Quinoa & mung bean patties

Lately I have been in a real "cleaning and organizing mood".  My inner Monica Geller (remember "FRIENDS"?) woke up and and told me to arrange my drawers, segregate the paperwork, and throw out clothes I haven't worn for a while.  Of course the first step to every proper cleaning up is making a total mess.  You take all the stuff out your closets and introduce major chaos to your environment.  It is highly advisable to do this when no one is around -- after all you don't want your boyfriend to make remarks along the lines of "do you really need so many pairs of shoes?" or "how can so many clothes fit into one closet?".  

Despite the overarching chaos I find that organizing your stuff can be really therapeutical and cleansing - you feel like things in your life regain their purpose and fall back into their place, and most importantly: you get rid of all the clutter.  I don't know about you guys, but I just loooove throwing useless things away - it's so liberating! 

Mung beans: after and before soaking

Whilst in my "Monica Geller mood", I also got to cleaning and organizing my kitchen cabinets and pantry.  There, I discovered I have quite a decent stash of mung beans.  I have actually never had mung beans before in my life.  I just heard they were really healthy and good for you, so I bought them a few months ago without a clear idea of what I would do with them.  And now - BINGO!  Time to put them to good use :-)

I have always been a big fan of veggie burgers and patties, so my first idea was to make some with the mung beans.  To be honest with you -- the rest of the ingredients were also part of my "clearing the pantry plan".  But hey - they go so well together, and I wouldn't change a thing even if my pantry was stuffed with every ingredient there is.  

I decided to go for the quinoa to add some more texture to the patties -- the plan was to mash the beans, but leave the quinoa sprouts intact and with a bit of bite to them.  Not to mention that quinoa is super healthy too -- thus boosting the "good-for-you-value" of the patty.  For additional flavor, I spiked the burgers with some red onion, garlic, lime, and coriander -- you need that to give some character to the bean/cereal background.  And the finishing touch: creamy tahini, which really is essential to the dish.  It brings an incredible sesame nuttiness, which really enhances the flavor.  Plus you need the fat - after all it's the only fat going in the patties, and it helps keeping the burgers from falling apart.

These patties are very versatile.  You can experiment with the ingredients and spices -- and add things you like (or you need to get rid of when you have your own "Monica Geller cleaning mood").  Try them with chickpeas or lentils, add some curry or ginger - maybe peanut butter instead of tahini?

The burgers go very well with a fresh salad.  I made a beetroot-apple salad, for a delicious and very healthy meal - the recipe is coming soon!

METHOD:

Makes 6 patties

Ingredients:

• 1 cup / 200 g of dry mung beans (you could also use other beans, lentils etc. - just cook them according to their package)
• 1 cup / 180 g of quinoa
• 1 red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2-3 tablespoons of tahini
• juice & zest of 1 lime
• ground coriander
• fresh coriander
• salt
• pepper

Directions:

• Soak the mung beans overnight and cook the next day according to the package instructions until completely soft (mine were done after about 20 minutes).  Mash the beans roughly in a big bowl.
• Cook the quinoa according to package instructions (mine took 8 minutes).  Let cool a bit and add to the mung beans.
• Dice the red onion and garlic very finely, add to the beans.
• Add tahini, lime juice and zest, and season well with ground coriander, salt and pepper.  Taste the mixture and season some more if needed.
• Line a baking tray with parchment paper.  Form six flat patties with your hands and bake the patties in a preheated oven (180°C) for about 30 minutes until golden brown (no need to turn, as the tray will be hot and the bottom will brown too).
• Serve warm, sprinkled with fresh coriander, with a light and crispy salad - e.g. the beetroot/apple salad.

Bon appetit!

Revolutionary bread

Today's recipe is one of my favorite recipes ever, for three reasons.  It is (i) sooo simple, (ii) sooo delicious and (iii) sooo healthy!  

Simple

It's really like magic -- you throw a few ingredients together, wave your magic wand around (aka stir a bit with a spoon) and there is your bread.  No machines or complicated equipment needed, no waiting for the yeast or sourdough levain to kick in, no tricky procedures.  The preparation takes no more than 7 minutes (basically spent on weighing ingredients) and sure is no rocket science: it's pretty much foolproof.

For me the discovery of the recipe was really revolutionary!  The super busy person I am - I never thought I would have the time to bake my own bread.  I thought only retired or unemployed people (or those with a non-demanding job) would have the time to do it.  Luckily, thanks to this recipe, busy lawyers no longer have to feel excluded from the elite Group of Non-Professional Bread Bakers :)

Delicious

This bread is insanely delicious!!!  You can basically eat it on its own, like cake.  But it also goes well with savory and sweet toppings -- cheese, meats, pesto, hummus, honey, jam...  It is crunchy on the outside, and insanely moist within.  It practically doesn't get stale and tastes just as good on the next days (though if someone else is "helping" you eat it, it never lasts more than a day).  The loaf is very small, but every bite is filling.  You can also freeze the bread, which is very practical if you want a loaf on storage (good tip: slice it before freezing and defrost a slice in a toaster: phenomenal!).

I stopped eating bread almost entirely before I discovered this recipe.  I was used to dense and moist sourdough bread in my native Poland (klick for example 1 and example 2 - Poland truly has the most amazing bread!), and was very disappointed by the fluffy bread in Western Europe.  Unless I would go to a pricy specialized bakery every day, I could not get anything decent.  Baking my own, Polish-style bread would take too much time, so I simply stopped eating bread.  But with this recipe, I can again enjoy excellent bread on a regular basis.

The only problem is a mysterious phenomenon occurring whenever you make the bread - the loaf disappears extremely fast.  So fast that you need to bake yet another loaf before you know it...

Healthy

Delicious things are rarely really good for you -- life just isn't that good.  But this bread is one of the few exceptions.  All ingredients are very healthy and nutritious; it's also gluten-free (if you use buckwheat flakes instead of oatmeal).  The bread is packed with fiber and nutrients, and has a lot of seeds and nuts that contain those really good fats.  On top, the psyllium seeds on their own have medicinal properties for the colon, so eating the bread is almost like taking food supplements ;-)  I am sort of a healthy food freak (although you probably can't tell by the amount of dessert recipes on the blog).  For me there is an added pleasure to eating food when I know it is actually good for me.  I love eating healthy food, knowing I'm taking care of my body and not just dumping junk in it. 

Some ingredients may sound a bit exotic, but trust me: you can easily get them in health food stores off- or online.  I was hesitant at first, but had a look around and it turns out you can buy this stuff.  Sometimes we just don't pay attention to what is available, because we never use these ingredients.   

So there you go: 3 reasons for baking this bread.  Now there is nothing left for you to do, but to try this recipe out!

1 small loaf

INGREDIENTS:

• 135g sunflower seeds
• 90g flax seeds
• 65g hazelnuts or almonds
• 145g buckwheat flakes or rolled oats 
• 4 tbsp psyllium seeds or psyllium seed husks or ground flax seeds (or 3 tbsp psyllium husk powder)
• 2 tbsp chia seeds (optional)
• 1 tsp fine grain sea salt
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3 tbsp melted coconut oil or ghee (or melted butter)
• 350ml water

DIRECTIONS:

• Combine all dry ingredients, stirring well. In another container, whisk together the wet ingredients (honey, water, coconut oil/ghee).  Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix very well (you can add one or two teaspoons of water if the dough seems to dry). Line the smallest bread pan you have with parchment paper and put the mixture in it (it will not grow).  Smooth out the top with the back of a spoon.  Cover this with some cling film, and let sit out on the counter for at least 2h, maximum 24h.
• Preheat the oven 175°C.
• Place the bread pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan, flip it upside down directly on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, and bake for another 30-40 minutes (watch out - it is hot!). The bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped.  
• Let it cool completely before slicing!

*The recipe comes from the blog My New Roots.

Bon appetit!

Above: bread + home-made baked lentil, soy & mushroom pâté.

Oh-so-yummy stuffed peppers

Lately the idiom "I could eat a horse" has evolved from a fun expression to a very literal -- yet unfortunate -- prophecy for the European consumer.  Reports of horse meat found pretty much everywhere and in everything have made me think twice even when buying horseradish in a jar.  Seems like greedy food producers are going out of their way to make consumers reach the bitter conclusion that nothing will ever surprise them again.

Rest assured -- this recipe has nothing to do with horse meat.  Nonetheless, the horse idiom is definitely appropriate here, as the dish is great for very hungry people.  After trying this, you will want to change the expression to "I'm so hungry I could eat a stuffed pepper."  Sounds much nicer in view of the recent events.

There is no doubt about this: the peppers are very filling. I was totally stuffed after eating two -- one would have been enough, but they are just soooooo delicious I couldn't resist having the second one.  They are great on their own, but you could also serve them as a side dish -- with some meat, potatoes or salad.  

This dish is very healthy and low in fat or calories.  The peppers are stuffed with red lentils, buckwheat, mushrooms and herbs.  Lentils and buckwheat are an excellent source of fibre, proteins, vitamins and minerals -- they are among the healthiest foods out there.  You won't even notice when you become healthier and happier after eating the peppers (ok, ok: this is not a miracle worker -- just very good for you).

The dish requires almost no preparation and is extremely easy to make.  Vegetarians/vegans will love it.  Meat-eaters won't even notice there is no meat there (or they can have it as a side dish with a steak, if they really must have some meat).  

There is also a lot of room for experimenting: you can add any ingredients you like to the stuffing (tomatoes, minced meat, capers, topped with cheese etc.).  But this combination is a perfect balance of flavors, and goes very well with the sweet, soft, delicately cooked pepper.  

Mmm, I can't wait to make this again!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 4 red or yellow peppers (firm, fresh, and with thick flesh)
• 100 g of dry buckwheat roasted groats
• 100 g of dry red lentils
• 300 g of mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 large onion or 2 small ones, finely chopped 
• 400 ml of light vegetable stock (I used bio)
• 3 tsps of herbes de Provence (I used bio)
• olive oil (around 1 tbsp)
• salt & pepper

Directions:

• Sauté the onions with the olive oil until golden.  Add the chopped mushrooms, herbes de Provences, and a little bit of salt and pepper.  Sauté until light brown.
• Chop off the top of the peppers.  Be careful not to make any holes in the lid while doing that.    Cut off the stems if they are too long.  Clean the peppers inside, getting rid of the pips. 
• Mix the dry buckwheat, lentils and mushrooms in a bowl.  Fill the bottom part of the peppers, leaving around 1 cm of space from the edge.
• Pour a bit of hot water in a pan, filling it with a layer of around 3 cm.  Put the peppers in a pan, very tightly next to each other.  They will become very soft and slippery, so they must be arranged really tightly or otherwise they might fall over.  
• Pour the vegetable stock filling each pepper up to the edge.  Cover with the pepper lid.  
• Cover the pan with the lid.  Let simmer over a small heat for around 40 minutes (yellow peppers are softer than the red ones, so monitor them closely to see if they don't fall apart).

Bon appetit!

Veggie goat's cheese quiche

I think progress and innovation stems from very clever lazy people, who are just pretending to be hardworking.  Who else would spend their life trying to figure out how to make things easier, less strenuous and more simple?  The huge revolution in the way of living of the -- so-called -- "Western society" is proof of how much easier life is now for the average person.  All thanks to clever inventions -- simple solutions saving time and hard work.

My mind often takes the same approach to cooking, trying to figure out the simplest way to prepare something -- at the same time not giving up on taste, quality and the home-made-factor.

What I cook very often is a result of what I happen to have in the fridge.  There is no elaborate planning, no trips to specialty stores to get exotic ingredients, no thorough research in the Internet or cookbooks to find the perfect recipe or at least some inspiration.  Leading a busy life with limited free time and strength to engage in hours and hours of shopping, preparing and cooking forces you to be creative.  

And all the better -- after all few of us have the luxury of both time and resources.  And it's not that I don't like being in the kitchen.  It's just that in the little time I have left after work, I like doing other things too.  That's why I often try to figure out ways to spend as little time cooking as possible.

The key to success is having the right basic ingredients at home.  Vegetables, grains, eggs, flower, spices, oil or butter will often get you a long way.  Sometimes you are allowed to cheat by buying ready made pastry -- who would have the time to every single time make the pastry from scratch after returning from work?

That's how this quiche happened.  My family came to visit and I wanted them to have a proper meal, but at the same time not spend hours preparing it.  This semi-fancy, semi-home made dinner was the work of a few moments.  I simply chopped some veggies, whisked together the batter, and voila - dinner was served.  

Go ahead and experiment yourself!  It's amazing how much time you can save with some lazy-mindset-thinking -- and at the same time come up with great dinner ideas.  

Ingredients:

• 1 package of shortcrust pastry (not sweetened)
• 2 red peppers, sliced
• 250 g of champignon mushrooms, sliced
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 package of creamy goat's cheese (150 g)
• 3 eggs
• 50 ml of milk
• 2 tbsp of flower
• a handfull of grated gruyère cheese (optional)
• handfull of sunflower seeds
• handfull of pumpkin seeds
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 175°C.  Put the shortcrust pastry in a tart tin, make sure the edges stick nicely to the tin.  Puncture wholes with a fork on the bottom of the pastry.  Bake for 6-8 minutes until slightly golden (it might rise a bit, but don't worry about that).  Take out of the oven and set aside.
• Saute the onion with a tablespoon of olive oil for a few minutes.  Add mushrooms, saute until golden brown.  Put on the pre-baked pastry.
• Whisk together the milk and flower until smooth.  Add goat cheese, eggs, salt and pepper and gruyere cheese if you're using it.  Pour over the mushrooms.
• Decorate quiche with peppers and sprinkle with seeds.  Bake around 30 more minutes.
• Serve with fig preserve, sprinkled with additional seeds.

Bon appetit!

Pasta sauce: reinvented

Rain and strikes -- today was a typical Brussels day.  It started raining about a week ago, and I hasn't stopped since for more than a couple of hours. Of course the rain is accompanied by strong wind, which makes carrying an umbrella more or less as useful as swinging a stick.  
Strikes are also a significant and imperative part of everyday life here.  All sorts of people come to the capital of the EU to voice their opinion... or just take a "day off" and combine the protesting with some sight-seeing.  

Funnily enough, weather and strikes immediately become the key conversation item.  Suddenly this is all people can talk about.  But who would blame them -- after being soaked to the skin, and arriving late at work/home because of the traffic jams caused by street blockades.  

Before & after (#1)

But once you get to know Brussels and its hidden charms a little bit better, you will no longer notice its flaws.  What is more -- you'll learn to like them.  

When I was on my way to get lunch, I got caught up in an avalanche of hundreds of trade union protestors -- all of them dressed in bright green and moving towards the destination of their protest.  Since it was pouring, I gently unfolded my bright red umbrella (which was not easy in this crowd, especially since my umbrella is half-broken by wind).  And I thought to myself: how cool is this?!  Here I am with my vividly red umbrella, in this big crowd of bright green people (talking about their protest and drinking beers -- after all, it's a day off).  What a funny sight this must have been from a birds-eye-view :-)  Thank God for the rain and strikes!

Before & after (#2)

Just like today was a typical day -- today's dish could not be more everyday & simple.  What else could you say about spaghetti sauce?  Still, I decided to give the dish a little bit of a twist.  Instead of using the store-bought-jarred-slush-loaded-with-preservatives, I went for a home-made version.

The sauce is made of grilled vegetables -- and has their rich, smoked flavor.  The taste is so much more complex than that of a basic tomato sauce -- yet the various barbecued vegetable flavors complement each other perfectly.  It goes well with every king of pasta, but I prefer good quality fettucine al uovo to spaghetti.  Great idea for a simple everyday meal!

You have to be very quick if you want to take pictures  -- the food disappears in a blink of an eye!

Serves four

Ingredients:

• 1 small eggplant (or 1/2 of a big one)
• 1 small zucchini (or 1/2 of a big one)
• 2 peppers (e.g. red and yellow)
• 2 small red onions
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 small can (100g) of (bio) tomato paste 
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• your favorite pasta (amount for 4 people)
• a large handful of fresh herbs (preferably basil or parsley) (chopped) 
• parmesan cheese (freshly grated)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Roughly dice all the veggies, season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with olive oil.  Bake until completely tender (around 45-60 minutes).
• Take vegetables out of the baking tray and blend.  You can make a completely smooth sauce -- I prefer when it still has some texture to it.  Add the tomato paste and stir.  Season to taste.
• Cook pasta, reheat sauce.  Serve sprinkled with fresh herbs and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Buon appetito!

I falafel you ♥

Remember that episode of "How I met your mother" where Robin already knew she loved Ted, but just couldn't say it?  Instead, she said "falafel" -- simply because it's such a funny word.  Maybe words are not that important, as long as we manage to get the right message across?  And maybe it's perfectly fine to say "falafel" instead of "I love you" -- as long as the one you're saying it to doesn't think you're just suggesting a snack?  

Inspired by today's visit to the René Magritte museum, I thus repeat after the painter: "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." ...I mean: "Ceci n'est pas un falafel." (I hope you do get that in fact it is a falafel).

  Before & after soaking

Come to think of it, there are quite a few funny words Robin could have used instead of "falafel".  She could, for example, have said "I chihuahua you at first sight".  Or "I kerfuffle you with all my heart."  "I snickerdoodle you as much as you snickerdoodle me."  "Do you still knickerbocker me?" "I have been the happiest person on Earth since you told me that you bumblebee me." 

OK, before you're left flabbergasted by all this gobbledygook and jabberwocky, I'm going to cut to the chase.

I've been a big fan of falafels since forever, and was on the lookout for a nice recipe which didn't involve deep-frying or adding a huge amount of fat.  This one (adapted from BBC Good Food) is a perfect fit!  The falafels are very delicious, not too fatty and perfectly spiced (in this respect you can just follow your own taste and add whatever you like). Though they are good on their own, I find they are at their best in a warm pita bread -- accompanied by a cucumber-tomato-red onion salad and drizzled with a lime-garlic-cilantro yoghurt sauce.

Try this out and you will find yourself saying: "I falafel you, falafel!"

Ingredients:

• 180 g (a bit less than a cup) of dried chickpeas (or one 400 g can)
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large egg, beaten
• a large handful of fresh cilantro (chopped) 
• 1 tsp of ground cumin + 1 tsp of ground cilantro (can be replaced by your favorite spices)
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Directions:

• Soak the chickpeas overnight.  Rinse and cook until soft.  Blend or mash (I mashed using a fork).
• Glaze the onion with a bit of olive oil.  Add to chickpeas, together with the egg, cilantro, garlic and spices.  Mix with a spoon or by hand.
• Form small, round balls, flatten them in your hands and fry on a bit of hot olive oil until golden brown.
• Serve with pita bread, vegetable salad (simply dice cucumber, tomatoes and red onion -- or any other veggies you have/like, add salt & pepper and fresh cilantro), and yoghurt sauce (the latter is crucial for great overall taste, as the falafel can be a bit dry without it.  Just mix some Greek yoghurt with minced garlic, lime zest and fresh cilantro).

Bon appetit!