It’s November 2018. The weather is cold but I was looking for an alternative to a heavy, winter meal. Salad-like, but still substantial. Warm but fresh. Filling but light. Something so full of vitamins and minerals that I could say – wow, Ana, you’ve outdone yourself again! Get ready to seduce your taste buds with explosive flavours of: *fresh mint *sweet pomegranate and *nutty hummus Not unimportantly, I had a pretty good time preparing this meal since it was all easy to bake, cook and put together. Or, as I’ve illustrated in a graph: You can make your own falafel by looking up a recipe online, but I just bought it ready-made. Tried the…
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Aubergine & Raisin Risotto-Stuffed Bell Pepper
If you want to eat healthy (which I know you do), adopt vegetable stuffed meals in your diet. This Moroccan-Mediterranean fusion of a dish fits perfectly in that repertoire, it’s easy to prepare on a weeknight and extremely healthy due to high vegetable content. Aubergine tastes great paired with raisins (I use yellow ones – which I thought meant they are made from white grapes, but just found out it actually means these raisins have been treated with sulphur dioxide to keep their color, bummer). Still, yellow raisins are a bit sweeter and plumper than black raisins, which works great in risottos and stews. This recipe is suitable for a healthy food pattern,…
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Squash, Tomatoes & Black Beans in Creamy Coconut Sauce
This delicious, healthy & simple vegetarian Kerala Curry recipe is based on a recipe from the ‘Fresh India’ cookbook. Squash is in season, perfect to combine with heart-healthy black beans and aromatic spices such as garam masala mix. Serves 4 for amazing dinner, prep time 45 minutes from start to table. Ingredients for Oven-roasted Squash 1kg butternut squash, unpeeled, cut into thin wedges 1 tbsp garam masala a sprinkle of salt and pepper Ingredients for Creamy Coconut sauce 1 onion, diced 2 green chilis, diced 3 garlic cloves, minced 400g tin black beans, rinsed and drained 150g ripe tomatoes (or tinned tomatoes if not in season) 400ml good coconut milk…
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Healthy, Dairy Free, Creamy Avocado & Basil Pasta Sauce
Avocado is perfect for making pasta sauce – rich in healthy fats, tastes great paired with basil, is a deliciously creamy dairy-free alternative and carries a lot of nutrients. Follow my blog with Bloglovin I love a good organic tomato sauce on pasta, but having the same sauce every time doesn’t cut it for my freakishly foodie nature. Of course I could buy other supermarket pasta sauces, but have you ever noticed how many strange additives there are in there? Bleh. It’s much healthier to make your own pasta sauce than to buy some additive-stuffed sauce that’s been standing on supermarket shelves for months. Avocado & basil unite to form a creamy yet…
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Simple Wellness Soup
Follow my blog with Bloglovin You don’t need quinoa (kee-NU-wah) to eat healthy. Below awaits a recipe with local, seasonal & afforadable ingredients that together create a soup that is exceptionally good for your health. If you are battling the flu or trying to ward one off, this is the perfect soup to make! When my parents used to force me as a kid to eat savoy cabbage soup (in Croatian: kelj), I’d make all kinds of funny faces at them and fiddle with my food. Now I find myself cooking the same stuff, ah the irony! Turns out cabbage is just as good for you as my parents were saying. You’d…
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Dumplings with Pak Choi
Making Dumplings with Pak Choi takes 10 minutes from the moment you enter your front door to the moment you sit down at the table to eat – it’s easy, healthy and quick. That’s also why I call it the recipe for power couples – those amazing couples where both people are working hard, being awesome at what they do, and rushing home late without much oomph (definition) to cook (oops). To your rescue comes this Dumplings with Pak choi recipe, introduced to me by a power couple themselves, Madi & Mathias. In 10 minutes of whizzing about in the kitchen, you will have a satisfying meal loaded with vibrant, green vegetables…
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Indian Summer Salad
As I’m walking around the cookbook section in a bookshop a couple of weeks ago, a pop of color catches my eye – it’s the “Fresh India” cookbook by a lady called Meera Sodha. Indian cooking finally made simple and not taking 5 days of bending over the stove to make? Yes! This summer salad is refreshing and full of flavors (it originally also includes a spoonfull of sugar, which I leave out). Enjoy it with a big appetite – it has a grand total of zero (0) calories, really. Fun fact: I buy my bell peppers organic because peppers fall into EWG’s (Environmental Working Group) category of the dirty dozen. This is…
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Thai Red Curry with Shrimp & Mango
I AM TAKING A COURSE ON SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY AT THE MOMENT where a very interesting movie came up:´The Insider´ (youtube / wiki). It is a movie from the 90s, based on a true story about a biochemist who was a whistleblower for the tobacco industry (an industry that, at the time, claimed towards the general public that tobacco was harmless and ignored the reports of its´ scientists about the dangers of tobacco for health). With main actors Al Pacino and Russel Crowe! Just wanted to tell you about it since it inspired me, and made me remember again how as scientists and doctors, we have a responsibility to find facts…
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Minestrone Soup with Pumpkin, Green Peas and Thyme
MINESTRONE IS A NATIVE ITALIAN name for an everyday thick vegetable soup put together from any ingredients found in the kitchen. In this version, I combine pumpkin, green peas and thyme for a warm and slightly earthy feeling. THE BENEFITS ARE MANY, including a good dose of vegetables (fibers + nutrients), low calorie count and a very comforting feeling. Print Recipe Minestrone Soup with Pumpkin, Green Peas and Thyme Course Main Dish Cuisine Italian Prep Time 30 minutes Servings Ingredients 2 tbsp cooking oil or butter1 white onion1 large carrot (or 2 small)2 stalks celery1 tbsp flour2 potatoes, diced100 g green beans cut into 3cm pieces2 generous handfuls diced pumpkin…
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Sweet Potato Curry with Almond, Spinach & Coriander
This curry is amazing and healthy. Let’s celebrate by making more curry! I just love the aroma filling up the kitchen as I am cooking it. Curries are a great comfort food, easy to prepare and perfect as lazy weeknight dinners – when you’re not willing to settle for take out and want a nutritious meal instead. Print Recipe Sweet Potato Curry with Almond, Spinach & Coriander Course Main Dish Prep Time 40 minutes Servings Ingredients 2 tbsp cooking oil sesame oil and sunflower oil work well here2 pieces red onion2 cloves garlic1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated2 pieces fresh green chili3-5 pieces (800 g) sweet potatoes150 g fresh spinach…
