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 :)