Vegetarian - Choice of Magic

Pizza with Chevre, Arugula and Peanuts

September 13, 2021

Before you tell me peanuts on a pizza sound weird, let me just stop you there. This pizza flavour is seriously one of the best ones I´ve ever tried. Nothing new about combining chevre with honey and even arugula. The innovation here comes from replacing the traditional tomato sauce on the base of the pizza with (wait for iiiiiiit) fajita sauce. Genius or idiotic, I don´t know. But I swear by it. And then the crushed peanuts on top – omg. Don´t even ask me how we came up with this combo, part of it was a fortunate accident, part just sheer madness. But it works. And you need to try it. So here goes.

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.

Vegetarian French Dinner Food

Nonna´s Beautiful Ratatouille

June 28, 2021

June marks the one year anniversary of the #guestchefseries and not that I´ve run out of friends, but this month I am actually repeating a guest chef. Meanting, you are now meeting my 97 year old Nonna again, this time for her delicious (and beautiful) ratatouille dish. We cooked it together a couple of weeks ago and then I reproduced it at home, in a prettier format, to share with you all as I think it´s the perfect dinner party recipe. And while it might look fancy it´s actually super easy to make! Keep reading…

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.

Romanian Vegetarian Dessert Food

My Grandma´s Easiest Strawberry Cake

May 31, 2021

Perhaps one of my most prized family possessions is this old cooking book which 40 years ago must have been present in every single Romanian household – Silvia Jurcovan´s Carte de Bucate. It was initially my grandma´s, then my mom´s and when I turned 27 my mom gave it to me. Inside its yellow pages, I found more yellow pages, with short and simple dessert recipes, hand written by my grandma and collected from her various friends and relative. That gave me the idea to make my grandma this month´s honorary #guestchef. In her honour I made a simple strawberry cake and improved on it with a cocoa cream and some decorative strawberries. It is so simple to make, tasted deliciously and looked so great, my grandma would have surely loved it. I hope you do too.

Vegetarian International Brunch Food

The Eggs That Look Like Dumplings on Avocado Toast

May 24, 2021

I know what you´re thinking – what an odd name for a recipe. How can eggs look like dumplings and what does avo toast have to do with them? Well originally, this was of cooking eggs was supposed to yield us poached eggs. But I realised that if I let them cook just a little bit longer, and get the yolk hard boiled, the egg white ends up looking like a dumpling and it all looks gorgeous on an avocado toast, making an epic brunch menu. So this #homemadeMonday I´ll be showing you how to make eggs that look like dumplings and put them on an avo toast, with a hollandaise topping and sprinkled with chilli flakes.

Vegetarian Asian Dinner Food

Spicy Asian Egg Noodle Soup

May 17, 2021

If you´ve been paying attention on my Instagram this weekend, you surely saw the world´s most beautiful mushrooms – pleurotus djamor. I found them at the farmer´s market on Saturday and was drawn to them like to a beautiful pair of shoes or book. The farmer selling them admitted they didn´t taste any differently than regular pleurotus mushrooms and I suspect they were more expensive (I chose not to check haha), but they looked so beautiful on my plate I regret nothing. I pondered a lot what to do with them and ended up giving an Asia egg noodle soup a try. It ended up pretty yummy, and this #homemadeMonday you´ll be getting the recipe of how I´d do it even yummier. So keep reading.

Vegetarian Vegan Italian Food

Penne Alla Traviata (They´re Actually Our Version of Arrabbiata)

May 3, 2021

You know those recipes you return to over and over again? This is one of those. I initially started making penne all´arrabbiata after Jamie Oliver´s recipe, but as per usual we started adapting it to our liking. An Italian might even be outraged to hear we added corn to it! But after regularly making this again and again, on a weekly basis, and it becoming André´s favourite dish, I thought it was time to share it on a #homemadeMonday. Hubby insisted I call it penne alla traviata, instead of all´arrabbiata, as the original Roman dish goes. So here you go. You ca thank me later.

Vegetarian Seafood Portuguese Dinner Food

Clams à Bulhão Pato

April 19, 2021

Continuing #seafoodapril with another super simple and extremely yummy recipe – clams à bulhão pato. Named after bon vivant poet Raimundo António de Bulhão Pato, this way of cooking clams is extremely easy and no matter how complicated cooking clams might sound, you simply cannot mess it up. Important things to keep in mind for this recipe: use good quality butter and white wine, and if possible fresh coriander and lemon. Without further ado, here comes a most anticipated #homemadeMonday recipe.

Seafood Portuguese Vegetarian Dinner Food

Our Special Mussel Recipe

April 12, 2021

I´ve been thinking long and hard about what to call this recipe. You see, originally we started cooking mussels a la Vila Franca do Campo – aka the Açorean way. But as time went by, we kept tweaking the recipe and the current state of it is a bit far from its origins in method, albeit just as, or dare I say even more? – delicious. So I´m gonna call it “our special mussel recipe”, and proceed to sharing our secrets for this #homemadeMonday on what has become after your votes – #seafoodapril.

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