Ryvita Recipe Reviews (2)

Well, here's the second instalment of the fabulous recipes from Mark Sargeant & Ryvita.  They are both seasonal toppings for the crispbreads - the first as a light breakfast and the second as a light lunch.

Ryvita Fruit Crunch crispbread with banana, yogurt, honey, basil & passion fruit is a quick and easy light breakfast for a great start to your day.  I actually substituted the passion fruit for strawberries as, believe me, trying to find passion fruit in my small town was a major feat - a bit too tropical for a small Welsh town!  The passion fruit/strawberries are used to flavour the yogurt & make a simple coulis so any soft fruit you can get your hands on will work just fine... also it depends on the flavours you want to use for variety.  Next time I'm on my travels to the "big town", I will definitely pick up a couple of passion fruits to redo the recipe again!

 

The flavours of the fruits with the honey & basil fitted very well together and even my children (both under 8 years old) gave this the thumbs up!

The second recipe used the Mediterranean Herb Crispbread with Sardine Escabeche.  This recipe took a bit more in the way of preparation, with lots of thinly slicing to be done but it is worth the effort.  The marinade of red wine vinegar, orange, thyme, rosemary, bay, garlic, parsley & chilli gently pickles the fennel, carrot and onion and is lovely with the sardines... in fact, any oily fish would be great to use in this recipe.

I think this recipe is most suited to eating "al fresco" sat on a sun terrace on a warm afternoon... at the moment, a wet and windy Wales will have to do but it definitely gave a Mediterranean feeling to my afternoon.  The flavours from the crispbreads paint a perfect picture of the Med and the tastes most associated with the area.

I've really enjoyed working "with" Mark Sargeant - even if from afar!  But it has shown that a normal housewife and mum can create great looking and tasting foods in a normal kitchen with (mostly!) store cupboard ingredients!  "Come Dine With Me" here I come!

And of course, innovative ways to use the underestimated Ryvita Crispbread - a great source of fibre with great new flavours for family life!

Ryvita Recipe Reviews

Ryvita.... when I say "Ryvita" what word immediately pops into your head?  I asked this question earlier on and the answers included:

• Cardboard
• Yummy to dip in soup
• Philly & cucumber
• Yack(!)
• With butter & Marmite or spready cheese
• Like eating my shoe(!)
• Yum, if you can't eat wheat
• A diet food

So overall, about a 50/50 split good & bad.... but with these new recipes from Mark Sargeant, owner of celebrated Rocksalt in Folkestone, I'm sure more of you will be swayed towards the "yes" side of the group!

I always thought of Ryvita as a diet/weight-loss product - but I love them with lots of "real" butter on them, therefore defeating the object of the diet aspect!  Mark has been working hard to develop new recipes for Ryvita inspired by the British summertime, using 4 flavours of the range;   Hint of Chilli, Dark Rye, Mediterranean Herbs and Fruit Crunch.

 
The following two recipes have the tagline of "Sun, Sea, Sand and Crunch - A Stunning Summer Spread from Ryvita".

The first uses a new addition to the range - Ryvita Hint of Chilli Crispbreads with spiced potted crayfish tails and watercress.  It was really quick and easy to make, looked absolutely stunning and would make any light lunch or starter at a dinner party look fantastic.

The spice from the Tabasco sauce and cayenne pepper is perfectly complimented by the nutmeg and peppery watercress and the butter helps to keep the flavours together.

The crayfish tails could be replaced with prawns if necessary and, as a lover of rocket leaf salad, this could be a substitute for the watercress if needed.


The second uses the Ryvita Dark Rye Crispbreads with salt beef, watercress, radish (home-grown in my case!) and dill pickle.  Again, these would compliment any dinner party or as a canape at a cocktail party and are very quick and easy to make.

 

The flavours in this recipe were fantastic - Cider vinegar, English mustard, garlic, lemon and again the peppery watercress all compliment the salt beef flavours.  The salt beef could be exchanged for pastrami, peppered ham or garlic chicken - in fact most meats would go really well with the flavours shown in the recipe.

The beef recipe was my favourite of the two - but with opinions from friends round for an informal "dinner party" the overall winner was the chilli & crayfish tails Ryvitas.... but only by a small margin!

I have 2 other Mark Sargeant recipes to try out and will show you the results tomorrow... but as a quick and easy treat try Chocolate Philadelphia with strawberries on the Hint of Chilli Crispbreads... absolutely delicious!  And also shows how versatile the crispbreads are, both sweet & savoury!

 

The Ryvita Company is a truly British establishment and has milled it's own rye flour at it's home in Poole, Dorset for over 40 years.  They work with British farmers to source the very best rye sine 1925.  Let's keep Ryvita a store cupboard essential, so that when guests unexpectedly drop on your door step - you have a quick and easy stylish lunch to serve!  Personally, I am going to try the "dip-in-soup" method as well - this had never occurred to me before and great when it's Sunday evening, no shops are open and you have ran out of bread!

I hope you enjoyed these recipes and look out tomorrow for the next instalment!