Lunch - Choice of Magic

Easy Portuguese Caldo Verde Soup Recipe

September 23, 2025

Yesterday was the first day of autumn, and it lingers in the air. I’ve already gotten my butter croissant candles out, washed our fluffy blankets, and I am fully embracing maroon as a colour for my wardrobe. And I thought I´d kick off the season with a recipe for my favourite Portuguese soup – the caldo verde. I confess that this soup intimidated me at first. I love cooking Romanian sour soups (ciorba) and actually make some pretty tasty ones, but soups to me are such an intimate heritage of a region that I very often stay away from the really traditional ones, quietly admiring them from afar. That was the case with caldo verde until last winter, when I ventured to do one, following the recipe from Portugal The Cookbook, the same recipe book I took this Pão de Ló recipe from. I confess I have since adjusted both ingredients as well as method quite a bit and here´s my final take on the caldo verde.

Middle Eastern Vegetarian Dinner Food Lunch

The Most Delicious Creamy Butter Beans with Herb Oil

July 3, 2024

One more recipe from Ottolenghi – his butter beans with preserved lemon, chilli and herb oil, is an all time party favourite of mine so I just had to bring some minor adjustments to it and add it to my blog. You can find his original recipe in his book Shelf Love. And if you’re as big of a fan of his recipes as I am, you can find one more of my favourites which I published on the blog a few months ago. As to this one, just keep on reading for a fantastic dish that you can enjoy directly from the pan!

International Dinner Food Lunch

Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Cannellini Beans

January 29, 2024

This creamy cauliflower and Cannellini (white) beans soup has bran on repeat in our home this winter, and I swear that it’s not just because of how easy it is to make (yes, I used canned beans, guilty as charged). I think I love it so much because beyond the delicious taste, it is also super nutritious – high in fibre and a great protein source due to the beans and high in vitamins C and K due to the cauliflower. This soup is basically the perfect comfort food for a cold winter day, or for a sunny day when you need to prepare something super quickly. I’ve iterated upon recipes I came across online until reaching this one, so without further ado – here goes.

Italian Vegetarian Dinner Food Lunch

Spaghetti with Pumpkin and Halloumi

November 10, 2021

Unlike pretty much every respectable food blogger out there, I have posted absolutely no recipe with pumpkins this entire fall. And to be completely honest, it´s because I´ve never been a big fan of eating pumpkin. I like carving it, decorating my house with it, but eating it – not so much. Well except in this new recipe I came up with recently. This one is a bomb. It´s essentially a threesome love affair between pumpkin, halloumi and sun-dried tomatoes, with a guest appearance of crushed walnuts, and of course spaghetti. Keep reading for the full thing.

Italian Fish Dinner Food Lunch

Green Avocado Risotto with Sweet Chilli Salmon

November 4, 2021

Behold the first ever risotto recipe I ever tried (cooking). Yes, you read that right – my first ever risotto was an exotic green avocado risotto. I cannot for the life of me remember where I inspired myself from for this recipe, but I swear by it, have passed it on to various people and return to it again and again. Or at least whenever I have avocados in the house. There´s nothing fancy about the salmon other than a sweet chilli marinade, and the risotto is pretty standard except for the avo touch, so please don´t be discouraged by how exotic this sounds and just give it a try. Here´s the recipe.

International Vegetarian Dinner Food Lunch

Lentil and Avocado Salad

October 25, 2021

After about a year of waiting in my pantry, the can of lentils I had stored away finally met its purpose in a delicious lentil, avocado and cress salad. It´s essentially this green salad but since I don´t like arugula, it´s with cress. On top of that I replaced the sunflower seeds with sesame seeds and topped it off with some vinaigrette sauce which I felt went wonderfully with it. Whether you prefer the above version or mine, I do hope you try one of them, they´re truly scrumptious.

Mediterranean Seafood Food Lunch

Shrimp on a Bed of Salt – Simple as That

September 8, 2021

This week´s recipe is not much of a recipe to be honest, but I did feel the need to record it here on my blog, just like I would in a physical recipe book. I stole the idea of this shrimp on a bed of sea salt from one of our gourmet dinners in Mallorca, at the Belmond La Residencia hotel. This was one of the nine courses we had there and its utter simplicity and amazing taste made us want to redo it at home. So we bought ourselves the two ingredients – shrimp and sea salt, and a little wooden tray that would resist maximum temperature in the oven, and we got to cooking. It took less time to cook it than it did to write this intro. You absolutely have to try it!

International Food Lunch

Punched Potatoes with Bacon and Yoghurt Sauce

August 16, 2021

Inspired by all the potatoes I ate in my recent trips to Amsterdam (hello wedges!) and Mallorca (hello patatas bravas!), this #homemadeMonday (freshly back from my holidays) brings you yet another potato recipe – punched potatoes (batata à murro as the Portuguese call them) with bacon and a yummy yoghurt/mustard sauce. They´re super easy to make, aka perfect for the first day back from holidays when you´re in meetings back to back. Keep reading for the full recipe.

Vegetarian Middle Eastern Food Lunch

Couscous with Fried Apricots and Halloumi

July 12, 2021

I´m typing this #homemadeMonday from the Hoxton´s lobby (take it as a great recommendation if you want to have a nice drink while you´re in Amsterdam). I´ve just head some poached eggs on an English muffin and half an avo toast, but my mouth is still watering at the thought of this week´s recipe – a couscous with fried apricots, halloumi, sundried tomatoes and mint. I just find the combination so utterly perfect, that I never want to try couscous any other way. Although, I will also continue making it in hubby´s favourite fashion – find the recipe here.

Italian Vegetarian Dinner Food Lunch

Minestrone – The Ancient Roman Comfort Soup

June 21, 2021

To me, all dishes I end up loving carry with them the story of when, where and with whom I first had them. When it comes to minestrone, I wish I could tell you I had it on a narrow Italian street as I was visiting that beautiful country, but the reality is, I first tried minestrone on a dark day, in a tiny Italian restaurant in the middle of Berlin, with my friend Sam. I loved it instantly but it wasn´t until years later that I finally tried doing it myself at home. And now, after much testing and tasting, I bring you this recipe (inspired by Magnolia´s Table). Minestrone is an ancient soup, literally dating from B.C. times, in what was the Roman empire. And while you can technically throw in it any veggies, I find that there are a few “cannot miss” ones – like celery and carrot. Anyway, read on to see how I make minestrone for the whole block.

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