autumn Archives - Page 4 of 4

Sparkling Pomelo Ginger Shandy (Virgin And Not So Virgin)

February 16, 2017

This sparkling pomelo ginger shandy is a nice refreshing drink with a little kick of spice, perfect for lazy sunny late winter days.

What do you do when you can’t have booze? Make something out of beer.

Yeah, yeah, I know many of you will say beer without alcohol is not beer at all and you might be right. Some of them taste…hmmm. How should I put it? Miserable.

But when you’re pregnant and can’t have alcohol, trust me, it’s much easier to like non-alcoholic beer. Some brands make very good ones, but I’ve also had one that tasted like a chewing gum. Uhm, not so good!

Well, it was about time to make another drink recipe, since it’s been a while now. I’m all about citruses during this winter. I don’t think I’ve eaten so many oranges and mandarins at any point in my life and a big squeeze of lemon in a glass of water is a total must. I haven’t had any pomelo, so I thought I’d put it in a sparkling beer drink with some spicy ginger and have a pomelo ginger shandy.

Pomelo is such an awesome fruit, it’s sweet like a grapefruit, but doesn’ have the bitterness, which is great for a beer drink, since beer is already bitter.

On top of all the pomelo juice, the ginger gives the drink a little heat and warms you up 🙂 That’s why I love ginger!

And pretty much everything about this drink 😀

This pomelo ginger shandy is such a nice refreshing drink for the lazy days leading to spring, sitting in the sun on a balcony wrapped in a warm blanket. Listening to bird singing starting again, such a lovely time. I’m getting sentimental.

Our balcony life (yeah, this should totally be a title of a movie) is gone during the winter, but when the sun starts to become warmer and the days get longer, we start hanging out on the balcony again. During the spring and summer it’s where we eat, play board games, read and do pretty much everything. Like, who needs the indoors, anyway?!

So, I’m very happy with the longer not so freezing cold days 🙂

And I’m happy to have this non-alcoholic drink, which can also be alcoholic, whatever you prefer. It’s a great way to pimp up your favorite beer and add some fruitiness 🙂

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Sparkling Pomelo Ginger Shandy

Prep Time 5 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Servings 2 people

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

Simple ginger syrup

4 TBSP cane sugar
3 TBSP grated fresh ginger
1 TBSP pomelo zest
2 TBSP lemon juice

Pomelo Ginger Shandy

500 ml pomelo juice (juicing described in the instructions)
500 ml lager beer (alcoholic or non-alcoholic)

Instructions

Simple ginger syrup:

Add all ingredients to a mortar and make a smooth paste.

Juicing pomelo:

Pomelo is a big fruit and it's hard to juice it on a regular juicer. I peel the pomelo and remove the thin white skins, then blend it in a blender for a minute or two and use a nut milk bag or a tea towel to squeeze out the juice.

Pomelo ginger shandy:

Mix together pomelo juice and simple ginger syrup, pour into glasses and add beer.

Nutty Apple & Poppy Seed Strudel

February 2, 2017

This apple and poppy seed strudel has four delicious mouth-watering layers – poppy seed, curd, walnut, and apple layer with sultanas. In many ways, it is reminiscent of one of the best Slovenian dessert Prekmurska gibanica.

Hi, guys!

It’s about time to make another kindda Slovenian recipe – another dessert inspired by our traditional Prekmurska gibanica. Remember the Spring Strawberry Layer Cake in a Glass, that is a very light and healthy version of the original recipe. Well, this time it’s also a little lighter, but just a little bit.

The original Prekmurska gibanica is very heavy on the fat, not that this apple and poppy seed strudel recipe is not, but much much less 😀

Okay, I’m making it sound like a dissaster of a dessert. It’s actually not and it really is one of my favorite Slovenian desserts. With four different delicious layers you can’t go wrong, right?

I left the layers as are, but added honey in two of them (the poppy seed and the walnut layer), because you know I’m addicted to honey 😉 My breakfast today… honey on bread and butter. You see! ADDICTED!

I hope you don’t get scared by the four layers, because these fillings are literally the easiest you-can’t-do-it-wrong fillings. And if you don’t like an ingredient, change it. For example, you could use different fruit, or change walnuts for some other nuts. So many choices.

This was actually one of those recipes, that I didn’t even plan to make. I was left with some phyllo dough that was about to go bad and was firstly thinking of making a simple, but yet delicious, apple strudel. But since that’s probably the most common type of strudel I make, I thought, I should do it differently this time and see if I can make a layered strudel like Prekmurska gibanica.

Guess what, yes! And it’s pretty freakin’ delish. At first I added too much poppy seeds and not enough apples, which made it a little dry, so I changed the recipe. Now it’s moist and sooo yummy.

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Nutty Apple & Poppy Seed Strudel

Course Dessert

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

POPPY SEED LAYER

100 g ground poppy seeds
100 ml boiling milk
1 TBSP honey

CURD LAYER

300 g curd
2 eggs
1 TBSP icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon

WALNUT LAYER

200 g ground wallnuts
150 ml boiling milk
2 TBSP honey

APPLE LAYER

6 medium-size apples around 1kg, peeled and coarsely grated
2 tsp cinammon
120 g sultanas
warm water

STRUDEL

500 g phyllo pastry 10 sheets of 35 x 45 cm
150 g butter melted
Icing sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

Poppy seed layer

Pour boiling milk over ground poppy seeds and mix well with a spoon. Once the mixture has cooled a little, add honey and mix again.

Curd layer

Split the eggs into egg whites and yolks. Mix curd, icing sugar, lemon zest and yolks with a spoon. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and fold it gently into the curd mixture.

Walnut layer

Pour boiling milk over ground walnuts and mix well with a spoon. Once the mixture has cooled a little, add honey and mix again. If there's excess liquid on bottom, drain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Apple layer

Put sultanas in a bowl and cover the with warm water. Leave them to soak for 15-20 minutes, then drain. Mix together grated apples, cinammon and sultanas.

Assembly and baking: Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Coat a big baking tray with melted butter. The trey should be big enough to hold five 35cm long rolls.
Spread a generous amount of butter over one sheet of phyllo pastry with a brush, cover it with another sheet and spread butter over this one too.
Visually divide the sheet into 5 parts (lenghtwise). Spread poppy seed mixture over the first, curd layer over the second, walnut layer over the third and apples over the fourth. The first will be a little thinner, the fourth a little thicker and the fifth will be empty. Start rolling from the poppy seed layer. Roll as wide or narrow as your baking tray allows. You are going to have 5 of these rolls.
Place the rolls into baking tray and cover the tops with some more butter.
Bake for about 40 minutes, until the crust looks golden.
When you take it out the crust might look soggy, but it will get crisp once it cools.
Sprinkle with some icing sugar before serving.

Popped Beans and Steamed Broccoli Salad

January 19, 2017

Whoever says comfort food can’t be healthy, has obviously never tried popped beans and steamed broccoli salad with toasted spicy nuts and lemony mustard dressing. Hungry anyone?

Whoever says comfort food can't be healthy, had obviously never tried popped beans and steamed broccoli salad with toasted spicy nuts and lemony mustard dressing. Hungry anyone?

Hey, hey! We’re having broccoli today.

Hmmm, the rhyme was unitntentional, I guess I’m feeling poetic 😛

I have a habit of steaming broccoli instead of roasting them. I dunno, I think it’s because of the vivid green color it keeps. Plus, it’s quicker 🙂 I was thinking what would go well in a steamed broccoli salad and then I remembered a Jamie Oliver show from a while ago. Can’t even remember the recipe, but I know he roasted the beans on a pan until they started popping. I tried those before and they were great. So, it sounded like an awesome idea to add them to the broccoli. Turnes out it was the right decision and with some added chopped parsey, pomegranate seeds and spicy nuts this makes a perfect winter salad.

The best thing about this salad is, it can be both a warm or a cold salad. For a warm salad, you dress it while everything is hot, for a cold salad, you rinse the broccoli with cold water after steaming and then decide if you want the beans and nuts to be warm or not. It’s up to you!

I’m seriously obsessed with mustard dressing. Although I’m normally not a fan of mustard as a condiment, it’s so amazing if you use it as seasoning.

This dressing is probably the one I use most on daily basis, because it’s super simple and mustard gives it an extra depth and richness. It works really well with bitter winter salads like radicchio.

So, some updates on what’s been going on in my life lately. We’re starting to prep more seriously for the baby. Yep, barely starting. I mean we have bought some things, made some and we’re getting lots of second hand stuff from friends, but we still have sooo many chores until I can really say, now we’re ready. We still have 10 weeks, but you never now, when the baby might surprise us. Oh, I have to tell you about the cutest little pants I’ve sewn. They are the cutest, but I’m affraid the fabric is not strechy enough and they’ll probably be to small to fit even a newborn. Luckily, I’m stacked with fabric and I’m making new ones 🙂

Ok, enough baby talk!

Besides all the baby preparations, we’re also starting to prep for the new dance show that we moved from Spring to Autumn, because of… well, baby. Yesterday, I started making my part of the coreography. You can imagine a big belly and a fast dance + some floorwork. It was fun, but also very chalenging!

Great, your all updated now, so let’s start cookin’!

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POPPED BEANS AND STEAMED BROCCOLI SALAD

Course Salad

Keyword bean salad, broccoli salad, healthy, quick

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Servings 4

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

STEAMED BROCCOLI SALAD

1 big broccoli
1 cup cooked red beans if you’re using canned, rinse well before cooking
3 TBSP mixed seeds sunflower seeds, sesame, black sesame…
1 tsp crushed chilli flakes
1 tsp ground garlic
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
a bunch of parsley chopped

LEMONY MUSTARD DRESSING

5 TBSP olive oil
3 TBSP lemon juice
1 TBSP mustard
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper

Instructions

Steamed Broccoli Salad

Cut the florets away from stems and cut them into bite size chunks. Cut the thinner stems into 1 cm chunks. Peel the thick main stem and cut it into 1 cm cubes.
Boil a little water (about a finger’s width) in a steaming pan and add the steming basket. Place the stem parts of broccoli into the steaming basket and the florets on top. If there are any leaves from broccoli place them right at the top. Cover with a lid, reduce heat to low and cook for about 5 minutes or until you can easily pierce the broccoli with a fork, but it’s still vibrant green. Be careful, because broccoli can go from vibrant to brownish color quickly.
If you prefer your broccoli to be cold, rinse immediately under cold water to stop it from further cooking. If you’re serving it warm, just remove from steamer and let it drain.
In a bowl mix together garlic and chilly flakes.
Heat a big skillet over medium-high heat and add beand and half of the garlic and chlli mixture. Cook them for about 4-5 minutes, tossing every now and then. Once you see most of the beans open, add the nuts and toss every now and then for a minute. Remove from heat and add the remaining garlic and chilli mixture.

Lemony Mustard Dressing

Beat all ingredients together with a fork.

Steamed Broccoli Salad

In a salad bowl, mix together broccoli, parsley, 2/3 of beans and seed mixture, 2/3 of pomegranate seeds and dressing. Top wih the remaining 1/3 of beeans and seeds and the rest of pomegranate seeds.

Bacon Wrapped Prunes With Herbed Feta Dip

November 10, 2016

Indulgent finger food for the best party you’ll ever throw, but not without these crispy bacon wrapped prunes and a decadent herbed feta dip!

Yay, finally sharing this recipe with you!

I’ve been making it for a while now, but never got around photographing and posting it. But with the holiday season slowly arriving, I felt like, I owe you this recipe, because – yes, I’m gonna say it – it’s amazing. It’s dried fruit wrapped in bacon. Who wouldn’t love that?! 🙂

There’s a little story about how I got to this deliciousness. It happened on our honeymoon a little over two years ago. I know many people decide to go to some perfect tropical beach for their honeymoon, but we decided to make a road trip through Europe. We made over 2500 km in 16 days and saw soooo many things and sights. One of them was the lovely town of Kaunas in Lithuania. It gave out the vibe of still being stuck in the old time with all the old communist monuments and decaying facades, but that actually gave the town a really special character.

Anyway, convinced that the nightlife would be pretty much non existant we headed to the center of town. Well, we were dead wrong. It was vibrant and lively with all the people siting in the restaurants and pubs, drinking, eating and having a blast. Looked so fun that we had to join. For the first time ever we tried mulled beer. Delicious, btw! We also tried some finger food. Among other we had tiny packets of prunes wrapped in bacon that were filled with some kind of nuts. That was such a clever and incredibly delicious appetizer! Soft and chewy, but crispy on the outside and in the middle. Clever, I’m saying. I’ve been making my own version ever since.

I’m in love with this presentation, with the tree springs, holding together the bacon wrapped prunes. There’s another story behind that.

I usually spend New Year’s Eve with friends in a cabin somewhere in the wild (sometimes not so wild). One year we decided to throw a fancy dress-yo’self-very-pretty kind of New Year’s Eve party. These pretty bacon wrapped prunes were a must! Of course, we were not at home and we didn’t have toothpicks that would hold the whole thing together so we headed to the garden and cut some tree springs and solved the problem. Easy 😀 They looked so much better than with good old toothpicks. Don’t you think they look festive?

In case you are like me – always in need of some dip, here’s a recipe for a simple feta dip with fresh herbs. I used parsley and chives, because that’s what still growing in the garden, but you can add whatever you’ve got on hand.

Go ahead, try them out on the side of some mulled mandarin juice! I sure will 🙂

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BACON WRAPPED PRUNES WITH HERBED FETA DIP

Course Appetizer

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 30

Ingredients

BACON WRAPPED PRUNES

30 prunes pitted
15 thin bacon slices
25 g almonds chopped finely
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp ground sweet red pepper

HERBED FETA DIP

100 g Feta Cheese
60 g Greek-style yogurt
a bunch of herbs I used parsley and chives, chopped
pinch of pepper

Instructions

BACON WRAPPED PRUNES

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Heat a pan over medium-high heat, then add chopped almonds. Roast for a minute, until they start smelling sweet. Remove from heat and add olive oil and ground sweet red pepper. Toss around to coat the nuts and set aside too cool a little.
Cut bacon in half.
Fill the prunes with nuts and wrap them in bacon, securing ends with toothpicks.
Place them onto a baking paper-lined baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes or until the bacon gets golden and crispy.
Best served hot.

HERBED FETA DIP

Combine all ingredients in a food processor, to get a smooth dip. Keep in the fridge before serving.

Mulled Mandarin Juice

October 27, 2016

Easy to make from scratch warm autumn mulled mandarin juice!

I really hope y’all love mandarins as much as I do. They’ve been my main food these days. A nasty cold decided to haunt me, but I was prepared…

With tons of mandarins. I mean I probably ate a few kilos of them. And I’m not exaggerating at all! I’m feeling much better now and ready to bring you another awesome recipe.

Inspired by mulled wine and apple cider, I decided to give warm drinks a little twist. I’ve added mandarins to those two drinks before, but never tried cooking mandarin juice on its own. And man, I’m sorry I didn’t!!

Don’t get me wrong, I love mulled apple cider, but it needs lots of lemon to reduce the sweetness. Well, not mandarins. Especially the sour ones. Which are my favorites, btw 🙂 There’s just a little honey or any other sweetness necessary in this recipe, or if you prefer sour drinks like me, you can omit that.

Now that we got this straight, let’s talk spices.

Cinnamon, cloves, ginger, peppercorn and star anis. That’s what I used. It’s basically what I usually used in mulled drinks, sometimes I play with flavors and add someting new, but being ill and all, I wished for something very homey and familiar. Something to make me feel like a little baby 😀

And it made me so happy I just had to share this recipe with you. I have a feeling mulled mandarin juice is gonna be my everyday drink now. Since being pregnant means, I have to be careful with what kinds of teas I drink, I was also out of warm drink options. This will be perfect to spice things up.

A little secret. I have a feeling rum would go awesomely with mulled mandarin juice, so if you can drink alcohol, try adding it after cooking. And let me know how it was 😛

I want to hear everything about your other favorite winter drinks in the comments below.

And if you want to boost your immunity, so you don’t get a cold like I did, try some Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea.

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MULLED MANDARIN JUICE

Course Cocktail

Keyword non-alcoholic drink, warm drink

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

600 ml 3 cups freshly squeezed mandarin juice (from about 1 kg of mandarins)
600 ml 3 cups water
2 cinnamon sticks
10 cloves
4 slices of ginger
10 peppercorns
2 star anises
1-2 TBSP honey or another sweetener optional

Instructions

Add all ingredients to a pot and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to low heat. Cook for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat and serve hot.

Pumpkin Risotto with Goat Cheese, Pancetta & Cranberries

October 20, 2016

I’m totally in love with each single bite of this delicious pumpkin risotto!

So true… Comforting and warm like a hug. Ok, I’m getting sentimental, but that’s what rainy days are all about, right? Squeezing under a soft wool blanket, watching TV or playing board games. Watching Breaking Bad and eating tons of cooked chestnut is basically all we do these evenings. I know, I know we’re so lazy! That’s what cold and rain does to us. Um, yeah, autumn is awesome. Anyone else so psyched about that?

And peeps, my weird pregnancy smell and taste is gone and I can cook as much as I want now 🙂 Happy me! My weight is probably gonna start going up more quickly now, but well, that’s supposed to happen eventually 😛 My bump is already visible and I can’t stop caressing it 🙂

Ok, enough on my prego belly. I’ve moved on from eating pasta almost every day to cooking normally, so I prepared a creamy pumpkin risotto with some delicious goodies on top.

Risotto is really a very simple dish. That’s what’s so great about it. Easy and quick to make, but add some good seasonal ingredients to it and it gets so sophisticated.

Never had a pumpkin risotto? It’s about time to start, because pumpkin adds such a nice flavor and creaminess to the risotto. What autumn recipes are all about is combining sweet with savory, so I’ve done that again. Pumpkin by itself is sweet, but I’ve added some dried cranberries on top for some sweet crunch. And who doesn’t love a little crispy panchetta and goat cheese with all of that.

This is the fanciest cozy meal I’ve had this autumn, for real!

I promise people are gonna love you for cooking them pumpkin risotto, whatever goodies you choose to put in 🙂

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Pumpkin Risotto with Goat Cheese, Pancetta & Cranberries

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

2 cups rice
6 1/2 cup vegetable or chicken stock
3/4 cups pumpkin purée (find recipe in the notes of my Mini Pumpkin Pizza recipe)
1 small onion , small cubes
8 pancetta slices
60 g goat cheese crumbled
4 springs thyme + some for garnish
1/3 cup dried cranberries
black pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175 °C.
Place pancetta slices on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake them for 10 minutes or until they get golden and crunchy. Transfer them to a paper towel lined plate, to remove the excess fat. When it cools crumble it. Keep the fat that is left in the baking tray for later.
Wash rice under cold water and drain.
In a sauce pan boil the stock, remove from heat and leave covered.
Place a large skillet over medium heat and add the remaining pancetta fat and if necessary add a tablespoon of olive oil. Add onions and cook for 2 minutes until they get soft. Add the drained rice and fry for additional 3-5 minutes stirring constantly. When the rice gets translucent add pumpkin purée, thyme, pinch of black pepper and 1 laddle of stock (or more). You want the rice to just be covered with liquid. Cook stirring occasionally until the liquid has dissapeared into the rice. Then add another laddle of stock. Continue doing that for about 20-25 minutes or until the rice is al dente. With the last laddle of stock add half of the pancetta crumbles.
Serve immediately and top with the rest of the pancetta crumbles, goat cheese, dried cranberries and more thyme.

Autumn Harvest Pulled Chicken Sandwich with Homemade Apple BBQ sauce

October 13, 2016

This apple BBQ sauce flavored pulled chicken sandwich topped with crazy delicious apple slaw and hazelnut yoghurt dressing is da deal!

Anyone else stuck with a whole bunch of apples in the basement and doesn’t know how to use them all?

I’m not much of a fresh apple eater, I’m simply too picky about how I like them. So stacks of sweet semi-rotten apples in the basement donated by our relatives are amost sadly waiting to be eaten.

And oh my god, what to do with all of them?!

Like I mentioned several times, I hate throwing food out, so I created a delicious autumn BBQ sauce made with fresh apples. Perfect recipe for using those not-so-good-looking apples.

And hint hint… you can make more and preserve it for later 😉 This recipe yields about 2 cups and is simple to mulitply!

I’m practically obessed with pulled pork burger, but it takes time. After seeng how awesomely Jessica from How Sweet It Is used chicken and made pulled chicken sandwich, I was inspired and made my own version with my apple BBQ sauce.

And it is delicious, I’m telling you! Soooooo simple and soooooo good 🙂 The sauce takes some time, but no effort at all.

This is like the longest named recipe I’ve probably ever made, it could actually be even longer. But I’ve made myself stop. There’s so much going on here.

The juicy shreded chicken, topped with homemade apple BBQ sauce, freshly cut slaw with apples, carrots and cabbage dressed with hazelnut yoghurt dressing.

And guess what… the sandwich is topped with some more of the delicious BBQ sauce and chillies. Heaven!

Okay, I’ll stop torturing you. Go ahead and start cooking! 🙂

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AUTUMN HARVEST PULLED CHICKEN SANDWICH WITH HOMEMADE APPLE BBQ SAUCE

Course Main Course

Keyword beef burger, sandwich

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

PULLED CHICKEN

1 kg boneless chicken thighs
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground mustard seeds
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp black pepper

APPLE BBQ SAUCE

1 TBSP butter
1 small onion thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic chopped
4 middle-sized apples chopped into 1-2 cm chunks
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
2 TBSP honey
1 TBSP Worchestershire sauce
1 TBSP smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground mustard seeds
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon

APPLE SLAW

1 big apple
1 big carrot
1/4 big cabbage head

SLAW DRESSING

150 g Greek-style yogurt about 3/4 cup
3 TBSP ground hazelnuts
1 TBSP apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of black pepper

ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS

6 soft burger buns
chopped parsley
sliced chilies

Instructions

Apple BBQ Sauce

Place a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat and melt the butter. Add onions and wait for a few minutes to get golden, then add garlic and stir for about a minute. Then add apples, water, and apple cider vinegar, cover, and reduce to medium heat. Cook covered for about 10 minutes or until apples start getting softer.
Uncover and add the rest of the ingredients, mix well, and let gently simmer for about 30 minutes or until most of the apples have fallen apart.
Mix in a blender to get the silky smooth texture.

Pulled chicken

In a big bowl mix all spices together and add chicken thighs. Make sure to coat all the meat with the spice blend.
Place a large pan over high heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Cook chicken for 4-5 minutes on each side (cook time will depend on the thickness of the thighs). Make sure the chicken is cooked through before taking it off the pan.
Transfer it to a clean plate and shred it using forks.
Return the shredded chicken to the same pan you used before and add 1/2 cup of apple BBQ sauce (or more if it seems dry) and cook for a minute.

Apple Slaw

Cut the veggies into thin slices. Mix all ingredients for the dressing together.
Toss the veggies with the dressing.

Assembly

Cut burger buns into half and fill them with pulled chicken and apple slaw. Add more apple BBQ sauce on top and top with chopped parsley and chilly slices.

Notes

This recipe was inspired by Saucy Chicken Sandwiches by How Sweet It Is.

Pumpkin Soup with Balsamic Glazed Onions + A Big Announcement

October 5, 2016

Warm, sweet and spicy pumpkin soup will be your new favorite autumn comfort food!

Omg, it’s been so long since my last post.

So sorry for that, but I’ve had a perfectly good reason. Actually the best reason in the world. We’re having our first little baby in April! 🙂 ♥ How awesome is that! I still can’t believe it’s happening, but we’re happy and excited and can’t wait to meet our tiny bundle.

I haven’t had any major pregnancy discomforts, but one that affected my blogging: I wasn’t able to cook for a month or smell any strong smelling food. Or look at food photos. I’m still struggling with fresh veggies (which I would normally love so much!), but most of the troubles went away now that I’m in my second trimester.

I’ve been craving sweet food a lot. Not sweets, but sweet savoury food like root veggies and pumpkins. So they’re on the menu a lot these days. One of my all time autumn favorites is definitely pumpkin soup.

What makes pumpkin soup so amazing is its natural sweetness in combination with chillies. Remember how chillies go perfectly with chocolate… well, it’s the same with pumpkin. So don’t skip on it. Seriously! Add less if you’re not into spicy stuff, adding at least a little will make all the difference.

I don’t like adding much to my simple pumpkin soup recipe. No stock or herbs. Water, garlic, chilli flakes, salt and pepper are enough. I’m using pumpkin purée as my base. If you’d like to make your own check the notes in the Mini Pumpkin Pizzas recipe. A good variety of pumpkin or squash is crucial, so pick one that you absolutely love.

For me that’s hokkaido or any other with simmilar sweetness.

A very sweet pumpkin soup like this need a counterbalance, so I added balsamic glased onions with sage on top. I could eat these onions on their own, they are sooooooo good.

I’m letting you in on a little secret. I’m dreaming about autumn all year round. I love all seasons, especially when they’re just starting. All the fresh new produce and the feel of change.

But autumn is my favourite. There’s nothing like the magical feel of cold and warmth at the same time. And all the sweet produce it comes with. Yup, best season ever! I’m one of those strange people who love cold and rain 🙂

Now I’m off to warm myself with a bowl of this delicious pumpkin soup!

Warm, sweet and spicy pumpkin soup will be your new favorite autumn comfort food!

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Pumpkin Soup with Balsamic Glazed Onions

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Pumpkin soup:

4 cups pumpkin purée
3 cups water (depending on desired consistency)
1 TBSP olive oil
3 cloves garlic chopped
1/2 tsp chilli flakes (add less if you prefer a less spicy version)
salt by taste
pepper by taste

Balsamic glased onions:

1 medium sized red onion
1 TBSP olive oil
6 sage leaves
1/2 cup water
2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
salt by taste
pepper by taste

Other topping options:

crème fraîche
pumpkin seeds
pumpkin seed oil
chives

Instructions

Balsamic glased onions:

Cut the onion in half and remove the skins. Slice it into 3-5 mm thin slices.
Place a skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. Add the onions and sage and stir to cover them with oil.
Cook uncovered for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally, until the onions get translucent and a bit softer.
Add water, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and cover the skillet. Continue cooking over low-medium heat for 20 minutes or until the onions get soft.
Uncover and cook over medium-high heat for additional 5-10 minutes to lose the excess moiture and caramelise the onions. Stir occasionally to check they are not burning.

Pumpkin soup:

Place a pan over medium heat and add olive oil. Add garlic and cook until it gets golden.
Add pumpkin puree, water, chilli flakes, salt and pepper and continue cooking until the soup boils.

Decorating:

Pour hot soup into bowls and decorate with balsamic glased onions. You can add crème fraîche, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seed oil and chives if you like.

Warm, sweet and spicy pumpkin soup with balsamic glased onions will be your new favorite autumn comfort food! Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

Red Currant, Orange & Mint Mojitos

June 16, 2016

Perfectly refreshnig comfort summer drinks red currant, orange and mint mojitos!

Use Your Noodles - Red Currant, Orange & Mint Mojitos

Let’s have a drink!

I’m having one for sure. Hopefully, tomorrow my splint is coming off and that’s a big reason for celebration. It’s about time, I’m not really fond of walking on three legs 😛

So join me for a glass of delicious summer cocktail. One sip and you won’t be able to stop.

Perfectly refreshnig comfort summer drinks - red currant, orange and mint mojitos!

We love hanging out on our balcony listening to the birds in the cherry tree, playing board games, eating scrumptious chocolate brownies and drinking refreshing fruity drinks. One of our favorite summer drinks is mojito. In any form. We usually drink a traditional lime and mint mojitos, but sometimes we make some changes. Like adding other seasonal fruit.

There’s a big bush of red currants behind the house, full of perfectly sweet and sour tiny fruits 🙂 So I replaced lime with red currant and got a super delicious and refreshing mojito. I added some freshly squeezed orange for some sweetness and the citrusy taste. The combo of red currant and orange is not something I’ve tried before, but I must admit they make a wonderful pair.

Mental note to self – make cookies!

What I like about this cocktail recipe is the colour. If you’ve seen my other recipes, you’ve probably guessed that I like my food colourful 🙂 and seasonal 🙂

To make these lip-smacking red currant, orange and mint mojitos all you need is some fresh fruit, a bottle of rum, sparkling water and mint. And of course lots of ice!

The recipe calls for fresh red currants, that you blend into a puree, which means you keep all of the goodies from the fruit. If you don’t mind about the little seeds, you don’t need to strain the puree.

Now, let’s get the party started!

I’d love to hear what your favorite summer drink is. Write it in the comments below 🙂

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RED CURRANT, ORANGE & MINT MOJITO

Course Cocktail, Drinks, mocktail

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

MOJITOS

2 cups red currants stems removed
2 cups orange juice freshly squeezed
1/2 – 3/4 cups white rum
3 cups sparkling water
2 tsp unrefined cane sugar Optional
handful of mint
abundance of crushed ice

GARNISH

1/4 cup red currants
4 mint springs

Instructions

In a blender, blend red currants to get a pureé.
Use a muddler to crush mint to release the mint oils. Add 2 TBSP orange juice and unrefined cane sugar and muddle a little more.
Divide red currant pureé into 4 glasses, add ice, mint mixture, remaining orange juice, white rum, and sparkling water.
Decorate and serve immediately.

Notes

Mocktail version: Replace rum with orange juice.

Also try these tasty summer drinks:

Grapefruit-Lime Cocktail With Rosemary And Ginger

Roasted Peach And Strawberry Fizz

Simple Fish Sliders With Roasted Garlic Sauce

May 12, 2016

Humble fish sliders with a little twist are the best way to treat your family!

Oh, who am I kidding. They are actually a treat for you. Others can watch and be jealous 😉 And if they behave, they get a bite!

I’m declaring my love to fish.

I’d choose fish over meat in almost any given situation. They are so tender and delicious. One thing I hate, though, is dry overcooked rubbery fish. Yuck, bring me a glass of water, please!

The beautiful thing about these fish sliders is that you can use any fish you like. This one in the photos is perch, but any white fish or other type would work perfectly.

Ask for a filet and make sure all the bones are out, before cooking it. You don’t want to bite into one. I don’t own a fish bone tweezers, so I use regular tweezers and they work just fine.

Use Your Noodles - Simple Fish Sliders with Roasted Garlic

This is a dish, that takes some time, but basically no effort or special cooking skills… read a book or dance around the house, and in the meantime it’s all cooking. At the end quickly blend the sauce and cook the fish and you’re done. Suuuuper easy! I promise 🙂

I used to be so scared about preparing fish, what if they get stuck on the pan or are undercooked or even soggy. So I avoided making them. But after a few tries, I realised, that they are so easy to work with. Also so much faster to check if they are done or not, than meat. The flaky flesh allows that.

If you want it to be crispy on the outside, sprinkle with some flour or starch. It will pull out a little moisture from fish and form a really thin layer of batter, which will fry crisp in the pan.

Have you ever tried roasted garlic? Before trying these fish sliders, I added separate unpeeled garlic cloves to my roaseted veggies and they turned out o be the most delicios part of the meal.

So I decided to use garlic in a different way. Roast it and make it in a yummy sauce!

I noticed how people are roating whole garlic heads. So, I tried that. Just cut of the top of the garlic head, sprinkle a little oil over, wrap entirely into aluminium foil and roast until it’s soft and fragrant. One of the garlic heads fell apart while I was removing the top, but it roasted as well as the others.

So, that’s it. The final fun part is squeezing the soft garlic out of the peel.

You can use roasted garlic in many ways. I promise, I’ll do more recipes with it, because it’s awesome!

I topped the fish sliders with roasted tomatoes. Again – a little oil, salt and pepper. Throw in the oven and forget about it for half an hour. They add sweetness to the sliders. Top with some mint – I used peppermint, but any would do.

I’m usually the one to complain about lack of crunchiness in burgers, but I’m so into this delicate fish, that I actually prefer not biting into anything hard and spoil the enjoyment 🙂 You can add some chopped nuts or seeds, of course.

Let’s go eat!

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SIMPLE FISH SLIDERS WITH ROASTED GARLIC SAUCE

Course Appetizer, Main Course

Keyword burger, burgers, fish burgers

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Servings 8 sliders

Ingredients

ROASTED GARLIC SAUCE

2 heads of garlic
1/2 cup crème fraîche or Greek-style yogurt
1 1/2 TBSP lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
salt by taste
black pepper by taste

ROASTED TOMATOES

120 g cherry tomatoes ~2 cherry tomatoes per slider
2 tsp olive oil
salt by taste
black pepper by taste

FISH

400 g white fish filet cut into 8 square pieces
3 TBSP any flour
1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste

FISH SLIDERS

8 slider buns
fried fish
roasted garlic sauce
roasted tomatoes
handful mint

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200 °C.

Roasted garlic sauce

Peel away the outer skin of the heads of garlic. Trim away about 0.5 cm of the top, so all cloves are exposed. Place the two heads on separate aluminum foils, sprinkle the exposed parts with olive oil, and wrap in the foil entirely. Roast for 30 – 40 minutes until they are golden and soft.

Roasted tomatoes

Cut cherry tomatoes in half, place them on a baking tray. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss around, to coat them entirely with seasoning. Reduce the oven temperature to 190 °C and roast for about 30 minutes, until they are fragrant and have shrunk a little.

Roasted garlic sauce

Squeeze out the soft parts of garlic into a food processor. Add crème fraîche or Greek yogurt, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Blend until the sauce is smooth.

Fish

On a big plate sprinkle the fish with flour, salt, and pepper. Move them around the plate, so they get coated on all sides evenly.
Over medium-high heat fry the fish on a tablespoon of oil, 3-4 minutes each side, depending on the thickness.

Assembly

Cut the buns in half, spread on the sauce, add one fish piece per bun, top with mint leaves, and roasted tomatoes. Serve immediately.

More delicious lunch ideas:

Pizza Stuffed Sweet potatoes

Sardine Pate + Wild Garlic Sandwiches

Turmeric Falafel Wraps

Teriyaki Eggplant With Plum Wine

Peach and Celery Ice Lollies

May 5, 2016

Refreshing fruity peach and celery ice lollies on sticks are always welcome at our house!

Use Your Noodles - Peach and Celery Ice Lollies

I bring you summer… on a stick. It’s not a joke!

I hope, wherever you’re from, you’re having a hot summer weather. It was crazy here over the last ten days. We’ve had all weather imaginable. Snow, sleet, fog, rain, sun, wind… We planned to escape to Sarajevo during the holidays, but it was covered with snow, so we’re saving the trip for warmer times.

It took me about two days to get comfortable with doing nothing and switching to my off mode. But then it was actually kinda nice to lay back, watch some TV and not feel guilty, go walking in the snow and then biking to a nearby mountain the next day, watching the 1st of May bonfire, and squeeze in a little dance practice. It was all good 🙂

Refreshing fruity peach and celery ice lollies on sticks are always welcome at our house!

Now, to the recipe already!

I remember having ice lollies in a long plastic wraps, when we were little. For the first few moments it tasted delicious and sweet, but then after we sucked all the juice out, we were left with a block of flavourless ice. How dissapointing! That’s not the case with this lolly – all flavour, no tasteless icy leftovers.

These peach and celery ice lollies are so easy to make and it’s a nice way to get yourself or the kids to eats more fruit. Cuz, who doesn’t like an icy treat, am I right?

The idea for this recipe actually came from my husband. He said, why not pair a fruit with some unexpected greens, like celery. So we did, and boy was he right. It tastes amazing! I’m not exaggerating. This combo works so well.

Give it a try!

All that’s required is to blend all the ingredients and pass the mixture thorugh a sieve, to give it the silky texture. Wait a few hours until the lollies set and you got yourself a fruity refreshment 🙂

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PEACH AND CELERY ICE LOLLIES

Course Dessert

Keyword ice cream, ice pops, peach ice cream

Prep Time 5 minutes

Freezing time 6 hours

Total Time 6 hours 5 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

3 ripe peaches
25 g celery stalk chopped
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup water

Instructions

Add all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth.
Pass the mixture through a sieve. Discard solids.
Fill the molds up to 5mm from the edge.
Freeze for at least 6 hours.

Notes

The number of lollies depends on the size of the molds, this recipe yields 1 + 1/2 cups of silky lolly mixture.

Also try these refreshing fruity recipes:

Spring Strawberry Layer Cake

Grapefruit-Lime Rosemary and Ginger Cocktail

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Ingredients

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Instructions

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Ingredients

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Pumpkin Soup with Balsamic Glazed Onions

Ingredients

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Balsamic glased onions:

Other topping options:

Instructions

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Decorating:

RED CURRANT, ORANGE & MINT MOJITO

Ingredients

MOJITOS

GARNISH

Instructions

Notes

SIMPLE FISH SLIDERS WITH ROASTED GARLIC SAUCE

Ingredients

ROASTED GARLIC SAUCE

ROASTED TOMATOES

FISH

FISH SLIDERS

Instructions

Roasted garlic sauce

Roasted tomatoes