Friday 31 December 2010

salad decor

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Thursday 30 December 2010

Рулетики из салата

http://vserecepty.com/salaty-i-sousy/salaty-iz-ovoshhej/394-ruletiki-iz-salata.html

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1.
Промойте редис и натрите его на мелкой терке. Зелень укропа мелко порежьте.


2. Разотрите творог вилкой до кашицеобразного состояния. Соедините творог, редис и зелень. Смесь посолите и перемешайте.


3. Огурцы и ветчину нарежьте тонкой соломкой. Чеснок очистите и измельчите. Перец мелко нарежьте. Соедините творожную смесь с перцем, чесноком, огурцами и ветчиной.


4. Разберите салат-латук на листья. На основание каждого листа выложите небольшое количество начинки, а затем сверните лист в тугую трубочку.


5. Уложите рулетики на блюдо и украсьте кусочками редиски и зернами граната.

Ингредиенты:
Сапат-патук — 1 кочан
Творог — 200 г
Ветчина — 200 г
Огурцы — 2 шт
Редис — 1 пучок
Укроп — 1 пучок
Чеснок — 1 зубчик
Красный жгучий перец — 1/4 стручка
Зерна граната для украшения
Соль, перец по вкусу
Совет:
Такое блюдо можно приготовить и из капустных листов, предварительно отваренных до мягкости в подсоленной воде.
Время приготовления: 35 минут

Снеговик на шпажке

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Снеговик на шпажке - вкусные и интересно оформленные фрукты станут главным украшением новогоднего стола.

Ингредиенты:

  • Банан - 1 штука
  • Виноград - 200 грамм
  • Яблоко - 1 штука
  • Морковь вареная - 1 штука
  • Изюм - 100 грамм
  • Соломка - 1 упаковка
  • Шпажки

Способ приготовления:

Бананы нарезать кружочками и надеть их на шпажки по 3 штуки. Яблоки нарезать на ломтики, из них вырезать треугольники и надеть на шпажки как шапку, из винограда сделать Снеговику бубенчик. Из соломки сделать снеговику руки, из моркови нос, из изюма глазки и пуговицы.

Снеговик на шпажке готов. Приятного аппетита!

Рецепт от Лаврухиной Елены

Wednesday 22 December 2010

Spicy butternut squash soup

Ingredients

Method

  1. Heat oil in a large saucepan and add garlic, chilli, paprika, bay, rosemary and cumin seeds and heat for 30seconds (do not colour, you only want to release the flavours).
  2. Add all the remaining ingredients apart from the stock.
  3. Saute the vegetables for 2 minutes until they are fully coated in the spices.
  4. Add the stock, turn down the heat and allow the soup to simmer for about 45 mins.
  5. Allow the soup to cool and then blend with a hand whisk, until free of lumps. If the soup is too thick add a little more stock until you have the desired consistancy.
  6. Reheat when ready to serve and eat with a big hunk of crusty bread, delicious!

Saturday 18 December 2010

Carrot & Red Lentil Soup with a Hint of Cumin

Printable version of recipe here.

Ingredients

650g carrots, grated
150g red lentils, washed
1 onion, finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons black cumin seeds
1 liter vegetable stock
125 ml cream
sprinkling of dried chili flakes
a good glug of peanut oil
salt and pepper
handful of coriander leaves, coarsely chopped

Method

  1. In a non-stick frying pan, dry roast the cumin seeds until they begin to pop in the pan – approx. 1-2 minutes. Remove about 1 tablespoon and set aside.

  2. In a large pot heat up the glug of peanut oil and sauté the onions until translucent. Add the cumin seeds and chili flakes, ten add the carrots and lentils and mix. Finally add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for approx. 15 minutes. The lentils should be soft and swollen.

  3. Remove from heat and add the cream, then purée the soup with a hand held purée machine or in a blender until smooth. Place back on the heat and allow the soup to heat through again but do not let it boil. Season to taste and serve with a sprinkling of coriander leaves and the remaining roasted cumin seeds.

Sticky Note Serving Tip

Serve the soup with a dollop of fresh natural yogurt and some naan bread.

The soup is fairly thick but if you prefer it thinner just add some more vegetable stock. Make sure to taste it before you season it though as the stock can be fairly salty.


Ingredients:

600g carrots - peeled and cut into bite size cubes.
1 large onion - chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger - finely chopped
25g unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic - minced
675 ml stock
finely grated zest of one lemon
55ml sour cream
fresh chives - chopped





Method:

Melt butter in a large heavy pot. Add the onions and cook for a few minutes until soft. Put in the ginger and garlic and cook for a further 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the chopped carrots to the pot and sauté for a few minutes. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes until carrots are tender.

In a small bowl combine the sour cream and the grated lemon rest. Cover and cool in the fridge.

Allow the soup to cool, then pureé the soup. Return the soup to the heat and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a quick boil. Just before serving add some more fresh ginger.

Pour the soup in bowls and place a dollop of the lemon cream in the middle of the soup. Garnish with chives.

HealthyGreenKitchen.com - Salad


recipe for arugula salad with pomegranate, avocado and goat cheese

Serves 2

ingredients:

Salad:

*2 large handfuls of baby arugula
*seeds/arils from 1/2 pomegranate
*1 avocado, chopped or sliced
*3 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley
*1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled- optional
*1/4 cup roasted, salted pumpkin seeds- optional
*2 eggs, preferably organic and free-range, poached- optional
*coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Dressing:

*2 tablespoons olive oil
*1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or balsamic vinegar (or more to taste)
*1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses (or honey)

directions:

1. Toss the salad ingredients in a medium bowl.

2. In a smaller bowl, mix together the dressing ingredients and pour over the salad. Toss everything to combine.

3. Arrange salads on individual plates and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add optional poached egg, and serve.

Twenty-Five Ways to Use Frozen Spinach

from: http://www.wisebread.com/twenty-five-ways-to-use-frozen-spinach

With food and fuel prices continuing to rise, we all need help finding areas to conserve. One of the cheapest items at the grocery store? Boxed frozen spinach. Think it can’t be sexy? Read on.

Personally, I find the chopped version to be a bit more versatile than the leaf kind. If you happen to really love the leaf variety, go with your gut. Either way, here are twenty-five ways to sex it up for family meals and snacks.

1. Spinach and Cheese Bread

Whether you are doing this with a no-kneadbatter bread or trying out a new money-savingbread machine recipe, this is a great way to have something to slice and toss in the toaster oven for lunch if you are working at home. Bonus? It’s also a slamming dinner side with a frugal homemade soup. Here’s a recipe link.

2. Gourmet Soup

Think Tuscan ribollita or a luscious café-style cream of tomato with spinach.

3.Falafel

Short on parsley? Take a handful of the squeezed dry spinach you have set aside for another recipe and get some extra nutrition in your falafel. We just did this yesterday. Yummy. Here’s a a basic falafel recipe that you can modify easily. For example, we only used garbanzo beans rather than the two bean combo. Our supper falafel was still suitably yummy.

4. Stuffed Shells

spinach stuffed shells

Thaw a box, squeeze it dry, and mix it in with some low fat cottage cheese or ricotta and some garlic. Put the mixture in a frosting bag or a plastic zip bag with a snipped off corner and pipe it into some partially cooked jumbo pasta shells. Place those in a greased baking dish and top with your sauce of choice and some mozzarella cheese.

5. Lasagna

Whether you want to include some meat in your lasagna or go strictly with the spinach, cheese and canned mushrooms in your layers, frozen chopped spinach really adds some color and pizzazz to the dish.

6. Hot dip

spinach artichoke dip

Several chain restaurants have a really hip version of spinach or spinach combo dips. Poke around for a fun knock-off recipe and try it out at home. Need a source? Thursday Bram just did a great post on copy-cat recipes in general.

7. Tortilla Pinwheel Appetizers

Mix up some frozen chopped spinach with some low fat cream cheese, garlic, red pepper and a bit of mayo. Spread a layer on a flat tortilla. Roll it up and slice off in rounds. Lay those flat on a round serving tray. You’ll be amazed how many appetizers you can crank out with one batch of filling and a package of tortillas. Want to squeeze even more pennies out of the budget? Try making your own tortillas with this homemade bulk mix recipe.

8. Quiches and Frittatas

spinach frittata

I love making these in the summer because they can served at any temperature, really. Here’s a recipe for a spinach feta quiche, but you could use low fat cream cheese to save cash and calories if you want. Leave off the crust and bake it in a square pan to serve a crust-less version in bar form.

9. Spinach-Garlic Pizza

spinach pizza

Not something I’ve seen in the States much, this was available at most of the ristorantes and trattorias in Northern Italy when we lived there. It’s pretty good with either a tomato or Alfredo sauce on the crust. Even as a meat lover, I seriously dig this pizza. Bonus? It takes hardly any of the spinach from the box and leaves lots to use in other recipes. Dress it up with either mushroom slices, chopped chicken or sausage bits if you want. But it was really popular on its own in country. Use the freshly minced or pressed garlic if you can.

10. Eggs Florentine

Using some of the power savings strategies for egg substitutions I wrote about a while back? If so, you’ll have plenty of extra eggs to use in this signature spinach dish that’s great for a special brunch. Here’s a quick and simple recipe.

11. Casserole Add-In

spinach chicken casserole

OK, so this might be a bit hum-drum after the other suggestions. But for those nights where you just want comfort food or need a pre-made dinner on the fly, casserole gets the job done. Think left-over combinations such as rice, chicken, spinach and cheese.

12. Bread-Bowl Dinner

I think these are one of the sexiest date dinners you can serve. But that’s just my opinion. Take a round loaf from the bread machine, cut off the top third, and scoop out the inside leaving about three quarters of an inch for extra hold. Cut or break up the top third of the loaf and the inside pieces. Place the hollowed out round on a cookie sheet with the pieces all around it. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes or so to make everything crusty. In the meantime, make a thinned out version of the spinach dip suggested above, adding in some precooked turkey sausage if you want. Serve this inside the bread bowl when it comes out of the oven. Light the candles and pour the wine. Simple.

minestrone


Serves 6-8
use organic ingredients whenever possible

ingredients:

* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 slices preservative-free, all-natural bacon, chopped into small pieces
* 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
* 2 large cloves of garlic, minced
* 1 leek, trimmed and sliced
* 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
* 2 ribs of celery, chopped
* 1 zucchini, chopped
* 1 potato, peeled and chopped
* 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock, preferably homemade
* one 15 oz. can of cooked chickpeas, preferably organic
* one 28 oz. can of peeled San Marzano tomatoes, with juice
* sea salt, if necessary
* 1 cup kale, chopped fine
* 1 package of high quality, all-natural cheese tortellini
* 1 cup loosely packed basil or parsley
* 2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
* 2 cloves garlic, peeled
* 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* Aged balsamic vinegar, for drizzling- optional
* Grated parmesan cheese for garnish- optional

directions:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large pot over low-medium heat. Add the bacon pieces and cook for a minute or two, until they start to brown.

2. Add 2 more tablespoons of oil along with the chopped onion, garlic and leek. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, over low-medium heat until softened.

3. Add the chopped carrot, celery, zucchini, potato and stir around for a minute or two.

4. Add the stock, the chickpeas, and then the tomatoes, crushing them with your hands as you go. Add a few generous pinches of salt (be judicious if your stock is salted already). Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30-40 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender.

5. Add the kale and the tortellini, and continue to cook over a simmer until both are tender and cooked through, 5-7 minutes. Taste and add more salt, if necessary.

6. Make the pesto by chopping (and chopping and chopping) the basil by hand until it's very fine...when you do this, you'll reduce it down to about 1/4 cup. As you chop the basil, start to incorporate the other ingredients and chop them fine, too, until you have a lovely finely chopped pesto. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in the olive oil. Use as a garnish for the minestrone.

7. Serve the minestrone garnished with a spoonful of the pesto, a few drops of the aged balsamic, and a generous sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.

mung bean stew with squash and coconut milk


Serves 6-8

ingredients:

* 1 cup split and hulled mung beans
* 1 tablespoon organic coconut oil or organic ghee (Indian clarified butter)
* 1 onion, peeled and diced
* 3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
* 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
* 1 Serrano or other hot chile pepper (seeded for a less spicy stew)
* 6 cups homemade turkey, chicken or vegetable stock or water
* 2 cups peeled, seeded and cubed butternut squash (or peeled and diced white or sweet potato)
* 1-2 large carrot, chopped
* 2 cups Swiss chard or collard greens, tough stems removed, and then chopped
* 2-3 teaspoons jaggery or brown sugar
* 2-3 teaspoons garam masala
* 1/2 teaspoon tumeric
* 1 can of organic unsweetened whole coconut milk- optional
* 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste (the amount of salt needed will depend on how salty your stock is)

directions:

1. Run cold water over mung beans in a colander. Drain and set aside.

2. Warm coconut oil or ghee in a large pot. Add onion, garlic, ginger and chile pepper and saute until fragrant. Add stock or water.

3. Add the mung beans and the squash, then add the rest of the vegetables and the spices. Stir well to combine all the ingredients and bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally, and adding more liquid if it becomes too thick. Remove from heat when everything is soft and cooked through.

5. Add optional coconut milk and stir well to combine and heat through. Add salt, taste, and adjust seasonings before serving.

green smoothies ideas

Blend your banana and berries with some water and then add your greens. Good choices for mild greens that you will not even taste in your smoothie include some chopped romaine lettuce, a small head of baby bok choy, or a few handfuls of baby spinach. If you use a Vita-mix or other high speed blender, the greens get completely blended in (this is a great way to get your kids to secretly eat some healthy veggies, by the way). Kale is incredibly nutritious and is a wonderful addition to a green smoothie, too.

One of the great things about green smoothies is that there are so many variations. You could skip the banana and use other fruits such as pineapple or mango and you could use coconut milk or coconut water or raw milk kefir or organic plain yogurt (or a combination) for the liquid. You can also add some protein such as ground hemp seeds and then you have a quick and nutritionally balanced meal or snack any time of the day. I also like to add 1 Tb. of coconut oil to my green smoothies as the fat keeps me satisfied for longer than when I just use the fruit alone, plus then I get all the health and weight loss benefits of this remarkable food.

Banana-Cherry Green Smoothie (1-2 servings)

(Use organic ingredients whenever possible)

1 banana, peeled and sliced
1 cup frozen cherries
1 head baby bok choy, cleaned and chopped
1 cup water
¾ cup plain yogurt
1 Tb. coconut oil
dash of vanilla extract