I pick up a loaf of the local focaccia every week – it’s absolutely addictive! Soft, fluffy, and full of flavour, it never lasts long in my house. It’s hands-down my favourite thing at The Urban Co-op! I love serving it with soups or just dipping it in olive oil – simple and perfect. You can really taste the quality and care that goes into every batch. Thank you to the local 061 Bakery. Review by Marie

Let us know which of our products are your favourites and why
Email Geraldine [email protected]

How to Get All the Toothpaste Out

Don’t toss that tube just yet! Getting the last of your toothpaste out not only saves money, but also reduces waste. Here are some simple tips:

1. Cut the Tube – when it looks empty, cut it open near the top and scoop out the remaining paste – there’s often enough for several more brushes!
2. Use a Toothpaste Squeezer – these little tools help you get every bit out without a struggle.
3. ​Roll from the Bottom – use a clip or roll the tube tightly from the end as you go, pushing the paste toward the top.

Small changes like this can help reduce unnecessary waste and make your products go further. Every squeeze counts!
 
Geraldine Fitzpatrick

Vietnamese summer rolls filled with glazed tempeh and raw veggies served with a smoky and sweet harissa peanut butter dipping sauce

​Makes 8 summer rolls
 
INGREDIENTS
Tempeh

• 200g tempeh
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp tamari
• 1 tbsp pure maple syrup

 
Filling

• 1 small carrot
• 1 red bell pepper
• ½ cucumber
• 8 sheets rice paper
• Handful edible flowers (pansies or violas) and/or fresh herbs (mint, coriander)
• 100g thin rice noodles, cooked

 
Dipping Sauce

• 4 tbsp NutShed Harissa Chilli Peanut Butter
• 2 tbsp tamari
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1 ½ tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
• 2 tbsp hot water

 
METHOD
Tempeh

1. Slice the tempeh into long strips (at least 8 pieces).
2. Heat the sesame oil in a frying pan, once nice and hot add in the tempeh and cook on each side for about 2 minutes or until golden brown.
3. Add the tamari and maple syrup and cook on a medium heat for another minute or two to evenly glaze the tempeh.
4. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

 
Filling 

1. Peel the carrot and cucumber.
2. Slice the carrot, red pepper and cucumber into thin long strips.
3. Boil some water and add it to a large bowl, allow to cool for a few minutes.
4. Add a rice paper to the bowl and soak it for 5 minutes. Place the rice paper on a clean cutting board.
5. Add some flowers or herbs (whichever ingredient you want to remain visible in the summer rolls). Followed by a little cooked rice noodles, a strip of glazed tempeh and a couple strips of each of the raw veggies.
6. Fold in the 2 outer edges of the rice paper and fold over one half, tucking it under the ingredients. Roll up and set aside.
7. Repeat this with the remaining rice paper rolls.

 
Dipping Sauce 

1. Add the harissa peanut butter, tamari, maple syrup and lime juice to a bowl and whisk to combine the ingredients.
2. Add the hot water and whisk again, this helps to emulsify the ingredients to create a nice smooth dipping sauce.
3. Serve immediately.

 
Evie & Eliza 
Nutshed.ie 

When I make a meal, it generally consists of three elements: a hearty bean or lentil dish, a nice carbohydrate like brown rice, pasta or potatoes and a salad. The salad is a must. I have lately started my meal prep by making the salad. Fresh raw food is perhaps the most important and health-giving part of the meal.
 
One way to make sure you get those great nutrients into your body is to start eating the meal with the salad, make it the starter. Fill up with salad, then eat the rest. I have found the more of the raw salad I eat, the more I crave it. Raw fresh food is so life giving.
 
And so easy to make - cabbage, red pepper and red onion… voila!

INGREDIENTS

• 1/3 to half a green cabbage
• 1 red pepper
• ½ red onion
• 1 to 2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tbsp of vegan mayo ( optional )
• A pinch of salt

 
METHOD 

1. Finely chop the red onion.
2. Spring a pinch of salt over the onion and mix it up.
3. Using a mandolin or just a good sharp knife, finely chop the cabbage and the red pepper.
4. Add the tbsp of vegan mayo, the apple cider vinegar and the olive oil and toss it all well.
5. Now taste to see if you want a little more salt or vinegar .

 
The result is a very crunchy lively salad that will go with any meal. The red pepper gives it a little natural sweetness, the onion for flavour.
 
Bon Appétit.
  
Happy Days!
 
Jacques

I know this is the second time I have recommended this book but there is a reason why. It is brilliant. The very foods we are told not to eat because they are apparently bad for us and the environment. Nina brings us through what I will call a crime scene. The academic world that brought us the guidelines of nutritional advice. This is one of those books that when you get to digest it as part of your health journey you will not be disappointed. I have such respect for what Nina has put together here. A major piece of the puzzle of how we are all subject to the social experiment of nutrition advice. Food fads, diets and dogma along the way have been successful by sidelining the very foods that nourish us. Folk are waking up to it though. They smell a rat. And rightly so. The same playbook is used to convince us to adopt other health advice. This book was an eye opener for me… thank you Nina! 

​Anne Maher

Oh dear I am really digging deep now. Digesting as it were. Fermenting even. I have been ruminating on some information that is quite frankly an emperors new clothes moment.
 
I was wandering through the ChatGBT app to explore emissions in the organic sector and strayed into the livestock emissions. Dear oh dear. How dreadful are all those cow farts! The emission numbers are high…but I wanted to quantify how high as compared to something else. It puts things in perspective you see. So I thought, I know…I’ll compare it to the emissions from bombs. Afterall we hear about all the rockets and missiles and bombs every day in the news.
 
What a surprise to find this out and I am quoting Chat GBT here. “ Military emissions are largely excluded from national climate reporting ( eg Kyoto, Paris) making them a hidden carbon hotspot.” WHAT!!!!???
 
Please do check this one out for yourself. I’m still recovering from the shock. I cannot begin to take this CO2 emissions guilt seriously if there is not a true picture. Trust = Truth & Transparency
 
Farmers! It’s time to call out the system that is trying to break you. By being exempt from reporting then the Military Industrial Complex undermine the validity of this plan. Like research that exempts the data that doesn’t suit. Can we trust it? Before we count down to the time we will be expected to pay carbon fines there will have to be some serious kick back on this issue!  

​Anne Maher

I’m calling it out for the niggling reality it is. Call me sexist but there is a thing we can’t seem to let go of … the guilt. Working mothers and guilt. Can you recognise this concept? Managing to raise a family and hold down a job and keep the house going…it’s a constant juggle. So much so that something always gives… and that is often the quality of the food. The price of convenience is often ultra processed food over consumption. Easier to grab some thing quick like a pizza than face in to cooking a meal from scratch at home after a long day at work…
 
I have found some solutions to this dilemma over the years.. one is definitely having a slow cooker and prepping in the morning. But am always seeking another solution for us band of mothers.. wouldn’t it be wonderful if our children in school had a wholesome organic meal to depend on? Or should I say wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could depend on our systems to support us as parents on this journey? How much time do we waste on the guilt mindset that could be better utilized? If we were confident that our children were effectively nourished in schools/centres how much extra stress would be taken from us and what would be the impact of that relief?
 
The argument is always cost. Good food, organic food is expensive. What is the cost of our guilt burden instead, I ask, as we increasingly witness our children being exposed to the lowest common denominator of foods and suffer the fallout of the effects.
 
Here is the proposal. Invest in our children! Offer nourishing organic foods of quality in schools and centres as standard. Ensure this is a key policy for the most vulnerable. The return on investment is beyond your wildest imagination. Guilt free parents who see their children thriving. The potential for what’s possible is limitless.  

Anne Maher