All posts filed under: BBQ

Chocolate icecream

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February has been crazy busy. We are preparing to move countries, from NL to Sweden, this spring and looking for a house up there while simultaneously packing this house, which is already sold, up , setting  up a business up there while still running one down here, mindfully experiencing the letting go of all we have loved here and spending as much time as possible with all the beautiful people I  so deeply love and appreciate here while also getting excited about the adventure ahead, all of this is a bit of a roller coaster. So, some things have been lacking behind – like these blog posts 🙂 …! With spring around the corner, at least here in Holland, I wanted to share this amazingly yummy yet extremely healthy , anti oxidant packed home made icecream recipe. To me, there could not be any better day than the last day of February to share this recipe – as the first sign of spring here in Haarlem is when the Italian gelateria Garonne has opened, which …

Quinotto

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What? Spelling mistake? Quinoa what? Well, it is kind of like a risotto but with quinoa. For those of you new to quinoa it is a grain native of Central and South America, Low GI and containing a large portion of protein. Next to that I would of course not be featuring it here if it weren´t yummy as well as healthy :-). This is a really quick and easy recipe. Lunch, dinner, side dish for the BBQ or for the buffet, for the lunch box, for the picknick – very versatile as you can see. You can use any quinoa – white, red, black or a mix of them all. This recipe is for 4 people. Ingredients: 3 tbspns olive oil 1 small red onion 1 garlic clove 150 gr chickpeas 2,5 dl cooked quinoa 1 dl parmesan –  if you are lactose intolerant, use goat cheese Unless you already have, start with boling the quinoa according to the information on the  package so that you have your boiled quinoa mentioned in the list above …

Green beans marinated in tahini

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This recipe is surprisingly yummy I must say. When I first came across it I thought ;” how can something so easy to cook really be good? “ Well, less than 10 minutes later I had to laugh out loud at myself as it was yummylicious! Hubby and I had this side dish with grilled tuna the first time, and today I had it with marinated spicy tofu from the supermarket. You can have it with any of your favorite protein , and it is a great dish for on buffets as well as it is just as yummy cold as slightly warm. Aside from being totally delish, green beans are filled with fibre, folate, Vitamin K as well as carotenoids – giving us endurance, loads of anti oxidants and a well working intestinal flora, and who doesn´t want to feel great, have luminous skin and enough number 2´s daily!?! Tahini, next to the olive oil in this recipe, supplies us with heart healthy fats and is filling as well. Add the garlic to that …

Quinoa, fennel and apple salad

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With the winter weather sweeping us in asking for some coziness, this yummy, fast, easy and nutritious side dish really makes me feel nourished from head to toe. I hope you will enjoy it too! Ingredients, serving 4: 250 – 275 gr quinoa 2 fennel bulbs 2 apples, fresh or sweet in taste 100 gr dried cranberries 2 tbspns virgin olive oil 125 ml sour cream 1 lemon First cook the quinoa, drain it and let it cool off for about 10 minutes. If you have already cooked quinoa as left overs since another meal, this is the perfect time to use it. Cut the fennel bulbs in half and then slice then in really thin strips. Put some water in a pan, bring it to the boil and allow the fennel boil along for 2 minutes. Drain in a sif and rinse them under cold water to cool off. If you like your salad lukewarm you can skip this part. Slice the appel in quarters and remove the seeds. Then cut the rest of …

Stir fried pear and aubergine – a great side dish

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This is something I never would have thought about trying to mix myself, so when I saw this recipe in one of the monthly AH Allerhande magazines I was intrigued and had to try it. Yummy it was, so hereby I of course have to share it with you all! And yes, it also had to meet the criteria of healthy for me to share it – so , don´t worry, get cooking! The recipe is originally for 4 persons as a side dish. Ingredients: 2 tbspns sesame seeds 1 aubergine 4 tbspns olive oil 0,5 tspn cinnamon 1 tspn cuminseed, pulverized 2 conference pears 1 lemon, brushed clean 1) start with roasting the seasame seeds in a dry frying pan on medium heat. Let them sit to cool off on a plate. 2)Cut the aubergine in approximately 1 cm small cubes. Heat the oil in a wok and stir fry the aubergine together with the cinnamon and the cumin seeds for about 6 minutes. 3) Cut the pears in quarters, remove the seeds and …

Tzatziki

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This tzatziki with fresh mint and lemon is just heavenly! I got the original recipe from a friend who served it at a bbq last summer. Yesterday – in the middle of winter – I enjoyed it next to the tomatoe and olive salsa and the yummy,fun and healthy main course Stephanie had prepared as a test for our next cooking workshop. And it was heaven! Which means, it is time to share it with all of you! 4 portions Ingredients: half a cucumber salt 3 dl greek yoghurt – if you are lactose intolerant,you can use goat yoghurt or quark 1 garlic clove, crushed 2 tbspns fresh mint, chopped 1 tspn lemon zest 1 tbspn olive oil freshly ground pepper Start with grating the cucumber roughly. Put the grated cucumber in a sif and sprinkle some salt over it. Allow it to sit for about 20 minutes. Once the 20 or so minutes have passed, squeeze all the liquid you can out of the cucumber. Stir the cucumber together with the yoghurt, garlic, mint, …

Tomatoe and olive salsa

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It seems to be the week or months of little nice side dishes all of a sudden , eh 🙂 !? Yesterday I tried this one next to one of the courses Stephanie and I were testing for our next cooking workshop and next to being fast and easy to make, it was extremely tasty and of course veeeeeeeeeeeeery healthy. 4 portions Ingredients: 12 cherry tomatoes or 3 large tomatoes half a cucumber 2 spring onions 1 crushed garlic clove 1 dl chopped, fresh basil 1 dl chooped black olives 2 tbsnpns freshly squeezed lemon juice salt & pepper The original recipe said to slice the tomatoes in small cubes and remove the pits but I left the pits in, which gave it more of a “salsa-feel”. Plus I also feel it tastes more like tomatoes as well with the pits in. Anyway, do slice your tomatoes in little cubes :-)… Do the same with the cucumber (also here it said to scrape out the seeds of the cucumber but I left them in). Chop …

Grilled and marinated veggies

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Here´s another one of my favorite side dishes. While great for on the BBQ, you can also use your indoor grill if you have one or the oven grill. This recipe does have a few extra steps, which makes it easier to use the BBQ or the indoor grill but with patience of course the oven grill is fine too! For the vegans and vegetarians among us, just leave the sardines out. You can make plenty of this dish and keep it in the fridge to serve with any type of protein you are cooking for lunch, dinner or bring it on that picnic, boat ride, cross country skiing outing, ballon ride, day on the beach, hike up to the top of the mountain, you name it…. This recipe is for 4 portions. Ingredients: 1 aubergine 1 squash 1 red capsicum 1 yellow capsicum 2 red onions 1 dl calamata olives 2 tbsnps capers 1 tin of sardines Ingredients for the dressing: 2 tbspns fresh basil, chopped 1 tbspn fresh thyme, chopped 0,5 dl balsamic …

Mango salsa, yes!

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I know it is in the middle of autumn, but somewhere on the globe the season is different and I just love this little “salsa”/side dish/salad too much not to share it with you guys right now. Plus for us here in the colder hemishpere at the moment, this yummy gem will provide us with enough immune boosting anti oxidants, vitamins and capsaicin to keep all those winter colds and coughs at bay. Not to mention all the additional benefits of the fresh herbs too , aiding digestion and more. Ingredients: 1 mango 1 mild chili pepper (if you´d like it hot, of course you get a hot chili pepper 🙂 ) 1 red capsicum 2 spring onions 3 tbspns chopped fresh mint 3 tbspns chopped fresh coriander 1 lime Slice the mango in small cubes and put it in a bowl. Rinse and chop the chili pepper, getting rid of all the seeds. Do the same with the capsicum. Clean and chop the spring onions. If you haven´t already, roughly chop the mint and …

Blueberry & Tomatoe Salsa

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This might sound like a really crazy title, and so be it… It was one of the first “healthy” recipe´s I ever tried to make, so once you´ve seen how extremely easy this is you all understand how much I had never been in to cooking before I got on this journey 🙂 . That day it was one of the side dishes of the first BBQ we hosted on our roof terrace here in Haarlem. Well, that was almost 6 years ago and I still love making this one as part of more yummy salsas, salads and other small side dishes next to either a BBQ or just next to ovenbaked fish or even grilled tofu. Last year we even had this yummy salsa as part of the Christmas buffet! Ingredients are: 1,5 dl of blueberries 4 tomatoes 2 tbspns rougly chopped basil 2 tbspns olive oil All you do is rinse the bluberries and the tomatoes under the tap. Then you cut the tomatoes in halves and remove the “pits” (am not sure if …