GOOD FOOD

Stewed Rhubarb with Walnut-Coffee Crumbs

2013-06-20T16:29:00.000+03:00

The recipe I'm about to share is a beautiful healthy dessert and I'm sure it can become one of your favourites, too. It's really quick and easy to make, requires ingredients availavle in any kitchen and tastes like heaven, what more can you dream of?

Not only can you serve the dish as a dessert but also add to your granola, yoghurt or toast for breakfast and even serve with roasted meat.

Here you have sour rhubarb balanced by honey or maple syrop and spiced with ginger, and walnut-coffee crumbs are a wonderful rough addition which makes the whole dish perfectly composed. Definitely a must-try, beautiful light dessert.

Ingredients (serves 2):

4 rhubarb stalks about 25-30 cm length

2 tablespoons honey or maple syrop

1 tablespoon olive oil

5 walnuts

1 teaspoon good-quality ground coffee

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

a pinch of nutmeg

optionally yoghurt, granola or toasts to serve

Directions:

Wash your rhubarb and cut the stalks into 5 cm length pieces. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a pan over low heat and add rhubarb. Stir for half a minute and add honey or maple syrop, half a teaspoon ginger, half a teaspoon cardamom and a pinch of nutmeg. Cover with water (you will need 100-150 ml), cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Now remove the lid and let simmer for 5 minutes over medium heat: half of the liquid will evaporate and you will get tender spicy rhubarb in a thick sauce.

Meanwhile grind the walnuts into crumbs in a blender adding to them a teaspoon groud coffee and 1/2 teaspoon ginger.

Serve the rhubarb over yoghurt, granola or toasts, garnish with these walnut-coffee crumbs and enjoy, your lovely healthy dessert is ready!

Beautiful Roasted Fennel and Garlic Soup

2013-06-13T16:58:00.000+03:00

Being a huge fan of garlic I had been willing to make a simple roasted garlic soup for months and couldn't make myself just go and do it putting it off and off. Until I thought that roasted garlic could make a nice pair with fennel - both are rather sweet and creamy when roasted, and the idea looked so interesting that I made this soup almost immediately.

No surprise, the dish turned out to be incredible! No milk, just veggies and a little bit of olive oil - and you get such a beautiful tender creamy texture that you can hardly believe the soup is actually so light and simple! This one definitely goes into my favourites list!

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 garlic heads (about 35 cloves), cloves washed but unpeeled

2 garlic heads (about 35 cloves), cloves peeled

1 fennel bulb (about 200 g)

2 yellow onions

10 green olives, unpitted

a good pinch of nutmeg

1 bay leaf

300 ml boiling water

good quality extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F.

Wash and cut your fennel into equal segments and place them into a baking tray.

Add washed and unpeeled garlic cloves to the fennel, season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and generously drizzle with good quality olive oil. Toss well, cover with foil and place the tray into the oven for 40 minutes.

In 40 minutes put the tray out of the oven and let the vegetables cool a bit. Meanwhile heat a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat, thinly slice 2 onions and add them to the pan along with peeled garlic cloves. Add a bay leaf and a good pinch of nutmeg and cook stirring occasionally until the onions soften for about 10 minutes.

When our baked vegetables become cool enough to handle squeeze garlic cloves and add the mass along with fennel to the pan. Add 300 ml water, bring to the boil, turn down the heat, cover with a lid and let simmer for 10 more minutes.

Transfer the soup to the bowl of your blender and puree. Season with more sea salt and black pepper if needed.

Take 10 green olives, smash them, pit and chop finely.

Pour the soup into the bowls, add a couple tablespoons chopped olives into each bowl, drizzle with some more good quality extra virgin olive oil and serve. This is a beautiful creamy vegetable soup, absolutely light and healthy, you will love it.

Bon Appétit!

Best Snacks Ever: Crispy, Tasty and Healthy

2013-06-11T19:26:00.000+03:00

This recipe adapted from My New Roots is my personal food revolution concerning snacks, healthy foods, fast foods and joy of food at the same time.

When you deside to switch to wholesome foods - no matter how you do it, of your own free will or by force - the first thing you have to do is to give a lot of things up. You give up chips, sausages, mayo, cookies and other prosessed foods and this is so hard mentally - on one day to review all your habits which you developed during your life. It's sad and it's logical that you indulge from time to time and your weight goes up and down and you finally face the necessity of starting over or at least another completing the steps that you have already once completed. All right, here is where I stop talking the sad stuff because I am going to write about the victory of health over useless snacks without prejudice to taste and even to texture!

My advice when switching to healthy foods is not to give anything up but to add healthy wholesome foods to your shopping list. The right grains, green smoothies, organic vegetables and fruits will redirect your body to a completely new healthy way of life and finally on one day you will sipmly stop craving for this fat burger and those sugary pancakes. If only I was given a bag of these healthy snacks when I just desided I wanted to be healthy and beautiful both inside and outside! How easier and happier my way could be!

Ok, these are definitely the healthiest snacks ever. The base is brown rice, quinoa and flaxseeds. The rest is natural flavourings that can be whichever you want: herbs, poppy seeds, olives, nuts, onion, garlic, chia seeds, etc. My favourite is ground cumin: the snacks with this flavour taste exactly like falafel-flavoured Israeli "Bissli" snacks - awfully chemical small "cookies" which I adore to my shame but absolutely can't eat because of my clean stomach :) No more rancid oils, modified potatoes and questionable starches!

I am also posting this as a part of the monthly link up party Our Growing Edge, an event aimed to connect food bloggers and inspire us to try new things. This month is hosted by Chandler from The Chef With The Red Shoes.

And now I will be happy to share with you this simple but wonderful and necessary recipe!

Best Snacks Ever

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

1 cup boiled brown rice (I had a mixture of brown and wild rice)

1 cup boiled quinoa

1/4 cup raw sesame seeds

1/4 cup flaxseeds

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

Toppings and flavourings: walnuts, dried paprika, dried basil, chia seeds, hemp seeds, garlic, ground cumin

Directions:

Cover your flaxseeds with 1/2 cup boiling water and set aside for 15 minutes. Meanwhile toast sesame seeds in a pan to open their flavour.

In a bowl of your blender mix rice, quinoa, flaxseeds with their liquid, salt, balsamic vinegar and olive oil and blend them all together.

You may blend the mixture into a smooth dough or you can leave the texture of the ingredients - it will not affect the taste. The aim is to get a rather viscous and sticky mixture. In the end you'll just have to add toasted sesame seeds and mix without blending.

And now begins the creative part: you choose the toppings and flavours and start to roll the dough. If you are using some ground spices or herbs (like I used paprika, basil and cumin) then you first have to mix the flavour into the dough, and if you use a topping (like nuts, garlic and various seeds) then you just roll the dough and then top with what you want and press a little to let it stick to the base.

To roll the dough you will need to place it between 2 sheets of non-sticking parchment paper. Roll it into a very thin layer, then remove the upper sheet of paper and with a knife score the dough into the shapes of your future snacks.

This time I had 7 different flavourings and took 2 heaped tablespoons dough for each of them.

Bake the snacks at 170ºC for 25-30 minutes until golden and crispy. If the edges are already done while the middle pieces are not - just remove the cooked ones and return the rest to the oven until done. Cool the cooked snacks and break them into separate pieces.

Hereby you get absolutely guilt-free snacks with great health benefits of brown rice, quinoa, flaxseeds and your chosen toppings. You can eat these while keeping any diet, sticking to healthy foods and even once a week during detox! You can eat them in the evening and not be afraid to gain weight, you can take them with you to the country side, for a trip, for a walk and for work as a healthy snack! And it's so easy to vary the flavours depending on your personal taste!

Basil-flavoured snacks get a traditional Italian hint, snacks topped with chia or hemp seeds are the richest sources of health benefits, walnuts give a very mild and pleasant sweet taste.

Snacks with paprika are the most beautiful due to their bright red color, snacks with garlic are the most "brutal" ones for those who like it hot, cumin-flavoured snacks remind of Mediterranean cuisine.

No matter what flavour or topping you choose - you get a beautiful crispy texture which will make you forget about store-bought crackers made of white flour and chips in unhealthy oil. You have to definitely try these ones and this will make a huge step forward to your new healthy life!

Green peas, chickpeas and a lemon

2013-06-10T13:09:00.002+03:00

I have a folder of nice pictures of a regular but lovely dinner that I made some time ago. This is not a super creative recipe or a brand new combination of flavours but it tastes really really good and I would love to share it with you - perhaps it will inspire you to make something like this and have a pleasant time with your family!

Green peas, chickpeas and a lemon

Ingredients (serves 4):

1,5 cups green peas (fresh or frozen)

1,5 cups boiled or canned chickpeas

1 big red onion

1 bunch flat-leaf parsley

1 big lemon

olive oil and sea salt

Directions:

Heat a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat and add roughly chopped parsley.

In a minute add green peas, squeeze over the whole lemon, add a couple tablespoons water, bring to the boil and cover with a lid turning the heat down to minimum.

In a couple of minutes add thinly sliced red onion and chickpeas, some sea salt, turn the heat up and stir for a few minutes until the onion is soft and the chickpeas are warm.

This is it, a lovely, quick and easy to make delicious dish is ready!

Tender and Spicy Green Soup

2013-05-23T09:51:00.000+03:00

What I love about a plate of beautiful light soup is that everyone can choose their way of eating it. If you want to be filled for long then take a bun or add croutons and enjoy, if you need a light dinner - eat it just as it is and find pleasure in the lightness inside your body while it gets all the goodness from the vegetables. To my mind, an ideal choice for a late dinner!

Ingredients (serves 2):

4 celery stalks

1 yellow onion

1 green bell pepper

5 big handfuls of spinach

2 garlic cloves

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried mint

1 l water

cream or coconut milk (optional)

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Boil water in a pot and add sea salt to your taste. You will need 1-1.5 l water - you can boil 1.5 l, cook your veggies and before blending the soup pour out excess liquid not to have your puree too thin.

Chop your celery, onion, bell pepper and spinach and add them to the pot. Cook the vegetables over medium heat covered with a lid for 15 minutes until they soften.

Turn off the heat, add 2 whole garlic cloves and blend your soup - raw garlic will give it a nice contrasting hot note.

Pour the soup into the plates, add some cream or coconut milk if you want, sprinkle with some more freshly ground black pepper and enjoy!

Gorgeous Roasted Broccoli with Tahini Dip

2013-05-13T08:20:00.000+03:00

People who just start eating healthy or do not eat healthy at all use to complain that greens are so untasty and empty in the taste that they will never be able to eat them with pleasure. To this I have a permanent response - with a good dip you can eat anything! Literally, anything. Start playing with dips and after a couple of months your body will ask for vegetables itself. You will discover their genuine taste and there is no doubt - you will love them.

Another tasty tip of cooking vegetables is roasting them. We are all used to see carrots, cabbage, onions and other gorgeous veggies in a soup, and most of the time - I'm sure - it's an over boiled soup, there is no surprise no one would love to eat those. My advise is to start with roasting - it's incredible how widely the taste of vegetables opens up when you put them in the oven.

Today's recipe combines both these tips - we have a beautiful dip and roasted broccoli. Tahini dip is an awesome way to enrich any vegetable dish. It's rather fatty but it contains only useful unsaturated fats, tahini itself is one of the top 10 fatty but necessary products for human body. So I promise, it's vegetable and it's tasty.

Gorgeous Roasted Broccoli with Tahini Dip

Ingredients (serves 2):

For broccoli:

1 medium broccoli head

10 garlic cloves

olive oil

sea salt

toasted sesame seeds for garnishing (optional)

For tahini dip:

1 heaped tablespoon tahini paste

2 garlic cloves

60 ml water at room temperature

juice of half a lemon

1 teaspoon sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200ºC.

With the tip of your knife cut off the smaller stalks of broccoli from the larger central stalk, remove whole florets and then slice them into same sized pieces for even cooking.

Peel and wash the garlic cloves and add them to broccoli.

Toss the vegetables with some olive oil and sea salt and lay on a baking tray.

Roast your broccoli and garlic for 25 minutes.

To make tahini finely chop your garlic and mix it with all the other ingredients. Done!

Lay roasted broccoli and garlic on plates, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and drizzle with tahini. Put the bowl with tahini dip beside and dig in!

Warm Lentils and Brussels Sprouts Salad

2013-05-07T12:27:00.001+03:00

I made this salad yesterday for dinner, it was something like taking everything what was left in the fridge and mixing it all together in a bowl. And when I tasted it I couldn't believe I made it just like that - it was so tasty and delicious and tangy I hardly resisted having another plate!

The biggest trick here is a combination of cilantro and balsamic vinegar. It gives such a strong tangy taste - very much sour still live and green, it's just fantastic, you should definitely try it. It goes perfectly with a harsh flavour of roasted Brussels sprouts and mild green lentils. And in addition to a wonderful taste it's a smart balanced meal - you get proteins from the lentils and priceless dietary fiber from the vegetables and greens. Ok, run to the kitchen!

Warm Lentils and Brussels Sprouts Salad

Ingredients (serves 4):

400 g Brussels Sprouts

3 cups cooked green lentils

a bunch of cilantro

a little bigger bunch of flat-leaf parsley

1 red onion

balsamic vinegar

extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Wash and cut your Brussels sprouts in halves, toss them with some olive oil, lay on a baking tray, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and place in the oven for 25 minutes until they become tender.

Thinly slice your onion, chop the greens, add about 1 teaspoon sea salt and mix together all ingredients in a bowl.

Generously dress the salad with balsamic vinegar, add a little olive oil for a milder flavour and serve.

Bon Appétit!

Three Reds Quinoa

2013-04-30T16:09:00.000+03:00

This is a classic risotto inspired recipe - the way of cooking quinoa here is based on risotto-making technique. I have a tendency and permanent desire to make everything more useful and healthy and this time it's risotto. I love risotto with its creamy texture and cheesy flavour but white rice is such a useless kind of food - I guess you can compare it with only fried potatoes!

So, I took quinoa. It's like a habit to me: if you don't know what to use - use quinoa! I took red quinoa. And dry red wine and red slow roasted tomatoes. And it became a Three Reds Quinoa. Delicate creamy taste and pure pleasure!

Three Reds Quinoa

Ingredients (serves 2):

1 cup dried quinoa

1 celery stalk

10 cm length piece of leeks

100 ml dry red wine

a handful of slow roasted tomatoes

1-2 handfuls of grated Parmesan

500 ml warm vegetable stock

extra virgin olive oil and sea salt

Directions:

Wash and rinse your quinoa and set aside.

Finely chop the celery and thinly slice your leeks. Heat some olive oil in a pan and add chopped vegetables. Cook stirring occasionally for 10 minutes over low heat - the veggies should soften but not color.

Now add quinoa to the pan and turn the heat up. Stir constantly for a minute and add the wine. When harsh alcohol flavours evaporate the quinoa will start to smell fantastic.

After the wine has cooked into quinoa start adding vegetable stock. Add it little by little taking 1 ladle of liquid at a time and letting it incorporate into quinoa. Continue adding the stock until quinoa is cooked. You might have some stock left, it depends and is totally fine.

When quinoa is almost done add roughly chopped slow roasted tomatoes and a handful or two of grated Parmesan depending on how creamy you want your dish. Stir well and take the plates.

Serve quinoa topped with a little more Parmesan and drizzle with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.

Bon Appétit!

Quinoa Vegetable Rolls

2013-04-29T11:39:00.000+03:00

The recipe I am going to share with you today is like most of my recipes totally adjustable to one's taste. Quinoa vegetable rolls are a gorgeous light still filling meal for detox time and you can choose any of your favourite veggies and even substitute quinoa with rice (brown, of course) and make the rolls in a more traditional way. My choice of vegetables is the simpliest - these can be found in anyone's fridge in any season. Feel free to adjust and please yourself with a beautiful lunch!

Quinoa Vegetable Rolls

Ingredients (serves 2):

For marinade:

4 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons honey or brown sugar

2 teaspoons fine sea salt

a slice of raw beet (optional)

For rolls:

3/4 cups dried quinoa

1 carrot

1 beet

1 celery stalk

1 cucumber

10 cm length piece of leeks

a handful of spinach

7-10 cm length piece of ginger root

3 nori sheets
sea salt

Wasabi soy sauce for serving

Directions:

First step is to prepare the marinade.Whisk together white wine vinegar, water, honey or brown sugar and sea salt, devide the mixture into 2 halves and set one aside for dressing our quinoa.

Thinly slice the ginger root, mix it with a bit of sea salt and set aside in a colander for 5-10 minutes to let the juice out. After that rinse the ginger thoroughly and squeeze the rest of the liquid out of it. Now put the pieces into the marinade and place them in the fridge until everything else is ready. You can optionally add a piece of raw beet to the marinade and it will color the ginger pink. I like to make half of the ginger colored pink and leave the other half naturally yellow, it brightens up the whole dish even more!

Cook quinoa in unsalted water and when done dress it with the rest of the marinade. Set aside to cool.

Cut your veggies really thinly lengthwise.

When all the ingredients are prepared take a sushi mat, place it on the table with the slats lying horizontally and place a nori sheet on it with its shiny side down. Put a thin layer of quinoa over the side of the nori sheet closest to you. Put the veggies over quinoa and start to roll picking up the edge of the sushi mat closest to you, tucking it up and pulling it carefully to form a beautiful roll.

Repeat the same with the rest of quinoa and nori sheets, you may have some veggies left depending on how tightly you "pack" your rolls.

Using a really sharp knife cut small rolls and place them on a plate or a serving board. Remember to clean the knife after you cut every other piece of roll - it will make the cutting easier and the rolls neater.

Serve with pickled ginger, soy sauce and wasabi and enjoy!

Beautiful Raw Detox Salad

2013-04-09T11:19:00.000+03:00

I am not a vegan or a raw food eater, I enjoy weekend meals with meat and bread much but I love sometimes to stick to their principles for just a meal or for a couple of days. To start a morning with a beautiful green smoothie for a full of energy day or to have a plate of raw greens and sprouts for dinner after a hard day - it's always so good for your body!

Yesterday I cooked a lovely light detox salad for dinner - greens, veggies and a light dressing are a perfect meal for a detox menu. If you deside to go detox - bookmark this recipe, it's absolutely beautiful!

Raw Detox Salad

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 handfuls baby spinach

1 raw beet

1 carrot

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 grapefruit

1/2 cm thick ginger root

1 teaspoon za'atar

a pinch of curcuma

extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Squeeze the juice out of your grapefruit into a bowl. Finely grate the ginger root and add it to the juice. Peel and thinly slice the beet and shave the carrot to have really thin, almost transparent slices of veggies. Place them into the bowl with juice and add a pinch of curcuma. If you are using a red beet it will color the carrot, so if you want your carrot to stay orange simply use 2 separate bowls. Set aside to marinate while preparing everything else.

Lighly toast sesame seeds in a pan to open their flavor. Mix them with za'tar and set aside.

For the dressing mix extra virgin olive oil with a little of liquid in which your veggies are marinating. I took the liquid from the carrot bowl again not to color everything red. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper, taste and if necessary adjust the quantities of ingrediens used. Classic proportions are 3 parts oil to 1 part acid but you are certainly free to adjust to your taste.

Mix your spinach with lightly marinated veggies, sprinkle with sesame seeds and za'atar and dress the salad. This is a gorgeous meal for a detox day - light and full of vitamins and diet fiber.

Beets are extremely good for detox: the beta cyanin cleanses your liver and helps your body to eliminate toxins which will prevent you from building-up excess fatty deposits if you eat raw beets regularly. Carrots are greatest antioxidants ever, they have a huge anti-aging effect. Spinach helps to develop immunity. Grapefruit and curcuma speed up your metabolism and help you to burn calories. The dish looks like a health heaven, doesn't it?

And the key point of a successful detox (any successful beginning actually) is to care of yourself and love yourself. And your greens :)

Bon Appétit!

Passover Coconut Fish Stew

2013-04-03T15:01:00.002+03:00

This time during Passover it felt like the Passover itself was unusually easy, from preparing the house for the holiday to living whole 8 days without bread, granola, grains and other beautiful things you can't use during Pesach. I think I finally achieved the meaning of the holiday - the holiday of freedom, "big" freedom in general and "small" particular freedoms from stuff like foods and habits! It's nice to be independent of stuff and be happy and satisfied just because you're happy and satisfied, for no particular reason. The state that everyone should tend to achieve one day.

And speaking of foods today I am going to share with you an icredible fish dish that I prepared for one of the Passover meals - Coconut Fish Stew with tropical notes, healthy, light and absolutely delicious!

Coconut Fish Stew

Ingredients (serves 5):

300-350 g fish fillets like cod or sea bass

1 yellow onion

1 red bell pepper

2 medium tomatoes

1 cup chopped pineapple

a few spring onions

1 head of garlic

half of a coconut

200-400 ml coconut milk

1 lemon

1 tablespoon potato starch (actually any other starch will be fine, I used potato starch because of Passover)

paprika

sea salt

extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Take half of your garlic and finely chop the garlic cloves. Cut your fish fillets into small cubes, place in a bowl, add chopped garlic, squeeze half a lemon over them, mix well and put away to marinate until everything else is ready.

Heat a little olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan, thinly slice your onion and add it to the pan. Slice the pepper and rest of garlic and add them to the pan stirring occasionally. When the vegetables soften add roughly chopped tomatoes, pineapple and spring onions and thinly sliced coconut. Mix well, let cook for a couple of minutes and add the fish.

After that you have to cover everything with liquid. Here's the thing: it's nice to add at least a little coconut milk for sweetness and more of coconut flavour, and the quantity of coconut milk depends on how sweet and coconutty you want your stew. Simply add right for you quantity of milk and some water to cover the fish and vegetables, or simply use only coconut milk or even only water.

Generously add sweet paprika and sea salt, then a tablespoon of starch, mix well and bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and let simmer for 10-15 minutes. Garnish with a few thinly sliced spring onions and dig in, it tastes like heaven!

Bon Appétit!

Simple Roast Salmon Salad with Tahini Dressing

2013-03-18T16:11:00.000+03:00

Last week I was lucky to buy a huge piece of wonderful farmer salmon, so fresh and flavorful and... healthy pink - I just couldn't resist it!

And now I would love to share with you what I call "the ideal dinner". Greens, proteins and a lovely dressing. Perfect!

Simple Roast Salmon Salad with Tahini Dressing

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 x 200 g salmon pieces (try to buy farmer salmon, the difference is just huge!)

2 big handfuls of your favourite greens (I took arugula and leeks)

paprika

good quality olive oil and sea salt

For tahini dressing:

3 teaspoons tahini paste

3 teaspoons water

1 garlic clove

a lemon for squeezing

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Brush your salmon with a little olive oil and rub it with paprika and sea salt. Place the pieces on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes, it should be enough.

For the dressing finely chop a clove of garlic, take 3 teaspoons tahini paste, 3 teaspoons water, squeeze a little bit of lemon juice, add a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and mix well. Taste it and adjust the quantity of lemon juice and salt if necessary. Play with the taste until you get what you like. For me usually work even quantities of tahini paste, water and lemon juice and about half of teaspoon salt but it's all to personal taste.

Serve your salmon over a light green salad, add segments of lemon and top with this wonderful tahini dressing. This is a perfect evening meal!

Bon Appétit!

Healthier Macaroni and Cheese

2013-03-12T17:32:00.000+03:00

Several years ago I made my choice in foods and life style to stick as much as possible to all kinds of health and beauty stuff. I believe everyone shall inderstand one day that it just doesn't work in another way: you want to stay young and attractive as long as you can - you have to know what you do and what you eat. Non-starchy vegetables, proteins and a right quantity of unsaturated fats are your best friends, it's like an ABC for building your dietary intake. Simple, not hard to stick to, no need of staying hungry. Seems like perfect!

Still there are those magic products we are all crazy about - comfort foods which our moms cooked us in the childhood and keep cooking when the family gather together. Foods that bring nice emotions inside, foods we rely on like a sedative when we are not feeling okay. Crispy baked potatoes? A big burger? A bag of chocolates? Macaroni and cheese? I love these things too, I just don't want to agree that this should be totally useless food comforting your soul and meanwhile destructing your beautiful body.

I understand you can't give it 100% of health but you definitely can not make it 100% useless. Add fresh light pesto to baked potatoes. Take a whole wheat bun for your burger. Substitute a part of your cheese with mashed vegetables in mac and cheese. At least balance your meal with a good portion of green salad! It's still your favourite comfort food, just made with a little hint of health, try it and you will see it's worth it!

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 1/2 cups dry pasta

2 cups frozen green beans

200 g light cheddar cheese

4 tablespoons milk

2 garlic cloves

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

good quality olive oil

sea salt

Directions:

Cook your pasta according to the instructions until al dente.

To make the sauce pulse your frozen beans in a food processor. Finely chop your garlic, heat a little of olive oil over medium heat in a saucepan, add garlic and thyme leaves and stir for a moment for the oil to incorporate the flavor. Add your beans and continue stirring for a couple of minutes, then add grated cheese and about 4 tablespoons milk. Continue stirring until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth.

Mix the sauce into your pasta and enjoy!

Bon Appétit!

Mama's Matzo Balls Soup

2013-03-05T17:00:00.001+03:00

I tasted matzo balls soup for the first time when I visited my friend in Israel. His mom cooked a delicious soup with lightest matzo balls ever. Fluffy and mild they made me fall in love with them immediately. What a weird surprise it was to find out they were made of an "instant matzo balls mix" certainly full of stuff that would better be in a chemistry lesson summary than on a foodstuff label.

I still couldn't leave it like that and promised myself to make these gorgeous matzo balls 100% natural. And here is the result - a perfect recipe for the lightest and fluffiest matzo balls. Perfect for a friday night meal with your family. Filling, comforting and so peaceful.

Matzo Balls

Ingredients (makes 30 balls):

100 g matzo meal (3/4 cup)

2 eggs, devided

1 1/2 tablespoons good quality olive oil

1 garlic clove

1/2 yellow onion

1 tablespoon dried parsley

about 7 tablespoons water

a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Finely chop garlic and onion. In a bowl lightly beat egg yolks and add matzo meal, olive oil, garlic, onion, dried parsley and a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix well and add about 7 tablespoons water to help the ingredients to combine.

In another bowl beat egg whites until soft peaks form and mix them gently into the matzo paste. Place the bowl in the fridge for half an hour, the paste will become rather firm. With your hands form little balls taking aboul 1 heaped teaspoon of paste at a time.

Put the balls into boiling water and cook for 15-20 min on a medium heat. These matzo balls go perfectly with classic light chicken soup.

Light chicken soup

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken (organic or free range is always prefferable)

3 litres cold water

3 garlic cloves, washed but unpeeled

3 celery stalks

1 yellow onion

2 medium carrots

1/2 teaspoon curcuma

5-6 whole black peppercorns

a small bunch of fresh thyme and sea salt

Directions:

Remove the skin from your chicken, we don't want excess fat in our soup. Place the chicken into your pan, add smashed garlic, roughly chopped vegetables, thyme, spices and sea salt. Add cold water, bring to the boil, turn the heat down, cover with a lid and let simmer for 2.5-3 hours. Remember to skim from time to time.

When ready, pour the stock into plates, add a couple pieces of vegetables, matzo balls and serve. You will love it!

Bon Appétit!

FOR HIM. FOR HER. SANDWICHES

2013-02-27T13:30:00.000+03:00

The idea of combining 2 actual meals into one blog post certainly came from recently celebrated Valentine's day.

I know that mostly people tend to cook cute cupcakes or chocolate pizzas - but if I wanted to celebrate the day with my beloved I would love to have something I can't live without (besides my beloved, of course :)). First thing to come to my mind - sandwiches. Perfect meal to adjust and make a "his" and "her" version.

"For Him" Sandwich

Unbelievably filling while absolutely meatless this sandwich is like a vegetarian version of Sloppy Joes. Inspired by A Couple Cooks' wonderful recipe.

Ingredients (serves 4):

3 cups cooked beans (I used soya and kidney beans)
1 cup canned tomatoes, roughly chopped, reserve the juice
1 yellow onion
1 celery stalk
3 tablespoons tomato juice (reserved from canned tomatoes)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Chop your onion and celery, heat olive oil over medium heat and add the vegetables to the pan. Cook them just until tender for 5 min, add beans, sauces and spices, mix well and simmer for 15 min. Serve on pieces of whole wheat bread.

"For Her" Sandwich

Thinking of "her" version I remembered my constant search for a light sandwich. Without meat or cheese but still filling and certainly healthy. I love egg and tuna sandwiches but mayo is what one should hardly ever eat. Home-made mayo can be fine but store-bought... no, that's really not healthy. I had been looking for a proper mayo substitute for a while and I found a number of options, surprisingly they all appeared to be the simpliest things you can ever cook - here I will make "mayo" of just plain greek yogurt, salt and white wine vinegar.

Ingredients (serves 4):

4 hardboiled eggs
1 ripe avocado
1 small red onion
3-4 tablespoons plain greek yogurt
a splash of white wine vinegar
a pinch of sea salt

Directions:

Finely chop the eggs, avocado and onion. In a cup mix well greek yogurt, white wine vinegar and a pinch of sea salt. Taste it and if necessary adjust the quantities of ingredients. For me 3 tablespoons yogurt, 1 tablespoon vinegar and a pinch of salt work perfectly. Dress the salad with this "mayo" and serve with toasted or simply fresh whole wheat bread.

Bon Appétit!

DETOX MUNG BEAN SALAD

2013-02-25T20:29:00.002+03:00

After 2 months of forced hiatus I am so happy to be back to the blog with a whole lot of great healthy recipes.

I am going to start with another detox salad. Surprisingly the sun has been shining here for already a week though it's still 3 days till oficially spring comes, so now it's a common natural wish to go detox.

Ingredients (serves 2):

For the salad:

3/4 cup dried mung beans
water and baking soda for soaking
2 cups thinly sliced cabbage
1/2 kohlrabi
1 celery stalk
1 red onion
a few roasted pumpkin cubes

For the dressing:

ginger root
grapefruit
chilli pepper flakes
sea salt
extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Wash your mung beans and place them into a bowl, cover with water and add a teaspoon baking soda. Soak overnight. After that wash the beans, cover with water, bring to the boil and cook 15-20 min over medium heat until ready. You can cook dried beans from the beginning but soaking reduces cooking time and we know that the less you process your food the more "life" remains in it which is particularly essential in detox menu.

For the salad combine thinly sliced cabbage, kohlrabi, celery and red onion, mix them and place onto your plates. Put the mung beans over the vegetables and add just a few roasted pumpkin cubes (if you have no leftover roasted pumpkin, you can cook it while slicing your veggies and boiling the beans - 20 min in the oven over 200 C will do the trick).

To make the dressing grind a 1/2 cm thick piece of ginger root, squeeze some grapefruit juice, add extra virgin olive oil (3 times as much as the juice), then add some sea salt, mix well and taste. Adjust the quantities of juice, oil and salt if you need. If the dressing is good for your taste then add a pinch of chilli flakes and dress your salad.

What you get here is proteins from your mung beans, diet fiber and vitamins from the vegetables while grapefruit, ginger and chilli will speed up your metabolism and help you to burn calories!

Bon Appétit!

WINTER SQUASH BAKED FALAFEL

2012-12-26T10:05:00.000+03:00

Falafel is a second (after hummus) favourite of Mediterranean cuisine. Also mainly made of chickpeas it still leaves some space for enlightening the whole dish. What I love to do is simply substitute half of the chickpeas with some seasonal vegetables like zucchini or squash. The main trick here is that you will not even taste this substitution - you will taste classic falafel. While your body will receive half of its "classic" calories and twice as much as its "classic" fiber.

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

1 cup dried chickpeas
water and baking soda for soaking the chickpeas
1 small red onion
1 cup winter squash, shredded
a small bunch of cilantro and parsley
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Wash your chickpeas and place them into a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 2 cups of water and soak overnight. The next day your chickpeas will double in size.

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Wash and rinse the chickpeas and place them into the bowl of your food processor. Add chopped onion, garlic, cilantro and parsley, shredded squash, cumin, sea salt and freshly ground black and a couple of tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. Process until the mixture is smooth.

Spray or brush your baking tray with a little olive oil. With your hands form little patties of falafel taking 1 heaped teaspoon of the mixture at a time. You will make about 25 patties (~4 cm in diameter, 1 cm thick).

Transfer them into your baking tray and bake for 15 minutes. Then put the tray out of the oven, flip the falafel and bake for another 15 minutes.

Serve your falafel on a simple green salad with a classic dressing (1 part mustard/vinegar/lemon juice : 3 parts olive oil plus salt and pepper). A perfectly balanced dinner!

Bon Appétit!

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SWEET AND SOUR BRAISED CABBAGE

2012-12-24T14:35:00.001+03:00

Light, flavourful, full of dietary fiber, low-calorie - the dish is a perfect side for any meat. Makes a great detox meal itself after holidays. A must-try for everyone!

Ingredients (serves 5):

1 red cabbage
2 sweet apples
1 yellow onion
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
150 ml apple sider vinegar
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Thinly slice your onion, cut apples into small cubes and cabbage - the way you like it. Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat, add onion and fennel seeds and cook until golden for a couple of minutes. After that add apples and cabbage and pour in the vinegar, mix well, cover your pan with a lid and turn the heat down. Cook your cabbage for an hour over low heat frequently stirring.

The cabbage will be soft and tender and will absorb the sweetness of apples and the sourness of the vinegar. A great yet simple winter dish!

Bon Appétit!

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ITALIAN FOCACCIA AND FOUR TOPPING IDEAS

2012-12-10T10:53:00.000+03:00

My culinary story began with making breads. I got a bread machine and after a couple of weeks experimenting with it itself I found out it was much more fun to make bread from scratch with your hands and the oven only. And there it all began... French I came across Italian focaccias which immediately became my favourites. Being rather thin and at the same time combining soft crumb and crispy crust they are like all the goodness of breads in one little piece. Plus oily texture of the dough makes the most tender flavour one can imagine. Absolute love.

Ingredients (makes 4 focaccias ~15 cm in diameter):

2 2/3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 cup lukewarm water
3 tablespoons olive oil
7 g active dry yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons cold water for brushing

Method:

First make the dough. Sift the flour and salt on your work surface and make a well in the center. Add sugar and yeast to the water and set aside for a minute for the yeast to start working. After the liquid becomes bubbly pour it into the well and start mixing the flour into the liquid with a fork. When it becomes too hard to work with the fork flour your hands and continue mixing with your hands. Knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic.

Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and set aside in a warm place to rise for an hour.

In an hour the dough will double in size. You will have to knead it once more to let all the bubbles of air out. Now the dough is ready to work with.

Divide it into 4 parts and with your hands only form flat circles of your future focaccias. They can be not ideal circles, it doesn't matter, but they should be rather thin - not more than 1 cm thick.

Preheat the oven to 250 C and place your focaccias into a baking tray lined with parchment paper and lightly floured. Then with your fingers press the dough down a bit so that you'll leave several "fingerprints" on focaccias.

Mix 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of cold water in a cup until emulsified. With this liquid generously brush your focaccias. After that you can either put them into the oven or add a topping and then bake.

Here I chose 4 different toppings for our focaccias:

sea salt and black and red pepper flakes
slow roasted tomatoes (click here for a great recipe)
thyme leaves
caramelized balsamic onions (click here for the recipe)

Let your focaccias rise a bit for 20-25 minutes and then put them into the oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden and crispy. After 10 minutes of baking remove from the oven and either carefully brush the breads with mixture of oil and water or if you're feeling you can make a mess in a way your toppings are arranged - simply spray the focaccias with olive oil and return them to the oven.

What you get now is 4 incredibly flavourful tender breads, mild inside, crispy crust, comforting, filling and simply adorable. Get your family together and dig in!

Bon Appétit!

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DAIRY FREE HANUKKAH MINI DONUTS WITH QUICKEST CHOCOLATE GLAZE

2012-12-06T13:26:00.000+03:00

When it comes to Hanukkah I get so excited about the holiday itself, the time full of miracles, traditional dishes, candles every evening. Hanukkah time is so full of family spirit and intimacy, this is the warmest holiday of the year.

What you can't imagine Hanukkah without is definitely sufganiyot - holiday donuts. Everyone is just crazy about them. I make the same recipe of sufganiyot the second year in a row: last year's donuts were so good that I definitely want more!

Ingredients (makes 20 mini donuts):

For the donuts:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 g active dry yeast
1/4 cup orange juice (unsweetened)
1 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
corn oil for frying

For the quickest chocolate glaze:

1/4 cup good quality cocoa powder
1/4 cup caster sugar
100 ml water
2 teaspoons olive oil

Method:

To make the dough with your hands, sift the flour, active dry yeast and salt on your work surface and make a well in the middle. In a cup lightly beat the egg, add olive oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla extract and mix well. Pour the liquid in a well in the flour and start mixing it with a fork, then with your hands until you get rather soft elastic dough.

If you use a food processor simply add all the ingredients to the bowl and mix them until the dough forms.

The dough will be very soft but because of much oil it will not stick to the hands. Place the dough in a bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and set aside in a warm place to rise for an hour.

When the dough has doubled in size knead it a bit to let the air bubbles out and roll it out on a floured surface into a 7-8 mm thick layer. Cut the dough into 5-6 cm diameter circles, then cut smaller holes in the center of every circle. Roll out the scraps and cut more doughnuts. Repeat until you use all of your dough.

Set the donuts aside to rise in a warm place and prepare the glaze. Simply combine cocoa powder and caster sugar in a small pan, add water and bring it to the boil over medium low heat stirring constantly. When it starts to boil remove immediately from the heat, add the oil and mix it thoroughly until emulsified. Set aside to cool.

Heat a heavy-bottomed pot with about 3 cm of corn oil to 180 C. Carefully place 2-3 donuts in the oil and fry each side until golden. Remove from the pot and drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

Cover your donuts with chocolate glaze and powdered sugar and enjoy in the family circle telling about Hanukkah miracle!

Happy Hanukkah and Bon Appétit!

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REALLY QUICK HOT ROASTED FISH

2012-11-29T16:42:00.000+03:00

This recipe was originally developed by my inspirational chef Jamie Oliver for his 30 minute meals. Usually I never take a recipe and just cook accordingly but change it here and there and sometimes so much that only the name of the dish remains the same.

Here I just took it and made it. The recipe is originally made with sardines but it goes greatly with other small fish like cod or vendace either. I took vendace, I love this fish for its almost sweet tender taste.

Ingredients:

4-5 small fish, scaled and gutted (about 85 g each)
4 garlic cloves
1 lemon
1 fresh red chilli
a bunch of flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220 C. Place your fish into a large baking tray.

Smash and roughly chop your garlic and add it your baking tray. Squeeze a whole lemon over the fish and add the halves to the tray, cut side up. A tip how to easily squeeze a lemon (particularly important for women): roll a lemon at the table, pressing it down with your hand. It will soften and the juice will just come out at once as you cut it!

Finely slice your chilly, remember to deseed it if you don't like your fish too hot, and add the chilly to the baking tray.

Take your parsley, chop the stalks, reserve the leaves. Add the chopped stalks together with fennel seeds to the baking tray, sprinkle with sea salt and freshly groung black pepper and generously add good quality olive oil.

Now toss the fish with your hands, so that all you've added to the tray gives the most of their flavor to the fish. Place the tray to the top shelf of the oven and roast your fish for around 15 minutes until it's golden and crispy.

Serve with a simple vegetable side salad. Just take any fresh vegetables that you have in your fridge, chop them along with the parsley leaves that you reserved earlier and dress them squeezing the juice remaining in roasted lemons.

Bon Appétit!

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CARAMELIZED BALSAMIC ONIONS

2012-11-27T11:09:00.002+03:00

Speaking of appetizers, I always do my best to make them as light as possible - you really don't want to get your fill before the main dish is served.

One of my favourite appetizers which is always a great success is caramelized onions. Though it's somehow a tricky thing I advise you to give it a try, once you make it right - you will not be able to stop cooking it.

Ingredients (serves 2):

1 cup onions
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
good quality olive oil
a pinch of sea salt

Method:

First tip is to collect as many forms, colors and sizes of onions as possible. Take red, white, yellow, pearl, baby onions - you will win. Cut the big ones thinly lengthwise, small ones - in halves, even leave the smallest ones whole.

Smash and roughly chop your garlic. Heat olive oil in a big pan over low heat, add thyme leaves and garlic to the pan and stir them to give their flavour to the oil. It's important here to choose good quality olive oil as it gives much of its flavour to the final dish. Add the onions and a pinch of sea salt and cook them until all the liquid has evaporated and the onions are soft, it will take 10-15 minutes. Stir constantly to prevent from burning. After that add sugar and balsamic and cook stirring constantly for another 5-10 minutes until the onions caramelize.

Another important tip here is to choose the widest pan you have and cook onions in one layer, not more. If you overcrowd your pan the onions will be sweating and boiling but not evaporating any moisture, you will just have to throw it all away. So take a wide pan and you will get it right.

When cooked the onions get incredible sour-sweet taste, they are juicy inside and in some places have a crunchy sugary crust. Serve them with fresh buns or crackers, it tastes just like heaven.

Bon Appétit!

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MUST-TRY HUMMUS AND TORTILLA CHIPS

2012-11-23T13:18:00.000+03:00

Hummus is an all-time favourite of Mediterranean cuisine. Being a huge fan of hummus I though had to spend a plenty of time trying to find a perfect recipe.

Once I happened to find myself in a Druzean village in the Middle East. So they served such an incredible hummus there that it remained the best for me till I developed this recipe. It was so smooth and mild and tender and it felt like it was going to crumble to dust in the mouth as if it was dry though it was moist and juicy. Really weird-tasting, this case when you love imperfection just because it's so unexpected and unlikely to be.

I remember my first home-made hummus which I cooked with my hands only as I even didn't have a simple food processor at that time. It was chunky, it contained a questionable quality tahini but it was an absolute victory over it's store-bought brother. Seriously, don't buy hummus in supermarkets, it's so quick and easy to make and the difference is just huge. Once you try it - you never buy it anymore.

Ingredients (serves 5):

For the hummus:

1 cup dried chickpeas (makes 2 cupes cooked)
1 teaspoon baking soda
water for soaking the chickpeas
juice of half a lemon (3-4 tablespoons)
2 cloves of garlic
2 heaping tablespoons tahini paste
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
150 ml of cooking liquid (reserve when you cook the chickpeas)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric (curcuma)

For tortilla chips:

5 tortillas (click here for a great home-made whole wheat tortillas recipe)
olive oil
sea salt flakes

Method:

Wash the chickpeas, place them in a bowl, add baking soda, cover with 5 cm of water and soak overnight. Baking soda is great here because it helps the water to get deeper into the chickpeas and save you much time of cooking.

After that the chickpeas will double in size, so you will definitely know it's enough of soaking. Wash them again, place in a pan, add water (twice as much as the chickpeas), bring to the boil and cook over medium heat untill the chickpeas soften (about 10 min). Drain the chickpeas reserving the cooking water. Optionally reserve some of the chickpeas for serving.

In a food processor pulse the chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, tahini paste and olive oil. Start to add cooking liquid slowly until you get the desired thickness of your hummus. For us 150 ml were enough. At the end add the spices (by the way, ground cumin really gives the taste here but turmeric is more for the warm color). Puree the hummus till it's smooth.

To make tortilla chips preheat the oven to 180 C. You can use store-bought tortillas but here I have a gorgeous recipe of whole wheat tortillas which you can make ahead and keep in the freezer until you need them. It's your choice but I tend to stick to home-made stuff, I just love it.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper, spray it with olive oil. Take your tortillas, cut them into small triangles and place them to the baking tray in one layer. Either spray or brush them with just a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Toast in the oven for 10 minutes until golden and crispy. Looks like the healthiest chips you've ever seen, yeah?

To serve the hummus, place it in the plates, sprinkle with olive oil, paprika, chopped greens and nuts, place a few chickpeas on top, there's a huge variety of options so you're free to decide how you want to see it. Don't forget your freshly made tortilla chips - they are hummus' best friends!

Bon Appétit!

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CARROT GINGER SOUP

2012-11-22T11:19:00.001+03:00

This soup is a perfect warmer for any cold season meal. It's light, it's low-calorie, at the same time it's still comforting and so pleasant to eat. The ginger gives the soup incredible warmth that goes straight to your heart while you receive vitamins and fiber from carrots and apples, it's like a brand new comfort take on vitamins, you should definitely give yourself this treat!

Ingredients (serves 5):

4 medium carrots
1 medium apple
2 cm long ginger root
1 big onion
1 tablespoon thyme leaves
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
Worcestershire sauce, chopped parsley and almonds to serve

Method:

Roughly chop your carrots, apple and onion, peel and finely chop the ginger root. Heat olive oil in a big heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Add the chopped vegetables to the pan along with thyme leaves, add sea salt and pepper and cook over medium heat covered with a lid stirring occasionally for 20-25 minutes until the apple breaks down and the vegetables start to brown.

After that pour in the pan just enough water to cover the vegetables. Bring to the boil and cook over low heat stirring occasionally until the vegetables are soft. When done remove from the heat and puree in a blender.

Serve with a few drops of Worcestershire sauce, chopped parsley and almonds and fresh bread. Parsley and almonds are really an option but I highly recommend using Worcestershire sauce as it perfectly balances the overall sweetness of the soup.

Bon Appétit!

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THE SOFTEST GARLIC KNOTS EVER

2012-11-20T11:43:00.002+03:00

Garlic Knots are an awesome way to enrich any meal using them instead of regular breads. Certainly a properly and freshly baked bread is a great treat itself, needless to say it's a great addition to a dinner but there are moments when you want your bread in a special way. And here come these softest garlicky little buns, absolute love. Everyone will adore them!

Ingredients (makes 60-65 knots):

For the dough:

3 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
300 ml lukewarm water
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoon dried yeast

For the glaze:

6 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
2 teaspoons dried oregano

Method:

In a cup mix water, sugar and yeast and let it stand for a while to let the yeast start working. Sieve the flours and salt on to a work surface and with a hand make a well in the middle. After the liquid mixture becomes bubbly pour it into the well and start mixing it into the flour first with a fork, then with your hands, you will feel when it's time to switch to the hands - it will be simply too hard to use a fork. When combined add olive oil and knead smooth, soft and elastic dough.

Not feeling sure about kneading the dough by yourself? Or maybe you're short of time? No problem! Use a food processor! I honestly love kneading the dough but there's no shame to turn to automatic kneading, that's what these machines were invented for!

Place the dough in a large oiled bowl, turn it to coat, cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Remove the dough from the bowl to a flour-dusted surface and knead it again to push the air out. The dough is done: use it immediately, freeze it or keep in the fridge until required.

For our buns divide the dough up into little balls around 3 cm in diameter, you will get about 60-65 balls. Keeping the balls covered with a towel to prevent them from drying shape each of them into a rope and tie into a knot bringing the end lying on the top underneath the knot.

Place the knots to a baking tray lined with parchment paper and lightly floured, cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for another 50 minutes.

Bake the knots for half an hour at 180 C.

To make the glaze heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Smash and chop garlic and add it to the pan along with the herbs removing the pan from the heat immediately. We do not want to fry garlic but we want it to become soft and tender and to give the herby-garlicky flavour to the oil.

Cover the knots with the glaze, sprinkle with sea salt flakes and dig in. Absolute love.

Bon Appétit!

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