Courgette Cake

Hey guys, this morning I've been woken up at 5am by some adorable squawking seagulls on the roof and I couldn't get back to sleep so I decided to make the most of the 3 hours I had before   starting to work. It's been really warm in the UK lately and I think that this cake is a good combination of fresh ingredients and delicious flavours that has definitely turned my morning around. Have a good day!

Ingredients:

- 300 g courgettes

- 300 g self-raising flour

- 200 g sugar

- 150 g sultana

- orange zest

- 2 eggs

- vegetable oil

- baking powder.

For the icing:

- 150 fresh cheese

- 100 g icing sugar

- orange zest.

Preheat the oven at 170 C. Finely grate the courgettes and dry out as much liquid as you can. Whip the eggs with the sugar, then add the courgettes then the flour, a couple of spoons of oil and some orange zest and mix well. Add the sultanas and a spoon of baking power to the mixture and stir. Pour in a baking tray and bake for 1 hour. 

In the meantime, you can prepare the cheesy creamy icing top beating the cheese with the sugar and some orange zest. Just mix for a couple of minutes, if beaten too long the cream becomes too soft. Once ready, put in the fridge and spread it on the cake when it has cooled. 

Orange & Almond Cake

Craving a moist and zesty cake? Here it is!

Ingredients:
- 2 big ripen oranges
- 250 g sugar (I used Moscovado)
- 200 g  finely ground almonds
- 4 eggs.


This cake is pretty easy to make but the first step is quite time consuming. Place the oranges (do not peel them) in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to boil. Simmer for 2 hours.
When the oranges are well cooked, leave them to cool. Preheat the oven to 180C. Then chop the oranges, remove the pips and blend until you have a smooth consistency. Whisk the eggs with the sugar.  Add the almonds then fold in the orange mix and stir well. Pour the mixture into a baking tin and bake for 1 hour, 1 hour 30 minutes  (depending on the oven).

Fennel & Orange Salad

Perfect as a side for fish dishes or as a tapas, refreshing and crunchy.

Ingredients:
- 1 fresh fennel
- a dozen of black olives
- half of red onion
- 1 ripe orange
- lemon, white vinegar, olive oil and salt.

Cut the onion in half, peel it off and slice it thinly then place the slices in a bowl with cold water with a spoon of white vinegar. Cut the fennel in thin slices and put them in a large bowl. Cut the top and bottom of the orange then peel it carefully and add the wedges into the bowl. Drain the onion and put them in the bowl with some black olives. Mix a squeeze of lemon with a couple of spoons of oil and a pinch of salt then pour it in the bowl and stir gently. Squeeze the bottom and top of the orange as a final touch.

Apple-Nutty Cake

Fancy a super moist, nutty and sweet treat for breakfast? This cake has all the ingredients I like most and 

Ingredients:

- 150 g grounded nuts
- 8 apples
- 12 chopped dates
- 120 g plain flour
- 120 g spelt flour
- 100 g moscovado sugar
- 3 spoons honey
- 2 tea spoons cinnamon
- 2 eggs
- baking powder.

Really simple to make. Peel and chop the apples then put them in a pan and low heat with the dates and honey for 10 minutes. In the meantime, whisk the eggs with the flour then add the sugar,and cinnamon. (If the mixture is too stiff spoon some yoghurt or milk). Then add the cold apples and dates to the mixture and the nuts as well. Stir gently and add the baking powder at the end. Bake for 50 minutes at 180 C.

Fish Soup

Yesterday dinner was all about fish, delicious fresh fish from the market used to make this soup. There are several ways to make it, you can choose to follow the traditional recipes or make it a bit differently depending upon the fresh ingredients available, and this is what I  did :)

Ingredients from the fishmonger:
- 2 squids
- 300-400 g clams
- 500 g prawns
- 2 fillets of cod or sea bass.

Ingredients for the broth:
- garlic
- white wine
- 1 carrot
- 1 spring onion
- 1/2 onion
- 1 stalk of celery
- half tin of chopped tomatoes
- 4 slices of bread (I used rye bread and granary bread).

There are a few steps to follow in order to make a good soup, nothing complicated but it does require a bit more time than other quicker recipes.

Clean the clams: first of all, discard the dead clams then soak them in fresh water so they will naturally split out any salt or sand. After 30 minutes drain the clams and change the water. After another 20-30 minutes take them out of the water and use a brush to clean off any barnacles, sand or other debris which may be crusted to the exteriors.

Clean the squid: remove the internal organs from the head  then gently scrape off the outer surface of the mantle, leaving behind the white slick meat.

First of all you'll need to make a fumet. Finely chop the onion, carrot, spring onion and celery  and put the large saucepan with a spoon of oil (don't use olive oil for cooking) on medium heat. Stir evenly and cook for 5 minutes. In the meantime, wash the prawns and remove the shells and heads then separate the meat from the skin of your fish. Add the shells, heads and the skin to the pan. After a couple of minutes pour half a glass of wine then add 1 l of boiling water and low heat for 20 minutes.

Put a separate frying pan on moderate heat and add some oil and a clove of garlic then add the clams and cover until they are all open. Put the clams aside.

Remove the black vein from the back of the prawns, wash them and then pan fry them for a couple of minutes each side with some wine.

Cut the bass into chunks and chop the squid as to make ring and put aside.

Once the fumet is cooked, place a thin mesh sieve onto a bowl (possibly also a piece of cloth) and filter the liquid through the sieve. Add this liquid into a saucepan and spoon half tin of chopped tomatoes. Low heat for 10 minutes then add the bass and the squid, and cook for another 15 minutes. Afterwards, add the clams, prawns and some fresh parsley, and stir gently. During the last 10 minutes of cooking, grill some bread in oven.

Serve in a large bowl with crispy warm bread and enjoy your flavoursome homemade fish soup :)

Squash & Chickpeas Curry (Vegerian & Vegan friendly :) )

This version of a vegetarian curry is one of my favourite, the big chuck of squash and the mix of spices give a delightful texture to the dish and it is super tasty! Finding the perfect balance of spices is actually the tricky bit for me and I learnt it the hard way :) In fact, the first time that I made it I probably used a bit too much of the super strong curry powder that I got from Nepal and I barely tasted the ingredients!

Ingredients:

- half onion
- 1 butternut squash
- 250 g chickpeas
- 400 g chopped tomatoes (canned)
- curry powder
- turmeric
- 200 ml coconut milk
- 100 g spinach
- 150 g mixed cereals (I used brown rice, kamut, spelt and barley).

Finely chop the onion and cook it with a spoon of oil and a pinch of salt until soften. Meanwhile, chop the butternut squash then add it in the frying pan. After a couple of minutes add the tomatoes and a tea spoon of the spices (or more if you like spicy food). Blend half of the chickpeas with a spoon of water then add the mixture to the pan and stir gently then add the rest of the chickpeas. After 10 minutes add the coconut milk, mix altogether and low heat for another 10-15 minutes. Add the spinach leaves just before serving.

Green Dinner

It has been a while since my last post but now it's the time to share some of my simple recipes again. This post is about 3 dishes that we cooked for yesterday dinner.

Starter: Pea & Parsley Soup

 - 500 g petit pois (I used frozen peas)
-  fresh parsley
- 1 onion
- fresh chives
- 4 spring onions
- salt & oil
- 200 g chestnut mushrooms.









Add a couple of spoons of oil (we use rapeseed oil) into a frying pan. Once it's warm, add the chopped the spring onions and the onion with a pinch of salt and cook them (medium heat) until they begin to turn brown and soft.  At this point, add the peas and the parsley and stir gently. Low heat for 15-20 minutes. In the meantime, bring some water to boil and make some vegetable stock. Once the peas are warm, add the broth and blend altogether. I also topped this soup with some chestnut mushrooms and parmesan cheese.

Main: Purple Broccoli Sprouts and Anchovies Penne

- 200 g spelt penne
- 300 g broccoli sprouts
- 50 g anchovies
- half onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 chilli pepper











In a pan, hot cook the oil then add the chopped onion and cook for 5 minutes until tender. Then add the garlic, chilli and the chopped anchovies and stir, low heat for 10 minutes. Bring some water to a boil and cook cook the broccoli sprouts for a 2 minutes. Afterwards, take them out and put the pasta into the same water. Chop the sprouts and add them to the pan. Once the pasta is cooked (put aside some of the cooking water before draining it), mix it with the anchovies and broccoli sauce. If it's too dry, spoon some of the cooking water into the pan and stir gently.

Dessert: Raspberry coulis, Yoghurt and Granola super quick dessert 

We didn't plan to make the dessert properly so we came up with this simple but tasty idea to finish off our dinner with a sweet taste.

- 200 g raspberry
- 200 g greek yoghurt (unsweetened)
- 3 spoons of honey
- granola or seed & nut mix.


Low heat the raspberries with a couple of spoons of water for 5 minutes then strain through a sieve  with a spatula in order to obtain a smooth seedless cream. Let it set in the freezer for 15 minutes. Mix the yoghurt with the honey. Finally, create your own dessert with different layers and textures.

Beetroot and Green Veggies

Greens Soups, Beetroot cream and Chickpeas

For both these recipes you'll need loads of veggies! The green soup and the beetroot are used in different ways.

For the green soup:

- 4 leeks

- 1 courgette

- handful of spinach

- 10 mini potatoes

- basil.

Chop these veggies and boil them for 10-15 minutes. Then drain a bit of water (or put it aside if you want to boil some cereals later for example) and blend altogether adding a few leaves of basil. Add Chickpeas and some beetroot cream (recipe below) before serving.

For the beetroot balls:

- 4 beetroots

- spelt flour

- 1 onion

- ground nuts

- gomasio (if you don't have it, you can grind some sesame seeds with salt).

Preheat the oven at 200 C. Pan fry the chopped onion, once it is saute' add the pre-boiled beetroots. After roughly 10 minutes blend these together, add some ground nuts and salt to this cream and stir gently. In a bowl, mix the beetroot with some flour (~50 g, add more if needed) until the mixture thickens. Make some balls and roll them on gomasio. Once ready, put them in a greased baking tin and bake for 15 minutes.  

Pear & Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
- 200 g chocolate (good quality, 70% cacao)
- 200 g spelt flour
- 2 eggs
- 150 g agave syrup
- ground nuts
- 7-8 ripen pears
- baking powder.

Preheat the oven at 180C. Melt the chocolate in a heated bain-marie. Peel the pears, then slice 3 (for decoration) of them and chop the others. Whisk the egg yolks with the flour and the agave syrup then add the chopped pears. In a separate bowl, beat the whites until they reach a soft peak. Fold the melted chocolate into flour mixture and then add the whites. Mix altogether carefully with the baking powder. Pour this mixture into the baking tin, arrange the pear slices and sprinkle with ground nuts. Bake for 40 minutes.

Vegetarian Spicy Curry (Vegan friendly recipe)

Ingredients:
- half tin of coconut milk
- 4 fresh ripen tomatoes
- 1 large red onion
- 1 tin of black beans
- 1 tin of chickpeas in water
- 250 g chestnut mushrooms
- 300 g spinach
- 100 g of mixed cereal grains (brown rice, kamut and spelt)
- turmeric, cumin, chilli pepper.

Chop the onion, peel the tomatoes and chop them as well. In a saucepan, pan-fry the onion with a spoon of rice oil and after a few minutes add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt, simmer for 15 minutes. In another saucepan, cook the mushrooms. When the tomatoes are cooked, blend it altogether to make your additive free tomato sauce. Pour it in the pan again and add the coconut milk, simmer for 15 minutes with the spices and the chopped chilli pepper. In the meantime boil the cereals. Then add the mushrooms, chickpeas, beans and spinach into the saucepan with the tomato and coconut milk. Gently stir for a few minutes and serve with the cereals.

Blueberry & Pumpkin seeds Muffins

Yesterday evening I realized that I had nothing to eat for breakfast, in the fridge there were just blueberries and one egg so I came up with the quickest recipe to make some muffins (that turned out to be pretty good :) )

Ingredients:
- 250 g spelt flour
- 100 g agave syrup
- 1 egg
- 300 g fresh blueberries
- 4 tbs pumpkin seeds
- baking powder.

In a large bowl, mix the flour with the syrup and the egg (add some milk if it's too thick). Then add the seeds and the baking powder, finally 3/4 of the blueberries. Spoon the mixture in the muffin cases, sprinkle some more pumpkin seeds and top them with the blueberries you have left. Bake for 30 minutes at 180/200C.

Upside-down Pear Cake (Vegan recipe)

Ingredients:
- 10 pears
- 10 dates
- 3 tbs ground nuts
- 200 g spelt flour
- 100 g maple syrup (or Moscobado sugar)
- 2 tbs cinnamon
- 1 tbs ginger.

Peel and chop 9 pears and dates. Simmer them in a pan with a couple tbs of water and spices for 10- 15 minutes. Preheat the oven at 180 C. Grease a cake pan with some oil and sprinkle some flour, this will prevent the pear to stick to the pan. Arrange the slices of the pear that you have left as you prefer and spread some nuts. Blend the cooked pears and dates then pour this puree in a large bowl and mix together with the flour and maple syrup. Spoon this mixture on top of the pear slices trying not to move them. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Once cooked, turn it upside down and sprinkle with some more nuts.

My Veggie Bowls

A warm mix of whole food is all I need in the cold nights but also perfect as packed lunch. They are messy but they are good! If you need ideas here are some of my favourite ones.

Ingredients: 

- 1 pumpkin

- 400 g baby spinach

- 1 red onion

- 200 g Aduki beans

- 100 g mixed cereals (here I used brown rice, spelt & kamut)

- black sesame.

Roast the pumpkin for 20-25 minutes at 200 C. In the meantime, make the soffritto in a pan then add the bean and low heat for 10 minutes. In a large pot, simmer the spinach for a few minutes until it's softened then blend it. Boil the cereals with a pinch of salt and finally create your bowl.

Hummus:

- 250 g chickpeas

- half lemon

- 2tbs sesame seeds

- Sumac.

Blend the chickpeas with half of their water, squeeze of lemon, sesame and salt. Add water if it's too thick. Sprinkle with Sumac.

Ingredients for 2 bowls:
- 120 g of cereal mix (I used spelt, brown rice and barley)
- 5-6 chestnut mushrooms
- 1 pack of asparagus
- 1 pack of stem broccoli
- 300 g spinach
- 1 tin of red kidney beans.

Ingredients for 2 bowls:
- 2 roasted pumpkin
-120 g buckwheat
- 300 g spinach
- 1 red onion
- 3 courgettes
- 1 tin of chickpeas.

Pan fry the chopped courgettes with the onion in the meantime cut the pumpkin and bake for 20 minutes. Add the spinach to the courgettes, cover the pan and turn off the heat. Generally, the buckwheat takes 15-20 minutes to cook. Once everything is cooked and the pumpkin is soft enough, mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

Alternative Bara Brith (Welsh cake)

Every time we go in a cafe' I'm always tempted by scrumptious carrot cakes and bara brith. Bara brith is a typical Welsh cake made with dried fruit and spices. As usual, I tried to personalise the recipe and here the results..whole food style :)

Ingredients:
- 150 g spelt flour
- 100 g plain flour
- 100 g ground nuts mix
- 150 f raisins
- 100 g dates
- 100 g agave syrup
- 1 egg
- 300 ml cinnamon tea (I used the 3 cinnamon tea by Pukka)
- lemon zest
- 2 tbs cinnamon
- baking yeast.

Soak the dried fruit in cold tea overnight (or at least for 3-4 hours). In a large bowl, mix the flour with the ground nuts then beat the egg and add the flour, syrup, lemon zest and cinnamon. Add the dried fruit then the yeast and mix well. Pour the mixture into a bread loaf and bake for 40 minutes at 180 C. For the glazing, I used some apricot jam.

Preparing Breakfast

Follow the link for more breaky-ideas http://natureandtaste.blogspot.co.uk/p/breakfast-pots.html

If you have little time to make a nice breakfast in the morning, why don't prepare it the evening before? :) This is exactly what I'm doing before starting with my dinner.

This one is made with soaked chia seeds, coconut yoghurt, ground nuts and fresh figs.    

I made this bowl with natural yoghurt, mango compote, pumpkin seeds, pomegranate (a pain to peel but it tastes great!) and chia seeds.