Armed with a R1,000 voucher to go shopping at Faithful to Nature for all the pantry items they needed, the twelve bloggers found themselves spoilt for choice and inspiration. The bloggers then documented their ideas and their stories of sourcing and selecting ingredients on their blogs.
“It is testimony to the high level of creativity of our food bloggers that they submitted twelve diverse and delicious dishes,” says Faithful to Nature founder, Robyn Smith. “Aggregated by the competition, it has turned out to be a collection of recipes that could inspire many more families to introduce a meat-free family meal that ticks all the boxes from taste through to health and be great for the environment as well.”
A panel of judges, which included cook, food writer and TV show host, Sarah Graham and Food24 Editor, Tessa Purdon then evaluated the twelve submissions against the competition criteria.
First prize was awarded to Dianne Bibby of Bibbyskitchen at 36 for her nutrient-dense green pesto pasta dish, a sure winner for everyone in the family: www.bibbyskitchenat36.com/the-ultimate-green-basil-pesto-pasta.
Hein van Tonder of Hein Stirred took second honours for a warm and spicy concoction of spelt flatbreads, roasted chickpeas and cauliflower topped with colourful slaw and an organic tahini yoghurt dressing: http://heinstirred.com/spelt-flatbreads-spiced-roasted-chickpeas-cauliflower.
Leila Saffarian of Pass the Salt took third place for her Persian-inspired green falafel with green freekeh tabbouleh salad: www.passthesalt.co.za/green-goodness-best-faithful-nature-blogger-challenge.
“The #FaithfulFood challenge speaks to our motivation as a business to give back the power of choice to our customers,” says Smith. “By making organic shopping hassle-free and filled with choice, we aim to make organic products easily accessible so that it is easy for South Africans to incorporate healthy ingredients in their family cooking. We’ll be looking to build on this year’s challenge and expand the campaign in 2017.”
