" VERY BERRIE" BREAKFAST BOWL

RAW CARROT SPAGHETTI

I love to eat healthy and yummy food. The RAW food wave is all around me last months. No matter if I read some articles about healthy food, go trough recipes, surf the Instagram or Pinterest – RAW is everywhere. In cakes, pasta, salads, wraps sushi…. So why not to try it? It want become the center of universe for me, but I should give it a try. Yesterday I’ve made my self my very first raw spaghetti. Here is the recipe:

RAW CARROT SPAGHETTI 

what you need for one portion

1 large carrot

½ avocado

½ of tomato

¼ of fennel

¼ of salad cucumber

2 large spoons of virgin olive oil

½ of lemon

Flore de salt

black pepper

red pepper (whole)

1 spoon of honey

step by step

Use the spiral machine (if you don’t have any, you my use the carrot cleaner to get thin slices – like tagliatelle pasta) to get nice thin carrot spaghetti. Cut tomato and cucumber in to small squares, then fennel in to thin slices. Clean ½ of avocado, leave 3-4 slices for decoration and cut the rest also in to small squares. Place carrots on the plate (like you would do with plane pasta), and then start to top with all the other vegetable (pretend it’s the base of Bolognese sauceJ). Make nice decoration with avocado slices and young fennel leafs at the end.

Then add olive oil, sprinkle of Fore de Salt (I have plane and lemon flavor at home, have used the lemon one this time), grain black pepper and few red pepper seeds. Squeeze ½ of lemon and use the juice for the topping. Add sweet liquid honey which gives the whole dish nice semi sweet taste.

Hope you’ll enjoy!

AUTUMN HUMMUS

Hummus - Middle Eastern Cookery. A paste or dip made of chickpeas mashed with oil, garlic, lemon juice, and Tahiti and usually eaten with pita – that is what you find browsing at Google. But do you know that this delicious dish can be also served as main course? It’s very healthy, refreshing, tasty and nutritious. Let’s see what happens when you mix it with autumn season vegetable – pumpkin. Z iVery simple but interesting recipe:

AUTUMN HUMMUS

1,5 kg of fresh pumpkin, you may use Hokkaido – nice sweet taste

1 can of pre cooked chickpeas (or 1 large cup of dry chickpeas - cooked)

½ cup of fresh yogurt

olive oil

garlic clove

bunch of cherry tomatoes per one person

small spoon of fennel seeds

small spoon of cumin

black pepper

salt (I have used Flore de salt  - lemon taste)

bread – brown, pita, tortilla – depending on you - bio if possible

1 large cup of vegetable stock

½ of lemon

4 large portions

 

 

Step by step:

Clean the pumpkin and cut in two similar halves. Cut the first half in small pieces, add butter, pepper, salt, vegetable stock – and then cook in a pot for max 10 minutes, till it gets soft, but still compact in texture.

Pre heat the oven to 185 degree Celsius, cut the second half of pumpkin in to suitable pieces (depending if you wish to serve one big piece or several small pieces on one plate), use baking paper as a base in the pot, then place the pumpkin, cherry tomatoes. Use salt (Flore de salt), pepper, olive oil, and fresh herbs (what you have by hand – basil, rosemary, thymine – they all fit great with this dish). Cover nicely all the vegetable with oil and then bake for aprox 25 – 30 minutes, till they get nice & crispy.

While baking concentrate on the first part of pumpkin – cooked! Drain the cooked water, pour the pumpkin in to a higher bowl (or mixer – Vitamix) and add cooked chickpeas, yogurt, 4-5 spoons of olive oil, grain one garlic clove. Mine while take the fennel seeds, cumin, salt and pinch of brown sugar. Bake them on a pan, till you smell the flavors – 3-4 minutes. Then use a mortar to crush the hot mixture. This is a traditional way, how rise the flavors and taste of the herbs and spices. You will fall in love with this procedure. I always feel like a old witch – hahahahaaaa! Add the spices and lemon juice to the pumpkin / chickpea bowl – and mix till you get nice smooth compact texture. And yes – our pumpkin hummus is ready. Always taste your result. It may happen, that you’ll have to balance the flavors little bit.

The rest is very easy. Just place the hummus on a plate. Add crispy baked pumpkin & tomatoes, sliced bread. Give it the last touch of olive oil, Flore de salt and pepper…..and enjoy!

 

SUNNY SALAD

Well what can I say? We should not complain about silly things and be grateful for all what we have. Everyone around me knows that I’m not that kind of person complaining about small thing sin life. I’m a very happy person 99,9% of my life. But there is this one thing I miss so much – summer sunshine! We can’t fight the nature, but why did someone up there decided to pour rain on our heads for more than a month??? I really charge my batteries each summer. There fore this colorful salad full of summer flavors:

SUNNY SALAD

1 large yellow zucchini

1 large cucumber

1 fresh fennel

8 – 10 cherry tomatoes

15 pc anchovies

1 lemon

1/3 cup of olive oil

large spoon of honey (or two if you feel like it!)

chili

½ spoon of estragon mustard

black pepper

salt

4-5 portions

 

Step by step:

Use the carrot peeler. Peal the zucchini in to thin slices. Bring a pot of water to boil and let the zucchini cook for 2-3 minutes. Then take out the zucchini and let it cool down under cold water – Blanche it! This process helps to keep the zucchini in nice color& softens the structure.

Peal cucumber the same way, cut fennel in to nice thin pieces. Cut cherry tomatoes in half.

Place all vegetable in to salad bowl. Add anchovies.

Prepare the vinaigrette as follows:

Mix olive oil, estragon mustard, honey, juice from ½ lemon, cut chili, pinch of salt, pepper in to a nice vinaigrette sauce. To smooth the thickness of the sauce, add 2-3 large spoons of cold water.

Pore the vinaigrette over the salad and leave it for at least 30 minutes, till the flavors combine.

Serve it as a main course, but is also suitable as adding to meats, or dips for party. Enjoy!

WARM CHICKPEA SALAD WITH ROSEMARY MEAT BALLS

I’m a meat eater. Everyone in my family is. For me it is natural to have some well prepared piece of meat on the plate few times in the week. It’s mostly fish or white meat, but I will never give up my grand mum’s meatballs. She used to prepare them for us since we were kids. I remember the smell of freshly baked meatballs in her kitchen. She always made small portions of the size of a golf ball. So yummy! This is my version.

 WARM CHICKPEA SALAD WITH ROSEMARY MEAT BALLS

400g of fresh minced meat

1 yellow onion

2 cloves of garlic

Herbs – rosemary, thyme, mint

½ cup of breadcrumb

¼ cup of milk (classic or almond)

2 middle size carrots

250g / or two hands full of green young beans

4 middle size brown button mushrooms

300g chickpeas (you may use also can package)

2 large tomatoes

fennel seeds

roman cumin

salt

pepper

lemon

 

Meet balls:

Cut ½ onion and 1 clove of garlic. Place them in a hot pan; add olive oil a stir till they get light brown colour. Take the meat and mix it with salt, pepper in a large bowl. Then stir in the mixture of breadcrumbs, milk, onion and garlic, plus thyme and rosemary (nicely chopped). Use your hands. Mix it all together, and then start rolling small meatballs. It depends on you, what size you choose to roll. Don’t worry if you end up with larger balls, than you have expected. Just freeze a portion for later on.

Heat up the pan. Use Ghee butter, pork fat or olive oil. When hot, place the balls on the pan. Leave them on one side for 2-3 minutes till they get nicely brown on the high level, then turn. Lower the heat, and let them cook for approx. 7-8 minutes.

Warm chickpea salad:

This salad contains warm and cold ingrediences

For the warm part, peal carrots, ½ onion and all the other vegetable for the recipe. Cut everything into nice pieces. Use a second pan. Grill the greens first with a light touch of olive oil (onion, carrot, beans). Add fennel seeds and cumin, salt & pepper. Then add mushrooms and grill nicely.

For the cold part, cut tomatoes, mint and 1 clove of garlic. Mix it with chickpeas, salt, pepper and olive oil. If you use cooked can chickpeas, you just need to rinse them with fresh water. If you use dry chickpeas, leave them in a bowl full of water over night. Then you have to cook them for 15 minutes in salted water the next day.

Add the warm part of the salad and let it sit a little  Use fresh juice from ½ lemon to give it a final touch. I do eat this salad without any additional meat very often as a main course.

Use some nice bowl or plate, serve 2 – 3 spoons of the salad and garnish it with the meatballs. I think you will have no complains. 

Enjoy :)

SUMMER ON YOUR PLATE

Summer on your plate

There is nothing better than to enjoy tasty food prepared with fresh seasonal ingredients. Summer gives us so many options and varieties when it comes to vegetables and fruit, as a great base for a light summer lunch or dinner. I got some fresh cod fish at the Saturday morning market and I had some turkey breast waiting for me in the kitchen, therefore I decided to prepare a light meal of both – they fit nicely together. 

COD FISH & TURKEY STEAKS WITH NATURAL RICE, YELLOW ZUCCHINI AND TZATZIKI SALAD

300g fresh turkey steaks

300g fresh cod fish fillet

1 large yellow zucchini

2 carrots

6 spring onions

1 cucumber

1 lemon

2 – 3 garlic cloves

fresh herbs – rosemary, sage, oregano, tarragon

2 cups of natural rice

150g  plain yoghurt

olive oil

butter or ghee butter

salt

pepper

Preparation time 30 – 40 minutes

Rice:

Melt 1 teaspoon of butter or ghee butter in a small pot. Add 1 cup young onion and carrots, stir for 2-3 minutes. Add natural rice and stir well again for another 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper and add water – 2 cm above the rice (you may also use chicken/vegetable stock). Wait until it starts to boil, then lower the temperature, cover with lid and let it cook for 25-30 minutes on low heat. The natural rice needs aprox. 10-15 minutes longer than standard white rice to cook well. When cooked, turn off the heat, stir and let it cool with the lid on.

Zucchini:

Cut the zucchini into quarters, then cut out the soft middle part with seeds (not necessary if they are not too hard – it is mainly done because of the high level of water in the middle part which can make the zucchini soggy in the grilling process), cut into nice half moon shapes. Add olive oil and a bit of butter into the pan,  add spring onions and zucchini once the pan is hot. Stir over and over and add salt and pepper. You want to end up with lovely pan baked zucchini - kind of grilled. Easy and tasty side dish, ideal for fish & meat. Preheat the oven to 40 grades Celsius to keep the zucchini warm.

Meat:

Use two grill plates. The only difference between fish & turkey preparation is mainly in the herbs added. If you have time, you may marinate the turkey in a mixture of salt and pepper, crushed garlic, spring onion, rosemary and oregano marinade. Mix with your hands and leave covered in a cold place for at least 30 minutes. But you may also do it without marinade. Just sprinkle salt and pepper over the meat and grease the pan with olive oil or ghee butter. Add herbs, garlic and onion to the hot pan to build a base for the meat. Ad turkey at the end and grill aprox 2 - 3 minutes on each side (turkey steak max 3 cm thick). When ready, place the turkey next to the zucchini into the oven – the meat needs to rest in a nice warm temperature for a few minutes to be ready. Get the fish ready in the meantime!

The preparation is a bit easier with the cod fish. Just sprinkle fresh salt (pepper is optional) over the fillet and squeeze fresh lime juice over it. Heat up olive oil mixed with herbs – sage, tarragon, add garlic, spring onion (you may also use slices of lemon – I like this option a lot!) to get the base. Make sure the pan gets nicely hot. Then grill fish from both sides – at most 2 minutes on each side. Careful – fish gets dry easily!

Salad:

Cut cucumber into small pieces and place into the bowl, add plain white yoghurt, 1 clove of crushed garlic (depending how much garlic you like in your food – you may use less or even more), salt, pepper, 2 tea spoons of olive oil. Give it all a nice toss. 

Well and that’s it! Serve with love and enjoy pure summer on your plate. Bon Appetit!