Day Seven: Pizza Polenta with Spinach and Peas

On the final day of my No Cost Food Week I wanted to use up a polenta package that I had open, to make the easiest of my polenta recipes. I didn’t use to like polenta at all, actually. But after moving to Germany I decided to give it another try - and I loved it! Best of all: the kids did as well.

This dish is yet another alternative to pizza, and even simpler and quicker than Flammkuchen. And very, very tasty! As toppings I used spinach and green peas that had been lying on the bottom of my freezer for ages. Just like with the Shepherd’s pie recipe, this first time combination of ingredients (thank you No Cost Week!) beats the one I would normally make, by far. Normally I would use garlicky mushrooms, but spinach really gives the Pizza polenta a fresh taste!

For four portions you need:

• 250g polenta


• 100g frozen spinach


• a handful of frozen peas


• ¼ onion, cut in thin rings


• 1 mozzarella (125g - or more if you have!)


• any grated cheese available - I used Parmesan


• salt and pepper to taste


• 2 Tbsp olive oil

Boil 1 liter of water in a pan. Add 1 tsp salt and 2 Tbsp olive, then add the polenta and whisk. Turn the heat down and let simmer a couple of minutes. Pour polenta on an oven tray covered with a parchment paper and spread it out about 1cm thick using a spatula. Place spinach, peas, and onion rings evenly on top of polenta, then the mozzarella cut in slices and finally grated (Parmesan) cheese, salt, and pepper.

Bake in a preheated oven (200 C) until the cheese melts and starts to get brown. Serve piping hot with some salad - if you've got any left. I didn’t :)

Day Six: Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

On the sixth day of No Cost Food Week I had run out of milk and all-purpose flour. I don’t need any milk myself, but the kids do. And I don’t need all-purpose flour either - but my sourdough would die without it! So I decided to cheat a bit and buy these two things.

For lunch we had leftovers from Pasta 007. For dinner I didn’t have much choice anymore: I had lentils (brown, black, and red), a couple of carrots and onions, a bit of Savoy cabbage, one butternut squash, a bit of celeriac, potatoes, a bit of butter, frozen peas and spinach, a bit of cheese, and that’s about it.

I decided to cook a vegetarian shepherd’s pie. Normally I’d use a variety of veggies and mushrooms, but now I had no choice. I used half of the butternut squash, one onion, the rest of the cabbage, and red lentils. Surprisingly enough, this combination was much tastier than the one I normally do!

This is what you need for 4 portions:

• 1 onion


• ½ butternut squash (large-ish)


• 200g Savoy cabbage (even more if you’ve got :) )


• 100g red lentils


• 2-3 garlic cloves


• 2 Tbsp olive oil


• 800g potatoes


• 30g butter (optional)


• salt and pepper to taste

First, peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes. Boil them in salted water until tender, or about 15-20 minutes.

In the meantime, chop the onion, crush the garlic cloves, peel the squash and cut it into cubes, and wash and drain the lentils. Heat oil in a large pan. Sauté the onions until they are translucent , then add garlic and cabbage and sauté five more minutes. Then add squash, lentils, water, and salt and pepper, and let simmer over a low heat until the vegetables are tender.

Now return to the potatoes: leave enough water to mash the potatoes (or use milk instead: I didn’t have any to spare at this point..!). Add the butter (if using) and stir until it melts.

Place the veggies-lentil-mixture on the bottom of an oven pan (a Pyrex or a lasagne form is perfect). Top with mashed potatoes and cook in a preheated oven (200 C) until golden brown spots start to appear on the surface.

If I’d have to choose one dish so far from the ones I’ve cooked this week, this would probably be it! Oh wait, it would be the meat stew. But you get the point: it’s delicious!

Day Five: Black on Black, or Pasta 007

One of my core culinary problems in the coming days (or even months) will how to use up my stash of Beluga lentils, almost 1,5 kg in total. When doing the inventory, I found one bag in each cupboard. No idea how and why they ended up there - I why I haven’t used them before!

My son has decided he’s going to be a secret agent. One of the most important features of a secret agent is that they only wear black. Fine, I said. But how about they also only EAT black?

In this pasta dish I used black tagliatelle I had bought in October and meant to use at Halloween - but somehow forgot about the whole thing. For the sauce I managed to use 250g of my black lentil stash, so I’ve only got 1,2kg left. But seriously, this really tasted great, so I’ll definitely be doing this dish even when I won’t “have to”!

For 5-6 big portions you need:

• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped


• 1 medium-sized carrot, grated


• 3 garlic cloves, crushed


• 4 Tbsp olive oil


• 250g Beluga lentils, washed thoroughly and drained


• 30g tomato paste


• water or vegetable broth


• salt and pepper to taste


• a couple of drops of Liquid Smoke, if available


• 500g (black) tagliatelle


• Parmesan cheese (optional) and any herbs of your liking, to serve

Heat the oil in a large pan. Sauté the onions until they get translucent, then add carrot and onion, and sauté 2 minutes more. Then add lentils, water or broth to cover them, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and liquid smoke. Bring to the boil and let simmer over a low heat until the lentils are tender-ish (but note that black lentils don’t really get as soft as the other other lentil types, no matter how long you cook them), or about 35 minutes.

Serve with cooked (black) tagliatelle topped with grated Parmesan (if using) and some chopped herbs!

Day Four: Grand-Uncle's Meat Stew

Today was day four of my no-grocery-shopping week. It was especially easy to avoid grocery shopping - everything is closed on Sundays here in Germany! For lunch we had some Karelian pasties that I had made the day before - an excellent way to use any leftover mashed potatoes or rice porridge!

It is time for a confession: I admire, no, I envy those that are vegetarian because they don’t like meat. I’ve worked very hard for the last years trying to convince myself not to eat meat. I’d like to be able to say I’m 100% vegetarian. But I can’t. I crave meat! Especially when I’m cooking meat for the kids (about every 2 or 3 weeks). So I’ve told myself that I’m allowed to eat meat as well, provided it comes from animals I personally know (or knew, I should say). And as long as it’s not more than once a month.

Today was that once in a month. I cooked meat for dinner. And it was delicious!

When you eat meat rarely, it better be a perfect dish! This particular dish is one of the most delicious and one of the easiest dishes ever invented. The recipe comes from my grand-uncle, who was a great man - and a great cook. (By the way, today he’d be celebrating my grandmother's birthday, if they’d still be alive. A very suitable day indeed for writing about this recipe.)

Only four ingredients are needed: meat, swede, salt, and water. And a little magic. Or how else would one explain the most extraordinary transformation that takes place during the four-hour cooking of this dish? The chewy meat becomes tender, the slightly bitter swede develops a heavenly sweet taste, and the ensemble tastes much better than the simple combination of the ingredients.

For about 6 people you need:

• 1 kg beef, cut into cubes (here in Germany that kind of meat is called Gulasch)


• 600g swede, cut into cubes of the same size as the beef


• 2 tsp salt, or to taste


• water

Place beef and swede cubes into an oven pot in layers: first beef, then swede, then beef again. Sprinkle salt between the layers and on top. Pour cold water in the pan so that it just covers everything. Cover with the lid.

Cook in a preheated oven (200 C) about one hour or so, then reduce the temperature to 150 C and let cook for three hours more or so. Once in a while, it’s good to check that there’s enough water.

Serve with mashed potatoes or cooked rice.

Day Three: Flammkuchen, or Pizza the Alsatian Way

Once upon a time there was an Alsatian who wanted to bake pizza. Unfortunately, he had run out of most of the basic ingredients: he didn’t have tomatoes, he didn’t have yeast, nor cheese. But he insisted on baking pizza anyway - and invented Flammkuchen - or tarte flambée! Good for me, because I’ve run out of tomatoes and yeast as well, and the rest of our cheese is already earmarked for something else ;)

Flammkuchen is a pizza-like bread topped typically with sour cream, ham, and onions. In my veggie version, I used smoked tofu, chopped carrots and red pepper, corn, and onions. It was a good combination, but I’m so going to try with fresh tomatoes and rucola once this no grocery shopping week is over..!

Flammkuchen exists in sweet version as well. On top of my sweet Flammkuchen I spread sour cream, sour cherry jam, some sugar, and almond flakes. I was very pleased with myself for having thought of a use for my delicious cherry jam - that for some reason no-one eats! - and for the almond flakes that were left over from Christmas baking. And it tasted great as well! The traditional sweet topping would be apples, sugar, and cinnamon, and I’m planning to give that a try later, too.

One big Flammkuchen is enough for two eaters - especially if the dessert is half of a sweet Flammkuchen :)

For two big Flammkuchen you need:

• 300g flour


• 4g salt


• 2 Tbsp oil


• 125-150ml water (a bit more if you use plain flour, a bit less if not)

Salty topping:

• 150g sour cream


• 2 Tbsp water


• salt and pepper to taste


• any veggies of your liking


• smoked tofu, cut in small cubes


• onions, cut in thin rings

Sweet topping:

• 150g sour cream


• 2 Tbsp water


• 2-3 Tbsp sugar


• 150g sour cherry jam (or other jam you’d like to get rid of :) )


• a handful of almond flakes

First set your oven to 225 Celsius. Then prepare the dough: in a bowl, combine flour and salt, then add water and oil and work until it’s easy to form a ball out of the dough. Take half of the dough and roll it out on a floured work surface. Place the Flammkuchen on an oven pan covered with a parchment paper.

For the filling, combine sour cream and water (and salt and pepper for the salty version) in a bowl. Spread the mixture on the Flammkuchen. Then add the other ingredients you’ve chosen for the topping.

Bake in the oven until the edges start to get colour, or about 15 minutes. Flammkuchen is supposed to be really, really crispy, so don't underbake it!

This was a very practical dish: while we were eating the salty Flammkuchen, the sweet one was in the oven - and it was ready just in time for dessert! A Güeter!

P.S. I have no idea how this dish REALLY was invented :D

Day Two: Borsch Soup

Today was the second day of my No-Cost Food Challenge and I realized I’m going to have to buy onions tomorrow. I’ve got only two left, and I don’t see any sense in trying to cook without onions. So I thought of an additional rule: in order to save another ingredient from ending up in the garbage, I'm allowed to buy just a bit of something. But today, I still managed with no grocery shopping at all.

For lunch I had some rests from yesterday - falafel, hummus, and a bit of rice. For dinner I decided to cook borsch soup, one of my all-time favourite dishes. I had an opened can of sour cream that had to be used, and the beetroots that had been lying in my fridge for three weeks were not getting any fresher either.

I used to cook borsch with my parents’ old recipe, but now I needed to change two things. First of all, I wanted it all-vegetarian. Second, I wanted it a bit more filling, so I added potatoes; in my parents’ recipe there was just cabbage, carrot, beetroot, and onion - no potatoes. And especially no canned beetroots nor sausages - the barbaric habit of some people to add any of those two ingredients was our conversation topic number one at many an occasion :)

For 2-3 portions you need:

• 1 medium-sized onion


• 2 carrots


• 2 beetroots


• about 300g cabbage


• 2 potatoes


• 1-2 garlic cloves


• vegetable broth


• 3 Tbsp tomato paste


• 3 Tbsp olive oil


• salt and black pepper to taste


• sour cream to serve

Chop the onion and crush the garlic. Heat the oil in a large pan and sauté the onions and garlic. Then add carrots, potatoes, and beetroot, cut in thin sticks, and chopped cabbage. (I used Savoy cabbage, and it worked just fine, although the colour didn’t turn out perfect.) Add broth to cover the vegetables, then add tomato paste, salt, and pepper. Let simmer over a low heat until all vegetables are tender, or about 30 minutes.

Serve as a starter or a light main dish with a generous dollop of sour cream and a slice of rye bread. Borsch tastes even better the next day - too bad we ate our way through all of it in one go!

Day One: Falafel

Yesterday was the first day of my No-Cost Food Challenge. I served leftover pasta for lunch, and for dinner I opted for homemade falafel - for two reasons: my fresh coriander needed to be used or it would have ended in the garbage. Second, I had found what seemed a perfect recipe, from my newest cookbook called Jerusalem.

And the recipe really is perfect. I just had to re-read it a couple of times to make sure I’d understood it correctly: and yes, falafel are made out of soaked but uncooked chickpeas. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge as I don’t have a proper grinder to grind the chickpeas, so I had to manage with my Bamix hand blender. But it wasn’t impossible. And as a result I got the best falafel I’ve ever eaten: delicious and oh so crunchy! I changed the spices a bit to correspond to my taste. Feel free to add some cayenne pepper and cardamom as the original recipe suggests.

For about 30 falafel you need:

• 250g dried chickpeas, soaked 8-12 hours


• 1 smallish onion


• 1-2 garlic cloves


• a handful of chopped herbs - I used coriander and mint, parsley would work as well


• 1 tsp ground cumin


• ½ tsp ground coriander


• 1 tsp salt


• ½ tsp baking powder


• 1 ½ Tbsp plain flour


• 3 Tbsp water


• about 750 ml frying oil


• 2 Tbsp sesame seeds for coating

Drain chickpeas and combine them with chopped onion, crushed garlic, and chopped herbs. Now comes the tricky part: all of this should be turned into a paste, not too coarse, nor too mushy. It should be easier with a meat grinder, but I haven’t got one. So what I did was to take small amounts of chickpeas and pulse them with my hand mixer - the result wasn’t perfect, but it worked. Then it’s time to add spices - cumin, coriander, and salt, baking powder, flour, and water. Work the paste with your hands until everything is well combined.

Let the paste stand for at least one hour in the fridge before using it.

Heat the oil in a pan - the temperature should be about 180 C. I don’t have a kitchen thermometer either, so I use a trick I learned from my mother-in-law instead: I cut a raw potato wedge and test the temperature with it. If it starts kind of bubbling but not too much, the oil has the right temperature. (And if it starts browning immediately it’s too hot! This never happened to me, though, ‘cause I’m so so scared of burning the oil ;) )

Wet your hands and form small balls out of the batter. Coat them with some sesame seeds and fry 6-7 falafel at a time until they are golden brown - this takes about 4-6 minutes. Drain your falafel in a colander to get the extra oil out.

To avoid food waste, fry only the amount of falafel you’re going to serve at one meal. Falafel doesn’t taste that good the day after. The rest of the batter can be used next day, or even frozen and used within a month or so.

I served my falafel with cooked rice, potato mash for the kids, hummus, and avocado-cucumber-mint salad.

From Low-Cost to No-Cost

During the last two weeks or so, I’ve been testing low-cost recipes mostly out of different winter vegetables. Using seasonal veggies really had an effect on my budget - I managed my grocery shopping with about half the money I’d normally use.

But now I’m taking the challenge even further. I’m going to cook no-cost food in the next few days. That means, I’m not going to spend a single cent in grocery shopping in a week or so - or, at least I’ll try. Here is  why and how.

Why? Well, this year seems to be the European Year Against Food Waste. Up to 50% of food produced in Europe ends up in the garbage. No matter how you look at this, it’s not good. And I’m afraid I’m not an exception. I do end up throwing A LOT of things in the garbage. But now I’m determined to change that.

How? The rule number one against food waste is to use up what you have before buying anything new. So, as of today, I’ll try to use all the stuff I have in my cupboards, in my fridge, and in my freezer, until I’ve used it all up.

Here’s a list of ingredients I currently have at home:

• bulgur,


• polenta,


• rice,


• black pasta,


• black lentils,


• brown lentils,


• red lentils,


• chick peas,


• potatoes,


• onions,


• garlic,


• carrots,


• sauerkraut (ok, I don’t have any more - instead, I have a bag full of dark, bad-smelling stuff - into the garbage it goes!),


• butternut squash,


• Savoy cabbage,


• swede,


• celeriac,


• beetroot,


• half of a red pepper,


• one weird black round small veggie (I have no idea what it is!),


• frozen peas,


• frozen spinach,


• frozen blueberries and strawberries,


• milk,


• cheese,


• blue cheese,


• yogurt,


• smetana,


• apples,


• bananas,


• oranges,


• mandarins,


• cucumber,


• avocado,


• fresh mint and coriander,


• frozen minced meat and meat cubes (for the kids),


• eggs,


• tofu,


• flour,


• and that’s about it.

And then obviously spices, oils, and so on. I’d say that, with this amount of food I don’t need to go grocery shopping in at least a week or so. Besides it’s going to be fun thinking of what to cook out of those things - my own one-woman Ready Steady Cook..!

Curious to find out what I’ll come up with? Or, even better, any good recipe suggestions to turn all of that stuff into something delicious? :)

P.S. Cleaned my fridge today, and all of these sad-looking jars are going to garbage..

Pelmeni Filled with Potatoes and Porcini Mushrooms

Poor old Silvio. First he insults the Finnish food, then some Finns, as a revenge, go and win the America’s Plate Pizza Contest in 2008 with their Pizza Berlusconi (read the whole story here). And as if that wasn’t enough, it turns out that tortellini, yet another Italian national pride, were not invented by Italians, but somewhere far, far away in Russia by the Komi people - whose cuisine most likely wouldn’t please the delicate taste buds of dear old uncle Silvio either. It’s the finno-ugric Komi language that gave the name for these small dumplings - they call them pel’nyan, or "ear bread/dough".

Pelmeni are are traditionally filled with meat, but I’d say these veggie pelmeni would beat any meat version. They are filled with potatoes and porcini mushrooms - but a very low-budget amount. Only 15g are needed :)

Normally I have no idea how long exactly it takes to cook a specific dish. With pelmeni I do. To make this portion of about 60 pelmeni, it takes exactly one Total Balalaika Show. If you’re able to resist a primitive urge to grab the nearest vodka bottle and to start dancing hopak instead of making pelmeni, that is.

For about 60 pelmeni you need:

For the dough:

• 300g all-purpose flour


• 50g rye flour


• 125ml water


• 4g salt


• 1 egg

For the filling:

• 340g potatoes, peeled and cubed


• 1 medium-sized onion


• 2 Tbsp oil and 20g butter for frying


• 15g porcini mushrooms


• 250ml hot water


• salt and pepper to taste

 

For cooking:

• about 3 liters vegetable broth

To serve:

• smetana/sour cream


• parsley


• grated (parmesan) cheese


• black pepper


• Russian-style pickled cucumbers

First, make the dough. Measure the flour in a baking bowl, add salt, then water and egg. Work the dough until it feels elastic. Add a bit more water if needed. Then cover and let stand in room temperature until your filling is ready.

For the filling: first boil 250ml water. Place dried mushrooms in a small bowl or a cup and pour the hot water on the mushrooms. Let stand 15 minutes or so. Chop the mushrooms with scissors - and keep the water.

In the meantime, chop the onions and garlic. Heat oil and butter in a large pan, sauté the onions for a few minutes, then add potato cubes and continue frying over a low heat. Stir regularly so that the potatoes don’t stick to the pan. After 10 minutes or so, add garlic, mushrooms, mushroom water, salt (I used a heaped 1 tsp fleur de sel), and pepper. Cover and let boil until the water has been absorbed and the potatoes are tender.

Place the filling in a bowl and let cool until you roll and cut the dough.

Now, take half of the dough and roll it out on a floured working surface as thin as you can. I’m still a novice to pelmeni making and mine were not as thin as they should be - but the pelmenis tasted great even so.

Use a glass (mine had a diameter of 7 cm) to cut out circles out of the dough. Repeat until you’ve used all of the dough. Then place about 1 tsp of filling on each circle. Wet the edges and close the circles so that the result looks like half moons. Press the edges well together with your fingers.

Then it’s time to cook your pelmeni. Bring the vegetable broth to the boil and cook about 10 pelmeni at a time in it. They are ready when they come back to the surface - this takes about 2-4 minutes. Remove pelmeni with a skimmer and place on a plate. Repeat until all pelmeni are cooked.

Place the desired amount of pelmeni on each plate - I’d say about four if you serve them as an appetizer, about ten if it’s a main course. Serve with a dollop of smetana and decorate the whole with chopped parsley, black pepper, grated cheese, a pickle wedge or two, and rye bread. And, obviously, with sto gramm vodka to go with!

Rustic Root Vegetable Stew with Coffee and Brown Lentils

Inspiration for this recipe came from a book called New Vegetarian Kitchen, written by Nicola Graimes. I changed quite a lot of things, though, mostly out of pure laziness, or because some ingredients were not easily available. “Oh, this tastes so rustic!”, was the first comment of my one-man test group. And yes, that would be the best word to describe the taste. You don’t notice the coffee at all, but it gives depth to the taste, so even if you don’t like coffee, I’d suggest you give it a try.

For four portions you need:

• 800g root vegetables (I used carrots, swedes, celeriac, and root parsley - and found that a perfect combination)


• 100g shiitake mushrooms


• 1 medium-sized onion


• 1-2 garlic cloves


• 3 Tbsp olive oil


• 1-2 bay leaves


• a twig of rosemary


• 1 espresso


• 400ml vegetable broth


• 100g cooked brown lentils (or beans)


• salt and pepper to taste

Chop the onion and garlic clove(s). Cut celeriac into thin sticks, the rest of the veggies in equal-sized cubes. If the mushrooms are small, you don’t need to cut them - if they’re bigger, halve or quarter them. Heat the olive oil in a pan (one with a lid, preferably), and sauté the onions for a few minutes. Then add garlic, stir, and add the rest of the veggies and mushrooms. Sauté for a couple of minutes, then add broth, coffee, salt, pepper, bay leaves, and rosemary.

Let cook, covered, over a low heat until all vegetables are tender, or 30-40 minutes. Once in a while, check that there’s enough water - add if needed! In the end, remove bay leaves and rosemary and add the cooked lentils (or beans).

Serve with cooked or mashed potatoes.

Savoy Cabbage Stew with Mushrooms and Sour Cream

Back in the late 70’s when other kids were throwing a tantrum to convince their parents to buy them candy, I’d do the same - but not to get candy. Instead, I wanted smetana and rye bread! The advantage of this craving was that I’d get what I want, so I normally left the supermarket with a can of smetana in one hand, a rye-bread in the other. Happy life!

Smetana, or sour cream still is one of my favourite things. In this recipe, it softens nicely the taste of cabbage. The recipe is for two very hungry people or three reasonably hungry ones. And the costs are next to nothing, especially if you leave the mushrooms out (or pick mushrooms yourself!). I ended up paying 4,20 € for everything (I already had molasses, onion, rice, and oil).

You need:

• 400g savoy cabbage (or white cabbage)


• 100g mushrooms (I used shiitake)


• 1 medium-sized onion


• 100g (soy) sour cream (smetana, schmand)


• 1 Tbsp molasses


• 100ml rice


• 200ml water


• 2 Tbsp oil for frying


• salt to taste (I used one heaped tsp)

First, bring 200ml water to the boil in a small pan. Add rice and cook until tender, or about 10 minutes. In the meantime, chop the onion and sauté it in a large pan over medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add chopped (savoy) cabbage and mushrooms. Continue frying them over low heat until cabbage is tender, or some 20 minutes. Add water if necessary. Now, add salt, molasses, sour cream, and the cooked rice, and stir until well combined.

Place the stew in an oven pan (preferably one that has a lid). Cook in a preheated oven (200 C) with the lid for about 30 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 175 C, remove the lid, and cook until pale golden.

This dish would traditionally be served with Russian-style pickles and lingonberries, but I couldn’t find neither of them. So I served it with dill and fresh cucumbers instead!

Rösti - the Foolproof Recipe

As the title suggests, this originally Swiss dish consisting of potatoes, salt, and butter or goose fat, is not so easy to prepare as one would  think. There is a huge amount of recipes available, and my first attempt to making rösti at home was such a catastrophe that I decided never to try it again.

My mistake that time was to use raw potatoes as that particular recipe suggested. This resulted in a grayish mass that I just wouldn’t get cooked thoroughly. Yuck.

But in my quest for low-budget dishes I thought I’d have to give rösti another try. I did some research on the subject, and tried out a new method, in which unpeeled potatoes are cooked for a few minutes, the let stand for a couple of hours, then peeled and grated - and voilà! This time, my röstis turned out perfect. So here’s a foolproof recipe for the tastiest dish that ever was made out of potatoes:

For 5 portions you need:

• 500g potatoes


• one medium-sized carrot


• salt to taste


• some olive oil or butter for frying


• 5 organic eggs (optional)

Choose potatoes of more or less the same size. Wash them well, place in a pan and cover with water. Add 1 tsp salt and bring to a boil. For medium-sized potatoes, cook for 8 minutes. If your potatoes are small, 6 minutes is enough, if very large, you might want to cook them a bit more. Place the potatoes in cold water and let stand at least until they’ve cooled. If possible, cook the potatoes in the morning and let stand until dinner-time.

Now, peel the potatoes and grate them coarsely. Peel the carrot and grate as well. Combine the grated potato, carrot, and some salt (I used 1/2 tsp). Heat oil or butter in a large pan (I was using 2 pans to be able to fry all 5 röstis at the same time). With wet hands, form 5 flat “cakes” out of the potato mass. Fry over medium to low heat from both sides, until golden brown and cooked form the inside as well. This will take about 10 minutes per side.

Once thoroughly cooked, place röstis on a serving plate. If you want, you can fry 5 eggs and place one fried egg on top of each rösti. This results in a decadently delicious dish…! I had made one rösti per person, but if you’re very hungry (or your guests are), I’d recommend two per person. Serve with a green salad and a beer - natürlich!

Hummus, or When the Chickpea Died and Went to Heaven

I had cooked too much chickpeas for my tagine (see my previous post) and was wondering what to do with them when I saw this recipe for hummus, a delicious spread made of cooked chickpeas, tahini paste, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. The recipe comes from my newest cookbook, called Jerusalem and written by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. A very recommendable book with interesting stories, great pictures - and foolproof recipes, at least so far!

I wanted to make a smaller portion, so the quantities are not exactly the same in the “Jerusalem” version of the recipe.

You need:

• 300g cooked chickpeas


• 150g tahini paste


• 1 big garlic clove or 2 smaller ones


• 2 Tbsp lemon juice


• salt to taste


• about 50ml water (I used the cooking water from the chickpeas)

Place all ingredients apart from water in a food processor bowl. Pulse until smooth, and then add enough water to form a creamy paste. Place your hummus in a serving bowl and cover. Let stand in room temperature about 30 minutes before serving. If anything is left over, store in the fridge.

I decorated my hummus with black olives, slices of red pepper, lemon, and some parsley, and served it with fresh white bread as a starter. Yum!

P.S. In my opinion, hummus is at its best the day you make it!

Winter Vegetable Tagine with Chickpeas and Apricots

I’m not a big fan of very spicy foods, yet I love dishes full of flavour - and so I fell in love with tagine at the first mouthful. The name of this dish comes from those cone-shaped earthenware pots in which tagine usually is cooked. I don’t have one, so I use a large pan instead.

In this recipe, I used winter vegetables that are both very rich in taste and low-budget at this time of the year. Try to use vegetables that require the same amount of time for cooking, or add the quick-cooking veggies later (especially if using sweet potatoes like I did).

I cooked more chickpeas than needed for this recipe, and ended up using the rest for making hummus (recipe will follow in my next post!). For a faster version, you can use canned chickpeas.

For 4-5 portions you need:

• 900g winter vegetables (I used swede, potato, sweet potato, carrot, celeriac, and butternut squash)
• 1 large onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 Tbsp olive oil for frying
• 2 tsp ras-el-hanout
• ⅓ tsp chili flakes (feel free to use more if you like it spicier)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 200g canned tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 125g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked
• a handful of dried apricots
• 1 Tbsp honey or agave syrup
• zest of half of a lemon
• salt and pepper to taste

Cut all vegetables in more or less equal-sized cubes. Chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a large pan, add onion and fry over medium heat for a few minutes. Then add garlic, chili, and ras-el-hanout, stir, and add rest of the vegetables. Fry over a low heat a couple of minutes more. Then add tomatoes, tomato paste, chickpeas, honey (or agave syrup), apricots, cinnamon stick, lemon, salt, and pepper. Add water if necessary. Let simmer over a low heat until all vegetables are tender, some 30 minutes or so. Stir occasionally and check if more water is needed.

Serve with couscous or bulgur and fresh coriander or flat-leaf parsley.

Root Vegetable and Cabbage Curry with Sticky Tofu Sticks

I got the idea for this recipe from two different sources: the curry from a cooking wizard friend of mine, and the tofu sticks from a book called Vegan for Fun, written by one of Germany’s leading vegan chefs, Attila Hildmann. The ingredients cost next to nothing - provided you’ve got oil, peanut butter, soy sauce, and agave syrup. I had, and ended up paying 3,50 euros for the rest - and I only bought organic (of course, I also live in Germany, the promised land of cheap, high quality food! ;) ).

This recipe is just perfect for two quite hungry eaters!

For the curry you need:

• about 700g veggies (I used a mixture of carrot, celeriac, swede, broccoli stem, and cabbage)


• 1 smallish onion


• 2 garlic cloves


• about 1cm piece of fresh ginger


• (chili flakes if you like - I don’t)


• 1,5 tsp curry powder


• 3 Tbsp oil for frying


• 2 Tbsp soy sauce


• 3 Tbsp (vegan) cream


• salt to taste


• a bit of water, if necessary

For the sticky tofu sticks you need:

• 200g tofu


• 3 Tbsp oil for frying


• 2 Tbsp soy sauce, agave syrup, and peanut butter, each


• ½ tsp curry powder

First, cut all vegetables into thin sticks - the thinner, the better. Crush the garlic and chop the ginger. Heat oil in a frying pan or a wok and fry the vegetables over a medium heat, starting with onion, then adding garlic, ginger, and curry powder (and chili if using), and then adding the rest of the veggies. Once the vegetables are starting to get tender, add soy sauce, cream, and a bit of water if needed. Season with salt, cover with a lid and set aside to wait while you prepare the tofu sticks.

Cut tofu in long sticks. In a cup, mix together soy sauce, agave syrup, peanut butter and curry powder. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry tofu sticks from all sides. Once they are light golden, add the soy sauce mixture and continue frying over a low heat until the mixture gets sticky - be careful not to burn!

Divide curry on two plates and arrange tofu sticks on top. Decorate with fresh herbs, like parsley or cilantro. Serve immediately!

Going Light

In January, all newspapers and magazines are full of articles or tips about healthy diets and losing weight. A friend suggested  I should blog about light recipes, too, and for a moment I thought of doing that. But then I realized it really isn’t me. I don’t believe in diets.

First of all, there’s no real proof that any of them would result in permanent weight loss. Some might even be unhealthy in the long run. Second, I’m not systematic enough to follow any such restrictive diet and to memorize which food items exactly are “allowed” and which are not. Thirdly, I think diets are just boring - I love variety, and wouldn’t voluntarily give up eating pasta or bread, for instance. Let alone try those diets aiming at a quick weight loss where you’re for example supposed to eat only cabbage soup for one week…!

And yet, I’m not saying I wouldn’t give my weight any thought at this time of the year. I mean, my Christmas cookie project was even a bit too successful, so I do need to do something if I want to fit easily in my current clothes again. But instead of dieting, I’m going to keep two things in mind.

First, all of those diets do seem to have two things in common: one should eat less sugar and more veggies. But that doesn’t mean ONLY veggies and NO sugar. Because the second thing I try to keep in mind is not to exaggerate. I still remember how our chemistry teacher would claim that everything could be a poison, it was just a matter of quantity. Even water would be a poison if you drank gallons of it. Applying the same idea, I’d claim that all foods can be light, it’s just a question of how much you eat. That’s why I had no problem starting my balanced new diet with this creamy reindeer pasta - but I was careful not to have too much of it.

Then again, there’s another area where I definitely do need to go light in the following weeks - and that’s budget. So my next project will be about (mostly) seasonal light-budget dishes. So stay tuned, especially if you - like myself - lost any kind of common sense in shopping/eating out/going out during the holiday season..!

PS. The pasta recipe will follow later :)