19/10/2026
š„¬ CHICKPEA-SAR SALAD & MAPLE ROAST HAM š
A plant based chickpea Caesar salad with some of the most wonderful gammon and bacon trim from Fordhall Farm Shop & Butchery Fordhall Farm Community owned - an award winning community farm and sustainable outfit on a scale that in all honesty is almost unbelievable! A truly incredible and almost aspirational farming model but best of all, the produce is out of this world!
A dish with a purposeful balance. Slightly less meat than a traditional feast might call for but no compromise on nutrition, heartiness and most importantly flavour.
One of the more thoughtful and conscious things Iāve cooked and I got to serve it at Slow Food Ludlow Marches Feast Ludlow Food Festival
I adore this event, itās a true highlight. Itās a celebration of my two food worlds - Slow Food UK and Shrewsbury Food Hub surplus and a chance to cook and lead the dining room with some conscientious and thought provoking food.
I hate being the bearer of bad news but we all do need to be eating slightly less meat and when we do we need to be consciously deciding to eat better, more sustainable and locally sourced meat if we can. Itās why I adore the Slow Food Snail - itās always a sign youāre in the right place.
Pork is the most consumed meat on the planet, a nod to the side of our food systems that needs to change; cooked in a traditional method, cured, boiled and then roasted with real, Canadian and outrageously surplus maple syrup.
The other half of the dish, chickpeas. The future, the food systems we should be aspiring to. Pulses are criminally undervalued and overlooked far too often. We have such wonderful quality available, grown in the UK but also bought in from Europe. Itās exciting to see more beans and pulses appearing in kitchens. The dressing is a forward take on an old school Ceasar. Packed with silken tofu and Jackie Bailey miso itās a wonderfully light, punchy dressing full of nutrition but also flavour. Itās a dressing thatās made its way into the day today of my home kitchen and one we adore on all sorts of dishes.
Iām never sure if my thought process ends up in the dining room. I try my hardest not to preach but if one sees is planted in one person, Iām happy!
