Beltane is the old Gaelic festival that heralds the beginning of spring, a “thank fuck the ice is going to stop!” all-night party. Traditionally celebrated with fairs, dancing, bonfires, and of course, lots and lots of drinking, its an excellent excuse for a party even if you aren’t some flavour of pagan.
Fresh, seasonal food, old fashioned recipes (or at least ones that nod to it), honey and dairy are all traditional elements of the holiday. Dairy because Ireland and Scotland were cattle cultures and Beltane was about purifying the herd, honey because Celts really fucking like honey. It’s also a traditional night to get down and dirty in honour of, ahem, generative forces, so sexy food has a place on the table too.
Beltane Bannock
A traditional oatcake eaten on the day. There are some folk rituals attached to it described at the link as well if you’re into that.
Watercress, new potato & salmon salad
Tricolore salad
Spring Cabbage with Mustard Seeds
Rhubarb crumble and cream
Yogurt and pomegranate dessert with honey
Dressed spring cabbage
Garlic and rosemary infused roast pork
Super spring salad
Strawberry Spring Salad with Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette
Onion and Goat’s Cheese Tart
Welsh Chicken and Leek Pie
Twice Baked Potatos with Irish Chedder
Beltane Caudle
Often served over the bannock but can be eaten in other ways.
Spring beef and potato stew
Toasted spinach, wild garlic and taleggio
Bacon Wrapped Chicken in Garlic and Herb Butter
Green Gazpacho
Lemon and Ricotta Cheesecake
Baked Apricots with Honey
There’s no colcannon.
Weren’t these the happy days,
When troubles we knew not,
And our mothers made colcannon,
In a little skillet pot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCQbksGz67U
Colcannon is such an iconic Samhain dish it felt a little wrong to put it here.
I opened your post this morning whilst having tea before going to the market to get groceries for Beltane!!!
I’m making things ahead for tomorrow night….spiced caramelized onion/pine nut/goat cheese/chard tart, with roasted pepper/asparagus/kalamata olive/shaved pecorino/tarragon salad, and followed by dark chocolate mousse (which I may or may not fancify depending on time, but it’s really good even when I make it plain…and I have v.good dark chocolate to make it with)….my name is Breton-celtic (Gaelle), and I’m half French so I like having the mix in there.
We traditionally toast with sparkling drinks with sweet woodruff in them, so I’m going to see if ours is blooming yet! I’ll bring in some flowers as well as lighting candles and the mini-hearth too.
Happy Beltane Siobhan!!
All my pagan friends moved away, so I’m celebrating alone this year and I may have to just make a bunch of these for myself and drink a lot of wine. That baked potato is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen, so that’s definitely on the list. I may also make the Beltane Bannock for breakfast! Someday I’ll celebrate with a group again, but for now… I feast. (P.S. Atlanta witches, hmu.)
Lots oflovely ideas. Thank you for posting these recipes.
I have weird but fun suggestion for cheese cake.
Instead of graham crackers use flavoured cheerios such as oh say honey nut cheerios for the crust
2 1/2 cups cheerios
3 tbsp brown sugar firmly packed
1/3 cup butter melted
Method
Pre-heat over to 350/176 degrees
Crush cheerios to sort of almost a loose powder preferably with a food processor
Using a fork in a medium size bowl mix first the sugar with the crushed cheerios.
Then stir in butter with yes the fork til well blended
Trust the fat of the butter and press the mixture into your the bottom of an un-greased pan
Bake for 8-10 minutes till it becomes more of a gold brown more than a vague light tan it went in as
Cool completely and use for a thick cheesecake or ice box pie, don’t try to make like old fashioned apple pie or something with this crust.
Happy Beltane and thank you Siobhan for this round up because oh gosh I’ve always wanted to try bannock and that recipe doesn’t look hard the way scones look hard. I love oatmeal.
Might try making the toastrd spinach, wild gatlic and taleggio and the goat cheese pastries forsunday brunch sometime. X
Made the bannock, ate the bannock.
Will repeat, so good.