nuts

Cashew & sundried tomato spread

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This is  ❤ ❤ ❤

Ingredients

    • 60 g raw cashew nuts
    • 140 g sundried tomatoes (drained, in oil)
    • 3 – 4 small capers
    • 1/4 of tsp garlic
    • salt and lemon juice to taste
    • add water if you prefer it more spreadable
    • bunch of cherry tomatoes
    • olive oil
    • basil leaves to garnish
    • rye crackers

Preparation

    1. Soak cashews for couple of hours, preferably overnight.
    2. Oven roast tomatoes: sprinkle with olive oil and salt. Bake at 200ºC vent for 30 – 40 mins.
    3. Mix soaked cashews, sundried tomatoes, salt, capers, garlic and lemon juice using a food processor.
    4. Serve with rye crackers. Garnish with roasted cherry tomatoes and basil leaves.
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cashew tomato spread

Easter, bread and sunshine

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pleteničke

First really warm spring sunny days made me think of summer. It’s approaching so quickly. Two, three months. I’m counting my days by the pages I’ve written. By the books waiting to be read. A morning. An afternoon. A night. Whole day. Day by day. And one month has past. One month after another. Where have they gone?

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After today’s four hour Easter breakfast at my grans I’ve been wondering why can’t we just have a normal coffee & cereals breakfast… Too much of everything. Except for bread…
The base. The life. Nothing more. Just people to share it. Braids, easter buns and potica. It’s a part of our tradition. And this year I let the real masters in our family do the thing.
I went for something else. Simple. Savory. The best to be shared with the people you love. Bread.

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dough*:

  • 40 g fresh yeast
  • 350 g plain flour T500
  • 150 g wholegrain spelt flour
  • 10 g salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 120 g butter at room temperature
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 150 -170 ml milk
  • 1 egg for egg wash

preparation:

  1. Prepare yeast: crumble the yeast, mix with 50 ml of warm milk and 1 tsp of honey. Let double in size.
  2. Mix both flours and salt. Add the yeat mixture, beaten eggs, butter and the rest of the milk (depending on the flour you will need more or less of it, so add some 100 ml at first and then you’ll see if it needs more). Mix and work the dough. It takes some 8 – 10 mins. It should be very soft, but not sticky. Form a ball and transfer to a bowl sprinkled with flour. Let rise.
  3. Divide the dough in three parts if making three different fillings* (check below). Roll out to about 0,5 cm thick into a rectangle. Spread one of the fillings, leaving aprox 2 cm blank on one side of the dough. Roll. Use sharp knife to cut lenghtwise. Open each side facing up and make a braid. Transfer to a baking tray and let rise.
  4. Meanwhile preheat oven at 220ºC. Before putting the braids into the oven, brush with egg wash. Bake for 10 mins, then turn the tin and bake for another 10 mins. Reduce the heat to 190ºC and bake for aprox another 10 mins.

* this was enough for 3 braids

 

filling*:

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1. Brie & pecans

  • 200 g of brie cut into pieces
  • 3 handfuls of roughly crushed pecans

Sprinkle equally over the dough.

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2. Black olive pesto

  • 250 g pitted black olives
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil

Mix everything into a smooth paste using a food processor.

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3. Sundried tomatoes & mediterranean herbs

  • 200 g sundried tomatoes (from oil, drained)
  • 5 small capers
  • 2 tbsp dried mediterranean herbs
  • 1 big garlic clove

Mix everything into a smooth paste using a food processor.

 

Chocolate pancakes and the best homemade nutella ever

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Woop Woop! Happy new year people!

The end of the year’s been really busy. But the more the end is approaching, crazier it gets. And December has been mad. Studying, visiting Astoria vineyards and Italy (more on that soon with some great local recipes!!), sparkling festival in Portorož, Christmas with my family and NY’s with best people ever!
This year started crazy good 🙂

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And this year also started with snow… So my promise of making a december giveaway winner’s favourite chocolate recipe came in handy. Chocolate pancakes, coffee and white snowy mornings. Perfect.

 

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Chocolate pancakes

Homemade nutella + hazelnut butter

Ingredients:

Preparation:

  1. Heat the oven at 180°C vent. Put the hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast for couple of minutes, until the skins are cracked and darken.
  2. Take out of the oven. Rub the hazelnuts in between two kitchen cloths. The skins should get off easily. Transfer to a blender and pulse until smooth and liquid.
  3. Divide the hazelnut butter in two jars. Here you are: you’ve just made a jar of hazelnut butter. Proceed with the other jar to make nutella.
  4. Melt both chocolates, mix with cocoa powder and add to hazelnut butter. Mix well to combine all ingredients.

Pancakes (makes aprox. 5 – 6 pancakes)

Ingredients:

  • 15 g buckwheat flour
  • 30 g brown wholegrain rice
  • 20 g coconut flakes
  • 25 – 35 g of any milk
  • 9 g butter or coconut oil
  • 1 tsp sweetener of your choice (I used Perfect Fit)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt

Preparation:

  1. Using a coffee grinder, grind wholegrain rice and coconut flakes. Mix all the dry ingredients. Whisk egg and milk, than mix in. Melt butter and add to the pancake mixture. Let rest in the fridge for 15 mins.
  2. Meanwhile,  take chocolate nutella. Place a sheetof baking paper on a cutting board. Make six nutella discs (1 tsp each) and put into the freezer.
  3. Take the pancake mixture out of the fridge. If it’s too thick, add some milk. Take the frozen nutella discs out of the freezer.
  4. Heat the pan to medium, grease with oil and add a tablespoon of pancake mixture. Immediately add a chocolate disc and cover with some more pancake mixture. Repeat with the others.
  5. Eat right away and if desired, add some hazelnut butter.

 

Salad with pear, caramelized walnuts and dressing with roasted garlic

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salad pear

Mid-December and I’ve been living on salads for the whole week now.  I know, not really seasonal…  But it’s probably due to the fact that there is still no snow around here. And also, my body knows very well that there are some difficult days ahead. In terms of holidays and food, of course. I guess, it decided on its own to have a mini detox.

This recipe I picked up a few years ago in some magazine while I was in Canada. Walnuts were obviously caramelised on maple syrup, if anyone’s for an upgrade. Also, a slice of smoked trout or smoked salmon would go nice with it. The trick is, of course, in the dressing. And roasted garlic.

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Salad with pear, walnuts and yogurt dressing with roasted garlic

Ingredients (for 4 persons):

Mixed seasonal salad
2 pears (or apples)
2 handfuls of walnuts
3 Tbsp olive oil
4 tsp sweet paprika
2 tsp agave or maple syrup
½ teaspoon salt
200 ml of plain yogurt
50 g grated Parmesan cheese
5 cloves of roasted garlic (we need a whole garlic*)
juice of ½ lemon
salt and pepper
sliced ​​smoked salmon or trout (optional)

* I recommend to do a bigger quantity of roasted garlic, because it doesn’t reallly make sense to heat the oven just for one. Roasted garlic can be used in salad dressings, on crostinis, as a condiment. Keep it in fridge.

Preparation:

  1. Cut the whole garlic horizontally – all the garlic cloves should have the tops cut off. Place it on a piece of aluminum foil, pour over 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Bent the edges of the aluminium sheet towards the inside. Place it on a baking sheet and bake at 150-160 ° C for about 45 minutes.
  2. Heat the pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When hot enough, add the walnuts. Fry 1 minute, constantly stirring. Pour over the agave or maple syrup, then add the sweet paprika and salt.
  3. Prepare the dressing: using a fork mash 5 cloves of roasted garlic, add yogurt, grated parmesan, juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper.
  4. Cut the pears lengthwise and place on top of the salad. Pour over the yogurt dressing and sprinkle with roasted walnuts.
  5. You can also add slices of smoked salmon or smoked trout, but that’s an option.

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

Falling leaves and comfort food…

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falling leaves

In the morning I took a bike ride down to the city centre. Just like every other day. It was a beautiful day. As I was driving my face was bathing in the sun. But suddenly I could smell winter…  I passed exactly one year off, doing the things I like, focusing on myself, going to parties, meeting new extraordinary interesting people. And then, just before summer, the bubble I was living in, popped and I had to switch all that for a library lamp and a pile of books. I’ve passed them, my first two finals, but the saga continues… I have no idea what happened to this summer, it just went by too quickly. I woke up this sunday and realized that the leaves started falling off. Yellow leaves.

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Big granny’s sweater, warm socks, a cup of tea, more books and this asocial life I was forced into… I was desperately in need of something sweet, warm and comforting. Pies can’t really save the world, but this one did save me and my sunday. And luckily, I managed to save some of the last plums from my parent’s garden.

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Plum pie with walnut rye crust*

* this also works well with apples or pears

Crust:

  • 200 g rye flour
  • 100 g cold butter
  • 80 g ground walnuts or pecans
  • 2 eggs
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 Tbsp agave syrup or honey (or similar)

filling:

  • 750 g very ripe plums
  • cinnamon
  • ½ vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs
  • 50 ml liquid cream
  • 2 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 big Tbsp 100% apricot jam

Preparation:

  1. Dough: mix flour, ground walnuts or pecans and salt. Add cold butter cut in cubes and mix evenly with fingers. Mix 2 eggs and agave syrup or honey, then add to the flour mixture. Mix evenly and form a ball. Warp in plastic foil and let sit in the fridge for an hour.
  2. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out between two sheets of baking paper. Place the dough in the greesed baking tin.
  3. Mix two eggs, add liquid cream, cornstarch and apricot jam.
  4. Pour the egg mixture on the dough, then add plums. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
  5. Bake in vent oven 30 – 35 min at 190°C.

 

Fig galette

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

BBQ season: best dips for roasted veggies

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namazi-4Last weekend was the official barbecue season opening at our house. And we had a good reason for it. We were celebrating the release of a new album of a band my dad plays at. Demolition group. I was growing up with the band and their music, but never considered them like big stars. They were more of a  family. I think it was not until I’ve grown up (hope my dad won’t be reading this. lol) that I realised how significant actually is what they are doing.

It was a lovely day, we had great time and we ate well.

Usually there’s a lot of meat when you organise a barbecue. Luckily I was not the only vegetarian and there was abandonce of meat free dishes. As far as I’m concerned, the best concept for a barbecue is to follow the mezze principle, as I call it. Small, fresh, colorful sides that accompany the main thing, so that everyone is satisfied, veggie and meat lovers. I was thinking, what would go best with grilled vegetables and came up with these three easy and delicious dips:

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Greek yoghurt with lemon, mint and black olive paste 

Ingredients:

  • 1 kg greek yoghurt
  • peel of 5 organic lemons
  • 1 – 2 tsp salt
  • mint leaves
  • 80 g black olives
  • 6 Tbsp olive oil

For this recipe you will need a cheesecloth

Preparation:

  1. Drain greek yoghurt: put cheesecloth into a strainer and place over a large bowl into which you will collect excess water from yoghurt. Pour in your greek yoghurt, put into the fridge for at least a day. The longer it drains the firmer it gets.
  2. The next day, mix drained yoghurt with salt and peel of 4 organic lemons.
  3. Mix olives and olive oil and grind into a paste using a mortar or food processor. You can also leave larger pieces of olives.
  4. Put the lemon yoghurt into a larger bowl, garnish with black olive paste. Grate zest of 1 lemon and sprinkle with fresh mint leaves. Sprinkle with olive oil.
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Chickpea, roasted red peppers and walnut dip

Ingredients:

  • 10 -12 long red peppers
  • 1 can chickpea
  • 2 handfuls of walnuts or pecans
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 6 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 – 2 tsp salt
  • garnish: feta, coriander or parsley leaves, olive oil

Preparation:

  1. Oven roast peppers at 200°C until soft and well grilled. You can also barbecue them. Let cool and remove the skins.
  2. Put skinned peppers, drained chickpeas, walnuts or pecans, garlic, lemon juice, ground coriander and salt into a food processor and mix into a smooth paste.
  3. Garnish with crumbled feta, fresh herbs and sprinkle with olive oil.

 

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White bean and almond butter hummus

Ingredients:

  • 1 can white beans
  • 3 big Tbsp almond butter (you can also replace it with 3 handfuls of almonds)
  • 1 small tsp salt
  • 6 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 3 – 4 Tbsp water
  • ½ garlic clove
  • 1 tsp cumin (Cuminum cyminum) – optional
  • garnish: avocado, olive oil, cranberries or pomegranate, sesame

Preparation:

  1. Make almond butter: you will need at least 400 g almonds. Mix them in a food processor or a blender at highest speed until oils get to separate and grounded almonds turn into a smooth butter. You can substitute almond butter by 3 handfuls of almonds, but the consistency will be less smooth.
  2. Put all the ingredients into a food processor and mix into a smooth paste at the highest speed. Add water according to the thickness you prefer.
  3. Garnish with slices of avocado, pieces of cranberries or pomegranate, sesame and sprinkle with olive oil.

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Be good! Enjoy in sunny days!

DG – U tvojim očima

Chocolate, dried fruits and nuts. And it’s vegan.

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Panforte di Siena: the italian medieval energy bars. That’s what I read somewhere. It really made me laugh and I said let’s give it a try.

Its origins date back to 12th century. It’s a really sweet dessert made with candied fruits, almonds and spices with couple of variations. Traditionnaly, it’s serverd at christmas time. You can read more about it here, but the site’s in italian.

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Christmas or not, my recipe’s an all timer. No sugar, dates and honey instead. Dried fruits and nuts. Some spices and that’s it. Bake it, let it sit 2 or 3 days and you’ve got yourself some yummy energy bars or a great cake to serve along coffee.

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Ingredients:

  • 120 g almonds
  • 75 g unsalted peeled pistachios
  • 75 g roasted hazelnuts
  • 75 g candied orange peel
  • 75 g dried apricots
  • 120 g dates
  • 45 g agave syrup or honey
  • 25 ml vode
  • 230 g chocolate (vegan)
  • 75 g spelt flour
  • 35 g corn starch
  • 30 g coconut oil
  • peel of one orange
  • 1,5 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1,5 tsp ground coriander
  • 3/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp ground red pepper

Preparation:

  1. Preheat oven at 180ºc. Oven roast the hazelnuts for about 10 mins or until golden brown (hazelnut peels should be cracked). Let cool and remove the peels.
  2. In a bowl mix all the nuts, candied orange peels and roughly chopped apricots. Add flour, corn starch and all the spices.
  3. Make date paste by using hand mixer or a mortar: roughly chop dates, than add water and honey. Mix into a smooth paste.
  4. Melt chocolate and coconut oil over a double boiler. When melted, add date paste and orange peel.
  5. Add chocolate mixture to the nuts mixture and combine.
  6. Lin cake tin with baking paper and bake at 180ºc for 20 – 25 mins. Cool down and let sit for 2 – 3 days.
  7. Garnish with dried fruits, nuts, chocolate or cocoa.

 

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

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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.

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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.