Category: Health

  • Bell pepper, apple & mint salad with avocado

    Bell pepper, apple & mint salad with avocado

    Light and fresh ?

    Slice bell pepper, cucumber and avocado, chop apple and thinly cut mint leaves.

    Combine everything and top with thin shallot rings, if you like that. My love preferred it without and removed them :).

    Dressing: olive oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper. Keep it simple!

  • Oat milk

    Oat milk

    Cheap and simple. Once you get the hang of it, it will only take 15 minutes to make a liter (or more) of delicious oat milk, way cheaper than any store bought brand will bring it to you.

    What you’ll need: a fine sieve (I use the one from my tea pot, it’s about 8cm in diameter and perfect for the job), a blender, a bowl and a glass bottle for storage.

    Ingredients: oats, water, sweetener (dates, figs, banana, honey or sugar, for example), salt and optionally vanilla or vanilla flavoring.

    I use 1 cup of oats and 5 cups of water, which amounts to exactly one liter in my blender.

    Then I add 3 figs or 5 dates, a bit of salt and two teaspoons of vanilla flavoring.

    Start only with the oats, water and sweetener. Blend for about 30 seconds. Not too long or it will be slimy. It doesn’t have to blend ‘all the way’.

    Pour a tiny bit of the mixture through the sieve into a big bowl. Taste, then add salt and vanilla to taste, blend for another few seconds and then pour all of the mixture into the bowl through the sieve, scraping the bottom of the sieve with a spoon.

    Transfer from the bowl into a clean glass bottle and store in the fridge for up to three days.

    I use the oat residu to add to my overnight oats (see recipe below). The fruit content even helps with the predigestion of phytic acid, as explained in that blog post :).

  • Oven roasted prebiotic vegetables

    Oven roasted prebiotic vegetables

    Prebiotic vegetables create a favorable climate in your gut for probiotics (good bacteria) to grow. Among prebiotic vegetables are: leek, onion, garlic, chicory and fennel.

    This dish has leek, fennel and chicory. The white and light greens color beautifully with the drizzled olive oil.

    Keep it really simple: slice the veggies in halves lengthwise, brush with olive oil and put in the oven on 180 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes or until some ends start to color brown.

    For serving, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.

    Great with bread.

  • Buckwheat risotto with green vegetables and herbs

    Buckwheat risotto with green vegetables and herbs

    A new favorite: buckwheat risotto! Healthy, heartfelt, full of flavors, absolutely lovely and so easy, too!

    Serves 2-3

    Boil about 1 liter of vegetable stock. You could make your own, I use organic instant stock powder. Add a tablespoon of kurkuma to the stock if you have that available.

    In a frying pan, heat some oil and sauté a small onion (in pieces) and small garlic clove (chopped finely), then add two cups of buckwheat and a handful of dried shiitake mushrooms (in slices).

    Stir well, then add one or two cups of stock to the buckwheat. Bring to a simmer, the turn the heat down to low. Allow the stock to be soaked up before adding a new portion. Stir regularly.

    After about 20 minutes (halfway cooking time), add green beans. After another 10, add broccoli, zucchini, grated rind of 0,5-1 lemon and kale (I used frozen ‘cubes’ of kale, just put the whole cubes in there and don’t stir from then on). Cover with a lid so the vegetables can steam until ready for another 10 minutes or so.

    Meanwhile, chop lots of mint and parsley so you have two nice handfuls of herbs. Just before serving, top with the herbs, drizzle with generous amounts of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and possibly lemon juice.

  • Indonesian style green beans and broccoli

    Indonesian style green beans and broccoli

    The Dutch kitchen has been blessed with many foreign influences, making our palette a lot more interesting than it would have been if we’d stayed with ‘our own’ boring variations on mashed potatoes, kale and meat.

    Green beans can be a bit boring as well, but if you spice them up Indonesian style like in this recipe, I promise they will become a favorite.

    Chop one onion, a thumb sized piece of ginger and a big garlic clove. Sauté these together in a frying pan in some coconut or other vegetable oil. Cut about 400gr green beans and 200gr broccoli in bite-sized pieces. When fragrant, add the green beans. Cover the frying pan with a lid.

    Meanwhile, combine two tablespoons of peanut butter (100% peanut, with peanut chunks) with two (or more…) tablespoons of sambal: hot Indonesian pepper paste, a good drizzle of light premium soy sauce. Taste; it should be strong and spicy. Adjust by adding more of any of the ingredients. Then water it down so it will be easy to mix in with the beans.

    When the beans are almost ready, add the broccoli and close the lid again.

    Add the peanut soy mixture to the beans and broccoli, then heat so all flavors can mix well and the sauce will thicken.

    Let sit for as long as you can. 5 minutes will work perfectly well, overnight will make it taste super authentic.

    Taste before serving and finish with ketjap medja (thick, sweet soy sauce) or manis (medium thick, sweet soy sauce), sesame oil and/or toasted sesame seeds.

  • Frozen fruit, blender… ice cream deluxe

    Frozen fruit, blender… ice cream deluxe

    This is just incredible. So easy, delicious and dare I say… healthy! Definitely a winner.

    It started when I wanted to recreate vanilla ice from frozen banana slices. I simply put the banana slices in the blender, added cream and vanilla flavor and.. wow! It worked!

    For this variety, I used frozen mango, blueberries and raspberries but really you could use anything your freezer (or the one at the supermarket) has to offer.

    I put them in the blender together with some thick coconut cream. For the cream, use santen (creamed coconut) and add some hot water so it becomes thick but fluid, like cream.

    The trick is to use the ice cube function or simply pulse your blender and to work quickly. Use a wooden or plastic spoon (metal will damage the blender blade) to quickly stir the fruit in the blender after every few pulses, creating a rather homogenous blend. So pulse-stir, pulse-stir, work quickly before the ice cream melts.

    Any leftover coconut cream can be used as topping alongside some beautiful berries and mint leaves.

    I really, really love this ice cream and am amazed that it takes nothing more than real fruits, a spoonful of coconut cream and 5 minutes of my time.

  • Easy one bowl veggie & egg dish

    Easy one bowl veggie & egg dish

    Hey ho, today I thought I’d share a shakshuka-inspired dish with you.

    I got to know shakshuka as an Israeli dish where you break and boil eggs in a delicious tomato sauce and serve with bread. All Israelis I’ve met love it and it is a staple food in most foreigner/traveler/backpacker oriented restaurants I’ve seen during my travels.

    Here, I am adding a bottom layer of spiced kale and mushrooms (almost the last bit of last year’s forage harvest!).

    Actually, this was just a quick way to do something nice for lunch and so I haven’t made my own tomato sauce but used a store bought jar of pasta sauce, perfect for the occasion. Sorry Israeli friends if I dissed your beloved shakshuka by doing so ;).

    Recipe for one bowl veggies & eggs

    In a pan that will contain all portions and nothing more, heat: olive oil, a chopped piece of onion, some mustard seeds, kale, (dried or fresh) mushrooms.

    Let the kale reduce in size, then add a thick layer of tomato (pasta) sauce. Lastly, break eggs on top (one for each person) and sprinkle with salt and Italian or Provence herbs. Cover with a lid (otherwise the eggs won’t solidify).

    After 10 minutes or so, test to see if the egg white is solid. There may be fluid on top of your dish, don’t be fooled by this as it is probably just water from the tomato sauce and not raw eggs.

    For serving, add olive oil, freshly ground pepper and fresh herbs (here: oregano).

    With love,

    Judith

  • Semi-homemade coconut yoghurt with berries and mint

    Semi-homemade coconut yoghurt with berries and mint

    Enjoy yoghurt with a coconut twist, or use a non-dairy alternative.

    This is super simple and nice. I love adding dried coconut to my (soy) yoghurt. Let it sit in the fridge for some time; the yoghurt will thicken up a bit and take on a coconut flavor.

    Next, add berries or any fruit you fancy and garnish with mint, honey and cinnamon.

    Of course this is also great with banana and blueberries, or pear and kiwifruit, or strawberries and nectarines, or apple and raisins… or make up your own combo :).

    About yoghurt/dairy: be sure to buy organic and take note of the way the animals were treated. Unfortunately, dairy means a calf has been taken away from its mother so that we humans can take her milk. The calf is then slaughtered (if male) or raised with milk substitute (if female) to be a milk cow just like her mom. I do have an ethical issue with this and for me that translates into buying non-dairy milk when I can, and choosing organic when I really want real dairy.

    For Dutchies: https://beterleven.dierenbescherming.nl

  • Spicy rice patties

    Spicy rice patties

    Have some leftover rice? Great! Let’s make patties :). Patties are a great way to use leftover anything: rice, couscous, vegetables: chop together with an egg, spice it up and enjoy your own homemade brilliant burger.

    In fact, I always make sure I make too much rice for one day just so I can make patties (or nasi goreng: fried rice, but that’s for another time) the next.

    The recipe is simple and it changes a bit every time so as always I invite you to work with whatever you have lying around.

    In this batch, I had about one half to one cup of brown (wholegrain) rice from the day before. I added about a tablespoon of sunflower seeds (could be replaced with the same amount of cooked beans, lentils or chickpeas), one clove of garlic and a handful of stinging nettles (this could also be spinach or kale or almost any other veggie, actually), blanched for one minute then tumbled dry.

    I chopped everything in my little electrical herb chopper. It made for a kind of half sticky, half loose dough.

    In a new bowl, I added one egg to the mixture plus some pepper, salt and ras el hanout, which contains cumin, coriander and paprika, and that I think is a golden combo for patties because it gives a ‘meaty’ experience (without the part where an animal actually dies).

    The mixture should taste rather strong, at least I like the rustic burger quality that will give to your plate. Adding a bit of miso also helps with enhancing those flavors!

    Be wise with tasting though; there still is raw egg inside.

    Now divide the mixture in even parts, heat some oil and fry the patties like you would any other burger.

    These are great, I have always had raving reviews about them. Vegetarians, meat lovers and kids will love them alike, I swear! Just remember what I said about that spice combo, I think that really does the trick ;).

  • Easy Summer party dish: tastefully grilled veggies

    Easy Summer party dish: tastefully grilled veggies

    A grill pan is one of my favorite cooking ‘tools’: it’s fast, easy and healthy and the food looks beautiful.

    Try this: chop some garlic and let sit in olive oil for some time.

    Cut zucchinis, bell peppers and onions in nice large pieces, so it will be finger food when on the plate.

    Cut an eggplant in halves, then quarts, lengthwise, leave the stem on. Slice in the flesh (but don’t cut through the skin).

    Brush the garlic oil on the veggies. Use the pieces of garlic to stuff the eggplant with, and also rub some Italian herbs in the carves.

    Now put all veggies on the grill (I have one that closes on top, so it grills on both sides simultaneously, like a tosti grill).

    While the veggies are being grilled, go out in your garden (or kitchen cabinet) to find herbs, such as rosemary, oregano etc.

    You can add the more thick leaved herbs like rosemary and thyme shortly before removing the veggies, the rest right after serving the hot vegetables on a serving plate. The dish is ready when the eggplant is cooked through and the other vegetables are fragrant and hot but still with a bite. Add salt and pepper to taste.

    If you have a really good balsamic vinegar, now is a great time to drizzle :). Same goes for olive oil!