Lunch – Choice of Magic

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.

Middle Eastern Vegetarian 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.

Vegetarian Seafood Portuguese Food Lunch

A Typical Portuguese Octopus Salad

April 5, 2021

Every time we buy an octopus to cook, it feels like we´re going to feast on it for a full week. And while I had no problem with eating french fries every day for a month when I was little, nowadays I get a bit bored of repeating a meal too many days in a row. So I kept some tentacles from last week´s octopus and instead of reheating them, I repurposed them for a typical Portuguese octopus salad. The octopus salad is possibly one of my favourite ways of eating octopus as it is fresh and a perfect blend of flavours drowned in olive oil. I used octopus that we had boiled and even cooked in the oven previously, so please keep that in mind if you trey to reproduce this week´s #homemadeMonday. Also, considering this is an appetiser, the picture here has about two portions of the salad in it so keep that in mind when planning.

International Vegan Food Lunch

Baked Romanesco Broccoli

March 29, 2021

Romanesco broccoli – a veggie so perfect, it will make you believe in divinity. Alright, that might be an overstatement, but seriously – have you ever seen a more perfect vegetable than this one? You can read more about this miracle broccoli here , but here are some main things you should know, before I tell you how I cooked it for this #homemadeMonday.

Italian Food Lunch

Black Spaghetti with Shrimp, Garlic and Butter

February 15, 2021

Living in Portugal with easy access to great seafood really makes me realise I have no excuse for not adding more seafood recipes on here. The truth is, I let the Portuguese boyfriend do most of the seafood (and red meat, and fish) cooking and so I don´t always put those recipes on here. So this time I decide to at least photograph and film him as he made a delicious seafood pasta recipe for this week´s #homemadeMonday.

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