Oven baked, small potatoes

Wash and cut the potatoes, leave the skin on, and put in an oven tray. Sprinkle with a little bit of sea salt, not too much, and add a good drizzle of olive oil. Mix by hand so that the olive oil covers all the potatoes.

Ingredients
½ kg approximately of small potatoes
About 3 tablespoons of grated ‘padano’ cheese or other strong cheese
4 fresh garlic cloves
Sea salt



Black pepper
Olive oil
Oregano
Garlic powder

Preparation
Put in a preheated oven of 180 -200 degrees C and cook till the potatoes are baked and getting a little golden brown crust.
Meanwhile, you have mixed the grated Padano cheese with the finely chopped garlic cloves, about a teaspoon of oregano and some black pepper. If you like you can add a little more garlic powder.

When the potatoes are more or less done, you sprinkle the cheese mixture on top and put it back into the oven. Bake for another 10 minutes approximately, but keep checking, you don’t want it to burn.
Serve with a salad.

Pumpkin soup

There are many ways of making a nice pumpkin soup and today I like to share with you one of my favourite pumpkin soups.


Ingredients:
1 medium onion
1 large carrot
1 medium sized (not too large) sweet potato
1 small pumpkin or half a large pumpkin
1 tin of coconut oil
Fresh ginger
Fresh coriander
Curry powder

Turmeric powder
Sea salt
Black pepper
Coconut oil or olive oil
Water

Preparation

Peel and cut the carrot, sweet potato and pumpkin into chunks
Cut the onion into chunks or slices
Put 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (or olive oil) into a pan
Add the onion and some salt, (about 1 teaspoon – you have to add some more salt at the end) about ¼ teaspoon of curry powder, 1 teaspoon of turmeric and some black pepper.
Add about half an inch (or a little more if you like ginger) of finely chopped fresh ginger
Stir for a few minutes.
Add the chopped vegetables and stir for another few minutes
Add water, almost or just covering the vegetables
Bring to boil and when the sweet potato, carrot and pumpkin are getting soft you add a full tin of coconut milk.
Add about 2 tablespoons of chopped up fresh coriander, bring to boil and simmer for another few minutes.
Blend with a blender.

Taste and if necessary, add a little salt to taste.
Enjoy!

Courgette fritters

 
Ingredients
1 large or 2 small to medium sized courgettes
8 cloves of garlic
Chick pea flower
1 large or two small eggs
Salt
Water
Olive oil
Vegetable oil for frying

Preparation
                 




Wash and cut the courgettes into very thin slices, stack the slices and cut them into fine sticks.
Put in a bowl and add some salt, leave for about 10 minutes then rinse, taste a piece and make sure it is not too salty, if so rinse a more.
Use the egg white of the egg(s) and stiffen up with a hand or electrical mixer
Cut the garlic into chunks
Heat a good splash of olive oil in a frying pan and add the pieces of garlic
After a minute or so add some water and put the lid on the pan, make sure the garlic doesn’t burn but becomes soft.
When the garlic is soft, mash it up with a fork.
Carefully add the garlic mix to the egg white mix, make sure to not over mix
Squeeze the water out of the courgette and mix with the egg white
Now add about 2 tablespoons of chickpea flour into the mix. You need a yoghurt type thickness of the batter, not too wet, but also not too dry. So if necessary, you can add some more chickpea flour.
Heat the vegetable oil (if you want to check whether the oil is hot enough, you can throw one or two drops of water into the hot oil, if it stops making noise the oil is hot)
Take a tablespoon and use it to take the courgette mix, one tablespoon is one fritter, and fry until golden brown.
It is a bit of work, but really worth it!

Roasted vegetables

Ingredients
Medium sized red pepper
Medium sized green pepper
1 large or 2 medium red onions
1 small courgette or half of a large courgette
Half of small aubergine
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil
Garlic (optional)

Preparation
Cut the onion into rings
Cut the peppers into long slices
Cut the courgette into long slices of approx. 3 mm thickness
Slice the aubergine (approx.. 3 mm thickness)
Mix the vegetables in a large oven dish and sprinkle with some pepper and salt
Then add a good splash of extra virgin olive oil and mix well so that all the vegetable are coated
Put in a hot oven of 180 degrees C for about 40 minutes. Keep checking as depending on the oven it can take a little shorter or longer. You don’t want the vegetables to burn.
Serve luke warm or at room temperature.
This is delicious to eat with fresh bread as a starter or serve as a side dish.

Vegan vegetable and rice dish with peanut butter sauce

Ingredients:

Rice of your choice

1 medium size onion

2 cloves of garlic

Small piece of fresh ginger

Vegetables of your choice, like cauliflower, red pepper, carrots, courgette, leek, green beans, cabbage, etc.

Sunflower oil

Coconut milk

Fish oil

Oyster sauce

½ teaspoon of Tai Green Curry (or if you like your food spicy 1 teaspoon).

Ingredients for the sauce:

¼ of an onion finally chopped

2 garlic cloves very finally chopped

Sambal oelek 1 teaspoon

Sweet soy sauce approx.. 4 table spoons

Water

Sugar or honey

Lemon.

Peanut butter – 3 or 4 tablespoons

Sprinkle of salt (optional)

Preparation:

Prepare the rice according to instructions on the package.

It is best to prepare the peanut sauce first because you can easily heat it up later.

The sauce:

Put some sunflower oil in a pan and add the onion, garlic and stir until the onions are glazed. Then add the sambal oelek and stir it in. You can now add the peanut butter, the soy sauce and add the water, keep stirring till you have a smooth sauce. You add a few drops of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar or honey. You can add a little sprinkle of salt if you want. Taste the sauce and add soy, sauce or sambal to taste, if necessary.

The vegetables:

Chop the onion and finally chop the garlic and fry in some sunflower oil. Add the tai green curry, a good splash of Tai fish sauce (this is your salt, no further salt is added) and a splash of oyster sauce. Also add the grated fresh ginger. Keep stirring and then one by one add the washed and chopped vegetables, starting with those who need more cooking time, like carrots and beans. It is nice that the vegetables are still crunchy when served and for example the, courgette, cauliflower and cabbage are best added last. Keep stirring. When everything is more or less ready you add half a tin of coconut milk and put a lid on so it heats through well. Serve with the rice

Easy broccoli soup

Ingredients:

• One broccoli
• half an onion
• 1 garlic clove
• salt, pepper, cumin powder, curry powder, grated nutmeg
• olive oil

Preparation:

Cut the broccoli into pieces and rinse well

Chop the onion and the garlic

Put about two tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and add the onion and the garlic, stir and add about a teaspoon of salt, a pinch of cumin powder, a good pinch of curry powder and some grated nutmeg. Stir in the broccoli and then add the water, just below the broccoli, you do not want to cover the broccoli with water because it will then be to thin.

Boil the soup until the broccoli is just becoming tender. Do not overcook.

Either poor into a blender or use a hand blender till you have a smooth soup.

Taste and add salt if necessary.

Vegetarian broccoli pasta

This is a very quick and delicious pasta! The time the pasta (unless it is fresh pasta, which needs to boil a lot less) needs to boil to get al dente is all the time you need to prepare the sauce.

Ingredients:

1 medium size broccoli

2 cloves of garlic

pasta of your choice

Padano or Parmazano cheese

creme fraiche 120 gr

salt and pepper

olive oil

Preparation:

Boil water with some salt for the pasta

Meanwhile, you clean the broccoli and cut into small florets (ok with still a little bit of the stem)

Clean and finally, chop the garlic cloves

Grate the cheese about 100 to 150 grams (or more), it depends how cheesy you like your sauce

When the water is boiling you add the pasta and loosen it with a fork so that it does not stick together.

Put a good splash of olive oil in a frying pan and when this is heated you add the broccoli and the garlic and a little bit of water.You don't want the broccoli to burn. You sprinkle the broccoli with salt and pepper to taste and put a lid on the frying pan.

Check the broccoli after approximately 5 minutes as you don't want it overcooked, but still a little bit crunchy. You now add the creme fraiche and the grated cheese.

When the pasta is ready (al dente) you take it out of the water and mix it in the frying pan with the broccoli sauce. Serve and enjoy!