Sweetpotatoes with pickled onions and cilantro salsa

This super delicious dish is inspired by an Ottolenghi recipe.

We had some steaks and made this as a side- everyone loved it. It is very good served warm and cold, so don’t worry about leftovers.

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Ingredients (serves 3-4 as a side):

• 5-6 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 3 shallots
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 bundle cilantro
• juice of 1 lime
• zest of 2-3 limes
• salt
• pepper

Peel the shallots and cut them once lengthwise and then into slices. In a small bowl mix them with 3 tbsp of white vinegar, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp salt and the zest of 1 lime. Let sit for at least an hour. Preheat the oven to 220° fan. Mix the sweet potato cubes with the chili powder and about 2 tbsp olive oil. Put them onto the baking tray (make sure the pieces don’t touch) and bake for about 20-25 minutes until soft and a bit crispy on the edges. Meanwhile finely chop the coriander (we used the whole thing, including stems) and mix with about 1/2 tsp salt, the juice of at least 1 lime, pepper, the remaining lime zest and olive oil. When the potatoes are done, mix with salt and arrange on a platter. Sprinkle the salsa and the onions (without the marinade) on top.

Pasta with Mozzarella di Bufala and Cherry Tomatoes

So I had friends over for prosecco and pasta night. Pasta, because it’s easy to make and I did not want to have a lot of fuss that night (come on, when you are finally able to have friends over again, you want to spend as much time as possible talking to them ;)) and prosecco, because we like our drinks. And the bubbles make you happy-drunk. Or at least that is what they do for me. So long story short: we really enjoyed ourselves, the pasta and the prosecco and you really should make this summer-pasta that is seriously tasty and quickly mixed up ASAP.

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Ingredients (3 servings):

• 350 g dry short pasta (penne or fusilli)
• 200 g mozzarella di bufala
• 400 g cherry tomatoes (they really should taste sweet and ripe!)
• fresh basil
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• 1 small garlic clove

 

Wash the tomatoes and quarter them. Put them into a bowl with at least 1 tbsp of olive oil, salt, pepper and a few torn basil leaves. Press the garlic with a garlic press and add it. Cut the mozzarella the same size as your tomatoes and add it to the bowl. Mix through and let it sit covered for at least 1 hour at room temperature. Cook the pasta al dente, season the tomato-mixture to taste. When the pasta is done cooking, reserve about 2 tbsp of cooking water and add the pasta and the cooking water to the tomato-mixture. Tear the left over basil leaves and add them. Mix through and serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

I have never met anyone who did not like this dish- probably people that don’t like fresh tomatoes, but that would be another story 😉 .

 

Chickpea Stew

I kind of improvised and it turned out quite good. If you are in for a healthy, quick and cheap meal, this should do the trick. And I myself liked it warm and at room temperature- so if you have some chickpea stew left and are too lazy to heat it up, just don’t 😉

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Ingredients (1 big serving or 2 if you serve sides as basmati rice):

• 1 can of chickpeas (about 250 g drained)
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 shallot
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp tomato puree
• 1/2 tsp zough
• olive oil
• salt
• chili (optional)
• white wine
• water
• 2 twigs of oregano
• a few parsley leaves

 

Drain and wash the chickpeas and the carrots. Heat olive oil in a pot on medium heat. Add the thinly cut garlic and the minced shallot and sauté. Cut the carrots into small cubes, add them to the shallots and sauté for another 1-2 minutes. Add the chickpeas and a splash of white wine, the tomato puree, the oregano, zough, chili, salt, pepper and a bit of water. Let cook for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile cut a few parsley leaves. Take the pot off the heat and with a stick blender blend a bit of the stew to give it a creamy texture. Season to taste with salt and chili and add more water, if needed. Add the parsley and put the pot back onto the stove and cook for another 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

Asparagus Salad

This beautifully colorful salad is super easy, so healthy and addictive. I have to confess: I am practically living off it right now. I love asparagus in every color and in every dish and cannot really understand people that don’t. Seriously, why??? So as everyone probably knows the more common ways of preparing asparagus (i.e. with sauce hollandaise), I chose to post this recipe that will hopefully inspire you.

The amount of vegetables to use differs, depending if you are making the salad as a side dish or as a main/snack etc.

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Ingredients:

• green asparagus
• cherry tomatoes
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• fresh lemon zest
• fresh parsley

 

Cut off the end of the asparagus and cook it in salted water, but only for a short while. You don’t want it to become mushy. Meanwhile wash and half the cherry tomatoes and add them to a bowl with the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and the lemon zest. Wash the parsley and pick off the leaves. When the asparagus is done, rinse, cut it with a sharp knife and add it to the bowl. Mix through and let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes. Season to taste. Add the parsley leaves and serve at room temperature.

Spaghetti all’Amatriciana

I had some pancetta left and as I was craving something hot that had pasta involved, I decided to make Spaghetti with loads of tomato sauce, pancetta and parmesan. You have probably made this dish before, but as it is as delicious as simple, this post shall remind you to make Spaghetti all’Amatriciana in the near future.

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Ingredients (2 servings):

• 200 g dried spaghetti
• 1 can tomato Polpa (about 400 g)
• 1 shallot
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 piece of pancetta
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• ground chili
• freshly grated parmesan
• fresh basil

 

Cook the spaghetti al dente. During that time heat the oil on medium heat in a pan and sauté the minced shallot and garlic. Add the cubed pancetta and fry until it turns crispy. Add the tomato polpa, season with freshly ground pepper, salt and chili and let it simmer for at least 7 minutes. Season to taste, the sauce should be quite spicy and occasionally add 1 tablespoon of pasta water until you get the consistency you are looking for (not too runny!). Once the spaghetti are done, rinse them and add them to the sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan and fresh basil.

Enjoy!

 

My version of Shakshuka

So the feel-good quarantine cooking is still going on at mine and this week I threw together one of my favorite breakfasts. It was so easy and comforting: I encourage you all to try it! As you can vary this dish easily with whatever you have laying around in your fridge, it never gets boring! As I did not have any coriander leaves at home, I added fresh oregano which worked out beautifully.

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Ingredients (1 serving):

• 1 shallot
• 200 g of tomato polpa
• 2 eggs
• 1 small or medium red pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• ground chili (optional)
• olive oil
• salt
• feta (optional)
• coriander leaves (optional)

 

Heat a little bit of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the minced shallot. Dice the pepper and add it to the pan. Let the pepper soften and stirr occasionally. Add the tomatoes (you could add a few quartered fresh cherry tomatoes as well) and the spices and let it simmer for at least 10 minutes. Season to taste and maybe let it simmer some more- the pepper should be soft and the tomato sauce reduced. Make 2 moulds with a spoon and crack the eggs in. Let them cook to your liking. Serve with crumbled feta, coriander leaves and pita bread.

Note: you can vary this dish and i.e. add diced eggplant, zucchini, fennel seeds, leek, nigella…the options are endless!

 

 

 

Giant bean salad with tahini-lemon dressing and preserved lemons

Hey everyone!

As times aren’t really better and I am trying not to go grocery shopping too often, I whipped up this salad for lunch today and I have to say: I did pretty good, it was delicious.

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Ingredients:

• 1 can giant beans
• 1/2 shallot
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 1 tsp olive oil
• juice of 1/2 – 1 lemon
• 1 handfull cocktail tomatoes
• 1/4 perserved lemon, diced
• salt
• pepper
• (parsley or coriander leaves – sadly I did not have any left…)

 

Rinse the beans and put them into a large bowl. Slice the shallot into thin rings and add them and the preserved lemon. In a smaller bowl mix together the tahini, lemon juice, oil and some hot water. Add a bit of salt and freshly ground pepper. Season to taste. Mix the beans and the dressing and let it sit for 5 minutes. Season to taste- you might want to add some more lemon juice or salt. Serve at room temperature and enjoy!

 

Stay safe.

 

Beetroot salad: healthy and beautiful

Hey, I really hope everyone is well!

So I made this colorful, nutritious and very healthy salad you have to try- it will boost your immune system for sure.

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Ingredients for 1 main or 2-3 starters:

• 1 big beetroot (around 300 g)
• 100 g Feta
• zest of one orange
• vinegar
• olive oil
• nigella seeds, about 1 1/2 – 2 tsp
• salt
• pepper

 

Peel the beetroot (you might want to wear gloves ;)) and great it coarsely. In a bowl mix together the beetroot, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper to taste. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and season to taste. Mix through the freshly zested orange peel, add nigella, divide onto plates and top with crumbled feta.

ENJOY!

 

Pasta with oven roasted fennel, cherry tomatoes and fresh rosemary

Hi everyone!

As we all know, times are crazy right now and as I have some free time on my hands and am cooking and baking like crazy, I though I’d reactivate the blog.

As the weather here is quite cold again, I needed comfort food- but healthy comfort food, as I am not really exercising these days…

I promise you that even fennel-haters like this dish and I for myself have to say that it’s one of my all time favorites!

So please, try it and let me know what you think.

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Ingredients for 2 portions:

• 200 g short pasta
• about 300 g cherry tomatoes
• 1 big fennel bulb
• about 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 big twigs of rosemary- or even more!
• salt
• pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Wash the vegetables, cut the fennel into cubes, put those onto the baking tray and mix with the olive oil. Bake for about 10 minutes and then add the halved cherry tomatoes and the rosemary. Bake until the fennel is cooked thoroughly. When you notice the vegetables to get ready, cook the pasta in salted water. If you feel like the vegetables will stay in the oven too long, just turn it off, open the door a bit and let the veggies sit in there to stay hot. When the pasta is finished, reserve about two tablespoons of the cooking water. Mix the pasta with the fennel and cherry tomatoes, add a bit of the cooking water, season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Serve with parmesan cheese.

Linzeraugen: one of my favorite christmas cookies

They not only are so pretty to look at, but quite easy to make and even the raw dough itself tastes delicious, which is always a big plus 😉 I myself often prefer the unbaked dough to the finished sweets…

Linzeraugen are one of the traditional Austrian christmas cookies and are a must every christmas in my family. I love them with apricot jam, but others prefer raspberry or currant jam.

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Ingredients:

• 300 g flour
• 200 g butter, cold & cut into cubes
• 100 g powdered sugar
• 15 g vanilla sugar
• 1 egg
• zest of 1 lemon
• apricot jam

Combine all the ingredients with your hands. Rub the butter cubes into the flour-mixture  until you have a dough. Knead well, but not to long! Once everything has come together nicely, form a ball and let the dough rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Take 1/3 of the dough, spread it out on a lightly floured surface until about 5 mm thin. With pastry cutters cut out the cookies: for the top cookie use a cutter with small little circles in it or maybe a heart, as I did. Continue until you’ve used the whole dough, always mixing the left over dough into another 1/3 of the refrigerated dough.

Bake for about 7 minutes. The cookies shouldn’t turn brown!

Once cooled, spread jam onto the bottom cookie and put the top on. When storing in a metal container, dust with powdered sugar. Let the finished cookies sit inside the box for at least 1 week, 2 to 3 (or even longer!) would be perfect. The longer you wait (I know, it’s hard…), the better they get.

 

Hope you’ll give this recipe a try!

Love,

Paulina