Fennel and Orange Salad with Rocket, Dried Cranberries and Walnuts

As promised, here it comes: The recipe for the fabulous salad I served for brunch last weekend. Not only is it oh-so-delicious, it's also a pretty and colorful addition to any buffet. Deb from Smitten Kitchen originally made it with blood oranges and added some mint leaves and lime zest which, I imagine, is also very delicious. I didn't have all those ingredients at home so I adapted the recipe a little. I added some rocket and dried cranberries and was very pleased with the outcome. This salad goes really well with grilled or smoked salmon.

Recipe

(slightly adapted from: Smitten Kitchen)

a handful of walnuts (or hazelnuts)

2 medium-large fennel bulbs, leaves and stems trimmed off

salt 

black pepper

juice of one lemon

3 large oranges (or blood oranges)

(1 small shallot - I left that out)

rocket salad

dried cranberries

olive oil

Place the nuts in a dry skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring, to toast. Then, let cool. If you use hazelnuts, roll them around in a dishcloth, to discard any loose skins. Coarsely chop. Set aside.

Slice about half an inch from the bottom of the fennel and discard. Slice the fennel very thinly in a mandoline or with a knife, starting with flat bottom side. Toss in a serving bowl with salt, pepper and lemon juice. 

Trim all peel and pith from the oranges. Holding the peeled fruit over the bowl containing the fennel, use a sharp knife to cut sections from the membrane and let them drop into the bowl. Squeeze the remaining membrane over the bowl to sprinkle the salad with the remaining juice, discard the membrane.

Add rocket, cranberries, nuts and olive oil.  

Pumpkin, Saffron and Orange Soup with Caramelized Pumpkin Seeds

Boy, it's getting colder! Which is why I'm starting the week off with a soup recipe. This will warm you up and put a smile on your face on grey and rainy autumn days, believe me! Ottolenghi just never ceases to stun me with his fabulous flavor combinations. The roasted onions give this soup a slightly smokey touch. The saffron brings in the warmth. The orange peel adds a wonderful sweetness. It just all blends in perfectly with the pumpkin. And the spicy caramelized pumpkin seeds are so yummy, it's hard to stop oneself from sneaking them off the baking tray after taking them out of the oven...

Recipe

(from: here)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
550g pumpkin flesh, cut into 2cm cubes
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
1 tsp saffron fronds
1 litre water or vegetable stock
2 tsp grated orange zest
6 tbsp crème fraîche
Salt and white pepper

For the pumpkin seeds:
1 tbsp sunflower oil
60g pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp golden (or maple) syrup
½ tbsp soft brown sugar
½ tsp salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 big pinch cayenne pepper

Serves six.

First prepare the seeds. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line an oven tray with greaseproof paper and brush with sunflower oil. Put the pumpkin seeds in a bowl with all the other ingredients, spread over the tray and bake for 12-15 minutes, stirring a few times, until a nice, golden color. Leave to cool down.

Heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan, add the onion, season and sauté over high heat for a minute, stirring all the time. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft, sweet and golden brown, but not very dark.

Add the pumpkin, carrot and saffron, pour in water or stock to cover the vegetables and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, until the pumpkin and carrots are almost tender. Add the orange zest and simmer for five minutes longer. When the vegetables are thoroughly cooked, blitz the soup with a hand blender or liquidiser - you want it with a bit of texture, not too smooth. Add extra water or stock if it is too thick. Season to taste.

Serve in shallow bowls with a dollop of crème fraîche and a sprinkling of the caramelised seeds.

Roasted Bulgur Salad

Here comes my new favorite summer salad. I accidently stumbled over this recipe video and I was intrigued with the idea of roasting the bulgur first before cooking it. It gets a more nutty smokey deep flavor which blends in wonderfully with the roasted tomatoes and onions and the parsley. I made a huge bowl of this salad just for myself last week and I liked it so much, I even ate if for breakfast over the next days. You can adjust this dish just the way you like. Leave out the chickpeas, add some feta... Try it, it's one of these easy recipes you can't go wrong with.

Recipe:

(from here, but if you're too lazy to watch the video, I've written it down for you)

3 pints of cherry tomatoes (i used 2)

5 teaspoons olive oil

salt

1 cup of bulgur

1 medium red onion

2 big bunches flat leaf parsley

1 can of chickpeas

lemon juice

Preheat the oven to about 180°C to 200°C. If you have a convection oven, you can roast the veggies and the bulgur at the same time on two baking trays. Otherwise, do it one after the other.

Spread the bulgur on a baking tray and roast for about 15 minutes. Then, cook in about two cups of water for about 15 minutes (or for as long as it says on the package).

Wash the cherry tomatoes, cut in half and spread on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and toss it around a bit. Sprinkle with salt. Roast in the oven for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, slice the onion and after 15 minutes, add the onion to the tomatoes and roast for another 15 minutes.

Wash and cut the parsley. In a large bowl, combine cooked bulgur, chickpeas, tomatoes and onions, parsley and drizzle with some more olive oil. Season with salt and lemon juice. This salad is delicious either warm or cold.

Pea Soup with Mint

I don't know whether I should trust that sunshine yet... Well, I won't say much about the weather anymore. I've been reading my past ten posts or so and it's something like "Yay, the sun is shining!" alternating with "Oh, it's cold and gray!". Anyway, this delicious soup here's got the color of spring: green. And the mint is the little something that turns it from ordinary into special.

Recipe
(from: Tibits at Home)

2 onions
2 twigs of peppermint, washed and chopped
400g frozen peas
200g potatoes, peeled, cut into 1cm dice
3 tablespoons olive oil
700ml vegetable stock
50ml heavy cream
sea salt
pepper

In a large pan, heat olive oil. Gently roast the onions together with the peppermint. Then, add potatoes and peas. Roast for about 5 minutes. Add the vegetable stock and let simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

Then, purée. Strain trough a fine sieve if you want to (I didn't). Add cream and bring to a boil again. Take away from the heat. Season with salt and pepper. Decorate with some mint leaves. You can serve this soup hot or cold.

Lentil Salad with Carrot and Zucchini

Last Friday, Miriam and I spontaneously went to have dinner at Tibits after work. That made me remember that I have this lovely book on my shelf which I have not used one single time so far. I flipped through it last weekend and decided to cook my own version of this salad. Good possibility to use up some of the lentils I got in stock. This salad would make a nice addition to a summer picnic... maybe the unexpectedly mild temperatures we got in Zurich right now are making me think about summer already...

Recipe

(slightly adapted from: Tibits at Home)

200g green lentils

2 carrots

2 zucchini

for the dressing:

60g dried tomatoes

20g ginger, freshly grated

6 tablespoons olive oil

6 tablespoons white wine vinegar

salt and pepper

(the original recipe also suggests 2 tablespoons tikka currypaste and 1 tablespoon chili oil)

I added some roughly chopped coriander for serving

Cook your lentils according to the instructions on the packing. I had to soak mine in cold water for 1-2 hours and let them cook for about 30 minutes in enough salted water. While the lentils are cooking, chop the carrots into dices of about 1cm and add when the lentils are almost done so that the carrots cook for about 2-5 minutes. Then, drain and rinse with cold water. The recipe suggests to also cut the zucchini into 1cm dices and to add them to the salad uncooked. I, however, roasted them gently in olive oil in a large frying pan for about 10 minutes until slightly soft because I like that better.

For the dressing, chop the dried tomatoes and mix with all the other ingredients. Mix the lentils and the veggies with the dressing and season with salt and pepper. Add some herbs if you like. You can eat this salad warm or at room temperature.

Celeriac and Pear Soup with Saffron

Winter is back again... Time to share one of my favorite soup recipes with you. I stumbled over it by chance last year and thought that the combination of pears and celeriac sounded interesting. Pears are probably my favorite fruit by now. I like them for their simplicity, they are not too sweet, they are not the star in your fruit bowl, yet, they are so comforting and useful in many ways for both sweet and savory dishes. This soup here means ultimate comfort to me and I have cooked it several times already this winter. Only recently, I began to add saffron which gives the soup this wonderful yellow color and makes it even more warming.

Recipe
(adapted from: Fool for Food and Home Made by Yvette van Boven)

1 onion, sliced
400g celeriac, cut into dices of about 2cm
1 pear, peeled, without core, in coarse pieces
30g butter, I used ghee
50ml white wine
500ml vegetable stock
200g cream
a large pinch saffron
salt
pepper
nutmeg

Heat butter in a large sauce pan. Add onion, celeriac and the pear and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add the wine and then the vegetable stock. Bring this to a boil and then, turn down the heat. Add the saffron, cover the pan with a lid and let simmer for about 20 minutes, until the celeriac is soft.

Add the cream and take away from the heat. Purée. If you want to strain the soup through a sieve, you can do that. Season your soup and add some cream or vegetable stock if you think your soup is too thick. You can add some roasted bacon to this soup to finish if you like and garnish it with parsley. Instead of cream, by the way, you could also add creme fraiche to this soup. When it comes to soups, I am kind of a freestyle cooker, so just cook this soup the way you like!

Rice and Quinoa Salad with Sweet Potato

Ottolenghi's Plenty is one of those books that I kept looking at in book stores time and again thinking that I want to buy it at some point. No need for that anymore since Sarah got it for me as a present. I put it to use the weekend after my birthday party and made my own version of Ottolonghi's Quinoa salad with dried Iranian lime. That is - without dried Iranian lime :-) What I like about Ottolenghi's recipes is that, if you're a more or less experienced cook, you can use them as an inspiration and modify them the way you like it.

Recipe
(from Yotam Ottolenghi - Plenty)

2 medium sweet potatoes, about 350g each (I used 3)
110ml olive oil
200g mixed basmati rice with wild rice (I used plain basmati rice)
200g quinoa (I used red quinoa)
4 garlic cloves (I'm not that much into garlic, so I used 2 only)
3 tbsp shredded sage leaves
3 tbsp roughly chopped oregano
2 tbsp ground dried Iranian lime (I omitted that)
6 tbsp shredded mint
4 spring onions, green parts only, thinly sliced (I omitted these)
1 tsp lemon juice
160g feta, broken into pieces
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into roughly 2cm dice. Spread on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, drizzle over half the oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 20-25 minutes, or until tender.

Meanwhile, cook the basmati (and wild) rice as instructed on the packet; drain. Place the quinoa in a pan with plenty of boiling water and simmer for 9 minutes; drain in a fine sieve. When dry (but still warm), transfer the rice and the quinoa to a large mixing bowl.

Pour the remaining oil into a small frying pan to heat up, then fry the garlic for about 30 seconds, or until it turns light golden. Add the sage and oregano and stir as you fry for about a minute. Watch closely and make sure that the herbs or the garlic don't burn. Pour the contents of the pan over the rice and quinoa. Add the roast sweet potato with its oil.

Add the lime powder (if you have any), mint, spring onions, lemon juice, feta, some salt and pepper. Toss everything together gently and try not to mesh up the sweet potato and the feta. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve warmish or at room temperature, garnish with spring onions.

This salad keeps in the fridge for about two days. I took my leftovers to the office for lunch.

Mushroom Tart

We found it! The perfect shortcrust recipe. Until now, I have always made shortcrust by hand. Rubbing the cold butter into the flour is rather strenuous for my hands and I was never fully content with the results I got. Either the dough was a bit too firm or too crumbly which made it more difficult to roll it out. The recipe below advises to make the dough with a food processor which I have never done before. We were delighted with the result! A super-smooth dough which is rather easy to roll out. The filling of this tart is easy to make and not too heavy. If you like mushrooms, this tart is going to be a winner! Goes well with a salad. Perfect for a light summer dinner.

Recipe
(from Elle à Table N°82)

Pâte Brisée (Shortcrust)
250g flour
1 egg
150g butter, cold
2 pinches of salt
1 teaspoon sugar
6 tablespoons cold milk

Put the flour, sugar, salt and the butter, cut into small cubes, into a food processor and mix on high speed. Then, add the egg and the milk and mix again until all is well incorporated. If the dough is too liquid, add a bit of flour. Then, transfer your dough onto a floured surface, knead shortly with your hands and form into a ball. Flatten a little and wrap in cling film. Put in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

Mushroom Filling and assembling the Tart:
500g mushrooms (champignons, we took about 350g champignons and 150g oyster mushrooms)
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoons olive oil
20g butter
a pinch of cayenne pepper
1 heaped tablespoon of crème fraiche
1 handful of spinach leaves
125g ricotta
ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a tart tin (about 25cm diameter) with parchment paper or grease well.

If your mushrooms are dirty, clean them by brushing them, you should not wash them with water, they will get soaky. Cut them in quarters. Heat up the olive oil and the butter in a large frying pan, add the mushrooms and fry them for about 5 to 10 minutes or so. In the meantime, you can cut your dough in two halves. Roll out the first one and place into your tart tin. Perforate the dough with a fork. Transfer the mushrooms into a bowl. Add the flour, crème fraiche, ricotta, spices and the spinach leaves and mix well. Pour into your tart tin. Then, roll out the second half of the dough into a disc and place onto your tart. Cut it crosswise in the middle with a knife so that the steam may evaporate. You can also pull open the wedges of dough so that you get a bigger hole in the middle (see picture below). I think, the tart lookes really nice like that. However, you can also only make one disc of shortcrust and leave out the second one to cover the tart.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes, until the dough is golden brown.

Mixed Vegetables with Yoghurt and Chilli Herb Oil

Ottolenghi calls this a "real scene-stealer of a dish". I agree. What is so simpe to prepare turns out to be a hit. That's what I like so much about Ottolenghi's dishes, they are usually colourful eye-catchers with lots of different herbs and spices. To me, that's what makes them exciting and comforting at the same time. I imagine this one to go well with grilled meat, you can serve it with rice also. I just served it with some baguette as a light dinner for Annette and me yesterday.

Recipe
(from: here)

2 courgettes, cut into 2cm dice
1 large aubergine, cut into 2cm dice
3 large plum tomatoes
Sunflower oil, for frying
2 red peppers, cut into 2cm pieces
150g Greek yoghurt
1 big garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 tbsp fresh mint, shredded
1½ tsp dried mint
1½ tsp lemon juice
Salt and black pepper

For the chilli and herb oil:
1 green chilli, chopped roughly
20g parsley
5g mint
1 tsp ground cumin
4 tbsp olive oil

Heat the oven to 150°C. Mix the courgettes and aubergine with a teaspoon of salt, place in a colander for an hour, then drain.

Cut each tomato into six wedges, place on a baking tray and sprinkle with a quarter-teaspoon of salt. Roast for 40 minutes, to dry out a little, then set aside to cool.

Put all the herb oil ingredients in a food processor with a pinch of salt and process to a smooth, thick sauce.

Pour sunflower oil into a medium saucepan to come 5cm up the sides and place on a medium-high flame. Once hot, lower the flame to medium. Pat dry the courgette and aubergine, mix with the red pepper, and deep fry in batches for four or five minutes. Drain in a colander, sprinkle with salt and set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl, whisk the yoghurt with the garlic, fresh and dried mint, lemon juice and plenty of pepper. Add the vegetables and tomatoes and stir very gently. Serve with the herb oil spooned on top.