Spaghetti with Broccoli and Home-Made Pesto

Quick food doesn’t necessarily mean pasta. The mother of all quick meals is nevertheless pasta with pesto, at least for me. Everyone loves it, kids and adults alike – even the picky ones – and to get it on your plate, you really only need the time it takes to cook the pasta. So if the package says “cottura 18 minuti”, forget about it! We need it quicker.

In this recipe, broccoli is cooked together with spaghetti – both require exactly the same time to be al dente! Miraculous! And with that much broccoli, the whole thing seems a lot healthier ;)

This is what you need to feed 4 hungry people:

• 500g spaghetti, with 8-9 minutes cooking time


• 400g broccoli


• 40g basil leaves


• 40g Parmesan cheese


• 10g pine nuts


• 100g olive oil


• 1-2 garlic cloves


• salt and pepper to taste


• plus a couple of basil leaves, pine nuts, and some grated Parmesan to serve

This is how you proceed:

1. Bring enough water to the boil in a large saucepan to cook the spaghetti. When waiting for the water to boil, cut the broccoli in pieces. Then add some salt, spaghetti, and the broccoli. Stir once in a while.

2. When spaghetti and broccoli are cooking, you have exactly 8 minutes to prepare the pesto and set the table – but it’s more than enough! Wash and drain basil if needed, place it together with olive oil, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, and pepper, in a bowl. Pulse everything with a hand mixer into a smooth paste.

3. Drain pasta and broccoli and place them in a serving bowl. Then add the pesto, stir, and decorate with basil leaves and pine nuts. Sprinkle generously with Parmesan and serve!

For a vegan version, forget the cheese – or use a vegan alternative. My favourite is No-Moo Piquant.

 

Hit-and-Run, or the Faster than Fast Recipes

There are days where I love to spend time in the kitchen. But there are also days where I’m feeling too lazy or tired to bother. Yet one has to eat something. And especially the kids do. And most of the time, they just can’t wait. Even pizza delivery would not be an option when a little princess is crying she is “so hungry she can’t wait any second longer!” That empty plate should be filled fast – but how?

So, what are the options for those days where even looking for that frying pan might seem too difficult a task, let alone all of that chopping, cutting, frying, simmering, and of course, waiting?

Pizza delivery – as mentioned before – just takes too long. But maybe one could walk or drive to the closest supermarket and buy ready-made meals? No chance, at least with those hungry kids!

But luckily, there are surprisingly many recipes that allow you to have a proper meal on your plate in just ten to fifteen minutes, or even less! The recipes I like to call hit-and-run recipes (and the Germans Blitzrezepte) require little or no effort and almost no time at all. It takes less time to make them than it takes to walk to the supermarket and back!

In my next posts I’m going to reveal my favourite hit-and-run recipes. Stay tuned!

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!

Stock made with Grilled Vegetables

This is a perfect recipe for those that are not feeling adventurous enough (yet?) to eat carrot peels, radish greens and such perfectly edible but less noble parts of vegetables. Here those parts are grilled in the oven, then cooked to get a delicious stock – to be used in your next risotto, for example.

To make the stock, I chose a variety of vegetables, as you can see from the picture: carrot, cucumber, rutabaga, kohlrabi, radish...the more diversity, the better!

Grilling the vegetables first brings another depth to the flavour of this stock. If you’re in a hurry, though, you can skip the grilling part and cook the vegetables right away.

For about 1 liter of stock you need:

• 900g vegetable greens, stems, peels, stalks – organic and well washed


• 2-3 onions, quartered


• a couple of garlic cloves, halved


• salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste


• 1 liter of water

Place the vegetables, onions, and garlic cloves on an oven tray. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and olive oil, and grill in a preheated oven (250 C) 15-20 minutes. Check once or twice the veggies and stir them so that the ones on top don’t burn!

Once nicely grilled, take the vegetables out of the oven. Place them in a saucepan with 1 liter of water. Bring to the boil and let simmer over a low heat, covered, about 30 minutes. Check salt and add more if needed. Then run the stock trough a sieve, discard the vegetables, and your home-made stock is ready to be used!

P.S. If any vegetables did burn, remove them before cooking the broth. Burned veggies give a bitter taste to the stock :(

My Root-to-Stalk Lasagne

Since January or so, I have made an effort to use all edible peels, stalks, leafs, greens, and so on, of all vegetables I buy. If not used immediately, I store them in the fridge, in a plastic box with a lid, and use them within the three following days.

In the beginning, this new habit wasn’t quite appreciated by other family members, though:

Once my husband game home from work quite hungry. I told him the kids were going to eat sausages with mash, but for the adults, there would be “THIS”, showing him that plastic box full of what looked like compost. “No WAY I’m going to eat THAT!! This a joke or what?” he cried out. Well, one hour later, he was happily eating this lasagne, claiming it was the best lasagne I had made so far. :)

For 8 generous portions you need:

•  18 lasagne sheets

Tomato sauce:

•  1 big onion


• 2-3 garlic cloves


• olive oil


• 800g canned (cherry) tomatoes


• 2 tsp sugar


• fresh herbs (I used rosemary, marjoram, sage, and basil)


• salt and pepper to taste

White sauce:

• 4 Tbsp butter


• 4 Tbsp all-purpose flour


• 800ml whole milk


• salt and pepper to taste

Sautéd vegetables:

• 4 Tbsp olive oil


• 800g vegetable peels, stalks, stems, leaves, greens (I used mostly kohlrabi, carrot, and fennel) - organic and well washed


• 2 tsp Italian spice mixture - I used this one from Herbaria


• salt and pepper to taste

On top:

• 300g mozzarella, sliced


• 2-3 fresh tomatoes, thinly sliced


• 3-4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced


• 100g grated Parmesan cheese

Start with the tomato sauce. In a large pan, sauté onions with some olive oil. Then add garlic, stir, and add the canned tomatoes, a bit of water, sugar, salt, pepper, and herbs. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes - the longer, the better! Once in a while, check if more water is needed.

Then it’s time to prepare the vegetables. Chop them very small, especially harder stems and peels. Heat oil in a heavy pan and add the vegetables, first the ones that need more time to cook, then those that need less time. Sauté about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add a bit of water, the spice mixture, and salt and pepper. Cover and cook over low heat until vegetables are tender, or about 20-30 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the white sauce. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour. Stir well and let cook 2-3 minutes, but don’t let the flour gain any colour. Then add warmed milk gradually, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil and let cook 1-2 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Remove from heat and let cool a bit.

Now, take your lasagne form. Assemble lasagne in layers as follows: tomato sauce, 9 lasagne sheets, white sauce, tomato sauce, sautéd vegetables, 9 lasagne sheets, white sauce, tomato sauce, sautéd vegetables, 9 lasagne sheets, tomato sauce, garlic slices, fresh tomato slices, mozzarella, parmesan.

Bake in a preheated oven until the lasagne is thoroughly cooked, cheese has melted and turned nicely brown. Enjoy with a green salad!

Radish Green Soup

If you’ve ever been to Portugal, you know that a meal without a soup just isn’t possible. Even the Portuguese McDonald’s serves soup, I’ve been told. And there’s a fast-food chain serving only soups!

The inspiration for this soup comes from the most famous Portuguese soup, caldo verde. But instead of Portuguese kale, traditionally used in this soup, I opted for radish greens – a part of radishes I wasn’t used to eat! But they actually taste better than the actual radishes, if you ask me. They have a pleasant, nutty taste, and can be used fresh in a salad as well.

If you’re a meat eater, feel free to add a couple of slices of choriço per portion. Instead, I added some Backerbsen, or traditional German soup pearls.

For 4 portions, served as a starter:

•  200g leek


• 2 garlic cloves


• 450g potatoes


• the greens of 2 radish bunches


• olive oil


• salt and pepper to taste


• Backerbsen, if available


• water or vegetable broth, about 1 liter, divided

First, peel the potatoes and cut into cubes. Wash the leek and chop it. Peel and slice the garlic. Heat olive oil in a saucepot, add potatoes and leek and fry over a low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and let fry a 1-2 minutes. Then add water or broth to amply cover the vegetables, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and let simmer over a low heat until potatoes are tender, or some 20 minutes. Puree with a hand mixer.

In the meantime, prepare the radish greens. Wash them thoroughly and chop, using a knife or scissors. Boil about 300ml water or broth in a smaller pan. Add 2 pinches of salt (not needed if using broth) and the radish greens. Let cook until the leaves are cooked but still somewhat crunchy. It goes quite quickly!

To serve, divide the pureed soup onto four soup plates. Then divide the radish greens on the plates – with a bit of their cooking water, especially if the soup is very thick! Then sprinkle some olive oil, salt, and pepper – and Backerbsen, if available. Enjoy with a slice of good bread – and good conscience!

P.S. Unfortunately, one needs to peel the potatoes to make this soup. But instead of throwing them away, you could deep-fry them in oil, sprinkle with some salt, and serve as chips! Remember to use organically grown potatoes and wash them well.

Think Like a Bunny, Eat Like a Bunny, or How to Reduce Food Waste by Using Veggies from Root to Stalk

It all started with my pet bunnies. When I gave them a carrot with the greens still attached, the bunnies always devoured the greens first. Only when the greens were all gone, they would start chewing the carrot itself.

So I thought, those greens must really taste good! Yet I kept throwing the greens away, or asking the farmer the cut them off.

Until I found Lisa Casali’s excellent book, Cuisiner mieux en jetant moins, where the Italian author tackles the problem of food waste and explains in detail which parts of the most common fruit and veggies can be used for cooking. And surprisingly enough, that includes – just about everything! One just needs an open mind and a bit of imagination to create delicious meals out of potato peels, carrot peels and greens, radish greens, orange, pear, and apple peels, and so on.

When you think of it, it actually doesn’t make any sense to first buy a product and then throw in some cases most of it away! It’s not good for your wallet, and it isn’t good for the environment, either.

So in the past months, I’ve developed a couple of new habits to reduce my food waste. For instance, I try to use up all I have in the fridge and cupboards before going grocery shopping (see my No Cost Food Week). But I’ve also started to put those carrot, potato, and orange peels, kohlrabi leaves, radish greens, and so on, into use. Just one example is the orange peel powder, needed to make Orange and White Chocolate Ice Cream.

During the following days, I’ll be posting some more of my best no-waste recipes!