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Welcome to tastebotanical

Welcome to tastebotanical! If you are tired of artificial flavourings  which do not capture the zing and depth of natural ingredients you are in the right place!   I make simple, seasonal recipes which are mainly vegetarian.  Home-made versions of lots of your favourite recipes are easier than you might think  and taste so much better than shop-bought equivalents.   You can also give them an easy twist to make them a little bit different. 

I am passionate about using the natural ingredients that grow in my garden and in the countryside around my home, and those that come from more exotic locations, to add flavour to my life!   And the good news is that it is really easy to capture the essence of fruit, flowers, herbs and spices so that you can play with flavour combinations.   It is easy, cheap and you can produce food and drinks which suit your own tastes and have a lot of fun in the process.

If you want to see all my recipes, have a look on the tastebotanical Recipe Index page. There are loads to choose from!

What kind of recipes will you find here? Well, here’s a taste!

Rose Ice Cream

Ice CreamI am a huge fan of home-made ice-cream. It is so easy to make and is a great way to experiment with flavour. I firmly believe you can eat ice cream at any time of the year. Why not check out my Rose Ice Cream, Lemon Curd Ice Cream or Cranberry Ice Cream?

Puddings and DessertsI love traditional English puddings in winter such as Plum Crumble, Apple Crumble and Bread and Butter Pudding. I am also partial to Lime Cheesecake and Banoffee Pie. In summer, I make meringues!

Cakes – I make easy cakes which are quick and simple and often have floral, herby or spicy twist. There are loads to choose from – I do love baking a cake – but some of my favourites are my Lavender Cake, Latte Cake with Salted Caramel, Ginger and Pear Cake and Thyme Cake.

Lemon chicken

Simple Suppers – I have lots of quick and easy, made-from-scratch, after-work suppers. At the moment, I am loving Mint and Walnut Pesto, Moroccan Seafood Stew and Lemon Chicken with Olives.

Soups – I lots of different kinds of home-made vegetarian soups. Some of my favourites include Butternut Squash Soup , Beetroot and Coconut Soup, Mushroom and Chestnut Soup and simple Tomato Soup.

Nettle Soup

Foraged food – Whether it is Wild Garlic Tart, Nettle Soup , Blackberry Muffins or Elderflower Gin, it is a bonus if you can use free ingredients!

If you want to see all my recipes, have a look on the tastebotanical Recipe Index page. There are loads to choose from!

7 thoughts on “Home page”

  1. Researching herbal inclusions for traditional shortbread brought me to your site but 2 minutes reading made me subscribe. Your recipes are a perfect reflection of how herbs elevate food from just ok to amazing. And bay leaf in ice cream… can’t wait to try!

    1. Thank you so much! I am really passionate about the use of herbs to enhance everyday recipes. Please let me know how you get on if you try making the ice cream!

  2. Loving the recipes, just came a ross your page when looking for a plum gin recipe as couldn’t find mine for a friend.
    I’ve previously made lavender shortbread for a harvest fair and got a first for it, but I infused my sugar with buds for several weeks. I keep a jar of it in my cupboard now, but keen to try your recipe with the leaves, and trying leaves to infuse the sugar.
    Lots of lovely recipes to try 🙂

    1. Thank you very much! If you try any of my recipes, I would love to hear how they turned out.

  3. I have just made your delicious thyme and lemon cake. Recipe said 75 g caster sugar which is what I used. I started to check other recipes for loaf cakes on Tastebotanical, wanting to try other flavours, and I was surprised to see the other recipes use 175 g caster sugar. The thyme and lemon cake was perfect with only 75 g caster sugar (plus icing sugar in the syrup). I’m therefore assuming we can use reduced sugar in all the loaf cake recipes, making them more healthy?

  4. Dear Joanna,
    I don´t normally write or subscribe anywhere online, but a couple of days ago I came across your website (when looking for some rare lemon verbena ice cream recipes) and it is soooo amazing, there is so much more. Your recipes are truly amazing, can´t wait to try another one! Thank you a bunch for sharing your creativity and passion with all of us! 🙂

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