Easy Homemade Sweet Chili Sauce

Today I was going to buy some chili sauce at the supermarket. Then I took a look at the list of ingredients of the brand available in my grocery shop and at the price. Guess what? 2€ for a smallish bottle of something that consisted mainly of water and sugar!

I left the bottle on the shelf and decided to try to make my own chili sauce.

It was super easy - and the ingredients cost next to nothing (my estimate is around 30 cents). Another good thing is, you can regulate the amount of chili yourself!

This recipe is based on three different recipes that I found with a quick Google search for “homemade chili sauce”. There were around 13 million results, so I guess there are a lot of people doing chili sauce at home :D

This is what you need:

• 100ml sugar


• 50ml rice or white wine vinegar


• 50ml + 2 Tbsp water


• 1/3 tsp salt


• 1 espresso spoon of chili flakes


• 1 Tbsp tomato paste


• 2 garlic cloves, crushed


• 2/3 Tbsp all-purpose flour

And this is how to do it:

Combine all ingredients except for the flour and 2 Tbsp water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and let simmer 2-3 minutes. Now mix well the flour in the remaining water, pour in the pan and whisk energetically. Let simmer over a low heat until the sauce thickens, or about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool – and voilà! Your homemade chili sauce is ready to be used!

My bet is that this stuff keeps well quite long in the fridge. And even if it doesn’t, there’s way too much chili for you to taste any difference :D

Red Lentils with Green Curry and Coconut

The most important lesson I learned from my 5-day microwave experience was that a lot of things can be cooked in a very straight-forward way: just place all ingredients in a recipient and cook until done! That's the case of this highly addictive green curry with red lentils. Of course, you can do it the traditional way: sauté the spices in a bit of oil and so on, but if one is in a hurry, why bother?

I got the idea for this curry from here, as I was looking for ideas to combine lentils, bulgur, and coconut. Serve the curry with cooked rice, topped with fresh cilantro - or flat-leaf parsley, if you don't happen to like the taste of cilantro (surprisingly many don't).

 

For 4 portions you need:

• 1 cup red lentils, rinsed


• 1/2 cup bulgur, rinsed


• 3 Tbsp green curry paste


• 2 Tbsp tomato paste


• 300ml coconut milk


• 150ml hot water


• 1 Tbsp olive oil


• 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed


• 1 tsp salt (or to taste)


• 1 tsp turmeric


• 1 tsp ground cumin


• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh ginger


• 30g fresh cilantro

It doesn't get easier than this: take a saucepan and place lentils, bulgur, coconut milk, and chopped ginger in it. In a large cup, stir together green curry paste, tomato paste, crushed garlic, water, oil, cumin, turmeric and salt. Add the spice mixture to the pan and bring everything to the boil. Let simmer over a low heat until the lentils are soft, or about 15 minutes. Add more water if needed.

Sprinkle chopped cilantro on top and serve immediately!

 

Zucchini Feta Fritters with Tzatziki

When the kids are craving for pasta pesto with broccoli and the somewhat bigger kid  announces he will only eat low-carb for dinner from now on, what does one do? Well, one makes the pasta (10 minutes, remember?), then takes a look at the fridge and comes up with a new, rather quick Greece-inspired recipe!

So I’m proud to present these delicious and fluffy fritters with zucchini, feta, and dill, served with a generous helping of tzatziki. This recipe is not as quick as some others: it took me 20 minutes to make this dish, mainly because I could only fit three fritters easily in my pan at the same time. So, if in a hurry, use two pans!

This recipe is for two people, especially if served with a slice or two of good bread. If you - like me - are not afraid of carbs, that is!

For the fritters:

• 140g zucchini, grated


• 75g feta


• 2 eggs


• 1 Tbsp pine nuts


• 2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped


• salt and black pepper to taste

For the tzatziki:

• 10cm piece of cucumber


• 4 heaped Tbsp natural yoghurt


• 1 small garlic clove (or to taste)


• 1 Tbsp olive oil


• salt and black pepper to taste

First, make the tzatziki: grate the cucumber very fine and drain in a sieve to get the excess water out. Then combine in a bowl with yoghurt, crushed garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Stir, cover, and place in the fridge for the time you make the fritters.

Now, it’s time to make the fritters. First, crush the feta with a fork. Then place all ingredients in a bowl, stir until well combined, and fry the fritters in a large pan with a little bit of oil over a medium heat. This amount of batter results in 6 smallish fritters. It was a bit challenging to fry them – in the beginning, the batter tends to spread a lot, which you need to stop by moving the runaway batter back with a spatula. But after that, it’s easy! Once they’re done from one side (about 4 minutes or so), turn them and fry until both sides are golden brown.

Serve the fritters with tzatziki, sliced fresh vegetables - and maybe some good bread!

 

Home-Made Tortillas with Kidney Beans and Fresh Vegetables

Have you ever taken a closer look at the ingredients of any given tortillas available at the supermarket? I recently did. The ones I found contained 14-15 ingredients, among other things emulsifiers, stabilizers, and preservatives…

Then I read the preparation instructions: one is supposed to warm the tortillas in the oven for 10 minutes. (In the microwave it would go faster.)

Ok, I thought, it can’t take much longer than those 10 minutes to make eight tortillas from scratch. And it didn’t. To be exact, it took 10 minutes and a half for me to have 8 home-made tortillas ready! When the first one was frying, I rolled the next one out, and so on. Note that you need a cast-iron pan to get soft tortillas – oddly enough, when I fried them in a Teflon pan, my tortillas turned too crispy to fold.

And if for the filling one chooses something that doesn’t need to be cooked – like canned beans and fresh veggies - it takes no longer than 15 minutes to have 8 delicious filled tortillas ready to be eaten. From scratch!

So, no reason anymore to buy those industrial “fresh” tortillas as they are ironically called!

This recipe is for 8 tortillas, which is just enough for 4 people as a main course or 8 as a snack.

This is what you need for the dough:

• 300g flour (I used half whole-grain, half all-purpose wheat flour)


• 150ml water


• 50ml sunflower oil


• two pinches of salt


• ½ tsp baking powder

And for the filling:

• 150g sour cream or soft cheese (for a vegan option, use a non-dairy option)


• 2 large ripe avocados


• 2 Tbsp olive oil


• juice of half of a lemon


• a couple of drops of Tabasco sauce


• two tomatoes, chopped


• half of a red pepper, chopped


• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced


• 120g canned kidney beans


• a few lettuce leaves


• fresh cilantro or flat-leaf parsley


• salt and black pepper to taste

To make the dough, just combine flour and salt in a bowl. Make a hole in the middle and add water and oil. (Note that if you’re using only all-purpose flour, you’re likely to need a bit less water. Start with 100ml and add gradually more if needed.) With your hands, work the dough until it’s easy to form it into a ball. Divide the dough into 8 pieces and roll each of them into a very thin tortilla. Don't worry if they're not perfectly round: when you fill and roll them, no-one will notice! Fry your tortillas on a hot pan (without oil) on both sides about 30 seconds, or until dark spots appear. Remember to use cast-iron pan only! Pile the tortillas on a plate and cover them while frying the rest – that way, they’ll keep soft and warm.

For the filling, peel the avocado and crush it with a fork. Add lemon juice, olive oil, Tabasco, and salt and pepper to taste. Spread a generous tablespoon cream cheese or sour cream and avocado paste on each tortilla, then divide tomatoes, onions, red peppers, kidney beans, lettuce, and cilantro/parsley. Add a bit more salt and pepper if you want, then roll the tortillas and serve immediately!

Miraculous Two-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

About two years ago, I was desperately looking for vegan chocolate mousse recipes. I thought I’d tried them all: with avocado, with banana, with silk tofu, with whipped coconut cream – you name it. And yet, all of them were a more or less big disappointment compared to the one and only – you know, 3 eggs, 30 grams butter, 100g dark chocolate, a bit of sugar – the one recipe I haven’t had to look up in the past twenty years or so!

Oddly enough, I never came across this recipe when doing my research last time. I only found this amazingly easy recipe when I was looking for quick chocolate desserts. But on top of being really easy to do, this chocolate mousse also happens to be vegan (provided the dark chocolate you use is vegan). No milk, no eggs, nothing except for dark chocolate, and one secret ingredient.

Curious to know what it is? It isn’t tofu, cream, avocado, or banana. Nothing of the like.

It is… water!

Yes, you read right. All you need to do this perfectly tasty and creamy chocolate mousse is chocolate and H2O.

I like my mousse very bitter, very chocolaty, so I used 75% dark chocolate. If you like it sweeter, use 50% or 60% chocolate and/or add some sugar.

This is what you need for 3 smallish portions:

• 125g dark chocolate


• 100ml water

And this is what to do:

1. Measure the water and chocolate in a saucepan and let melt over a medium heat.

2. Remove from the heat, transfer the melted chocolate into a baking bowl over an ice bath (even very cold water is enough).

3. Now, beat the mixture with a mixer or with a twirl whisk for 2-3 minutes (I used a twirl whisk and it took about 5 minutes), or until the mixture starts to thicken.

4. Transfer it into three espresso cups or other small serving cups and let your mousse set either in the fridge or at the room temperature for a couple of hours before serving!

If you like, you can add something to flavour your mousse – how about coffee mousse, with some instant coffee powder? Or a small amount of Cointreau to give a citric twist?

Frozen Yoghurt with Lemon and Honey

This morning I walked past our local frozen yoghurt bar, and it struck me how perfectly frozen yoghurt would fit in my current dessert series! You know, the desserts that make themselves while you’re eating your main dish.

The convenience of frozen yoghurt over other types of ice cream is not just that it contains less fat and mostly sugar as well. It also helps you avoid one crucial and very time-consuming step: yoghurt is already cold enough for your ice-cream maker (as long as you keep your yoghurt in the fridge, that is ;) ), so no need to cool it before feeding it to your ice cream maker…

I decided to flavour my frozen yoghurt with lemon and honey – but feel free to try other flavours as well!

For a vegan version, use non-dairy yoghurt and sweeten it with sugar or agave syrup, for example.

This is what you need for three smallish portions:

• 500ml plain yoghurt


• 2 Tbsp liquid honey


• 1 tsp grated lemon zest

To make this is ridiculously easy. Just combine yoghurt, honey, and lemon zest, and make the frozen yoghurt according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. With mine, this amount of frozen yoghurt took 15 minutes to make – exactly the time it took us to eat our pizzas! Decorate and serve.

Smoked Salmon Spaghetti

This is a dish I used to make a lot when I wanted to get a delicious meal in no time at all. Now I still make it once in a while, mostly for the kids, and mostly on those days when I just can’t hear any complaining about food – this is the ultimate favourite of everyone!

For five hungry people you need:

• 500g spaghetti


• 300g smoked salmon


• 300ml heavy cream or sour cream


• salt and pepper to taste


• freshly grated parmesan and fresh dill or parsley to serve

This is how to do it:

1. Bring water to the boil. Add a bit of salt and then the spaghetti. Cook for about 8 minutes, or until al dente.

2. In the meantime, prepare the sauce: Cut the salmon in smallish pieces and fry them shortly in a large pan. Add cream, salt, and pepper, and cook over a low heat until the spaghetti is done.

3. Drain the spaghetti, place it in a serving bowl, and pour the sauce on top of it. Stir, then sprinkle with grated cheese and chopped parsley or dill. Serve immediately!

Sticky Toffee Sauce

Sticky toffee sauce is one of my favourite accompaniments for ice cream and/or strawberries. I used to make it myself quite often a long, long time ago, but not being a fan of cooking that hot syrup (sooo afraid of burning it, me, or the kids :) ), I haven’t made it in many years now.

But going through my old magazines I came across one toffee sauce recipe where you don’t actually need to melt any sugar – you can use molasses instead. So I’m back to my sticky toffee sauce routine!

This is a dessert you can make while preparing the main course - all you really need to do is to stir the sauce once a while during the ten minutes it needs to cook.

For 6 people you need:

• 100ml dark molasses (or dark treacle; Zuckerrübensirup here in Germany)


• 200ml heavy cream (non-dairy for a vegan version)


• 30g butter (or vegan margarine)

Combine molasses and cream in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, and let boil over a low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring once in a while. The sauce is ready when it starts to thicken. Now, add the butter, let it melt, and stir until the butter is well combined with the rest. Remove from the heat.

Serve hot, warm, or cold with ice cream and/or berries or fruit – if you resist the temptation to spoon it all up just like that…!

P.S. Nothing compares with the taste of a homemade sticky toffee sauce - with three ingredients. And I find the colour perfect as well. Makes me wonder how come the ones available at the supermarket have so many ingredients: one that I saw had 15 altogether – among them two different artificial flavours, colouring agents, and so on. Totally unnecessary, if you ask me ;)

Chocolate Fondue, the No Effort Way

I’m going to make a confession: Before coming up with this idea I had never eaten chocolate fondue. It’s always been a tempting idea, yet I wasn’t ready to invest money and especially cupboard space in those cute little chocolate fondue pots.

But then I realised you don’t need any fondue pots! You can use espresso cups, and make a hot water bath do the job for you – while you’re eating your main dish, of course!

Use any fresh seasonal fruit or berries to dip in the fondue. I bet at least mango, pineapple, peaches, cherries, and bananas would taste awesome! But now it’s the second last week of (at least organic) strawberry season here in southern Germany, so I didn't have a choice, did I?

For one portion you need:

• 2 Tbsp (non-dairy) heavy cream


• 20g dark (vegan) chocolate


• about 15 fruit pieces or berries to dip in the fondue

First, combine cream and chocolate in espresso cups. Then place the cups in an earthenware oven dish. Fill the dish with boiling water just enough for the cups to be covered until the cream-chocolate-level. (If you happen to have pasta for the main dish, think of using the cooking water to do this! Hugely ecological :) )

Once you’re ready to have your dessert, just stir the chocolate-cream-mixture gently with a spoon and remove from the water bath. Serve with fruit – dip them in the “fondue” with a small dessert fork! And don’t forget a spoon – you’ll need it to scrape the rest of that yummy chocolate…!

Oven Pancake with Strawberries and Crème Chantilly

Pancakes are a great dessert after a light meal - like pea soup! But who has the time to make them? No problem, pancake batter can also be baked in the oven. Once again, you can enjoy your main course while your oven is taking care of the dessert.

This time of the year I normally serve oven pancake with fresh berries and whipped cream - when no fresh berries are available, use raspberry or strawberry jam instead!

This is what you need for 6 portions:

• 150g flour (I use whole-grain, but you can use all-purpose as well)


• 400ml milk


• 3 eggs


• a pinch of salt


• 8g vanilla sugar


• 30g butter

This is how you proceed:

1. Set your oven to 225 C when you start cooking the main dish.

2. Make the batter: in a bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, and milk, and beat gently. Then add the eggs and beat until well combined.

3. Take a round cake form (mine has a diameter of 26cm). Slice the butter and place the slices in the form. Put the form in the oven for just the time it takes for the butter to melt. Then take the form out again, pour the batter in, and put it back in the oven.

4. Go and enjoy your main dish! Set the alarm for 15 minutes - it takes around 15-20 minutes for the pancake to be ready.

5. Serve warm with berries and crème Chantilly!

Mushroom Bruschette with Lemon and Parsley

Making a bruschetta is a perfect way to use up bread that otherwise would not be eaten – and as I’ve told, we quite often have to deal with that problem due to our “broken” oven ;)

Everyone loves tomato basil bruschetta, but this mushroom version is at least as tasty! Besides, it’s very quick to make. For this portion for two, I only needed 8 minutes.

 

 

For 2 as a light meal or 4 as a starter:

• 4 large slices of bread


• 1 garlic clove


• 200g mushrooms


• 2 Tbps lemon juice


• olive oil


• a handful of flat leaf parsley


• salt and black pepper to taste

This is how to do it:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan. Quarter the mushrooms (or cut them even smaller if the mushrooms are big) and fry over a high heat about 5 minutes, stirring once in a while.

2. In the meantime, toast the breads and rub them with garlic clove.

3. Now,  add lemon juice, salt, pepper, chopped parsley in the pan, stir, and then remove from heat.

4. Place the bread slices on a plate, divide mushrooms on top of them, and decorate with some more parsley. Serve immediately!

Poached Apricots with Orange and Rosemary

About two weeks ago the first apricots appeared in our local organic supermarket. And last week, I came up with yet another great use for them! It’s one of those desserts that can take care of themselves while you’re calmly enjoying your main course. Well, almost: if you’re short-term memory is nearly as good as mine, you might need an alarm, or your poached apricots might turn into mashed apricots…

Combining orange and rosemary with apricots results in a fresh and pleasant taste that goes perfectly with the decadent sweetness of the honey-sweetened sour cream. I prefer to use sour cream instead of heavy cream, and not only because I prefer the taste. It also spares you one extra step: no need to whip the cream! Just add honey to the sour cream and stir – that’s it.

This recipe gives four smallish portions! For a vegan version, use non-dairy sour cream flavoured with vanilla and agave syrup, for example.

For the apricots:

• 600g apricots


• 3 Tbsp sugar


• 100ml water


• 50ml Cointreau


• 1 rosemary sprig


• 3 long stripes of orange peel (1/3 of one orange or so)

For the cream:

• 150g sour cream


• 2 Tbsp honey

This is how to do it:

1. Halve the apricots and place them in a heavy pan in one layer.

2. Add the rosemary twig and orange peel stripes. Sprinkle the sugar on top.

3. Pour the water and Cointreau on the apricots. They should be completely cover – if not, add more water.

4. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and let simmer, cover, about 10 minutes, or until the apricots are softened but not turned into a mash yet. Then remove from heat, divide on 4 serving plates (the juice, too!), and serve with a generous dollop of sour cream sweetened with honey.

 

P.S. This dessert is also safe for kids. Thanks to the cooking, there’s no alcohol left in the final product :)

Warm Zucchini and Tomato Salad, Greek Style

This dish is perfect for a summer lunch or dinner. Serve with a slice of good bread and a glass of white wine, followed by a bowl of strawberries... What else could one ask for? Oh yes, for it to cook fast. And it does: I counted exactly twelve minutes from the time I entered my kitchen to the moment I started eating!

For two people you need:

• 400g zucchini


• 300g cherry tomatoes


• 120g onion


• 2 garlic cloves


• ½ tsp dried oregano


• a handful of fresh parsley (or other herbs available)


• 150g feta cheese


• olive oil, salt, and black pepper to taste

This is how to make it:

1. Chop onion and garlic, and cut zucchini into cubes. Halve the tomatoes.

2. Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a large pan. Add onion and sauté 2 minutes, then add garlic and the zucchini cubes, and sauté over a medium heat until zucchini starts to gain some colour.

3. Now, add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper, and keep heating over a medium heat until the juices of the tomatoes start to flow. Let simmer a couple of minutes.

4. Take away from heat, add feta cubes and parsley. Sprinkle with some extra olive oil, salt, and pepper and serve right away! A slice of bread is obligatory to wipe that great sauce off the plate.

For a vegan version, replace the feta cheese with tofu – I would use Tofu Olive from Taifun.

 

Magic Chocolate Fondant

There are a lot of instant chocolate cake recipes around, you know the ones made in a microwave. This moist fondant is inspired by them, but made in a traditional oven – I’m not a big fan of microwave…

Besides, it is a magic dessert that makes itself while you’re enjoying your main dish! Just tuck it in the oven when you're about to start your meal. Remember to set an alarm to 12 minutes, then remove the fondants, place them on serving plates – and when you’re ready with your main dish, the fondant will be just the right temperature to be eaten!

I was astonished that this recipe, that involves no beating, melting, and so on - it only takes 2 minutes to make the batter - resulted in the most perfect fondant I’ve ever managed to bake.

Think of replacing the coconut oil by a neutral tasting one if you’re not a fan of coconut. I just love the rich taste of coconut – but the men in my family don’t ;)

 

For 5 portions you need:

• 3 eggs


• 3 Tbsp yoghurt


• 3 Tbsp coconut oil


• 6 Tbps sugar


• 3 Tbps whole-grain flour


• 3 Tbsp cocoa powder


• a pinch of salt

…and 5 pieces (or 2 if they're very small) of dark chocolate

First, combine eggs, yoghurt, and coconut oil (or sunflower oil) in a baking bowl. Stir with a fork. Then add the rest – sugar, flour, cocoa powder, and salt, and stir again. Ready! Don’t worry if the coconut oil remains a bit lumpy – it will melt in the oven, and you won’t notice a thing.

Now, divide the batter into five silicone muffin forms. Tuck a piece of dark chocolate inside each of them – this will be the liquid core of your fondant. Bake in a preheated oven (190 C) about 12 minutes, or until still not quite set from the inside.

Transfer onto serving plates, decorate with berries and a bit of confectioner’s sugar, and serve!

 



P.S. Just think how altruistic I am – to come up with this perfect recipe, I’ve eaten my way through of at least four less perfect instant chocolate cakes ;) So I do hope you like it :)

Desserts That Make Themselves

Some of you might remember that Finnish bank ad from quite a few years ago, that featured “a house that cleans itself”. Well, I can promise you something even better: a dessert – or actually quite a few of them – that make themselves while you’re enjoying your main dish. You just have to sacrifice 2-3 minutes more in the kitchen, and the rest will take care of itself. It’s like magic!

I’ve tested this concept for five days now, and it works even too well. I have namely served dessert with every single meal! And even between the meals! ;) One just needs to remember to take that chocolate fondant out of the oven, or turn the heat off when cooking those apricots in Cointreau. (I suggest you use an alarm.)

Curious to learn more about instant desserts, like this chocolate fondant? (No, it's not the microwave one.) Then stay tuned! In the following posts, I’ll reveal some of them – and more fast main dish recipes, of course.

 

Omelette with Goat Cheese, Red Pepper, and Rucola

Omelette is an excellent choice if you’re cooking for only one or two people, and not bad for a bigger lot either – as long as you have a big pan! It goes so fast that you definitely need to set the table before starting to cook.

You can top the omelette with almost anything: mozzarella, feta, goat’s cheese, blue cheese, tomatoes, pepper, rucola, any herbs of your liking… My favourite combination is soft goat cheese, sweet red pepper, and rucola.

This recipe is for one person!

For the omelette:

• 2-3 organic eggs


• 1 Tbsp milk


• salt and pepper to taste


• a bit of olive oil for frying

On top:

• 50g soft goat cheese, cut in cubes


• 25g sweet red pepper, sliced


• a handful of rucola


• 1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

This is how to do it:

1. Combine the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Beat slightly with a fork.

2.Heat olive oil in a heavy pan and pour in the omelette batter.

3. With a wooden spatula, move the batter on the pan with long, slow moves until the omelette starts to set, then stop and let it set completely. Flip the omelette as if it was a pancake and fry just enough so that the other side gets a bit of colour as well. Remove from heat.

4. Add goat cheese, pepper, and rucola on top of the omelet. Sprinkle with Parmesan – and a bit more salt and pepper. Serve immediately!

Sesame Noodles

Preparing and eating these decadently delicious noodles for the first time was something epic. How can something have such a rich and fulfilling flavour, a smooth texture, be 100% vegan, and be ready in no more than 5 minutes? Yes, you heard me right: from the moment you enter your kitchen, this dish will be on your plate in five minutes – provided you (or rather your stove) get that water boiling fast!

Furthermore, sesame noodles are tasty without being spicy at all, so kids love them as well.

There are a lot of different recipes out there for sesame noodles, and my starting point was New York – les recettes culte, although I’ve modified it a bit.

For 3-4 portions you need:

• 250g noodles (I use the ones made with wheat, and without egg)


• 50g tahini paste


• 50g peanut butter


• 50g sesame oil


• 4 Tbsp rice vinegar


• 3 Tbsp sugar


• 2 Tbsp soy sauce


• 18g fresh ginger, peeled


• 12g garlic, peeled


• 100ml water

.. and fresh cucumber, coriander leaves, and sesame seeds to serve

This is how you proceed:

1. Bring 3 liters of water to the boil. Add a bit of salt, then the noodles, cover, and take away from the heat. Let stand about 3 minutes.

2. In the meantime (yes!), prepare the sauce. Measure all ingredients in a bowl, and pulse with a hand mixer into a smooth paste.

3. Transfer the noodles in a colander, wash with cold water, drain, and place into a serving bowl. Add the sauce and stir.

4. Decorate with sliced cucumber, fresh coriander and sesame seeds.

5. Serve with a cold drink!

I prefer to eat this dish a bit warm, not cold as suggested in the original recipe. At what temperature do they taste the best to you? Well, I guess you’ll have to make them a couple of times to find out…!
 

Stir-Fry with Fennel, Kohlrabi, Carrot, Cucumber, and Leek

On Friday, I checked my “compost” box in my fridge. It had the green parts of one leek and stalks and greens of one fennel. In addition, I peeled two carrots, one kohlrabi and one cucumber for the kids’ salad for lunch. That left me with 300g still perfectly usable vegetable parts that I was determined to eat for lunch.

As I was in a hurry, I opted for this quick stir-fry. It really only takes less than 10 minutes to have this dish ready! If you want, you can serve some cooked rice with it. Then this portion would be enough for two.

For one portion you need:

• 300g stalks, stems, leaves, greens, or peels of organic, well-washed vegetables


• 1 Tbsp sunflower or olive oil


• 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed


• 2 Tbsp soy sauce


• 1 Tbsp sesame oil


• chili to taste


• a handful of nuts – I had pistachios, but would have used cashews if I’d had some :)


• fresh coriander

Chop the vegetables very small – especially the fennel. If left too big, they will be too hard to eat. Heat oil in a heavy pan and add vegetables. Fry some 3-4 minutes over a medium heat, then add chili and garlic, stir and fry 1-2 minutes more. Then add nuts, soy sauce, sesame oil and a bit of water (3-4 Tbsp), and let simmer 2 more minutes. Check salt – add if needed.

Sprinkle with fresh coriander and serve!