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!

When Tomato Soup Died and Went to Heaven

My oven seems to be somehow broken. Every day, a new loaf of bread pops out of it. We just never manage to eat as much bread as my oven produces. I’ve already suggested we try to get it fixed, but, well, my husband doesn’t seem to take this problem very seriously! Luckily I remembered that a cousin of mine used to make a great Italian tomato-bread dish called Pappa al pomodoro. So I did a quick Google search, found Jamie Oliver’s version, modified it a bit – and voilà! The best tomato soup ever was born. And hey, it happens to be vegan!

To feed two moderately hungry people you need:

• 200g cherry tomatoes


• olive oil


• salt


• black pepper


• 1-2 garlic cloves


• fresh herbs of your liking – I used a mixture of basil, rosemary, and parsley

...and for the soup itself:

• ½ of a big red onion or 1 smallish


• 1-2 garlic cloves


• olive oil


• 100ml white wine


• 400g canned tomatoes


• 350ml water


• 5 slices of bread, preferably 2-3 days old  I used whole-grain sourdough bread - that's what my oven delivers ;) )


• salt and black pepper to taste


• fresh herbs of your liking – I used rosemary and parsley, and some basil to decorate

First, set your oven to 180 C. Halve the cherry tomatoes, peel and slice the garlic (not too thin, or they’ll burn) and place them with the herbs in an oven tray. Sprinkle generously with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake for 30-40 minutes, making sure the garlic doesn’t burn!

In the meantime, prepare the soup. Heat the oil in a pan, add chopped onion and garlic and sauté until translucent. Then add the white wine and herbs and let boil for a couple of minutes. Add the canned tomatoes, water, salt, and pepper, and let simmer over a low heat for about 25-30 minutes. Now, cut the bread in cubes and place in the pan. Stir, and let simmer about 10 more minutes. The consistency should be more like that of a stew, not really of a soup, but if it’s really too thick, add some more water.

Divide the soup in two soup plates or bowls, top with baked cherry tomatoes and some fresh herbs. Serve with a glass of red wine – perfetto! For an extra kick, add some peperoncino.

 

Ratatouille that even picky kids will love!

Can you guess what evil powers hide in this innocent-looking tomato sauce? I served it a few days ago to my kids - while we adults were eating ratatouille. Well, at least our kids couldn’t guess it was actually their official number one least favourite dish. Pureeing ratatouille was a great tip I learned from a friend, and it really works. I don’t know how long it will take for my little ones to figure out my little secret, but hopefully by then they are as addicted to ratatouille as I am!

For about 4 portions you need

• one medium-sized onion, chopped


• 1 courgette and eggplant each, cut into smallish cubes


• 2-3 peppers (I prefer using 1 green and 2 red ones), cut into squares


• 500g tomatoes, peeled and chopped


• 2-3 garlic cloves


• juice of half of a lemon


• 2 tsp agave syrup


• salt and pepper to taste


• olive oil

Sauté the onions in olive oil, then add peppers, fry a couple of minutes, then add eggplants and courgettes and fry and additional 5-7 minutes. Now, add tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice and agave syrup, and salt and pepper. Let simmer over medium to low heat at least 45 minutes. Serve with pasta, rice, couscous, or a good bread! For kids (or any picky adults ;) ) puree it and serve with pasta - I love fusilli because the sauce penetrates the pasta in a way even my littlest one can’t possibly get the sauce out..!

If you’re making ratatouille in winter, use canned tomatoes instead. It might not be exactly as good as with fresh ones, but it is still very tasty!

Pasta with Tomato Sauce

It's amazing how good the simplest dishes can taste if you make them out of premium-quality seasonal veggies. One great example is tomato sauce for pasta: it may taste good when you use canned tomatoes, but there's no comparison to the one made with seasonal fresh ones. I'm lucky to live practically next door to an organic farm that sell the best beefsteak tomatoes ever this time of the year. They're great for salads, ratatouille, and for all kinds of tomato-based sauces. I first cooked this sauce last summer, and it was a success! My family wouldn't believe me when I told them what was in it. "There must be something else! It can't be that simple!" Oh yes, it can..

So, for four hungry people you'll need two medium-sized onions, about 1 kg of tomatoes (I used to of those giant ones, each one weighing a bit less than 500 grams), 2-3 garlic cloves, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, and any herbs you might want to use - my favourite ones being parsley, basil and oregano. This time I used rosemary from a friend's garden.

Sauté the chopped onions in olive oil over medium heat, then add garlic, and after a while peeled, chopped tomatoes and salt and pepper. You can add herbs already at this point - it's up to you! Then let simmer over medium or low heat for at least one hour, and serve with your favourite kind of pasta, topped with some Parmesan cheese and herbs.

The taste is slightly different if you're using butter instead of or in addition to olive oil. It's worth giving it a try!

Tomato Chutney

When I saw this recipe in die Zeit Magazin, I had to try it at once! I just happened to have all the ingredients at home, except for coriander seeds, but as usual, I was too lazy to go shopping just to get some seeds, so I tried it without them - and it worked perfectly! I guess the trick here is to use premium quality fresh tomatoes - those hard, orange-coloured lame excuses for tomatoes one gets in the winter just won’t do - and let the chutney simmer over a long time so it really gets caramel-like.

I’m not very big fan of too spicy stuff so instead of one entire chili I used some crushed peperoncino, maybe ⅓ tsp, and it was just perfect for my taste. When I first tasted this chutney, it felt a bit too spicy, but once it had cooled down, it had lost some of the edge and was just the way I like it.

This chutney is a great match for different kinds of cheeses, my favourite being soft chèvre. Feel free to try it with anything else you like - I got so addicted to it I was tempted to try in my morning oatmeal as well!

Ingredients

• 250 g onions, preferably red


• 500 g tomatoes


• 5 garlic cloves


• 1 red chili pepper


• 1–2 cm piece of ginger


• 1 Tbsp coriander seeds


• 75 ml apple cider vinegar


• 100 g brown sugar


• Salt and pepper to taste (oops, I forgot these, as they were last on the list and it seems I didn’t read it until the end, then; but it worked well even without!

Peel and chop tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, and chili, place all ingredients in a heavy pan and cook over a low heat for at least 40 minutes. Pour into clean jars - and that's it!