Berry Crumb Cake

I know we've only just started Spring but I've slowly started to see summer fruit creep into stores over the past couple of weeks, and for this I am very excited ( Not that I'm not enjoying the 'now', because let's face it, I could eat rhubarb for every meal if I got the chance). So many of my favourite things make appearances in the summer time! Corn, peaches, nectarines, plums and berries. So many wonderful berries! Last year I found myself stopping to pick wild growing blackberries on my way to get gelato even, I was basically the embodiment of summertime!

We try to eat as seasonally and as locally as possible, so despite seeing big juicy strawberries at the store today I'm trying to hold off until some B.C. ones are ready or until I can go pick my own. Luckily we had some frozen berries left over from last year plus some we'd picked up from the farmers market (side note: do you also eat frozen berries as if they're candy? Especially blueberries and raspberries? I could seriously eat a whole bag full, no problem) which was perfect as I'd been meaning to try out the crumb cake that I had seen over on Vegan Yum Yum for awhile, and what better accompaniment is there to struesel topping that juicy berries?

I made it a few weeks ago when Maya came over for the bunting shoot, and followed the recipe pretty much exactly, save for dropping frozen berries over the top of the cake batter before adding the crumb topping. It was delicious! It makes for some serious size crumbs, which is exactly how I like it, and you could do the same thing with other fruits you might have handy such as peaches or sliced pears. Vegan or not, I'd recommend giving this recipe a go. I remember before I was vegetarian even and a bunch of my friends became straight edge and vegan, I couldn't begin to comprehend how you'd give up meat, let alone dairy! I mean, what on earth would you eat?? I guess I've taken a bit of a gradual path starting of vegetarian, but now that this is just the way I eat it surprises me when people ask me that same question. There are so many good vegan recipes out there, and I'm going to try and post more of them on here for you to try out. It's not just all lentils and celery sticks!

I hope you're all having a fantastic Tuesday, any summer fruits or veg that you're waiting anxiously to arrive?

My Place and Yours, My Secret Weapon.

I've been a bit bad at keeping up with the My Place and Yours posts due to sickness, but when I saw that the latest one was a shot of your 'Secret Weapon' it was too fun to resist. You really should go and take a peek at what others have done! My secret weapon is soup. The above is a delicious yellow split pea soup (recipe to follow) I made today for lunch (and then ate again for dinner with many, many biscuits), but I really love all soups. Meatless, natch.

If you talk to my aunt, you will hear many a story of me turning my nose up and pumpkin or vegetable soup when I was younger, which to me is totally crazy as I'm now basically obsessed with it. Due to my soup love, I have tried out many a recipe and can whip up a pretty mean potato and leek or ginger carrot batch. I love that you're really just building on a (perfect) base of onions, garlic and oil and then adding whatever spices, seasonings, veggies or beans take your fancy. Yum! It is perfect for the cold weather we're entering into, and a steaming bowl with biscuits make me a very happy lady!

Hearty Yellow Split Pea Soup

You'll need...

- 2 cups of yellow (or green) split pea

- 2 onions, chopped

- juice of half a lemon

- 1 Tbsp olive oil

- 2 celery stalks

- 3 carrots

- 2 potatoes

- 5-6 cups of broth or water

- Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Throw the oil and onion in your pot, cooking on medium-high heat until the onion is soft.

2. Add veggies and saute for a minute or two.

3. Add split peas and broth, bring to the boil.

4. Once boiled, turn down to a simmer. Cover and leave for around 20 minutes.

5. You can blend the soup or leave it chunky, and if at this stage you want to thin the soup just do so by adding more broth/water in batches.

6. Before serving, stir in some lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!