As far as I am concerned, I could savor them in any variant as long as I do not have to prepare them myself! In fact, their preparation requires attention and patience, both departments I am not known to excel at :).

A few weeks ago, on a rainy and cold Sunday, I opened my fridge to find just some lonely vegetables and my favorite goat cheese,  the 100% pure goat cheese from Chavroux.

The goat cheese has a very intriguing airy texture and delicate taste, it’s just perfect to enjoy as a spread on bread, or even just with a spoon. Being in the mood for cooking and experimenting I decided to integrate it into a new dish mixing it with a small quantity of the pure goat cheese to add extra flavor.  

Remembering the success of my zucchini fritters it was not difficult to come up with a recipe that combines zucchini with the creamy and melt-in-the-mouth texture of the cheese.

The difficult part was getting ready to fry. I do not like frying. Not-at-all. But can one achieve a mouth-watering contrast between a crisp, lightly browned surface and the delicacy of cheesy inside?

As a compromise between the two schools of thought (baking versus frying), I opted for shallow fry so I cooked my “fritters” in oil with a depth that reaches about a third of their thickness with the fritters still touching the bottom of the pan all throughout.

What I ended up with, in the end, is something delicious halfway between a fritter and a pancake. I served them warm on a leafy fresh salad coming up with a dish still “fresh” and light. Tasty and fragrant, crispy on the outside and melting inside with the goat cheese heart. They won me over at the first bite.

They were originally thought as an appetizer but I quickly changed my mind after a few bites. I could not stop eating them! I recommend to serve them perhaps after a soup and together with a fresh salad in order to make a complete main course out of them (just serve at least 3 fritters per person, in this case).

I might have created a no conflict fritter recipe for my family! I’ll be soon heading back home to Italy and I look forward to put the recipe to the test at a family dinner. In the meantime, if you try the recipe I would love to hear your opinion. 

Thanks to Chavroux for sponsoring this tasty recipe.

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Not your conventional traditional Italian gnocchi recipe. Still these flavourful dumplings have the right consistency of gnocchi and a hint of tofu taste that makes the dish stand apart from any other gnocchi.

When it comes to gnocchi it is all about consistency, not too chewy, not too gummy nor dry. To avert a disaster, tofu must be as firm as possible otherwise you will end up adding too much flour and alter the consistency. I used the Organic original Cauldron tofu, free from genetically modified ingredients and easy to find here in the UK.

It’s the same old gnocchi story, except that it is easier to make because there are no potatoes to boil but just tofu to blend in a food processor together with flour.

Why tofu gnocchi? I love potatoes – how could I not love them? – but I wanted to make a less explored recipe (I could not find online any “convincing” one) and less carb heavy. Honestly, I was far from sure the tofu would blend in as well as potatoes and I’m happy to report the outcome totally exceeded my expectations!

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Cavolo nero is a a loose-leafed cabbage from Tuscany. Even though it is believed that it originates in my country, Italy, I am not very familiar with its intense flavour and wouldn’t be able to prepare any cavolo nero-based Italian traditional dish. I found it in my fridge (bf is very much into healthy stuff) and had to come up with a recipe that was not a Tuscan soup (as you might already know Italians do not eat soup when it’s hot)

I had a few doubts in mixing cavolo nero and ricotta, not knowing how the two ingredients stick together. I added an egg to play safe, although I have to say the very firm Cypriot ricotta I bought in Waitrose did a great job in binding and keeping everything together.  After a few seconds in the food processor, the mixture reached already the perfect consistency to make patties without effort. Depending on the type of ricotta you use, you may need to add more breadcrumbs.

I had no doubts on why I “had” to eat cavolo nero. First, it happened to be already in my fridge, second this brassica vegetable is among the most antioxidant-rich foods on Earth. The antioxidants in Tuscan black kale destroy free radicals, which are better known as the enemy number one in this battle against aging we are all in.

And the taste?

Intense, a bit on the bitter side. Cavolo nero does not play marginal roles. If you are not a fan of kale-like and dark leaf green taste, I would recommend reducing the amount of cavolo in favour of more ricotta (which should not be soft or runny!).

Have you ever had cavolo nero? What recipes have you made with it?

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I’m excited to show you a simple dish that is very popular in the Italian region where I was born and raised, Campania.

Freselle, a rough, dried, whole-grain handmade bread baked twice. You should be able to find in all good Italian grocery shops outside of Italy and in most Italian “panetterie” and supermarkets in Italy – especially in the south.

They are typically made of white flour but the ones I enjoy the most and you see in these pics are made of whole wheat flour. They are shaped like a large disk with a hole for a practical reason: in the past they were tucked in a rope that was then knotted to form a necklace. Easy to hang, transport and store. A “traveling bread” that fishermen used to bathe in seawater and consume during their long fishing trips.

I love freselle because they are incredibly tasty, especially when seasoned with extra virgin olive oil. Also they make a quick, healthy, low fat meal. In Naples we use it as a “base” for salads, here I’m showing you a freselle recipe that is very popular in my family (especially in summer time): freselle with beef tomato and cannellini bean salad.

If you manage to find freselle please give them a try and do not forget to soften them in cold water. They deliver the taste of southern Italy, where simplicity and freshness is key to any meal.  Also feel free to enrich the salad with whatever veggies you have on hand. My variant includes red bell peppers. I did not ask for permission in Italy before adding the peppers but I am confident my mum would approve it :).

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Something happened today that reminded me of my blog. Something told me “you’ve got a blog, girl!”. I don’t know precisely what but I have the feeling that has something to do with me feeling relaxed again. With having time to cultivate and hobby, with not feeling stressed.

Since I wrote my last blog post where I declared to the world that I was (kind of) back to blogging I changed job, city, home… I almost changed everything (not my love for thai soups, obviously)  but it still feels like I need some “more change”, more challenge, more drive to become a healthier and active person. Changing job and city is really nothing when compared to what I would really like to change in my life (like this couch potato and lazy status where I hardly ever cook during the working days).

Let’s start from a soup, the most flavourful of the soups. The Queen Soup. Because I had to prepare this myself, leave the bed to go grocery shopping, this soup it’s a good starting point in my journey to a more active lifestyle. Even more so if you consider that I wiped the beads of sweat while slurping eating it. So hot and spicy and flavourful.

Whatever it reminded me of my blog today, it’s a pleasure to be back and, because homemade food is almost always better than store bought or restaurant food, the perfect step towards a better diet and healthier food.

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I’m not even sure that I’m back, back for real. I’m here, now, after a long pause and it feels right. At last. Moving to a new country to start a full time job made me a even lazier person at the beginning.

I’m adjusting to new rhythms and new seasons (which is winter all year long. I live in Ireland, folks!), I’m trying to defeat indolence by attending fitness classes and now even writing my blog again. One step at a time, as wise people say.

I never wondered why I had to keep this blog running, never questioned the reasons beyond any post. It had to be done, it had to be written, as a sort of practise for more discipline and sense of achievement.

Despite this lack of purpose, I was demanding too much from it and, more specifically, from my never-good-enough food photography. I was going after numbers to see if I could reach that pool of visitors many bloggers claim to attract.

Let me say, I’m done with this. If I come up with something good that’s worth sharing I’ll be happy to bring it to life here. Stress-free blogging.

Ladies and gentlemen, veggies+Soba is “clean eating” par excellence! So I’m starting from soba, real 100% buckwheat soba. I make a very simple and elegant dish with these very peculiar Japanese noodles. It’s quick, healthy, fulfilling and makes me feel “clean”. Maybe it also symbolises my new blogging life. No fancy claims.

p.s. In less than a month I’ll be in Japan for a couple of weeks of much needed holidays. I plan to eat everything local and weird. Any recommendations?

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Now that I have a full time job I have to make sure I get all the nutrients and vitamins the my body and mind need to function at the best. Didn’t I need these things before? Yes, but now it’s “different”. On a standard day I have to survive quite a few (read MANY, TOO MANY) meetings and if I eat the wrong meal (the one that my body doesn’t process easily such as everything prepared in the canteen of the company I work for) I make myself fall into sleep mode. I still haven’t figured out how to answer complicated questions while I am secretly in standby. Meh.

Any tip on how to get enough energy and strength to go through a meeting straight after lunch? Chia Seed could make the trick. Wouldn’t this be an excellent meeting energizer? I think so.

I already tested the ability of this seed to provide sustainable energy by replacing my boring oatmeal with the delicious and light “Chia seed and oat porridge” pictured here.

Just so you know, 1 ounce (28 grams) serving of chia seeds contains:

• Fiber: 11 grams.
• Protein: 4 grams.
• Fat: 9 grams (5 of which are Omega-3s).
• Calcium: 18% of the RDA.
• Manganese: 30% of the RDA.
• Magnesium: 30% of the RDA.
• Phosphorus: 27% of the RDA.

Healthy stuff and hopefully a solution to my daytime somnolence at work. We’ll see…

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What a strange thing it is that my favorite pancakes are gluten free. Strange because I have nothing against gluten. Quite the contrary. I don’t like trends on nutrition: I don’t understand why people without a real intolerance to gluten turn to gluten-free as a solution to their nutrition issues.  A good point about this has been made by Howie in his post “Does a Gluten Free diet help you lose weight?“.

My opinion is that going gluten free is only necessary if you are intolerant or sensitive to gluten and should not be confused to a low carb diet.  Sure, eliminating gluten may cut out lots of carbs from your diet, but: 1) you don’t need to go gluten-free to reduce the amount of carbs and 2) if you switch to “gluten-free” foods like pasta and bread you will not control weight or carbohydrate intake since these products are often packed with a similar amount of carbohydrates as the wheat based products.

Take for example these extra delicious pancakes embedding Chia seeds, soaked in agave and topped with natural yogurt, coconut, grapes. They are a gluten free treat in my non-gluten free diet and they can be considered “healthier” only because they are more nutritious that the ones made with wheat flour. Sadly enough, their are not going to make me slimmer.

p.s. To make oat flour you need to use a grinder. Bear in mind that the consistency of the batter is likely to change while you are cooking the pancakes (oat and chia seeds will absorbs the liquid making the batter denser), hence add some water when needed.

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Long time no see. I’m still in Ireland, friends, and I am aware that I must share a recipe with you before you start forgetting about me.

Or before the effect of this crazy coffee I just sipped ends, leaving me again incapable of writing. Have you tried it yet? Have you given in to the new drinkable hype from trendy Cali? Hot buttered coffee, I am speaking about.

Now, because I unpretentiously threw in the blender butter and freshly brewed coffee I feel like raising again my blogging voice and bringing back to life this recipe I prepared two weeks ago or so.

The time to discuss the coffee+butter matter has not arrived yet. This quiche I made with wholewheat homemade pastry and cauliflower rice, zucchini, pepper and feta deserves a few words. It’s super good, can’t you see it? I had never made cauliflower rice before this quiche. True story: I didn’t have the right kitchen tool for it.

You probably know already this magic of cauliflower turning into grains as big as rice cannot happen without a food processor. Surely the making of this pie crust would not be as easy and quick either. What you don’t know is that since I bought a food processor I feel I have reached peak comfort levels in my life.

I got a job and bought a food processor and if you cannot see the link between the two events I’m happy for you because this means you have never been a penniless PhD student owing a blender that can only give you soups and smoothies.

But that’s a different story…

Time to concentrate on reading those unbelievable blog posts my fellow bloggers have published while I was off. I’ve got something like 90 posts in the archive and, hopefully, enough buttered coffee in my veins to go through them all.

Have you ever tried buttered coffee? If so, how did you make it though the night? Do you know what it means being a blender owner when all the recipes you want to make call for a food processor, instead?

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Has spring arrived in your town already? Is spring embracing you with its warmth and colors?

Here things are pretty green all year long, I must say, but also rather wet and dull in the winter so it is just great to be finally able to soak up the sun. Some sun.

Speaking of spring, what fresh ingredients is this lovely season bringing to you? I must admit I have no idea of what is in season now.

I surely know oranges belong to the winter. Maybe, as a food blogger, I should not admit my ignorance so openly. I have an excuse though: the lack of local markets in the city where I just moved in, makes it impossible to keep track of seasonal foods. There is so much land and green around me but no farmers to offer their fresh produce. Meh.

So off I go to Sainsbury’s where almost everything is perpetually in season. Reminiscent of my recent holiday in Spain where I tasted the most delicious orange ever, I bought a Hartleys Orange Ma Made Thin Cut Homemade marmalade, which contains Seville Bitter Oranges (75%), Water, Citric Acid and Pectin.

Citric acid is used to prevent bacterial colonization of foods and sometimes as a flavoring agent, Pectin is a thickening agent that also occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables. While citric acid is neither good or bad for you, pectin provides a soluble dietary fiber that can be beneficial. For all this reasons I decided to give this sugar-free product a go and made a marmalade according to my sweet tooth needs.  It’s my first honeyed marmalade in my new super cute Denby breakfast bowl :).

I am cherishing the idea of riding a bicycle, hence burning fat rather than oil (I already ordered a mountain bike on Amazon). I am not sure how far my two wheels will take me, hopefully far enough to discover markets :).

Are you a bicycle lover? I could definitely use some beginner riding tips!

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