Revive your Lunch-Life - Sea Salt & Black Pepper Crackers for Soup

It's easy to get into a bit of a rut with lunches and sometimes you need to think outside of the box a little to put a bit of spice back in your lunch-life. It should be easy for me as I work from home and have the world at my feet when it comes to ingredients (unless it's a day like Monday when I was talking for too long after the school run and missed my grocery delivery, whoops!), but I often find myself not knowing what to eat for lunch.

The Covent Garden Soup Company asked me to be part of their Revive your Lunch-Life campaign and to create a recipe to accompany one of their many soups.

I love soup, especially home made, but I can't always be bothered to spend my morning peeling and chopping to make a batch of fresh soup. Plus, y'know, I would want some fresh crusty bread and thickly spread butter to dip into it, and plain bread doesn't hit the spot for me.

These sea salt and black pepper crackers, however, do hit the spot. They are salty but not so salty that it leaves you gasping for water, and they are the perfect amount of peppery, which for me is quite peppery, and are great dipped in soup as they stay crispy.

It was hard to decide what flavour soups to get as so many of them sounded so tasty, such as Chicken and Chorizo Jambalaya, Boston Bean & Monterey Jack or Broccoli Pea & Pesto, but that decision was taken out of my hands when I reached my local Tesco as they only had a handful of flavours in stock. I went for Slow Roasted Tomato, as tomato soup is always a big hit in this house so I knew I wouldn't be alone in eating it. With just 84 calories per 300g serving (half a standard carton), it was a healthy option too.

Sea Salt & Black Pepper Crackers by Helen Jessup on Scribd

The crackers are easy to make, and make a great alternative to bread, whether you eat your soup at home or on the go, and are made from just a few ingredients found in most store cupboards. If you use white flour you may need to reduce the quantity of water as wholemeal flour tends to need more.

How do you revive your Lunch-Life?

This recipe has been commissioned for The Covent Garden Soup Company

Avocado Pate and Salt & Pepper Scottish Oatcakes

Wherever I can I like to eat clean as much as possible. Yeah, yeah, I know my blog is full of cakes and sweet treats, but, y'know, a little of what you fancy and all that.  Sometimes life gets in the way a little though, and it's easy to reach for the beans on toast for lunch and pasta for dinner, but when I do take a little time to think and create, I'm usually pleased with the results I come up with, in not much more time than it would take to pop a jacket spud in the microwave.

This avocado pate is delicious, and so easy to make. It does contain cream cheese, which I'm sure is frowned upon by many in the clean eating world, but as long as you're not cutting out dairy then I think a small amount is fine - it's not as though you would eat the whole pot in one sitting or anything daft like that *ahem*.

I absolutely love Scottish oatcakes and really should make these more, as they're so simple, need very few ingredients, and you can flavour them how you want. Unlike many regular crackers, they are also gluten free, and go perfectly with the avocado pate.

Avocado Pate 

1 ripe avocado

juice of 1/2 a lime

100g full fat cream cheese

pinch of chilli flakes (optional)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• Add all the ingredients to a blender (or you can mash for a more textured pate) & blend until smooth
• Spoon into a ramekin, cover with clingfilm and place in the fridge until needed

Salt & Pepper Scottish Oatcakes

150g oats

freshly ground black pepper

sea salt

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• Add the oats to a food processor and blitz until finer
• Add the salt & black pepper (to taste)
• Add the olive oil and pulse until the oats come together
• Roll out onto a sheet on clingfilm until the thickness of a £1 coin
• Cut discs and place onto a baking sheet
• Re-roll and cut the remaining mixture until used up
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for approx 20 minutes, until crispy and slightly browned
• Allow to cool on a wire rack & store in an airtight container

Cumin Seed Crackers, Chutney and Carnivore Club

I had some pastry left over from the Chicken Korma pie that I made recently, and decided to roll it out thinly and bake it with cumin seeds & salt sprinkled on, and it was bloomin' lovely. This gave me an idea for cumin seed crackers, which turned out light and crispy just as I'd hoped.

Cumin Seed Crackers

150g wholemeal self raising flour

25g cold butter

1/2 tsp course sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling on top

1 tsp cumin seeds

approx 3-4 tbsp cold water

1 egg white

• Rub the butter into the flour
• Crush 1 tsp of cumin seeds in a pestle & mortar
• Add the salt and cumin to the flour
• Add the water a little at a time, until it all comes together
• Knead for a couple of minutes until it becomes more elastic
• Place into a bowl and cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for an hour
• Divide the dough into 3 pieces and roll out between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper as thinly as you can
• Cut discs with a pastry cutter
• Lay onto a baking tray and brush with the egg white
• Sprinkle a few seeds and salt over the discs
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 10 minutes until just turning brown
• Leave to cool

I served up a little platter with cheese, a batch of this year's home made chilli plum jam, grapes and some of the contents of my Carnivore Club box.

Carnivore club is a monthly subscription service that sends out a box of 4-6 handcrafted cured meats from top artisans; perfect for a charcuterie buff. The box I was sent had the following meats in :

Cornish Chorizo

Wild Venison Bresaola

Black olive salami

Pokers (snacking salami)

Cornish Coppa

I was provided with the Carnivore Box free of charge