Whipped feta

This came about as a good way to use up part of a block of feta left over from something else. I love feta but it doesn’t keep long after you’ve opened it, and there never seems to be exactly the right amount in the block for what you’re making… This is really quick and simple and the rest of the ingredients we pretty much always have. 

1/2 block feta
1/2 cup skyr
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Little bit of garlic, crushed

Put all ingredients in a little blender and blend. Scrape into serving bowl and sprinkle additional salt, pepper and olive oil on top. 

Guacamole

Guacamole is kind of too simple for a recipe, but there are lots of different schools of thought on it, and I do have a favourite way of making it...

c. 2 ripe avocados, peeled and destoned

1 small tomato, finely chopped

c. 1 tsp finely chopped onion

juice of one lime

1-2 tsp coriander, finely chopped (optional) 

few drops of hot sauce (optional)

pinch of salt

Mush it all together with a fork. Nice if the avocados are still a little bit chunky.

Updated muhammara

I hadn't made muhammara for a while, but S bought some in the supermarket and it was really sweet and didn't have any walnuts in it and just made me pine for the real thing. And then I remembered it was an excellent use for walnuts - am always looking for excellent uses for walnuts, since we have a big old walnut tree in the garden. I have been testing out a few different combinations and textures for muhammara, here is my old version, and here is my latest:

3 red peppers
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
1 clove garlic
1 tsp dried red chilli flakes
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
juice of 1/2 lime (or lemon)
1 tsp ground cumin
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Roast red peppers at high heat, c. 220C, until collapsed and with blackened spots. Cover and let cool, then remove peel and seeds. Can be kept in the fridge for a day or so until ready to make the muhammara.

When ready to make the muhammara, first toast the walnuts. Then put the peppers, breadcrumbs, garlic, chilli, pomegranate molasses, citrus juice, cumin and olive oil in a blender and blend until smooth. Crush the walnuts with a pestle and mortar, and then mix in a bowl with the pepper mixture. Check consistency and taste for seasoning.

Mushroom pate

I had thought of making this mushroom pate for ages - it sounded simple and tasty. Then ended up with lots of nice fresh mushrooms, and it turns out that the baby loooovvvves mushrooms. Mushrooms are top of my list of foods I didn't expect him to like but he loves... He also likes cream cheese, so I figured it was time...

30 g butter
250 g mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and finely chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
250 g cream cheese (used 125 g)
salt+pepper

Melt the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the mushrooms and garlic and saute until the mushrooms' moisture has been released and reabsorbed and they are nicely browned. Leave to cool.

Scrape the mushroom mix into a blender and blend up. Add the cream cheese and mix. Season to taste then let cool completely. Ideally refrigerate for at least an hour.


And yes, the small one is well into it.

Wasabi yoghurt

We went to a wannabe Michelin vegetarian restaurant in Copenhagen. It was a looong dinner, with some serious ups and downs. Some things were delicious, others were just ridiculous. And there were some very long breaks between courses...

One of the things we really liked, and seemed like a simple but effective idea, was a thick wasabi - yoghurt paste. We made a simple version of it at home as a dip: skyr mixed with wasabi paste. And it was good. The amount of wasabi is down to personal taste. We used skyr so we wouldn't have to strain yoghurt. But that was it - a two-ingredient recipe.

Walnut pesto (and walnut-cauliflower pasta salad)

Our heap of walnuts remains, as yet undwindling. Seb is mocking me for spending all my spare moments cracking nuts with my Granddads favourite nutcracker from 1981. But the proceeds are so nice. Some went into cookies for people waiting to be deported in Jutland at J's bday get together. For a totally different use, I thought of walnut pesto, I think inspired by this. I adapted that recipe only in as much as I substituted stuff we had in the house.

1 cup shelled walnuts
1 small garlic clove
1/4 cup grated parmesan
3 tsp mixed dried thyme, chilli and salt
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp red pesto (subbed for 2 tbsp sundried tomatoes - used a bit less oil and cheese accordingly)

Toast the walnuts and let cool. Put in a blender with the garlic and pulse until roughly chopped. Transfer to a bowl and mix in grated cheese, herbs and salt, vinegar, oil and pesto. Mix together, taste for seasoning and vinegar, and eat on everything.

Some became an awesome pasta salad, with roasted cauliflower and tomatoes, white beans, parsley and diced mozzarella (or feta) - this is recommended. But it works with everything - a spoonful on top of some pasta e ceci, for example...

Tzatzkiki

We ate this a lot in the summer, when cucumbers arrived in our veg bag often, and the walk to the grocery shop past the greek restaurant often reminded me to buy skyr or greek yoghurt. That's the only trick - to use thick yoghurt so it doesn't get too runny from cucumber juice.

1/2 cucumber, grated
1/2 clove garlic, crushed to a paste
approx. 1 1/2 cups greek yoghurt or skyr
squeeze of lemon juice (about 1 tsp)
pinch of salt

Coarsely grate the cucumber into a bowl, then squeeze out / drain off some of the liquid. Add garlic, yoghurt/skyr, lemon juice and salt. Mix up and taste for flavour balance and seasoning.


Great with some bread and a greek salad.

Beetroot and horseradish dip

This is very simple, but really surprisingly tasty. I don't know if it was a fluke, but the amount of horseradish came out just perfect: fiery but softened by the earthy beet and creamy yoghurt.

approx. 4 medium beetroots
3/4 cup skyr
2-3 1 cm cubes of peeled horseradish
lime juice
salt

Boil the beets whole until tender, then let cool (do this in advance if you like). Peel (the skins should just slip off) and chop into large chunks. Blend together with the remaining ingredients, adding skyr/yoghurt until the consistency is as you like it, and adding salt/lime juice to taste. Eat with veg sticks or crackers or bread.

White bean and sundried tomato spread

Another option with all those white beans. This time a dip/spread we took to work to eat with carrot sticks and flatbreads. It was lovely and smooth. Although I added some sundried tomatoes to the blended mixture that time and I wouldn't recommend that as it ends up looking like taramasalata.

1 1/2 cups cooked white beans
1 small clove garlic
2 tbsp olive oil (use oil from sundried tomatoes)
juice of 1/4 lemon
salt and pepper

4 sundried tomatoes, chopped
handful of toasted pumpkin seeds

Blend beans, garlic, olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Check seasoning, acidity and consistency and add salt/pepper, lemon juice or water accordingly. Put into tubs and top with chopped sundried tomatoes and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Cottage cheese dip with lovage and chives

We visited Tower Hill Botanical Garden near Berlin while we were staying in Boston this last week or so. It was raining and perhaps closed, but we walked around anyway. They had a cool 'Systematic Garden', with plantings according to phylogeny, inspired by Arthur Cronquist. Among them was lovage, which at first glance looked a lot like angelica... or even celery. Sniffing a bit made it clear how similar to celery it is - it has a celery-like smell and taste, mixed with something deeper and spicier. Considering our recent obsessions with both celery and celeriac, it seemed like a nobrainer as something we should eat more of. But I've never really seen it anywhere to buy, so have only eaten it a few times, mostly in soup...

We are back in Copenhagen now, and I went to get supplies from the Frugt og Grønt store near Christianshavn metro, and found they had lovage (løvstikke) among their impressive selection of herbs. So of course I couldn't resist. We've had some in salads, S has added it to pasta sauce, and I put it in this dip as well, having also succumbed to a craving for cottage cheese.

(enough for two as a side)

4 tbsp cottage cheese
2 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp chopped chives
3 tbsp chopped lovage
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
salt+pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Adjust for acid, seasoning and consistency. We ate with toasted brown pita breads cut into strips.

Spiced okara and red lentil dip

I made more tofu, partly because I wanted to see if I could do a better job / get a more stand-up texture, partly because I kind of wanted more okara to play with - the cornbread I made with the last lot was so, surprisingly delicious...

I used part of the okara for this dip - it's a variation on the red lentil dip I've made many times.

1/2 cup red lentils
1/2 cup okara
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 clove garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
1 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp ground ginger
~ 1 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Put lentils, okara and water in a small pan, cover and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for ~ 10 min, then turn off the heat and leave pan covered for ~15 min. Add the remaining ingredients and blend to a paste.

Green tofu spread

I made this spread / dip with the rest of my fresh tofu, recipe from the same page (adjusted a little).

8 oz fresh tofu (or silken)
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
~2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 clove garlic
1 spring onion, roughly chopped
~3 tbsp chopped coriander
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt+pepper

Put all ingredients in a blender cup and blend until smooth. Taste, and add more salt and pepper if needed.


I put two spring onions in and thought it a bit much, although the onioniness wears off gradually, perhaps tomorrow it will be perfect. It is lovely and creamy and delicately green, kind of a minty green (might be nice with mint instead of coriander, incidentally).

Beetroot and pistachio dip

This morning I was putting my box of dried fruit and nuts back on a high shelf and somehow managed to bust open a full bag of pistachios over my head. Pistachio rain for breakfast.

The plus side is that those plummeting pistachios combined with seeing this and eating some tasty pink stuff (made by D+K) during our woods picnic the other day inspired me to make a beetroot dip. Beetroot gets on well with most nuts, but I've never really explored its affinity with pistachios - those colours and textures have got to be amazing together, though, right?

1 large beetroot
2 small cloves garlic, peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
2/3 packet (~250 g) shelf-stable silken tofu
1-2 tsp lime (or lemon) juice
salt and pepper
~3 tbsp pistachios

Heat the oven to 350F. Wrap the beetroot in foil. Put (on a baking tray) in the oven for ~45 min, until just tender. Remove and let cool. Do this step in advance if you can.

Peel the beetroot and chop roughly. Put into blender with garlic, olive oil, tofu, lime juice, salt and pepper. Blend until fairly smooth and well combined. Tip out of blender into serving plate or tub.

Crush the pistachios using pestle and mortar (or roughly chop). Sprinkle over the beetroot mixture just before serving.


This is nice - colours and textures beautiful as predicted, and I like how using relatively few ingredients means you can taste each one clearly: sharp garlic, pungent olive oil, sweet beetroot, creaminess from the tofu and the crunch and richness of the pistachios are all detectable individually as well as working beautifully together.

Fresh tomatillo salsa

A gave me some tomatilloes from his garden. They were probably the ripest tomatilloes I've ever seen - bursting out of their husks. I think the only thing I've ever eaten made with tomatilloes (besides this sauce, where I actually subbed green tomatoes) is a fresh, green salsa (Mexican salsa verde) served with tamales and all sorts of other Mexican eats. I like that sauce, so I decided to try and make it.

6-8 ripe tomatilloes, husks removed and fruit washed

1-2 tbsp chopped sweet onion

1/4 clove garlic

1-2 tbsp chopped coriander

1 medium green chilli, halved and seeds removed

good pinch of salt
squeeze of lime juice

Put the onion and garlic in water and set aside for 5 min. Quarter the clean tomatilloes and put them in a blender. Drain onion and garlic and add to the blender. Add coriander, chilli, salt and lime and blend to make a coarse paste. Taste for seasoning and eat with whatever you like.

We ate this with chicken of the woods sauteed with sweetcorn, paprika flatbreads, guacamole and rice with lime zest and coriander. It all went down very well: fresh and tasty summer-meets-autumn food.

Kohlrabi and apple salsa-salad

Not sure if 'salsa' is the best description for this - perhaps it's more like a finely-diced salad. Either way, the idea is that it can easily be scooped up with tortilla chips or bits of bell pepper. It is for our lab happy hour (apple themed), and I thought of making it after the success of this mango and sweetcorn salsa.

I used kohlrabi because we had some in the fridge and it seemed like it would go well with apple. Think jicama would also be good - similar crispy freshness.

1 medium kohlrabi, peeled and finely chopped
2 tart, medium-sized apples (Granny Smith or similar), peeled and finely chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp nasturtium seeds, finely chopped*
~2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp freshly ground white pepper
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
salt to taste

Prepare the apple and kohlrabi and toss with the lime juice immediately to prevent the apple from browning. Add the remaining ingredients and taste for seasoning. Refrigerate until needed.

*I might have used some finely chopped green chilli and / or finely chopped root ginger as well / instead.

Mango and sweetcorn salsa

The first PhD student ever to graduate from the lab I'm working in is defending his thesis today. So we will have a little 'reception' afterwards. It will feature a zebra-shaped pinata: I am excited... We also needed snacks and nibbles for mid afternoon, so I decided to make a few dips and chop up some veg (I have lots of peppers right now) to go with them; perhaps make some crackers if I have time. One person in the lab doesn't eat nightshades (ie peppers, chillies, aubergines, potatoes, tomatoes) so the two dips I made are both nightshade-free as well as gluten-free and vegan. I made a red lentil dip and this. I was thinking of using fresh corn but ended up using frozen for speed and ease - fresh corn would probably be delicious.

1 cup frozen sweetcorn, defrosted (or use fresh)
1 cup frozen mango chunks, slightly thawed and then diced into ~7mm chunks
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp nasturtium seeds, finely chopped*
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
juice of ~1 lime
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly-ground white pepper*

Prepare all the ingredients then mix together in a bowl. Taste for seasoning and lime.

*I used nasturtium seeds and white pepper to add a bit of spice in the absence of nightshades - I would add some finely chopped fresh chilli or some dried chilli flakes if nightshades weren't an issue.

Tzatziki

This was something I had been meaning to try when I got around to stocking up on coconut milk for kefir. But, in the end, S beat me to it. This was his recipe, and I think it tasted great. The coconut kefir is thinner than the thickened yoghurt usually used for tzatziki, so it is not thick but tastes delicious.

1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and grated
mint and chives, chopped
~3/4 cup coconut kefir
salt

Put the prepared herbs and vegetables in a bowl and then pour the kefir in - add as much as you think it needs. Add salt to taste. Good with bread.


I wouldn't have added as much garlic as S did, but it was good.

Carrot greens are weirdly good: limey, spicy carrot green paste

I seem to be on a strange kick of eating things I never realised could be eaten - radish greens, banana skins, now carrot greens. We had our first bunch of fresh, new-season carrots today, with resplendent, fern-like greens. As soon as I saw the greens waving at me over the side of the CSA box I wanted to do something with them. Some kind of pesto was my first thought, following the radish green pesto's success. But with it being so hot and intense I kind of fancied something fresher, with more of a kick. Then I met this recipe and it seemed to be exactly what I was thinking of, especially since we had a bunch of coriander and some nice garlic scapes in that CSA box too.

Greens from 1 bunch of carrots
small bunch of coriander
2 good-sized garlic scapes, roughly chopped*
juice of 1 lime
1 green chilli, trimmed, deseeded and chopped in two
2-3 tbsp walnut oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp sea salt

Wash the carrot greens and pluck all the little frondy bits, discarding the stems as they are too fibrous for this. Pack the fronds into a blender cup, along with the coriander leaves, garlic scapes, lime juice, chilli, walnut oil and soy sauce. Blend until fairly smooth. Do your best to blend quite thoroughly, as the fibrous greens take a bit of breaking down. Add salt to taste.


This, like the brown pasta, was weirdly good. Seriously. Although there was a bit of a fibrous clout coming from the carrot greens, the taste was spot on: the greens had an interesting carroty taste while also coming through as green and herby, and with the lime and slight chilli kick it was really fresh and tasty. And beautifully green to look at. Could imagine eating it on just about anything. We started by mixing some into the brown pasta with peas and tempeh we made at the same time, and that was excellent.

*use a smaller quantity of regular garlic if scapes aren't around.

Broad bean 'hummus'

I had an exciting trip to Super 88 (Asian supermarket in Allston) last weekend, and scored all sorts of things: from umeboshi plums and shiso seasoning to green tea noodles, via perfect avocados and frozen broad beans. I'd bought frozen broad beans from there before and been disappointed - they were big and tough and ugly. These ones were in a transparent packet, so I could see before I even picked them up that they were none of those things - they were rather dinky, bright green, and had even had their little jackets removed. I stashed them in the freezer and remembered about them a week later, when I came in from aerials hungry and ready for something fresh and tasty. I decided to make the broad beans into a bright green, hummus-like paste.

1 cup frozen broad beans, defrosted by soaking in boiling water for about 5 min
1/2 a small clove garlic, peeled
2 tbsp tahini
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint leaves
salt+pepper

Put all the ingredients in a blender cup and blend until smooth.


I really, really liked this - fun colour, and the broad bean taste is so refreshing and full of summer promise (especially paired with the mint).

Wasabi guacamole

Avocados in the fridge door needing eating. A few minutes to make food before going out. Avocados beside green paste that looks a bit like guacamole = wasabi. Wasabi in guacamole? Would save me chopping chilli, could be interesting...

1 1/2 small ripe avocados, peeled and destoned
1/2 tsp wasabi paste
1/2 a medium tomato, finely chopped
1 tsp light miso
1 tbsp coriander, chopped
juice of 3/4 lime

Put all ingredients in a bowl together and mash with a fork. Taste and add more lime, salt, wasabi accordingly. Eat immediately. To keep, make surface area as small as poss and squeeze a bit more lime juice over the top.