain sugar however my box just says the ingredients as described on the Windmill Organics (people who make Amisa Range) website.

I cant wait to give my Gluten Free Crisp Bread a try at lunch with a topping – perhaps some avocado, mackerel or maybe even some sugar free jam… ummm. If you fancy a crunchy gluten or wheat free cracker then these are great – highly recommend.

“At Raw Health, we use organic raw ingredients & where possible soak and sprout them to bring their natural vitality to life. Then we make delicious snacks at low temperatures to ensure the health-giving nutrients and enzymes stay alive and well.” Raw Health

Flax Raw Crackers Ingredients:

BROWN FLAX SEEDS*(63%), GOLDEN FLAX SEEDS*(13%), SUNFLOWER SEEDS*, TOMATOES*(8%), UNREFINED SEA SALT, CHILI POWDER*(0.08%) *= certified organic ingredients

Made from raw ingredients which have not been heated above 42°C.

Buy from Goodness Direct – £3.99

The Flax Raw Crackers have a different texture to a normal cracker, which I can only describe as more bendy however they are really flavorsome and are great with salad and mackerel for lunch. So if you spot them in the shops give them a try.

Things you need: Gammon, Agave Nectar, fresh ginger and cloves.

• Soak the gammon either over night in water or added to a saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to the bowl then remove gammon from the pan.
• In a baking tray place two very large pieces of foil and arrange one lengthways and the other widthways, put the gammon in the centre of the foil and fold to seal (leaving room around the gammon  for air to circulate).
• Bake the gammon in a preheated oven – 20 minutes per pound (450 g) – that is 4 hours for a 12 lb (5.4 kg) piece or 4 hours 40 minutes for a 14 lb (6.3 kg) piece.
• 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time, remove the gammon and increase the heat to gas mark 7, 425ºF (220ºC).
• Sounds odd but now peel off all the skin from around the gammon, leaving the layer of fat below in tact.
• Score the fat making a diamond pattern. Stud a clove into the centre of each diamond shape.
• Smother with my special dressing, in a small bowl mix some finely chopped fresh ginger with a large squeeze of Agave Nectar. This alternative glaze will give the gammon a fantastic golden colour and a lovely sweet/spicy taste.

Return the gammon to the tin and bake for a further 30 minutes or until it is a glazed. Leave to rest before serving.

I served my baked glazed gammon warm with potatoes and leeks/courgettes in a dairy FREE white sauce (top tip if using soya milk loosen and flavour the white sauce with a big squeeze of lemon and season to taste). If you are looking for a change to the normal Sunday roast give this recipe a try – it might not be exactly what my mum made but its taste just as good.

Dairy free broccoli soup with goats cheese

Broccoli Soup with Goats Cheese Ingredients:
Serves 4

• 50g/2oz Dairy Free Spread (I use Pure it seems to be being good for cooking)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 900g/2lb broccoli, chopped (seperate the florets and stalks)
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 litre/1 3/4 yeast free vegetable or chicken stock (I use boullion stocks)
• 600ml/1 pint of soya milk (you could also use rice milk)
• 100g/4oz medium soft goats cheese chopped

1. Melt the dairy free spread in a saucepan and add the onions, brocolli stalks and and nutmeg, fry for 5 minutes until soft.
2. Add the brocolli florets, stock and milk then cover and simmer gently under the brocolli stalks are soft.
3. Using hand blender or stand alone blender puree the soup.
4. Add seasoning to the soup to taste.
5. Ladle the soup into the required number of dishes, just before serving crumble some goats chees into each bowl and hey presto your Broccoli Soup with Goats Cheese is ready to serve.

If you wanted to make this soup for freezing don’t add the goats cheese until you reheat the soup and serve.

Just a note for anyone thinking if this recipe is dairy free why does it have goats cheese, goats cheese has a different fat makeup to cows cheese or milk, somepeople that are intolerant to cows dairy find they can have goats dairy products, it is usually lactose that people react to, this is not contained in goats milk.

Enjoy your Broccoli Soup with Goats Cheese!!!

For a decent sized jar full of my sugar free cranberry sauce add the following ingredients to a small non-stick pan:

• about 100g cranberries
• a large handful of  chopped dried fruits (I used apricots, prunes and figs)
• the juice of an orange
• a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg
• a couple of teaspoons of cider vinegar
• agave nectar

Simmer all the ingredients until they become mushy and most of the cranberries breakdown (this only takes about ten minutes). Towards the end of the cooking add a squeeze of agave nectar to taste and pop the mixture into a sterilised jar to cool.

That’s it my tasty sugar free cranberry sauce done!

Gluten Free Flat Bread Ingredients:

• 300g gram flour
• 300g gluten and wheat free bread flour
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 heaped tsps gluten free baking powder
• Herbs / spices for seasoning – we used 1 tsp fennel seeds. Alternatives: 1 tsp dried herbs or even cinnamon
• 6 tbsps olive oil
• Warm water

Flat Breads Recipe:

Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and herbs / spices in a bowl. Pour in the olive oil and approx. 150ml warm water. Use a fork to bring the ingredients together. Add a splash of water if the mixture feels too dry. Once the ingredients start to combine, wet your hands and use them to bring the dough together into a ball.

Dust your hands and a clean flat surface with flour.Knead the dough with your hands until it is smooth and elastic. Using gluten free flour, you may find the dough will need extra water to prevent it from crumbling, if so, gradually add splashes of water until you achieve a smooth elastic dough, stick at it, it will get there!  Place the dough back in the bowl, cover and leave to relax.

When you’re ready to cook your flat breads, divide the dough into equal sized balls, dust your hands with flour and squeeze each ball between your palms to flatten them. Pat and slap the dough from one palm to another, turning and twisting the dough about in a circular movement until each flat bread is approximately 1cm thick (mine seem to end up thinner than this which still works).

Heat a dry frying pan on a medium high heat and cook the flat breads in batches for a few minutes on each side, turning regularly to prevent them from burning. They will begin to puff up and turn a golden colour when they are ready. Serve warm.

If you make a batch keep some aside to cool then pop in the freezer, easy to pop in the toast to warm up again.

Some examples of how I have used my Gluten Free Flat Bread so far: spread with some Sugar Free Fruit Spread, use with a curry a bit like a naan, with special Sugar Free Baked Beans or simply just spread with some dairy free spread and enjoy!