Pumpkin Soup with Dill

I love pumpkin soup, and I make quite a few different versions of it. This weekend, I found fresh dill at the market, so went for the below version with dill.

Oh, I should take this opportunity to share a valuable piece of advice: Don't waste your life cutting with crap knives! Using my old set of Ikea knives, I used to think that cutting pumpkins was one of the most tedious and difficult jobs in the kitchen... until my brother gave me a fancy Japanese knife that cuts through anything - probably even my fingers if I don't take care - with absolutely no effort at all. My life has changed.

PUMPKIN SOUP WITH DILL

pumpkin
1-2 onions
2-3 cloves of garlic
dill
gluten-free bouillon powder
sea salt
pepper
extra virgin olive oil

1. Peel the pumpkin, the onions and the garlic and chop them coarsely.

2. Wash and cut as much dill as you want to add into the soup. I think I used four branches this time but I would've been happy with more.

3. Put the pumpkin, the onions, the garlic and the dill into a pot, and add enough water to cover all the vegetables.

4. Add the bouillon powder, the salt and the pepper, and bring to a boil.

5. Blend when the pumpkin is soft.

6. Serve with a bit of extra virgin olive oil. Mmmm.

Annika

Cabble - Red Cabbage & Apple Salad

Red cabbage and apples are at their seasonal best right now, and I just cannot get enough of this good, old-fashioned red cabbage and apple salad - so crisp and juicy!

CABBLE

red cabbage

a crisp apple

a handful of white raisins

sea salt

half a lemon

extra virgin olive oil

1. Cut the red cabbage and the apple into small strips. The ratio of cabbage to apple that I usually use is about three to one.

2. Cut the raisins into smaller pieces - at least if you're using the kind of large, white raisins that I used this weekend.

3. Put the red cabbage, the apple and the raisins into a bowl, add a pinch of sea salt, the juice of half a lemon and some extra virgin olive oil.

4. Enjoy your seasonal salad.

Annika

Milletary Pancake II – Savoury Millet Pancake with Rosemary & Olives

I liked last Sunday’s millet pancake so much that I decided to make it with another typical combination of Italian tastes – rosemary and olives – today. Please also notice the increased size of the pancake...

MILLETARY PANCAKE II

6 dl of water
3 dl of millet
3 eggs
3 dl of coarsely chopped olives with a strong taste (e.g. kalamata olives)
2 cloves of garlic

1 dl of finely chopped white onion
about 3 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh rosemary
gluten-free bouillon powder
extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground pepper
(sea salt)

1. Rinse the millet well.

2. Chop the garlic, the onions and and the rosemary finely.

3. Over low heat, warm a bit of olive oil in a pot, and cook the garlic and onions in it for a few minutes without browning them.

4. Add the rosemary, and cook for another minute.

5. Add the water, the bouillon powder and – should you so wish – a pinch of salt, and bring to a simmer.

6. Stir in the millet, cover the pot, and adjust the heat to low. Let the millet cook undisturbed for about 25 minutes, until it’s tender and has absorbed all the water.

7. While the millet is cooking, stone the olives and chop them coarsely.

8. Remove the millet from the heat and let it stand for about 10 minutes.

9. Beat the eggs, add half of the cooked millet, and use a stick blender to blend the ingredients into a thick puree.

10. Mix the millet-egg puree, the olives and freshly ground pepper carefully.

11. On a baking tray covered with baking paper, use a spatula and/or your hands to form a flat cake out of the mixture.

12. Bake in a pre-heated (220 degrees Celsius) oven for 10-15 minutes.

13. Enjoy hot or cold! Please notice that it's less likely to crumble when it's cooled down a bit.

Annika

Milletary Pancake I – Savoury Millet Pancake with Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Rosemary

The idea for a millet pancake originates from the time I used to go to the health food store close to my old flat; they often had home-made stuff on offer, and I once tried – and fell in love with – their millet cakes. So, this weekend, I started hunting for millet cake recipies. The recipe below is the healthiest possible combination of the recipies I found (especially in that I decided to bake the pancake in the oven, instead of frying it). I called mine a pancake because it’s one large cake instead of several little ones.

MILLETARY PANCAKE I

4 dl of water
2 dl of millet
2 eggs
50 grams of sun-dried tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
about 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh rosemary
gluten-free bouillon powder
extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground pepper
(sea salt)

1. Place the sundried tomatoes in warm water for half an hour to reconstitute them.

2. Rinse the millet well.

3. Chop the garlic and the rosemary finely.

4. Over low heat, warm a bit of olive oil in a pot, and cook the garlic in it for a few minutes without browning it.

5. Add the rosemary, and cook for another minute.

6. Add the water, the bouillon powder and the salt, and bring to a simmer. Please notice that you don’t necessarily have to add any extra salt, as sun-dried tomatoes are very salty. I did but I won’t next time.

7. Stir in the millet, cover the pot, and adjust the heat to low. Let the millet cook undisturbed for about 25 minutes, until it’s tender and has absorbed all the water.

8. While the millet is cooking, drain the sun-dried tomatoes and chop them coarsely. (Don’t throw away the water you used to reconstitute the tomatoes; you can use it to add taste to a soup or something.)

9. Remove the millet from the heat and let it stand for about 10 minutes.

10. Beat the eggs, add half of the cooked millet, and use a stick blender to blend it all into a thick puree.

11. Mix the millet-egg puree, the sun-dried tomatoes and freshly ground pepper carefully.

12. On a baking tray covered with baking paper, make a round, flat cake (with a diameter of about 28 cm) out of the mixture using a spatula and/or your hands.

13. Bake in a pre-heated (220 degrees Celsius) oven for 10-15 minutes.

14. Enjoy hot - or cold if you manage to stop eating it while it's still hot. I didn't.

Annika

Pumpkin Jack Flash - Baked Pumpkin Seeds

I often snack on pumpkin seeds, so I wanted to learn how to prepare fresh pumpkin seeds. The past weekend was the perfect weekend for experimentation, as I had just bought two different kinds of winter squash. I suppose there are other ways to prepare fresh pumpkin seeds but I decided to bake them, and the result was very nice.




PUMPKIN JACK FLASH

fresh pumpkin seeds
sunflower seed oil
sea salt

1. Rinse the pumplin seeds until they are clean, and pat them dry between two sheets of kitchen roll.

2. Sprinkle a little bit of sunflower seed oil on baking paper.

3. Put the pumpkin seeds on the baking paper and sprinkle some sea salt on them.

4. Toss the pumpkin seeds using a spatula to make sure that they all get a bit of oil on them. Then use the spatula to spread the pumpkin seeds evenly on the baking paper.

5. Bake the pumpkin seeds in 175 degrees for about 15 minutes, turning them once.

6. Pat the baked pumpkin seeds between two sheets of kitchen roll to remove excess oil.

7. Enjoy your salty snack!

Annika

My Dahl-ing Soup - Spicy Lentil Soup

I've been planning on learning to cook dahl for a while now. In India, where they have loads of vegetarians, they eat dahl (or, rather, lentils) for protein. Combined with rice, you actually get a complete protein - every vegetarian's dream come true!

Breaking news: On 2 February 2011, this dahl won Soup Contest 2011, a soup making competition against five of my Italian workmates.


MY DAHL-ING SOUP

1.5 dl of red lentils
3.5-4 dl of water
gluten-free bouillon powder
sunflower seed oil
a large onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
a large tomato
3 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 teaspoon of curcuma
1 teaspoon of coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon of cardamom / 4 cardamom seeds
sea salt

1. Mix the bouillon powder with the water and bring to the boil.

2. Wash the lentils well, add them into the boiling water, and let them cook for about 15 minutes.

3. In the meantime, chop the onion, the garlic and the ginger as finely as you can, and cut the tomato in medium-sized pieces.

4. Heat the oil at the bottom of a pot and saute the onion, the garlic, the ginger and the spices.

5. Add the lentils (together with the stock), the tomato and the sea salt into the pot, and let the dahl simmer for about 20 minutes.

6. Enjoy.

Annika

Ginger Pop - Spicy Popcorn

I've been in a bit of a popcorn phase recently - so much so that I've started feeling a bit guilty about my "carby" habit (I should avoid excessive carbs). So, I thought I'd make my popcorn a bit healthier somehow. Here's what I came up with (google "ginger" for its health benefits).







GINGER POP

Sunflower seed oil
Popcorn kernels
Sea salt
Ginger powder

1. Add a thin layer of sunflower seed oil at the bottom of a pan with a reasonably thick bottom.

2. Add one popcorn kernel in the pan and cover the pan with a lid.

3. Heat the oil using a high temperature until the test kernel pops.

4. Wait for about 15 seconds, add the rest of the kernels, and cover the pan with a lid again.

5. When the kernels start popping, make sure to shake the pan vigorously on a regular basis, to avoid the popped kernels to get burned. You might also want to lower the temperature a bit.

6. When the popping has stopped, take the pan off the stove, and pour the popcorn into a bowl.

7. Put cold water in the empty, hot pan, and enjoy the resulting "ksssshhhhh" sound.

8. Add sea salt and ginger powder to taste, and enjoy your spicy snack.

Annika