Easy beetroot and goat cheese salad

I know it’s been a while since I posted anything, but I was super busy with work and traveling again and I tried to gain some inspiration from my trips, my plans for a lifestyle change and just be so much more creative then before. I decided that I will try to use only seasonal products to create recipes and make easy, healthy and also extraordinary tastes. I will slowly get back to blogging again and I hope you’ll enjoy my creatures with cheese again and give feedback on what you’d like to see here and what kind of cheese, spices and ingredients you’d want me to try to make something new and groundbreaking.  🙂

Because you all know there is no food without cheese  🙂

So here’s an easy beetroot salad that you can have for lunch or dinner…or breakfast if you’d like…

Ingredients:

• • 200 gramms of beetroot
  • 1 or 2 small carrots
  • 1 apple ( I used Golden, but if you like you can use a more sour kind )
  • parsley
  •  pomegranate
  • salt & pepper
  • fresh goat cheese

Steps:

1. Peel the veggies and cut them into 2×2 cm cubes
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celsius
3.  Put the beetroot, carrot to the own with a pinch of salt, pepper and spill some olive oil on it. Bake it for 25 mins till the veggies start get soft then add the chopped apples as well. ( If you feel it is getting dry, add a 0, 5 dl water )
4. Bake it for an additional 15 mins till the apple gets soft as well.
5. Pour the baked veggies to a bowl
6. Cut the goat cheese to small pieces, chop parsley and stir it together with the veggies.
7. To finish strew the seeds of a half pomegranate on top and it is ready to be served.  Enjoy 🙂

Vegan cheese ?? Why not…

It is quite controversial if a certified cheesemaker starts making a cheese-like something from non-dairy products, but I was really curious of this new wave of food consumption and also a lot of vegetarian and vegan friends have been asking me when will I start to make a vegan version of cheese for them.

At first I was sceptical and a little bit denying about this as I  have been a cheese addict eversince I have known how to talk and also it made me angry that people call a plant based something cheese… but I am a quite open-minden person so I dug myself into to this new project see what vegan people call cheese.

It turned out that a vegan cheese requires a lot more ingredients that I thought, but all of them are easy to get in a supermarket and also if you have a Kithen Aid or a simple mixer you can make it in 2 hours , plus the 6-8 hours cooling them which can be handled puting the “cheese” to the fridge overnight.

 

To cut the long story short I was amazed how good this vegan cheese turned out and how glad my friends were  ( especially the ones with lactose intolerancy)  that I served this to them on or Sunday brunch 🙂

Anyway, here you go, the recipe… enjoy and let me know if you have another favouite recipe that you’d like to share 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sunflower seed
• 1/2 cup cashew nut
• 1/2 cup almond
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 teaspoon curcuma
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika ( hot one for those who prefer it)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard seed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 filed onion
• 2-3 filed garlic
• 1/4 cup barm
• 1 cup almond milk or rice milk

To give it a texture:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon agar-agar

 

Put all the ingredients to the plant based milk for 1-2 hours to soak a little bit so it will be easier to mix the nuts.   Start heating the water with the agar-agar  and let it boil until the agar-agar is fully melted.

Put the ingredrients in the Kitchen aid or mixer and add the agar-agar gradually until the mixture gets creamy. If you don’t find it creamy enought you can add some extra milk or water. 

Once the mixture is done put ot to a simple plastic box , bowl or any kind of shape you’d like to add to your cheese and let it settle in the fridge overnight .

Bon apétit ! 🙂

Source: http://veganreceptek.webnode.hu/products/fokhagymas-trappista-sajt-/

 

The perfect cheesy brunch for a rainy Sunday :)

In general I am not a morning person but I definitelly prefer having a proper breakfast or a brunch than going out to fancy   restaurants. The whole atmosphere of these places are so mind-blowing and every time I am  having my coffee, croissant, sandwich, omlett or porridge out I feel like a real queen…its like giving yourself and early treat and having the best kick off for a perfect day. I think its really important to start a day positively and acknowledge as early as possible that you deserve to be given the best of everything…( inlcuding a shower, but that’s out of the point now…)So I decided to follow this rule each and every day and surprise myself in the morning…. also my friends if they are
fit enough to come over to my cave… actually it is better to be enjoyed with others, but you’ll never know who might show up:)

I had plenty of time to wonder a little bit ont he bus on the way back from work about the best brunch menu and I think I quite did a good job and created a list of delicious things that could fit to the autumn mood and a lazy Sunday. Of course homemade cheese took a great part in it and I also wanted to try out a farm-style fresh cheese recipe I recently found online…

Some of the dishes might need a little bit of preparation but I promise that this might help you and your friends to survive a rainy and cold Sunday.

So here is your perfect menu with YOUR homemade spicy farm-stlyle cheese, spicy pumpkin dip, fresh avocado cream and toast with garlic.

Farmer’s Cheese

• 1 gallon milk
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• Fresh oregano, thyme and basil
• 1 large pot
• Plastic colander
• Cheesecloth or old bandana

Heat your milk to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat and add vinegar. Leave the milk to settle for 25-30 minutes. Once the milk is separated, pour the whey and curds into your colander lined with cheesecloth over another large pot, but you also do it over the sink if you don’t want to keep the whey. ( I actually reheated the whey for extra 20 minutes and added vinegar again. The outcome was a more creamy and sweet ricotta like cheese.) So,  stir in salt and herbs to the curds, then tie up the cheesecloth with a twisting motion to press out whey. Place it back to the colander and allow to drain for an hour and voilá here’s your homemade cheese.

Spicy pumpkin dip… that’s easy also and you can prepare it while the milk is settling 🙂

• 1 small pumpkin
• ½ teaspoon coriander
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt

Preheat the oven to 200 celsius, chop the pumpkin to 4 parts and put them to the oven for 25 minutes until they get a bit of roasted. Once it is done smash the pumpkin with a fork and stir it together with all the other ingredients until it gets creamy.

Avocado cream…

Peal the avocado and chop it to little pieces, add some salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice, ½ teaspoon of olive oil and stir.

It seems that everyhing is ready now to enjoy the morning … except coffee, but I won’t get into details about coffee making 🙂

And finally,  toast some bread, put some garlic on top ( optional) and enjoy the last day of the week 😉

I hope you have a good morning!

Source:

http://pocketpause.com/farmers-cheese-easiest-homemade-cheese-recipe/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/spicy-pumpkin-dip-recipe.html