gluten free Archives - Page 3 of 4

Simple Birthday Chocolate Hazelnut Pavlova

November 15, 2016

Beautiful layers of crispy and chewy meringue, decadent chocolate ganache and fluffy whipped hazelnut cream are what make this delicious chocolate hazelnut pavlova cake worth celebrating this blog’s first birthday.

Beautiful layers of crispy and chewy meringue, decadent chocolate ganache and fluffy hazelnut whipped cream are what make this delicious chocolate hazelnut pavlova cake worth celebrating this blog's first birthday.

I can’t believe it’s been a year already 😀

You heard me… this blog is still a baby, but deserves a special cake with something sparkling on top! Nothing healthy at all in this recipe, only pure indulgence. Okay, I might be exagerating, this cake is actually not nearly as sweet as cakes can be, it’s just fluffly and crunchy and chocolatty and nutty all at the same time. What can be better?

Before showing you the recipe, there are some words I need to say about my first year of blogging. It’s been fantastic. It started as my own personal cookbook, but it soon turned out, I love doing it, bringing you new delicious recipes every week. Well, almost every week, I’ve had some ups and downs 🙂 Meeting lots of new friends who share the passion for food and photography was absolute fun and hopefully more are coming my way 🙂

Thanks to everyone supporting me, trying my recipes, sharing love and being the most incredible community. I love y’all 🙂

The second aspect of this blog in my oppinion is the photography. It’s my way of relaxing and connecting with the food I prepare. Can be stressful from time to time, but the results are what makes it all worth it.

If you check my earlier recipes the photos are not that great. But as soon as I started blogging I realised good photos are a must, not just for all of you, but also for my own good feeling. So I made sure to improve and I still am. I’ve always been a very visual person and tried my work to look the best it can at agiven time. I believe practicing and taking some lessons and sometimes being hard on myself have really helped my food photography.

Well, I know you’re waiting for me to tell you something about this charming chocolate hazelnut pavlova and stop babbling about the sentimental crap 😛

I think the first birthday celebration needs a special cake, something I don’t make on a regular basis. In fact I’ve never made pavlova before, but always wanted to try. So there it was, the perfect opportunity. I’ve had some extra eggwhites in the fridge from making a traditional Slovenian dish called ‘mlinci’ and a full pantry of hazelnuts and crispy chocolade balls.

First attempt in making the meringue was a total disaster. It looked great when I turned off the oven, but I forgot to carefully read the recipe, which happens to me way too often. You’re supposed to leave the meringue in the oven to cool down, not take it out like a sponge cake. Ups, what a failure, the meringue totally collased and despite being delicious it wasn’t very flattering. So I did it again and succeded 🙂

Don’t be affraid of making meringue, like I was for a long time. It is very easy to make. However, if you’re awful at following direction I suggest you keep it together this one time, because every little small detail matters. There are some recomendations and warning in the notes below the recipe. Please, read it before baking, you don’t want a collapsed soggy pavlova 😉

I’m stopping the babble now. Over and out!

Beautiful layers of crispy and chewy meringue, decadent chocolate ganache and fluffy whipped hazelnut cream are what make this delicious chocolate hazelnut pavlova cake worth celebrating this blog's first birthday.

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LAYERED CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT PAVLOVA

Course Dessert

Keyword chocolate cake, chocolate pavlova, pavlova

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Cooling time 5 hours

Total Time 6 hours 55 minutes

Servings 8 pieces of 18 cm cake

Ingredients

CHOCOLATE MERNIGUE

6 eggwhites room temperature
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
2 tsp cornstarch
2 TBSP cocoa powder

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

100 g semi-sweet or dark chocolate
200 ml whipping cream
pinch of salt

WHIPPED HAZELNUT CREAM

1/2 l whipping cream chilled
3 TBSP hazelnut paste can easily be made at home by mixing hazelnuts in a food processor until you get a smooth paste

TOPPINGS

50 g hazelnuts chopped
crispy chocolate balls or any other decoration
whole hazelnuts

Instructions

Chocolate meringue

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Draw two 18cm circles on a baking paper and place it on a baking tray.
Beat egg whites and a pinch of salt until stiff but not dry. Then add the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time. At the end add the lemon juice or vinegar and cornstarch. Beat gently until thick and glossy.
Add cocoa powder and fold it in gently, keeping some streaks of dark brown.
Spread the meringue evenly into the two circles.
Move into the oven and reduce the temperature to 120°C. Bake for about 90 minutes. It should look crisp on top and feel dry, but when you press it you should feel soft in the center.
Turn the oven off, open the door slightly, and leave in the oven to cool overnight.

Chocolate Ganache

Heat the whipping cream over medium heat until it starts forming small bubbles on the side, but doesn't boil. Remove from heat and add chocolate and a pinch of salt. Whisk until you get a smooth cream. Let cool at room temperature, then keep in the fridge before assembling the cake.

Whipped Hazelnut Cream

Whip the cream until it's almost stiff, but not buttery, then add the hazelnut paste and gently whip just a little more.

Assembly

Place one meringue on a cake stand, gently add half of the ganache on top, add half of the whipped hazelnut cream, and half of the chopped hazelnuts.
Continue with another layer of meringue, ganache (save a couple of tablespoons for decoration), whipped cream, and chopped hazelnuts.
Place whole hazelnuts, crispy chocolate balls and drizzle with the rest of the ganache.
Refrigerate before serving.

Notes

Some instructions for the perfect meringue:
Make sure your equipment is dry before making the meringue. Moisture stops eggwhite from aerating.
Make pavlova on a dry day. Moisture makes pavlova sticky.
Adding lemon juice and cornstarch will help pavlova keep its form.
Add sugar gradually to the eggwhites and be sure to beat the egg whites to the stiff point, but don’t overbeat them, just until the sugar has dissolved. Test if the sugar has dissolved by rubbing a little of the mixture between your fingers. You shouldn’t feel any grains. When you transfer it to the baking paper the mixture should hold its shape.
After baking keep in in the oven with dors ajar until it completely cools down to room temperature.
It’s better to overdry than under dry your meringue. If you are not sure if it is done, better dry it a little more. Soggy meringue is unusable, but a little bit too dry is not such a problem. Assemble the cake and after a day in the fridge, it will become crunchy.

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.

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!

No-Churn Melon Sorbet with Basil

August 11, 2016

No icecream machine, no problem! This super easy two ingredient melon sorbet needs no icecream machine, but is creamy and delicious anyway.

Super creamy and rich melon sorbet spiced with just a hint of basil.

I can’t believe something so good can come out of freezing a simple fruit like melon. Yup, that’s right, I just described the entire recipe.

But, really it is that simple.

I was never a big fruit person. I mean, I loved the taste, but somehow I wasn’t very fond of biting into them.

Still am a little picky when it comes to that. Much less, but still…

Blending fruit into awesome new foods was a great alternative. One of the first memories of blended fruit dessert is a strawberry and cream blended drink. Which was super delicious and creamy. You should totally try that sometimes, if you haven’t already 🙂

Freezing a blended fruit is the next stage of deliciousness 🙂

And most of all, you don’t really need all that much. Mostly just fruit, some water, if the fruit doesn’t have high water content, maybe some sweetener and that’s it.

Why I love this melon sorbet?

Because it’s made only with melon and basil. Melon is made mostly of water and you don’t need to add extra. If the melon is ripe enough it is so sweet, that it doesn’t require any extra sweetening.

And since I’m greatly obsessed with herbs, I just had to add some. Basil is the right way to go. Works so well and adds more summery flavors! 🙂

Oh, how cool does it look when you serve it in a melon shell. Awesome for a garden party 🙂 You can freeze it in a shell directly if you are serving it immediately or transfer in to the shell right before showing it to your guests.

I’m getting hungry! Are you?

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NO-CHURN MELON SORBET WITH BASIL

Course Dessert

Keyword ice cream

Prep Time 10 minutes

Freezing time 6 hours

Total Time 6 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 ripe melon of any kind, spooned out into chunks, frozen for 1-2 hours
20-30 fresh basil leaves

Instructions

Place the frozen melon chunks and fresh basil into a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Keep beating until you get a smooth and creamy consistency.
Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until firm, for about 3-4 hours.

Notes

If you have an ice cream maker, prepare the mixture without pre-freezing the melon. Cool it in the fridge for an hour and make it as per instructions.

Lemony Tomato Gazpacho

July 13, 2016

This easy lemony tomato gazpacho recipe will save the hot days, when you don’t feel like cooking.

Use Your Noodles - Lemony Tomato Gazpacho

I love watching my tomatoes grow. It’s an obsession.

Some people go for a morning walk in the forest, I take a stroll in the garden to check what’s grown overnight.

So now I’m anxiously waiting for my tomatoes to ripen and then I can eat them like apples. That’s my favorite way!

I even have a photo from when I was little, sitting in the garden and eating a whole tomato. Good times 🙂

This easy lemony tomato gazpacho recipe will save the hot days, when you don't feel like cooking.

A while ago I attended an awesome workshop organized by the culinary & lifestyle magazine Radegunda and guess what… all the dishes we were making were based on tomatoes.

Which means I was in heaven 🙂

We were making all kinds of stuff… and eating them, which was the best part, for sure!

Inspired by the workshop and the anticipation of homegrown tomatoes I created this simple 5-minute tomato gazpacho.

Head on to the fridge or the garden, whatever’s closer, and get some fresh vegetables. Chop them up, blend for a minute or two and you’ll get the most refreshing lunch you’ll have this summer.

Best part of this recipe is the lemon zest. It makes all the difference. Don’t skip on it, but be sure to buy organic lemons.

Hungry yet?

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LEMONY TOMATO GAZPACHO

Course Appetizer, Soup

Keyword fresh soup, gazpacho, tomato gazpacho

Total Time 5 minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

8 tomatoes
1 cucumber peel if you are looking for nice red color
1 red or yellow pepper seeds and stem removed
1 medium-sized onion peeled
3 cloves garlic peeled
1 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
black pepper
salt

Instructions

Chop the vegetables into chunks.
In a blender, mix together all ingredients, until you get a smooth soup.
Pour into cups or bowl and serve cold.

Notes

Keep the vegetables in the fridge for a couple of hours before making the soup.

Also try this refreshing summer treats:

Minty Watermelon Slushie Drink

Roasted Peach and Strawberry Fizz

Peach and Celery Ice Lolly

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

Roasted Peach and Strawberry Fizz

May 20, 2016

Delightful spring mocktail – roasted peach and strawberry fizz!

Yey, so excited about this recipe!!!

This drink to me is like pie. You know the feeling, when you take out a pie and all the syrupy juices are sizzling around the fruit? And the smell… so good 🙂 This is like a pie in a glass 🙂

And I love it!

Delightful spring mocktail - roasted peach and strawberry fizz!

This roasted peach and strawberry fizz is soooo simple. Sometimes, I can’t belive, how many great thing you can do, with so little. This is definitely one of them! 🙂

All you’ll need to do is cut peaches and strawberries in half, roast them and blend them. Then add a little apple juice, preferably homemade or organic, and some sprakling water. And there it is.

A perfect spring drink!

While we’re on the spring subject. Spring has been awfull this year in Slovenia. Ugh, my tomato, pepper and chilli plants are barely holding on in thir tiny cups, just waiting to be planted outside.

But its so COLD. I mean, I make drinks like this, just to feel like it’s spring. It’s a crime!

But good news… Today it is sunny and we’re having a big picnic party for my brother’s and friend’s 30th birthday.

Lots of people, lots of good food, beer, friends. That’s what I call spring. Hopefuly, the weather will hold and let us have the party we deserve 🙂

Now, go on… try the the recipe 🙂

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ROASTED PEACH AND STRAWBERRY FIZZ

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Cooling time 10 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

3 peaches
600 g strawberries
1 1/2 cup apple juice
1 1/2 sparkling water
abundance of crushed ice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175 °C.
Cut peaches in half and remove the pit. Cut strawberries in half. Place the fruit on a baking tray lined with baking paper and roast for 25 minutes.
Take the tray out and leave to cool for 10 minutes or more.
Remove the skins from peaches and blend the flesh together with apple juice in a blender to get a smooth pureé.
Blend the strawberries separately.
Divide the strawberry pureé into 6 glasses and add ice. Pour the peach and apple juice mixture over ice and add sparkling water.
Serve immediately.

Also try this refreshing drink:

Grapefruit-Lime Cocktail with Ginger and Rosemary

Pizza Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

April 20, 2016

These sweet potatoes are filled with a cheezy pizza stuffing. A perfect way to make pizza without the crust!

Use Your Noodles - Pizza Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Pizza is one of my favorite foods. I can eat it in any form, regular crust, cauliflower crust, loaded with cheese or only with a deliciously simple tomato sauce. You name it, I eat it!

Sweet potatoes go into same category. I can eat it whenever, breakfast, lunch, dinner or midnight snack 😉

So this week I’m bringing those two together. In the shape of a decadent pizza stuffed sweet potatoes. Are you excited? I sure am!

These sweet potatoes are filled with a cheezy pizza stuffing

We’ve been working hard on our dance show, which will premiere in a month. If you are interested in how it looked the previous years, go see Tribal Bizzare site. As you would imagine, we’re spending a lot of time practicing, sewing costumes and making props for the show. It’s an exciting time! Stresfull, but fun at the same time. If you’ve got some interesting hobbies of your own, I’d love to hear about them in the comments 🙂 🙂 🙂

Ok, back to the sweet potatoes! This recipe is a little quicker that the usuall stuffed sweet potatoes. I cut the potatoes in half before baking, which shortenes the baking time and it makes the top of the sweet potato flesh even sweeter. After it is baked I mash the flesh and add A LOT of stuffing, then press it in the potato, so I can add some more on the top. Haha! These here, look almost roud, I pressed so much stuffing in. But that’s ok, right?

Sweet potatoes are basically quilt-free comfort food. All sweet and yummy, but with a low IG and loads of vitamins and minerals.

I love the fact that we can eat the skins. When I was a child, my mum would allways peel the potatoes (note: sweet potatoes were nowhere to be found in Slovenia at that time). We’d only eat the spring potatoes with the skin still on, otherwise it was chopped off! Later I realized that the skins are actually the best part of a potatoes. ♥ It goes the same with sweet potatoes.

And now…drumrolllllllllllll…the recipe –>

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PIZZA STUFFED SWEET POTATOES

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish

Keyword stuffed potatoes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 3 people

Ingredients

1 kg sweet potatoes
100 g champignons or any other mushroom that you like sliced thinly
200 g mozzarella cheese 1 cm cubes
100 g cherry tomatoes deseeded and cut into small pieces
30 g olives sliced thinly
a handful of basil chopped

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
Wash and dry your sweet potatoes. Cut them in half and oil it on both sides with olive oil. Add a little salt and pepper.
Place potato halves cut side down on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake sweet potatoes for 30 minutes, or until they are soft when poked with a fork.
10 minutes before the sweet potatoes are done fry the mushrooms in a pan with a little oil, until they get golden. This will take a couple of minutes.
In a bowl, prepare the stuffing. Mix mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, olives, and basil.
When sweet potatoes are done, take them out of the oven and turn them around.
With a fork, mash the flesh and add seasoning if necessary. Stuff them with cheese mixture and press it down firmly. Add any left mixture on top.
Return to the oven for 5 – 10 minutes, until cheese has melted and got a light golden color.

Grapefruit-Lime Cocktail with Ginger and Rosemary

April 14, 2016

A cold grapefruit-lime cocktail with ginger and rosemary to take you to your favourite beach!

Use Your Noodles - Grapefruit-Lime Coctail with Ginger and Rosemary

Have you ever sat down in a nice cozy chair on a sandy beach somewhere far far away, having a waiter bringing you a cocktail whenever you ran out of the previous one. If your answer is YES – you’ve got my admiration and a bit of jealousy 😉 . I haven’t done that yet, but it is on my THINGS-TO-DO-BEFORE-I-DIE LIST. Until then, I’m making my own coctails, or if I’m feeling extra adventurous, I’ll go out and order a mojito!

This cocktail I’m showing you today is not a mojito, but it also contains white rum. Yum, right?

Well, being a fan of sunny days and cold drinks, it’s kinda hard to watch out of my window. You guessed it right – it’s raining. Blah…

Luckily, I have a whole fridge of these delicious grapefruit-lime coctails in my fridge.

Let me tell you, where the hidden trick is. It’s all in the ginger and rosemery syrup. It’s a syrup that you can prepare in advance and keep in the fridge for a week, so you’ll have it on hand, whenever you feel like having a drink. It’s a pretty simple syrup. You boil the water with ginger and rosemary let steep and add some honey.

I’m not a fan of super sweet cocktails, unless that’s because of the actual sweetness of the fruit. I normally use honey or unrefined cane sugar, because I love how they make everything taste caramely.

Why do I love this recipe so much? Because it is as delicious in a mocktail version as in the one shown in the recipe. Simply omit white rum or replace it with sparkling water and you got yourself an everyday treat!

Are you thirsty already? I sure am! 🙂

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GRAPEFRUIT-LIME COCTAIL WITH GINGER AND ROSEMARY

Course Cocktail, Drinks

Keyword mocktail, pink grapefruit cocktail

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

GINGER AND ROSEMARY SYRUP

a big chunk of ginger ~30g
10 small rosemary stems ~10g
4 TBSP honey

GRAPEFRUIT-LIME COCKTAIL

2 cups freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice
1 cup lime juice
1 cup ginger and rosemary syrup
1/2 – 3/4 cup white rum
abundance of crushed ice

DECORATION

4 stems of rosemary
a slice of pink grapefruit cut in quarters

Instructions

Ginger and rosemary syrup

Cut ginger in thin slices and vigorously roll rosemary between your hands. Place them in a small saucepan and add 1 cup of water. Cover and bring to a boil, then remove from heat and leave to steep for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes add honey.

Grapefruit-Lime Cocktail

Pour grapefruit and lime juices in 4 glasses. Add ice, almost to the top of the glass. Pour over the ginger and rosemary syrup, and white rum.
Decorate with stems of rosemary and slices of grapefruit.

Notes

The recipe for the syrup is for 4 glasses. If you are making a batch, you can multiply it.
Mocktail version: Omit the white rum or replace it with sparkling water.

Spring Strawberry Layer Cake in a Glass

March 25, 2016

This light and fresh strawberry layer cake is a perfect healthy indulgence for the sunny spring days!

First thing that comes to my mind when I think of spring is fresh fruit. Strawberries and cherries to be exact. Red is one of my favourite colours. So passionate and warm. So for this spring dessert the choise was quite obvious – strawberries.

A few weeks ago first slovenian culinary & lifestyle magazine Redegunda asked me to make a reinterpretation of a traditional Slovenian dessert. Now, if you recall me mentioning that Slovenian cuisine is mostly heavy with lots of carbs and fats, you’ll imagine it’s not easy making a light dish. I took traditional Slovenian dessert prekmurska gibanica (which is delicios by the way!) and made it into a lighter fresher and healthier dessert that you can make very quickly with almost no cooking.

Prekmurska gibanica is a layer cake has 4 layers, with phyllo pastry between them:

poppy seed layer
cottage cheese layer
wallnut layes
apple layer

I kept the four layers, but changed the ingredients quite a bit. Instead of cottage cheese I used honey and greek style yoghurt. I replaced wallnuts with hazelnuts and almonds and roasted them to make a crumble. Since it is almost spring I ditched the apples and added some fresh strawberries. That’s it. Soooo simple, but even more delicious 😀 Plus, you can showcase your lovely glassware!

Now let’s enjoy the Easter holidays, get the dishes dirty and have a strawberry layer cake!

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SPRING STRAWBERRY LAYER CAKE IN A GLASS

Course Dessert

Keyword dessert in a glass, layer cake, quick dessert

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 6 desserts

Ingredients

HAZELNUT LAYER

75 g hazelnuts
45 g ground almonds
20 g butter
50 g / 3 TBSP honey
1 tsp dried thyme

POPPY SEED LAYER

145 g ground poppy seeds
100 g / 6 TBSP honey
180 ml milk

STRAWBERRY LAYER

300 g strawberries

YOGHURT LAYER

400 g Greek-style yogurt
65 g / 4 TBSP honey

Instructions

Hazelnut layer

Chop the hazelnuts coarsely. In a skillet fry chopped hazelnuts, ground walnuts, butter, honey, and thyme for a couple of minutes, until they become golden. Stir every 10 seconds. Remove from the heat and stir for another minute, then transfer the mixture to a big plate and lay it out evenly. Wait until it cools down.

Poppyseed layer

Boil milk and pour it over poppy seeds. Add honey and mix well.

Strawberry layer

Cut strawberries into very small pieces of approx. 0,5 cm.

Yogurt layer

Add honey to yogurt and mix well. If you are using crystallized honey, melt it over a saucepan of simmering water.

Assembly

Take six 2 dl glasses and divide half of the poppy seed mixture on the bottom. Continue with half of the strawberries, yogurt, and hazelnuts mixture. Continue with the other half of the mixtures.
Serve immediately or cool in the fridge and serve later.

Teriyaki Eggplant With Plum Wine

March 2, 2016

This scrumptious, flavor-filled teriyaki eggplant is going to wake up your taste buds.

Use Your Noodles - Teriyaki Eggplant With Plum Wine

Teriyaki Eggplant. We are going Japanese today. Well, not exactly. I’m not gonna lie. This recipe is not a super authentic teriyaki recipe. After all the star of the dish is eggplant instead of meat of fish.

But it is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And the next day for breakfast, lunch… I think you get the point 😀

Teriyaki is actually a method of cooking in Japan, but here we know it more as a type of sauce mainly made with soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar. Teriyaki is made by marinating or basted meat or fish wit teriyaki sauce and then grilled, roasted or broiled. This gives the dish a nice shine, which we all like, right?

You could basically use whatever veggie you like. To me eggplant is one of the most meat-like vegetable there is. If you’ve never grilled it outside in the summer, please try it, you won’t regret it.

One of my favourite thing about this recipe is adding plum wine. Aaaah, the smell 🙂 I’m giggling, from the alcohol in the air. No, really, I’ve tried making eggplant with soy sauce and teriyaki sauce, but adding plum wine was a winner for me.

On the more personal note, I’m busy making promo material for the new dance show we’re making with my lovely fellow ladies from Tribal Bizzare Dance Troupe. It’s gonna premiere in May. We had our photoshoot more than two weeks ago and now I finnaly have some time to work on those photos. Happy me.

Now, let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work!

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TERIYAKI EGGPLANT WITH PLUM WINE

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish, Snack

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

2 big eggplants
1 big onion
4 TBSP coconut oil + extra if necessary
3 TBSP sesame oil
3 TBSP plum wine
3 TBSP teriyaki sauce
chopped parsley to taste
chopped chili to taste
salt to taste

Instructions

Chop onion and eggplant into 1 cm cubes.
In a big pan fry onion on the coconut oil until it gets translucent.
Add sesame oil and eggplant. Fry for 5 minutes or until the eggplant is soft. Add extra coconut oil if necessary.
Add teriyaki sauce. Stirring all the time, fry the eggplants for 2-3 minutes until they get a nice golden color.
Add plum wine and cook until the liquid has evaporated. Remove from the stove and add salt if necessary.
Top with chopped parsley and sesame seeds and serve hot with cooked rice.

PRINT THIS TERIYAKI EGGPLANT WITH PLUM WINE RECIPE AND MAKE YOUR PERSONALIZED USE YOUR NOODLES COOKBOOK

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Homemade Tomato Ketchup

February 25, 2016

After you see how easy it is to make tomato ketchup at home, you’ll never want to buy it in the store again. It takes so little time and almost no effort.

Use Your Noodles - Homemade Tomato Ketchup

I used to be a ketchup addict and I mean every word. I could eat it on bread without anything else until my mouth was burning from all the sugar and acid. Then one day I realised that it is actually junk food, so I stopped eating it. But of course, pretty soon I was craving it again, so I decided to make my own using whatever was in my pantry.

There are a lot of different ketchup recipes out there, from the ones that only use garlic and onion, to the ones that use a variety of spices. There are some that use fresh tomatoes, to the ones that use canned and dried tomatoes. This recipe is using lots of spices and tomato purée, because I want ketchup to be done in mintues. When I need my ketchup, I need it immediately! 🙂

For me the key ingredient in homemade tomato ketchup is clove. It adds a deep, sweet aroma. But, you really need to be careful, because too much of it can make your ketchup tarty.

The trick here is to leave the tomato purée uncovered while it is cooking, so it can thicken quickly. And you’ll want to stir it constantly, otherwise you’ll have a messy kitchen and you can get burned.

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HOMEMADE TOMATO KETCHUP

Course Side Dish

Keyword condiment, dip, fish spread

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

700 g tomato purée
2 TBSP lemon juice
1 TBSP balsamic vinegar
2 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg to taste
pinch of black pepper to taste
3-4 TBSP honey

Instructions

Put the tomato purée in a pan and add the rest of the ingredients except honey.
Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat for about 25 minutes or until the ketchup has thickened to about two thirds.
Remove from the heat and leave to cool for about 5 minutes, then add honey and stir well.

Notes

Keep in mind that ketchup will thicken a little when it cools down and it will taste sweeter.

PRINT THIS HOMEMADE TOMATO KETCHUP RECIPE AND MAKE YOUR PERSONALIZED USE YOUR NOODLES COOKBOOK

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Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea

February 18, 2016

The cold weather can sometimes get to us. But not with this immune-boosting turmeric tea with elderlower and some other amazing healthy ingredients.

Use Your Noodles - Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea

We got a little snowy surprise yesterday, so I ran out to shoot my immune-boosting elderflower turmeric tea. I was soaking wet in a matter of minutes, but luckily I had this (already cold) tea right at my hand. 🙂

Let me tell you what’s in this tea. Only good stuff, I promise.

There’s elderflower, one of my favourite kinds of tea. I pick it myself in spring and keep it airtight for whole year. It’s amazing for your immune system and for detoxifying your body. Another great ingredient – thyme. We usually use it in cooking, but it taste amazing in teas. Just be careful not to add too much or your tea might taste like soup. You can excange it for wild thyme, in that case you should double the amount, because it is milder. Thyme is one of the easiest herbs to grow at home, so I suggest you head to a gardening store this spring and get a thyme plant.

This tea gets its colour mostly from turmeric. I used to hate the taste of turmeric, it kind of felt strange and too strong. But as I introduced it little by little it grew on me. Now, I love it! In cooking and in tea making. So turmeric tea in any form is amazing and super beneficial. And if you add some pepper to it, your body can absorb the good stuff much better. Ok, we got to honey. We all know honey is so much better than white sugar, because it contains lots of vitamins and minerals. But, buying just any honey at the supermarket is wasteful. It has probably been heated over 40 °C to remain liquid, but that also means it has lost a lot of its functions. Try to find a local producer that doesn’t heat honey. My favourite is linden honey.

Like all other ingredients in this tea ginger is mindblowingly good for immune system and so much more covering from cancer to weight loss. And here’s our last ingredient – lemon. If you were like me, lemon was the first thing your parents gave when you were ill. And it was for a good reason.

There you have it, my immune-boosting elderflower turmeric tea. Helpful if you are ill, but also a good way to keep your health in check!

Head on to the recipe and let me know what kind of tea do you like to drink to boost your immunity system in the comment section.

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IMMUNE-BOOSTING ELDERFLOWER TURMERIC TEA

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Servings 2 servings

Ingredients

2 cups boiling water
2 cups room temperature water
2 heap tsp dried elderflower
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp honey
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground ginger
pinch of black pepper
1 TBSP lemon juice

Instructions

Put dried elderflower and thyme in a tea infuser and steep it in boiling water for 5 minutes. Keep it covered.
Remove the infuser and add room temperature water, honey, turmeric, ginger, black pepper, and lemon juice. Stir well and pour into cups.

PRINT THIS IMMUNE-BOOSTING ELDERFLOWER TURMERIC TEA RECIPE AND MAKE YOUR PERSONALIZED USE YOUR NOODLES COOKBOOK

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Tag Archive for: gluten free

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Instructions

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PIZZA STUFFED SWEET POTATOES

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GRAPEFRUIT-LIME COCTAIL WITH GINGER AND ROSEMARY

Ingredients

GINGER AND ROSEMARY SYRUP

GRAPEFRUIT-LIME COCKTAIL

DECORATION

Instructions

Ginger and rosemary syrup

Grapefruit-Lime Cocktail

Notes

SPRING STRAWBERRY LAYER CAKE IN A GLASS

Ingredients

HAZELNUT LAYER

POPPY SEED LAYER

STRAWBERRY LAYER

YOGHURT LAYER

Instructions

Hazelnut layer

Poppyseed layer

Strawberry layer

Yogurt layer

Assembly

TERIYAKI EGGPLANT WITH PLUM WINE

Ingredients