main

Autumn, falling leaves and vibrant colours

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

pumpkin-potato-soup-4

The last thing published was some half year ago. I was gone for a while, trying to finish my studies. I was too close to quit, but just couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. That’s when a friend whom I haven’t seen for ages told me “you’ll make it, but you’ll really have to work your ass off this summer.”

I gave up all my hobbies (and of course accidentially got into some new ones) and finished my both masters. I did it. I was happy, but there was a bitter taste of that feeling of time lost. Winter turned into spring, spring into summer, summer into fall. I suddenly had no memory of things that happened in between. I did not feel, I did not see the beauty of the change. I was lost.

Few days ago I was walking down the street and realized that trees have dropped all of the leaves. Looking at the gray misty sky, I felt a soft, colourful, leafy carpet under my feet. I made a deep breath. I could smell winter. And I realized I started to feel myself again.

pumpkin-potato-soup

Sweet potato and pumpkin soup

Ingredients (serves 3 – 4):

  • 1 sweet potato (400g aprox.)
  • 1 big hokkaido squash
  • 2 big shallots
  • 500 ml milk
  • 150 ml cooking cream
  • water or vegetable stock as needed
  • salt, pepper
  • oil for baking
  • nutmeg
  • 400g oyster mushrooms
  • half garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 200g tofu (I used ginger carrot tofu from I Like Tofu)
  • 100g buckwheat noodles
  • fresh parsley
  • pink peppercorns

Preparation:

  1. Preheat oven at 220ºC. Wash, peel and cut sweet potato, squash and shallots. Transfer on a baking tray, sprinkle with salt and oil. Bake until soft (aprox. 40 mins).
  2. When baked, combine all the vegetables, milk and cream and blend until smooth and creamy. If needed, add some water or vegetable stock (depending on the thickness you prefer). Transfer on stove and heat up by stiring. Add some nutmeg, ground pepper and salt, if needed.
  3. Meanwhile, cut tofu and mushrooms. Heat some oil in two seperate pans. Stir fry both separately. Add some salt, pepper and chopped garlic to the mushrooms.
  4. Heat the water and cook the noodles.
  5. Serve the soup in a bowl, topping it with some noodles, mushrooms and tofu. Sprinkle with pink peppercorns and fres parsley leaves.

pumpkin-potato-soup-3

Buckwheat pie with beets and red onion – GF

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

beet pie-2

Buckwheat pie with beets and red onion

Ingredients:
dough:
• 375 g buckwheat flour
• 125 g butter
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
•5 to 6 Tbsp water

filling:
• 4 to 5 red onions
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• salt
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp balsamic glaze (or aged balsamic vinegar)
• 2,5 dl red wine (like cabernet, merlot)
• 400 g raw grated red beet
• 1 big garlic pod
• 3 eggs
• 40 ml cooking cream
• 70 g feta
• fresh thyme
• salt, pepper
• handful of walnuts
• feta, fresh mint and thyme to garnish

Preparation:

  1. Dough: mix flour, salt and baking powder. Add cold butter cut in cubes. Mix evenly with fingers. Add water. Kneed and form a ball. Place in the fridge for at least an hour.
  2. Chop onions. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil, add chopped onions and stir fry for 1 – 2 mins. Add salt and continue stirring. Than add butter and balsamic glaze. Cover for couple of minutes and continue cooking. Start adding the wine, but not all at once. Keep sauteing until wine has evaporated and onions softened.
  3. Grate raw beets. In a big bowl mix grated beets, sauted onions, chopped garlic, eggs and cooking cream. Add feta and thyme. Salt and pepper according to taste.
  4. Take the dough out of the fridge. Roll out in between two sheets of baking paper. Remove the upper sheet of paper and transfer the dough to a pie mold. Bake in preheated vent oven for 5 mins at 190 °C.
  5. Take the dough out of the oven, add the filling and garnish with feta and walnuts in the middle. Put back in the oven and bake for 30 – 35 mins at  190 °C.
  6. When baked, garnish with fresh mint and thyme.

beet pie

This recipe was made for Spar Slovenija and their magazine Dobro zame.

Fig galette

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

fig galette

I’ve been just too busy lately, so I’m leaving you with this. Makes a perfect combo with a glass of cold prosecco. And (I actually can’t believe I’m saying this since it’s like 35ºc outside) is totally worth of heating up the kitchen.

Be good!
Lots of ice cold Prosecco!
And enjoy the summer!

xo

fig galette-3
fig galette-2

Ingredients

crust:

  • 100 g wholegrain spelt flour
  • 50 g butter
  • 40 g ground walnuts
  • 1 egg
  • pinch of salt

filling:

  • 4 – 5 big figs
  • 80 g sheep’s milk cheese
  • 3 Tbsp balsamic glaze
  • salt
  • fresh thyme
  • two handfuls walnuts

Preparation:

  1. Mix flour, ground walnuts and salt. Add cubes of cold butter and mix evenly. Add and egg. Wrap in plastic foil and let sit in the fridge for 30 mins to 1 hour.
  2. Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper.
  3. Cut figs and cheese. Put in the middle of the dough, sprinkle with salt, fresh thyme, balsamic glaze and roughly crushed walnuts. Fold in the dough.
  4. Bake at vent option at 190ºC until cheese is lightly browned (about 20 – 25 mins).

Tabbouleh: there’s never too much mint. Or olive oil.

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

tabouleh-2

I was sitting on my balcony, chilling, looking at my vegetables and thinking what to prepare for lunch. That gorgeous green mint caught my eye and made me think of something… It’s been almost 10 years now, since I visited France for the first time. It must have been then that I’ve fallen in love with it… Anyway, I was staying with a family in Antibes, in the south. Tabbouleh was le plat de resistance. Every day. Every lunch. It was more or less a cous-cous salad with some tomatoes, raisins and mint. To be honest, I was not a big fan. It was something I’ve never had in my life before. But, years pass by and you get wiser… and you travel (now a visit to a local Lebanese is practically a must on all my trips), returning at home, hoping that one day you’ll be able to sit down in an restaurant ordering some hummus, falafels and tabouleh in your home town. And one day when you return, your wish comes true. Mezze.

tabouleh-4
tabouleh-5
tabouleh-3

Tabbouleh comes from Middle Eastern cuisine and is usually served as mezze. It’s fresh, healthy and really easy to make in the summer. The real thing is actually lots of mint and parsley, tomatoes, some onions, sprinkeled with lemon and some bulgur. Yes, sprinkeled with bulgur.

My recipe is a mix of everything. Cranberries and pistachios came across when I was staying in Canada. And bulgur is so much healthier than cous-cous. It’s not that common to use it at our place, but you should definitely be using it more. Bulgur is cracked durum wheat and is considered wholegrain, so rich in fibre and has approx. 10% of protein. It is made by cooking the wheat, drying it, partially removing bran and craking it. This actually means that there is no need to cook it. You can just soak it and drain when soften.

So, serve it with one of these beauties  plus some grilled vegetables. And you’ve got yourself a real feast!

 

Ingredients:

  • 250 g bulgur
  • 350 g cherry tomatoes
  • 2 big handfuls cranberries (or raisins)
  • 150 g salted pistachios in shell
  • 20 g mint leaves or more
  • 15 g parsley
  • 1 small spring onion
  • juice of 1,5 lemon
  • 1 Tbsp aged balsamic vinegar.
  • salt
  • olive oil. lots of it.

Preparation:

  1. Cook bulgur according to instructions. Do not overcook. Let cool completely.
  2. Chop mint leaves, parsley and spring onions. Cut cherry tomatoes in half. Remove pistachios from the shelves and chop roughly.
  3. Add lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and lots of olive oil to cooled bulgur. Mix in pistachios, cranberries, chopped herbs and spring onions. Salt according to taste and mix. At the end mix in cherry tomatoes and serve.

Torta Pasqualina. Kind of.

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

pasqualina

When I asked my friend what I should prepare for Easter, she was like, please do something to use those cooked eggs. I never know how to use them. There’re just too many…

pasqualina-4
pasqualina-2

Torta Pasqualina is a tipical Ligurian Easter dish. Mine is a bit fake. Somewhere in between my quiche recipe and spinach strudel. Normally the recipe uses filo pastry made of flour and olive oil. And there are artichokes, marjoram, onions and of cours lots of grana added to the base. Oh, and usually it’s a round tart. But hey, have fun playing with this one!

pasqualina-3

Ingredients (serves 4):

  • 1 pack puff pastry (rectangular)
  • 2 eggs
  • 100 g ricotta
  • 150 g feta
  • 400 g fresh spinach
  • 1 big garlic clove
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 4 cooked and pelled eggs
  • nutmeg
  • pepper
  • egg yolk/white for brushing

Preparation:

  1. Finely chop garlic clove. Heat one tablespoon of olive oil and quickly saute garlic (be careful not to burn it). When it starts to smell nicely, add fresh spinach. Cook until the most of the liquid has evaporated. Transfer into a strainer. Let cool and drain the excess liquid.
  2. Crumble feta using a fork, than mix with ricotta and eggs. Add spinach, season with nutmeg and pepper.
  3. Roll out puff pastry. Divide it in three parts lenghtwise, but don’t cut in.
  4. Put spinach mixture and cooked and pelled eggs in the middle part.
  5. Diagonally cut 2 cm wide stripes on both outer parts of the pastry.
  6. Fold the left and the right stripe towards the middle and press to stick. repeat lenghtwise to close up the pie.
  7. Brush with egg and bake at 200ºc (ventilation) from 20 to 25 mins.

 

This recipe was created as a part of a project for Spar Slovenija and their magazine Dobro zame.

Oeuf cocotte and gluten free walnut buckwheat bread

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

oeufcocotte-8

Oeuf cocotte, a french classic and probably one of the easiest things to do. I won’s say you don’t need the right technicque to get it cooked to the point where the egg white hardens and the yolk stays liquid, but one way or another, I should have this more often, because it’s soo good and easy to prepare. Choose whatever topping you like, but mushrooms go perfectly with buckwheat.

Gluten free bread is a story on its own… I tried number of recipes, but no matter what flour I used and no matter how much oil I added, it always turned out too dry. So I did my homework and found a solution: psyllium seed husk.

Psyllium seed husk contain soluble and insoluble fibers. It is probably one of the nature’s most absorbant fibers, so this means it will bind all the ingrediends together and will prevent the bread from drying out. Plus, it is really good for digestion.

oeufcocotte

Oeuf cocotte with mushrooms

Ingredients (serves two):

  • 4 eggs
  • 150 g mushrooms
  • 1/3 tsp garlic
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3 Tbsp liquid cream or crème fraîche
  • 1 tsp butter
  • salt
  • pepper

Preparation:

  1. Finely chop the mushrooms. Sautee on a tablespoon of olive oil. When the liquid starts evaporating, add garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook for anothe couple of minutes.
  2. Grease the molds with butter. Add mushrooms and reserve some for garnish.
  3. Add two eggs in each mold, top with some cream and the rest of the mushrooms.
  4. Put the molds into a baking tin filled with hot water that rises to the middle of the molds.
  5. Bake at 170ºc from 6 – 10 mins. Keep an eye on it: ideally the egg white should harden and the yolk should still be liquid.
  6. Season with salt and pepper.

Buckwheat bread with walnuts

Ingredients (makes 4 buns):

  • 70 g buckwheat flour
  • 70 g corn flour
  • 20 g corn starch
  • 12 g fresh yeast
  • 1 tsp honey or agave syrup (for yeast)
  • 20 ml milk (for yeast)
  • 250 – 300 ml milk or water
  • 15 g flax seed
  • 40 g walnuts
  • 25 ml olive oil
  • 20 g ground chia seed
  • 20 g psyllium seed husk
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Preparation:

  1. Prepare the yeast: mix 20 ml of warm milk (not hot), fresh yeast and tablespoon of honey or agave syrup. Let double in size.
  2. In a big bowl mix the flours, corn starch and salt. Add flax and walnuts.
  3. Using a cofee grinder, grind chia (you can also grind psyllium, but that’s optional). Than mix chia, psyllium, olive oil and milk or water. Let soak at least 3 mins.
  4. When the yeast and chia mixture are ready, add both to flour mixture.
  5. Mix with wooden spatula until all ingredients combine. Add flour if too sticky or water/milk if to compact. Keep in mind that psyllium soaks up a lot of liquid. Flour the working surface and kneed into a ball. Dough should be soft, but not sticky. Let rise.
  6. When doubled in volume, knead once again to let rise for the second time. If you prefer little buns, now’s the time to divide the dough.
  7. When second rise is done, cut the crosses on the top of the buns. Bake in preheated oven at 220ºc for 30 – 40 mins. The bread is done when it sounds hollow  if knocked on the bottom side.
  8. IMPORTANT: always put some water into a baking tray underneath the  bread rack to create steam. This is how you will get a moist inside and crunchy crust.

 

This recipe was created as a part of a project for Spar Slovenija and their magazine Dobro zame.

Green pancakes with quick avocado & beet spread – gluten free

/ lolitabopaa / 1 Comment

IMG_0043

I started writing this blog because I wanted to give a healthy twist to those traditional dishes. Of course, since I got diabetes, I was mostly trying to find a neat solution to avoid sugar or at least finding an alternative for it. But in the end, everything is sugar. During digestion the food we eat will eventually turn into sugars. The question is how fast? My answer to this is balance. A meal that’s rich in fiber and protein, not only carbs, will rise your blood sugar level much slower and will make you feel full longer. And protein intake can sometimes be a huge problem for vegetarians. I say chickpea, people!

Chickpea is one of those superfoods for me. It has quite some carbs, to give you the energy, but also lots of fiber and protein. Chickpea flour has around 60% carbs, 20% protein and 15% fiber whereas cooked chickpeas will have round 30% carbs, 9% protein and 8% fiber.

When I first heard of Socca that funny word immediately caught my attention. For a reason. Farinata or Cade, as it is also called, is a chickpea pancake brought from Genoa to south of France, Nice and Toulon to be more precise. It’s a street food and there are some variations between the three, but the basic recipe for socca is:

300 g chickpea flour
500 ml water
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
pepper

The batter is poured into a large iron skillet and than baked in the oven at a really high temperature until golden brown.

So, I mixed a bit and came up with this broccoli chickpea gluten free pancakes, that are way better and certainly way healthier than the regular ones using plain white flour. The batter is less liquid so the pancakes will be slightly thicker, but they sure look nice and make a great contrast with the beet-avocado spread.

IMG_0025_2-2

Ingredients:

for the broccoli chickpea pancakes:

  • 100 g broccoli
  • 75 g chickpea flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 140 ml milk of your choice (I used oat milk)
  • 2 Tbsp oil
  • 1/3 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 garlic clove
  • salt, pepper

quick beet and avocado spread
(or if you have more time)

  • 1 avocado
  • 1 medium size cooked beet
  • 1,5 tsp coriander seed
  • 1,5 tsp cumin seed
  • juice of half lemon
  • salt

tahini sauce (optional):

  • 1 big Tbsp tahini
  • 1Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 – 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 3 – 4 Tbsp water
  • salt

handful of spinach
goat cheese
roasted walnuts or hazelnuts

Preparation:

  1. Put all the ingredients in the blender an mix well. Let rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
  2. Finely grind coriander and cumin seeds.
  3. Using a hand blender mix all the ingredients for the spread.
  4. Bake the pancakes at medium heat in non-stick frying pan of 20cm in diameter until golden brown. Do not expect paper thin pancakes, they should be slightly thicker.
  5. Spread the beet and avocado on half of the pancake, fill with spinach, goat cheese, tahini sauce and some roasted nuts.

Grilled eggplant with sundried tomatoes and pecan goat cheese

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

IMG_2201

This is actually so easy to make that I shouldn’t even be posting it. But I can’t help myself. It looks nice and tastes soo good. Besides, with the abundance of homegrown goods and the lack of time to cook lately, this is a perfect fast food without renouncing great taste.

IMG_2172
IMG_2170

Whether using nuts, walnuts or pecans, it’s really important to oven roast the nuts for couple of minutes. This will give them an amazing crunchy texture and will enhance the nutty flavor which works really nice with goat cheese.

IMG_2197

IMG_2180

Ingredients:

  • 1 eggplant
  • 150 g of soft fresh goat cheese
  • 1 Tbsp of spreadable goat cheese or mascarpone
  • handful of pecans
  • sundried tomatoes
  • fresh thyme
  • extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:

  1. Get the cheese out of the fridge at least 30 mins prior to mixing. Oven roast pecan nuts for couple of minutes. Let cool, roughly chop and mix with both cheeses.
  2. Cut eggplant in 1 cm slices and grill in a pan. Use little oil and cook covered on both sides. There’s no need to fry them in oil.
  3. Assemble eggplant slices and goat cheese, top with sun dried tomatoes, thyme and good amount of high quality olive oil.

Grilled aubergine spinach salad

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

IMG_1238

There’s nothing better than picking up fresh veggies that have grown in your own garden. My mum’s garden is just marvelous. And guess what, this is the first year we’ve succeeded in growing aubergines. And spinach too, comes from the garden.

IMG_1904
IMG_1198

With products like this you should keep it simple. Toss some olive oil over aubergines and grill. If you’re using a pan, there’s a trick. Aubergines are actually like a sponge and require quite a lot of oil. So, instead of soaking them in fat, frying and loosing all the flavors, you can use just about a tablespoon of olive oil and cover the pan while cooking on medium heat. This will allow to cook on the inside. Also very important, seasoning with some salt while cooking will allow to release excess water. After a couple of minutes remove the cover and give them the finishing grill. Set aside, cover and let cool. This will give the aubergines a silky texture without loosing the flavors.

IMG_1247

Ingredients:

  • baby spinach leaves
  • aubergine
  • goat cheese
  • roasted nuts
  • thyme
  • olive oil for cooking
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt, pepper
  • pita bread (optional)

Preparation:

  1. Preheat oven at 200ºc. Roast nuts until they get lightly brown. When cooled crush in a mortar or roughly chop.
  2. Toss some olive oil over aubergines and grill. If using a pan, heat one tablespoon of olive oil and follow instructions above.
  3. When aubergines chilled, assemble salad: fresh spinach leaves and grilled aubergines, topped with goat cheese, sprinkled with roasted nuts and fresh thyme and a good amount of high quality olive oil.
  4. Serve with grilled pita bread.

Creamed spinach pasta with oven baked carrots

/ lolitabopaa / Leave a comment

IMG_1191

I rarely eat pasta. I think it’s because I like the sauce better. So no, this post won’t be about how to make homemade pasta. It will be about fresh homegrown spring greens topped with some colorful goodness.

IMG_1138
IMG_1153

Probably the easiest way to prepare carrots is to toss them in the oven and let it do its work. No matter how good it will look or smell, be patient: roast at low temperature for at least an hour. This will bring out all the sweetness there is in carrots. You will get a sort of caramelized veggies without adding sugar.

IMG_1183

IMG_1375
Swiss chards
Swiss chards

So, I cheat with pasta… wholegrain or buckwheat would be your perfect choice for this dish. At least baby spinach leaves come from my mom’s garden…

For creamed spinach I’m using slovenian fresh cheese called skuta. It’s something special and so far I haven’t found anything similar anywhere ease in the world. It’s similar to cottage cheese, but it’s not. The closest thing to replace it is ricotta. But still, that’s another thing. For me skuta should be categorized under superfood: it has 10 g of protein per 100 g and is really healthy. Without even talking how versatile it is to use: from appetizers to mains to desserts. Anyway, I’ve just bought a new book on cheese making, so as soon I learn how to prepare it, I’ll post it here.

IMG_1186

Ingredients:

serves 2

  • 5 carrots
  • 250 g spinach
  • 2-3 garlic cloves
  • lemon and mountain thyme
  • 4 Tbsp fresh cheese or ricotta (you can also use cream cheese instead)
  • 90 g wholegrain or buckwheat pasta
  • olive oil
  • salt, pepper to season

Preparation:

  1. Cut carrots, sprinkle with olive oil, salt and mountain thyme. Slow roast at 180ºc for about an hour or until softened.
  2. 10 mins before the carrots are ready put pasta on.
  3. Chop garlic really fine. Heat olive oil, add garlic and roast for 30s. Be careful not to burn it, it’s ready when it starts smelling nice. Add spinach and stir to release the water. Season with salt and pepper. Put a bit more salt than you would normally – cheese is not salty at all.
  4. Remove from heath and mix with fresh cheese. If it’s too hot, the cheese will release water.
  5. When pasta is cooked, mix in creamed spinach.
  6. Serve with roasted carrots on top, sprinkled with lemon thyme and some olive oil.