Organico Bantry

This warming organic Chilli is always best the next day, so make plenty and keep or freeze it. This recipe when served with organic brown rice will serve 4. We prefer Biona organic beans and tomotos for these recipes. Worth the extra cents.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3 cm fresh root ginger, grated1 red pepper, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 courgette, diced
• 4 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 0.5 tsp crushed chilli flakes
• 1 heaped tsp cocoa powder
• 2 can chopped tomatoes, 400g
• 1 can kidney beans, 400g
• 1 can harricot/cannolini beans, 400g
• salt and pepper to taste

To Serve

• Handfull of organic corriander, chopped
• Minced onion
• grated cheddar cheese
• Tabasco (for the real chilli fanatics) or Green Tabasco (not organic but great flavour!)
• Creme fraiche or natural live yoghurt

Method

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, carrot garlic, ginger, cumin and paprika and fry for a few minutes, stirring all the time. Tip in the red pepper and courgette and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and fry for a further 2 minutes. Empty the can of chopped tomatoes and their juice into the pan and simmer until cooked down and thickened and the vegetables are soft. Wash kidney beans and add along with the chopped coriander and cook for a further 5 mins. Serson with salt and pepper.

Serve piping hot, with organic brown basmati rice, and a selection of the toppings mentioned above. If you are having people to dinner you can put all the topping out on the table and let your guests chose their favourites. Another option that we offer in Organico cafe is to serve the chilli in a wrap – in that case heat the wraps (tortilla wraps made without chemicals are available in most good health food shops) and put them on the tabls covered with a tea towl to keep them warm. Put everything else in serving dishes and let your guests mix and match! Make sure lots of napkins are to hand!

This soup is a favourite with adults and children alike, and is a quick and easy receipe for a winter’s lunch. As with all our receipes we reccommend the use of organic vegetables and pulses for their superior nutritional qualities and taste.
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Ireland is one of those countries where vegetarians can often be left with one option on the menu, most often a pasta dish. Luckily for those living in the West Cork area we in Organico Cafe are trying to change all that! Our menu aims to cater for vegetarians who like organic food and also for non-vegetarians who are interested in health and in a lighter, more positive diet.

On our website you can see some of our receipes, and reports of some of the differents events we have held in our Cafe. We also have a health food shop so one of the things we focus on is experimenting with all the ingredients we sell. All our fruit and veg is supplied by the shop so it is all certified organic, as are all the pulses and grains we use in our cooking.

We are always looking for customer feedback and receipe suggestions so please feel free to let us know what you like and what you think!

We always reccommend organic ingredients, but in this case they are more important than ever for taste reasons. Organic carrots are a superior product by far than conventionally grown carrots – sometimes in our shop we have ‘dirty’ carrots which are covered in sand and which in the winter keep their flavour very well.

Ingredients

6 large Carrots, peeled (the only time I peel organic carrots is for salad as they discolour if just scrubbed)

50g dessicated coconut

Juice and zest of 1 orange

Handfull of sultanas

Good pinch of sea salt

Add the juice and zest to the coconut and sultanas and allow to soak for 30 mins.

Grate the Carrots and put into a large bowl, add the coconut, sultanas and juice and combine. Add the sea salt to taste.

Leave to chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator and serve.

5 Ripe tomatoes

1 Cucumber, diced

250g Feta cheese, crumbled

a handfull of black olives, kalamata if possible

125ml olive oil

4 tbsp lemon juice

freshly black pepper

small bunck of Oregano, finely chopped

Chop up the tomatoes and put into a large salad bowl, and add the cucumber, feta cheese and olives.
Pour over the olive oil and lemon juice. Season with freshly ground black pepper, add a little salt if necessary bearing in mind that the feta is very salty. Toss gently to mix. Serve with some crispy lettuce sprinkling with fresh oregano.

This recipe was given to me by a great friend and fellow cook, it has been enjoyed by all our customers and remains a firm favoriate in the cafe. At the moment the beetroot that is available is amazingly sweet yet still earthy and the simply ingredients in the following recipe complement it perfectly.
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In Organico Cafe yesterday a customer commented on her roasted aubergine and chickpea curry saying that it smelt and tasted amazing. ‘I know why’ she said ‘it’s because it is un-polluted food’.

As I carried on serving lunch I reflected on her comment. I think it is an excellent way to describe our food. We are not trying to serve Cordon Bleu. What we are trying to do is serve tasty, nutritious, clean ‘un-polluted’ food.

Today, our menu contains the following:

Organic Lentil and Pumpkin Stew served with Spelt Bread

Roasted Organic Aubergine and Chickpea Curry served with Organic Brown Rice

Spelt Pizza with sundried tomatoes and Fetta served with 2 Salads

Lentil and Seed Loaf served with Fresh Tomato Sauce, Rice and 1 Salad

Shepherd’s Pie (topped with Organic local potatoes and a red lentil and vegetable base) Served with 2 Salads

Fetta Cheese Salad with either Organic Bulgar Wheat or Quinoa, Organic Tomatoes, Cucumber and Lettuce

Cheese sandwich: Local Gubbeen Cheese or Dubliner

Salad Selections: Wild rice, Quinoa, Bulgar, red Cabbage and Pumpkin Seeds, Beetroot and yoghurt, Potato, Thai Noodles (all made with organic vegetables, sprouts and seeds).

A selection of cakes and cookies from our Bakery, all made with Organic Spelt Flour and served with organic cream.

A selection of Fair Trade Organic Coffees and Teas.

Come over for Lunch sometime – and be sure to let us know what you think!

Promoting local artists and facilitating exhibitions and openings is a significant part of Organico Cafe’s activities. We try to change our exhibitions every month and try to exhibit artists who are local. As a result we always have facinating work on our walls to keep us all aware of the incredible amount of creativity out there. At the moment we have a facinating exhibition featuring Celtic Knotwork by Alan Barry-Davis; humorous prints on Nuns in bizzare situations by Roisin Russel and extrordinary flamboyant flights of fancy by Jackie Ovenden. And to add to the colourfulness of this exhibition Jackie’s daughter has submitted a few delightful watercolours.

Please contact us if you have any queries or would like us to host an exhibition for you.

Organico Cafe is an oasis of calm and great food in the middle of Bantry. Our specialitiy is reall home cooked good veggie food – which appeals to both veggies and non-veggies! We love expermenting so you never know what delights await you – and then we know how much reliability means when you are feeling low so we always have our regular sausage sandwiches and tasty soups.

We love feedback and suggestions so please contact us is you have any. Our business is costantly evolving and changing and this is often due to customer feedback.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Hannah Dare

Organico Bakery produces one of the biggest ranges of Spelt breads, cakes and scones in West Cork, possibly in Ireland. We have been baking with spelt for nearly 5 years, and we now make 4 different kinds of bread (white & brown yeast; white & brown sourdough; white & brown soda & french sticks, which are a mix of regular yeasted spelt dough with some sourdough mix thrown in for added texture & taste). We also make spelt scones, spelt chocolate chip cookies, spelt oat & raisin cookies, spelt chocolate fudge cake, spelt ginger cake, spelt lemon drizzle cake, spelt Christmas fruit cake, spelt banana cake, spelt Tarte Tartin, spelt chocolate tart & spelt pasties.

We have a regular bread stall in Bantry Market from April through to December, and from the stall we sell our breads and cakes as well as Spelt Pizza, Spelt Focaccias with all kinds of yummy toppings.
The flour we have found to be the best for the cakes and breads is Hildegard Health Organic Spelt Flour, which we also sell for home baking in our healthfood shop. We also sell Hildegard pastas, as well as the excellent Biona Spelt Pastas and Finestra de la Cielo cookies and crackers.

Drop in and enjoy! More receipes and tips for cooking and baking with spelt to follow.