Tag Archives: basil

Pasta Delight

Zucchini is something you either love or hate. Some people may feel extremely queasy while others simply relish its rather flabby texture. When I say this, I refer to squash or zucchini tagliatelle because this is how you can make it resemble the traditional pasta. All you need is a peeler to peel off fine layers of squash until you get to the seeds.

The result should look like this

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Now think of a nice sauce to accompany the so-called pasta.

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You can play around with tahina, mustard and olive oil or simply try out one of the vegan mayonnaisesAnother equally healthy alternative is a ketchup made out of tomatoes, olive oil, dates and salt.

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Season it as you wish – garlic, basil, thyme, pepper, etc – and add some protein if needed – crushed walnuts, almonds or sunflower seeds, previously soaked and strained.

Gather a few more vegetables that keep a firm texture (pepper, red cabbage, carrots, peas, spring onions or garlic) and there you have your pasta delight!

Adding the greens (dill, rucola, parsley, etc)  or some sliced tomatoes at the very end will save them from getting completely mushed into the sauce.

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All you have left to do now is slurp, slurp!

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I prepared this dish so many times and each time it turns out a little bit different. Hope the pictures serve you well, but above all trust your imagination!

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Green Start to The Day

Everybody agrees upon the high detox power of greens. And there’s no better way to start the day than with a big mug of green smoothie. Trust me, you will feel the effects in no more than a week: more energy, lighter body, brighter eyes! It is true that you need a good blender for that, but it’s totally worth it.

There’s no real recipe for green smoothies, just two basic rules:

  • try not to mix sweet fruits (banana, dried fruits) with acid fruits (citrics, pineapple, pomegranate, tomato) *
  • try to alternate daily the types of leaves you use (read here why)

You can actually have any kind of greens you wish, even the ones that wouldn’t taste so good in salads, like radish, kohlrabi or carrot. Not to mention the incredible array of wild edible greens! If you do have access to something like this, it would make the best detox ever.

Just add the fruits and the leaves in the blender, along with a few cups of water and mix until you get the specific smoothie texture.  My usual add-ons are:

– one or two tsp of spirulina/ chlorella powder (any other green powder is welcomed)

– a handful of mint, basil or melissa leaves

– grated ginger

As much as you can, try to go with local, seasonal ingredients. If you’re a first timer, start in summer, so you can have plenty of fruits and greens to choose from.

some smoothie making snapshots

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more about food combining herehere and here – depends how far you want to go with it 🙂

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Cauliflower Forever

Most of the people are simply astonished when they have raw cauliflower. Wow, it’s so great! but…what is it? rice….or cheese? If you’re not familiar with it, you literally have no idea what is that you’re eating. We of course owe it all to the food processor, able to break down the cauliflower into tiny white pieces resembling rice. You can do it by hand as well, but the result will be slightly different.

I haven’t yet discovered a better and faster recipe than the cauliflower rice.  It goes like this: you shred the cauliflower in your food processor and you mix it with peas, corn (both fresh or frozen) pepper (capia or capsicum) and green onion/garlic. In case you want to add some greens, I totally recommend lovage or dill. Make a basic dressing out of olive oil and lemon juice and that’s it. Now you can enjoy the best summer salad!

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Another vegetable that goes pretty well with cauliflower is carrot. I’ve used it in this thai version of the cauliflower rice. The whole idea is to make a coconut based dressing, keeping everything else the same. For this you would ideally need coconut cream or milk (I use Renuka or Biona brand as it doesn’t have any additives). You can also add shredded coconut or coconut flakes directly into the salad, but be aware it will draw in all the liquid, so you might have to add some more in a few minutes. The perfect seasoning is curry, mild or hot, and fresh basil. In the picture I’ve served it with sunflower seeds pate spread on bell pepper.

list of ingredients

  • cauliflower
  • peas
  • corn (if not fresh, see that it doesn’t have added  sugar)
  • pepper/capsicum
  • olive oil
  • lemon juice
  • salt

optional:

  • green onion/garlic
  • lovage/dill
  • coconut milk or cream
  • shredded coconut
  • curry
  • fresh basil

 

Summer Salad

IMG_8497Summer is the best season for tomatoes. Actually, the only one! I’ve always preferred to avoid the out of season tomatoes, as I never know what kind of fake substitutes I’ll get in the supermarkets. I wait instead for the rich tasty ones of august and the crooked sunburnt ones of late september (grown directly in the fields). So delicious!

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I usually chop it directly into any kind of salad, but I do enjoy a lot to prepare a tomato based dressing – some might call it a soup 🙂 I mix it in the blender with some of the following: olive oil, mustard, tahina, garlic, fresh basil, thyme or melissa. You can even incorporate hydrated nuts (sunflower seeds, walnuts, almonds, etc). The result is a rich dense dressing ready to be poured over a fresh greens salad or to be scooped with cucumber, squash or carrot sticks.

 

 

 

Here the beet root surprised me with its heart shaped stems 🙂

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You can add zatar or grated orange peel into the greens salad for an even more fresh taste.

 

list of ingredients

  • ‘real’ tomatoes
  • olive oil
  • mustard / tahina
  • fresh basil, thyme or melissa
  • nuts (sunflower, walnut, almonds, etc) – previously soaked overnight