Harvested from the hives around the wild manuka bush in New Zealand and Australia, manuka honey has a whole host of health benefits and healing powers, making it a bit of a wonder ingredient.
Honey protects against the damage done by bacteria, thanks to the component hydrogen peroxide. However, in regular honey, the anti-bacterial benefits are lost when the hydrogen peroxide breaks down. This isn’t the case with manuka – which contains a ‘secret ingredient’ known as MGO (or methygloxal).
This antibacterial and antimicrobial property works well after the hydrogen peroxide has disappeared. The quality of manuka honey can vary greatly – the higher the MGO, the better the quality.
When baking with manuka honey, switch sugar for a half measure of honey and reduce the oven temperature by 15°C to prevent it browning too much. With liquid recipes, swap the same amount of sugar for the same of honey, or just add to salad dressings and enjoy!
ROAST VEGETABLE HOUMOUS
Serves 2-4
8 cloves of garlic, crushed, skins on
1 courgette, roughly chopped into 1-inch pieces