Chinese Cabbage Salad [vegetarian]

A few weeks ago we had some friends over for dinner. I was planning to make a Peking duck for the main course, and I knew what dessert I was going to make, but somehow I was stuck with a starter. I wanted to make a light salad without any meat or seafood, as having duck for main was already very meat-y. And this was when I realized that I had probably never made a Chinese salad fulfilling these requirements. I looked through some books and finally, I found a recipe that seemed just right.

In the book, a regular cabbage was used, so it had to be blanched after it was shredded. I decided to use a raw Chinese cabbage instead. The salad was very refreshing and light, just as I wanted it to be. And it was indeed a perfect starter for Peking duck!

INGREDIENTS (for 4-6 portions):

2 tbsp vegetable oil,

5 shallots, halved and thinly sliced,

5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced,

0.5 chilli, thinly chopped,

1 Chinese cabbage (weighing approx. 0.5 kg), shredded,

2 tbsp coarsely chopped roasted peanuts,

Dressing:

2 tbsp fish sauce,

grated rind of 1 lime,

2 tbsp lime juice,

120ml coconut milk.

METHOD:

1. On a medium size frying pan warm up the oil, add the shallots, garlic and chili, and stir fry on a medium heat for 12-15 minutes until the shallots are brown (but not burnt).
2. In a bowl, mix the dressing ingredients.
3. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and stir very well.
4. Transfer the cabbage onto a big serving dish, and sprinkle the top with the fried mixture and the peanuts.
5. Voila!

This recipe is based on a recipe from "The Complete Wok and Stir-Fry Cookbook"

Read More

Vegetable Salad [vegetarian]

Although I realize that outside my country, this salad is often called 'Russian Salad', here we all know it as 'Vegetable Salad'. It was the most popular salad in Poland for many, many years. No party, celebration or social gathering happened without this dish. Even preparing this salad was a bit of a social occasion, as it was always made in big quantities and very often, at least 2 people were cutting the vegetables and chatting while they were doing it. I remember from my childhood that the women from my family were always cutting the vegetables very thinly because we believed that if the cubes were too big, the salad would not taste as good as it should ;) Nowadays, I actually prefer the salad not to be made of such tiny pieces. It still tastes great, but the preparation doesn’t take as long as it used to in the past.

What I also like about this salad is that you end up with a great by-product – good quality vegetable stock that can be used as a base for many different soups. Obviously, it also works the other way around: you cook the stock that you need and then you use the vegetables to make the salad. Whichever way you are going to do it; you will enjoy the two results!

INGREDIENTS (for 4-6 portion):

4 carrots, peeled,

2 parsnips, peeled,

0.25 celery (approx. 200g), peeled and cut into 2 pieces,

1 small leek*,

1 celery stalk*,

2 apples,

3-4 sour gherkins,

1 tin green peas,

3 tbsp mayonnaise,

salt and pepper.

METHOD:

1. Put the carrots, parsnips, celery, leek* and celery stalk* to a big pan, pour 1-1.5l of water, add salt and pepper and bring to boil.
2. Lower the heat and cook the vegetables until they are tender (approx. 20 minutes).
3. Take the vegetables out from the stock, cool them down.
4. In the meantime, cut the apples and sour gherkins into 0.5-1 cm cubes. After you chop the gherkins, make sure to squeeze out the liquid.
5. When the cooked vegetables are cool, cut the carrots, parsnips and the celery into the 0.5 -1cm cubes (the celery stalk and leek can be discarded).
6. Put all the chopped vegetables, apples and gherkins to a bowl, add the mayonnaise, seasoning and stir well.

* optional, required only if you are making the stock as well.

Read More

Banana Blondie with Chocolate [gluten free / vegan*]

My adventure with cooking really started with baking in my early teens. That is why it is difficult for me to imagine never eating cakes. However - since I know that cakes are better for your taste buds than your waistline - I try to test out healthier options where plain white flour is replaced by wholemeal or by almond flour. If possible, I also swap butter for healthy oil (e.g. rapeseed, though it doesn’t always work due to its strong smell), and I always try to use less sugar.

So I was extremely happy when I came across a recipe for blondies that neither requires butter nor flour. To make it vegan, I made some additional changes and at the end the cake turned out great: moist and fudgy. 

I know you may be skeptical about cakes without eggs, flour or butter. And I agree that they taste differently. But differently doesn't always mean bad. So even if you are one of the people thinking that vegan cakes are not really for you as they are “too healthy”, I think you will be nicely surprised.

* The cake is 100% vegan if you use vegan chocolate.

INGREDIENTS (for 16 small pieces):

2 bananas,

120g rolled oats,

1tsp baking powder,

40g demerara sugar,

60ml maple syrup,

150g smooth peanut butter,

1 tsp vanilla extract,

100g coconut cream (the thick part of the coconut milk that collects on top of a tin),

40g chopped chocolate (if the cake has to be 100% vegan, use vegan chocolate).

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (180C for fan ovens) and line a 14x24cm (or similar small) baking tin with parchment paper.
2. Put all the ingredients except for the chocolate to a food processor and process till smooth.
3. Add the majority of the chocolate pieces to the batter and stir.
4. Pour it into the prepared tin, smooth the top and sprinkle with the rest of chocolate.
5. Put the tin to the hot oven for 20-25 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

This cake was inspired by Cafe Delites recipe.

Read More

Spinach, Ginger and Banana Smoothie

I must admit that only recently I started making smoothies but I am already asking myself why I have waited so long?! Smoothies are a great way to very quickly have a delicious and packed with nutrients drink or – I would even say – light meal:

very quickly – because it takes literally a few minutes to put all the ingredients to a blender and process them till they are smooth,

delicious – because there can be so many different combinations of ingredients that surely everybody will find something to their liking,

packed with nutrients – because smoothies are made of fresh vegetables and fruit that are full of everything that is good for us, and finally

light meal – they are pretty filling so you can easily have it for healthy breakfast or even replace another meal with it, especially if you had (or plan to have) a heavier lunch or dinner.

The below combination of ingredients works beautifully and I am pretty sure that even somebody who is not keen on spinach will enjoy this healthy smoothie.

INGREDIENTS (for 1 portion):

50g spinach,

1 banana,

200ml coconut water,

juice from 0.5 lemon,

0.5 tsp grated ginger.

METHOD:

1. Put all the ingredients to a blender and process on high for 1-2 minutes until you have a smooth drink.

Read More