BORRAGO NEWSLETTER #7 HELLO SPRING!

The clocks have changed, the sun has shown it’s face and spring has sprung. It is my favourite time of year, I love how we have more light, the weather promises better things and the countryside is full of new beginnings from flowers to lambs. So, we are celebrating spring in all her beauty.

Summer garden

Cool and refreshing, perfect for sipping as the sun starts to come out and we dream of the summer ahead. Click here for the recipe.

  Competition time

Spring is the perfect time to start sowing your borage seeds. We send out a pack with each UK bottle purchased from www.Borrago.com. We have ten packs to give away to anyone who has lost theirs or wants more, just email hello@Borrago.com on a first come first served basis. We are also giving out prizes for the best pictures of your borage growing, just tag @BorragoDrinks on social media to enter. Borrago is named after the borage plant and its flowers. They are delicious, colourful, natural, inclusive in that they are easy to grow and to me stand for celebration, so we use these attributes as our core values. They are also called the bee flower and create a great natural habitat for wild bees, which is why we have given out over 100,000 and are aiming to give out a million more. 

Spring vegetable and fetta tart with a salsa verde

A delicious and light meal or a colourful and satisfying starter. You can make individual ones or a couple of big ones. The vegetables give an injection of colour and crisp deliciousness, while set off by the creamy goodness of the cheese base, with an underlying citrus zing. Serves 8 as a starter or 4 as a main course.

Ingredients

The Tarts

• A 320g ready rolled pack of puff pastry
• Egg yolk or milk to glaze
• 12 baby carrots
• 12 radishes
• Bunch of baby asparagus
• 20 sugar snap peas
• 200g feta cheese
• 250g mascarpone
• Zest of a lemon

Salsa Verde

• 1 clove garlic
• A handful of fresh parsley
• ½ bunch fresh basil
• ½ handful of mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 5 small gherkins
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 4 tablespoons olive oil

Method

Wash the carrots and radishes and place in a baking tray with a little oil and salt. Bake for about 20 mins in a preheated oven at 180*C until they have gone soft and are cooked. Then take out to cool.

Put the pastry on a baking sheet and cut into as many tarts as you want to serve.

Wash with the egg yolk or milk and sprinkle some crunchy salt on the edges. Score a line one centimetre from the edge around the base and do some crosses in the middle. Bake in a preheated oven following the instructions (normally 200*C oven for about 15 mins). Once it is cooked, take out and allow to cool.

Mix the fetta, cream cheese and lemon zest with a pinch of salt and pepper and a few tablespoons of milk or water, then beat until it is a smooth mixture (a machine helps, but you can do it by hand). Once it is creamy and mixed, set aside in the fridge.

Lightly boil the asparagus and sugar snap peas and refresh them in cold water once they are cooked, then drain.

To make the salsa verde, put all the ingredients in a blender and process until it has the texture of pesto. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and vinegar as needed.

To construct, cut the centre out of the puff pastry shapes, leaving the base intact. Spread on the cheese mix and plie up the vegetables. Dribble on the salsa verde and serve with the remaining salsa on the side. Enjoy!

We hope you have enjoyed this newsletter and look forward to chatting more next month. Say hello on social media with @BorragoDrinks.

Thank you for making it to the end, until next time, all the best Tom TH