Crazy Good Cauliflower Pizza

New twist on the good ol' pizza. Trying to be less of a carb-eater? Make this surprisingly easy  and delicious cauliflower crusted pizza!

Serves 2-3 people
1 hour to prepare and cook

Ingredients:

• For the crust
• 1 1/2 grated cauliflower
• 3 1/2 tbsp greek yoghurt
• 2 eggs
• mix of dried herbs
• sea salt and ground pepper
• For the topping
• Cheese of your liking
• pizza sauce
• any topping your heart desires!

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 C.
2. Clean the cauliflower and put it in the food processor until it is grainy.
3. Try to strain the cauliflower as much as possible to get out the water.
4. Mix the cauliflower, the greek yoghurt, the eggs and the herbs together in a bowl. If it is still quite watery, try to strain as much as the moisture out of the mix.
5. Put the cauliflower "dough" on a tray covered with a baking sheet, spread out with your hands. Tada! The crust is almost ready.
6. Cook the crust in the oven for about 30 minutes or until it becomes light brown/golden.
7. Take it out, put on your favourite toppings, and put it back in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Voilà!

Bon Appétit!

Brilliant Bread Rolls with Raisins, Hazelnuts and Apricots

Hello again,

I am back after completing all my exams and back to being food-inspired.

This summer´s project is (even more) healty and delicious food. I am doing this with one of my bestfriends because it´s always easier doing it with someone right? 

So, to the actual recipe. I made this a few weeks ago when I was bored of the usual dark bread I eat for breakfast and wanted to try something new. I found this recipe on a Norwegian page where healthy carbs is all the rage nowadays and decided to give it a go. I actual halfed the recipe, but I am giving you the original one here.

For 20 bread rolls (these do well in the freezer so don´t be afraid to make this many)

Ingredients:

• 4 dl skimmed milk
• 5 dl water
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 50 g fresh yeast (This would convert to a little less than a whole small packet of dried yeast)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 350 g plain flour
• 350 g whole wheat flour (I couldn´t fint this in the store so I just doubled the plain four)
• 3 dl oatmeal
• 200 g rye flour
• 100 g sunflower seeds
• 150 g hazelnuts
• 100 g dried apricots
• 150 g raisins

Now I know this seems like a lot, but remember, you can always play around and do your own things. Don´t be a stickler for the rules, if you are missing something, just compensate with something else.

Directions:

1. Add all the dry ingredients (including the dry yeast) together in a large bowl. If you are using fresh yeast, heat the milk and water together until lukewarm and add it.
2. Chop up the nuts and dried fruit and add to the dry mixture.
3. If you have not already done so, mix the water and milk together and heat up until lukewarm, then add the canola oil and pour the liquid over the dry. Mix this together well with a wooden spoon (it makes less of a mess). The dough should be a bit sticky.
4. Cover with plasticfoil and let it raise for about 30 minutes.
5. When this is done, part the dough in equally-sized pieces and shape them into rolls. Remember that these will also raise, so don´t make them too big.
6. Put your rolls on oventray covered with greaseproof paper. Cover again for 45 minutes.
7. Pre-heat your oven to 225 C.
8. Before putting the rolls in, you can cover them with a light coat of milk or water.
9. Cook them for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
10. Let cool for a few minutes before you dig in.

Bon Appétit!

Sorry for no posts lately!

I am mid-exam period and cannot seem to even make a sandwich for lack of time.
I will be back and posting in a few days.
In the mean time, go make yourself some fantastic food!

Moroccan-Inspired Chicken Dish with Couscous

I decided to make this recipe one evening when I was sick of studying and wanted to make an actual dinner for myself. The past few days I had only made easy dinners because I wasn't really felling inspired, but yesterday I looked through my cupboard and found all these good ingredients for my dish. I have always loved Northern African cuisine so I found some recipes online and added some of my own things.
Now, this is only Moroccan inspired because I don't actually have all the things required to make a real Moroccan dish, like a Tajin, but bear with me.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken thighs, skinned
• 1/2 can of chickpeas, drain and rinse
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• handful of dried apricots, cut up into medium-sized pieces
• 100 g couscous
• 250 ml chicken broth
• juice from half a lime/lemon
• Spices: (I don´t know the amounts for each seeing as I just did it on my own.)
• ground cumin
• ground cinnamon
• ground cardamom (I only had seeds, but used my mortar to fix that)
• salt
• black pepper
• red pepper

Directions:

1. Mix all your spices in a mortar and crush/blend well. Put your chicken thighs in a bowl and rub the spices mixture on them. It´s better if the thighs are skinned so that the meat can soak up the flavors.
2. Heat some olive oil in a pan on medium-high heat, add the thighs and cook 3 minutes on each side.
3. Add chickpeas and tomatoes, let it cook together for 5 minutes.
4. Add the broth and apricots, bring to a boil. The cover with a lid, reduce heat and let simmer for 10-15 minutes depending on the size of the chicken.
5. Prepare the couscous from the instructions on the pack.
6. Add the lime or lemon juice to the pan.

Bon Appétit!

Roast Spring Vegetables Served with Turkey Fillet

Super-easy, back-to-studying-while-the-food-makes-itself kind of dish. Very tasty and yet so simple!
Enjoy :)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 courgette
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 zucchini
• 2 diced tomatoes
• 2 garlic gloves
• 1/2 red onion
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 1/2 a can of chickpeas
• olive oil
• a nice chicken/turkey fillet

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 C.
2. Chop up your vegetables into medium-sized bites.
3. Add olive oil to an ovenproof dish, add the vegetables and chickpeas. Add salt, pepper and herbs. Toss well together so that the olive oil covers most of the vegetables.
4. Roast in the oven for 30-35 minutes, be careful that the top vegetables don´t get burned.
5. When there is about 10 minutes left, heat oil in a pan and cook your meat.

Bon Appétit!

Spectacular Salmon with Greek Yoghurt and Spinach

Sorry I haven´t posted lately. I have been quite busy with university and I have been coming home to study late every night. This has understandably reduced my culinary experimenting quite a bit, but here it is, a new post!

It´s is a super easy dinner that will practically make itself. Just pop it in the oven and go back to your studying or other things ;)

Ingredients:

• 1 salmon fillet
• 2 tbsp Greek yoghurt
• 2 teaspoons French mustard (I used the wholegrain kind)
• 2 medium-sized potatoes
• leaf spinach

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 C.
2. Mix the mustard and the greek yoghurt together.
3. Slice the salmon fillet horizontally to make a pocket and put in the yoghurt-mustard mix.
4. Wash your potatoes, and peel them if you like. Cut them into thin slices.
5. In an ovenproof dish, add some olive oil and lay down the potatoes slices so that the salmon can lie on top of it. Season with salt, pepper and any kind of dried herbs (I used rosemary and basil)
6. Add the salmon on top and put it in the oven. It should cook for about 20-30 minutes.
7. The last 10 minutes your salmon in the oven, thoroughly rinse the leaf spinach and dry well.
8. Heat a  good knob of butter in a frying pan and add the spinach. It won´t take long until it´s ready (maybe 5 minutes), season, and if you have some, add lemon or lime juice.

Bon Appétit!

Wonderful Vegetarian Moussaka (Red Lentils & Aubergine)

Before I made this dish I had never actually tasted moussaka before, so it was quite a leap for me to make something I didn't really know much about. I knew some of the ingredients involved, and the fact that it was a Greek recipe, but other the that, not much. The idea came to me when I was flipping through my internet pages, looking for a recipe for the yogurt marinade I recently made. The sites came up with so many wonderfully Greek suggestions that I just had to try this one out.
I know moussaka isn't supposed to be vegetarian, but I couldn't find any lamb mince here in Poland, and I didn't have any other mince meat either, so I went for this option instead.

This makes for about 2-3 people, or delicious leftovers just for you.
This might take you some time to make, so put off about 1 hour to make.

Ingredients:

• 1 aubergine
• olive oil
• 50 g red lentils, cooked after packet instructions
• 1 red or yellow pepper, finely chopped
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, pressed/chopped
• 1 1/2 tbps tomato puree
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (stick or ground)
• fresh parsley
• 100 g ricotta cheese
• 100 g greek yogurt
• ground nutmeg
• grated parmesan
• black, ground pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 C.
2. Cook your lentils as it is indicated on the packet.
3. Slice your aubergine into thin slices, put them in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix it well so that the vegetable is well covered and set aside.
4. Chop your onion, garlic and pepper.
5. In a hot frying pan, put in, preferably flat,the aubergines and let them fry on each side for about 3-4 minutes so they become golden brown. Put on some kitchen paper to soak off the olive oil.
6. Toss the garlic, onion and pepper to the frying pan with a little olive oil, let it fry until soft, for about 5 minutes.
7. Then add the tomato pure so that it covers the vegetables, and then add the chopped tomatoes and the cinnamon. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the lentils to the mix, turn down the heat, and let it all heat up together.
8. To make the "topping", whisk your ricotta, greek yogurt, nutmeg and salt and pepper together in a bowl. 
9. Take the vegetables off the heat and transfer to an ovenproof dish. Add the chopped parsley. Then add the mix you just made with the yogurt and cheese. Sprinkle some parmesan on top and pop in the oven for 30 minutes until the cheese turns golden brown. Serve while hot.

Bon Appétit!