Beans with aspargus

Ingredients

• 300 gr big white beans
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 big onion
• 2 carrots
• 1 leek
• couple garlic nails
• white aspargus 
• parsley
• 1dl white whine
• 4 eggs
• saffron

Preparation

Leave overnight the beans in water, at least 12h. Next day discard the water and in a pot place the beans, onion, carrot, leek, garlic and bay leave, cover everything with water and set the fire to medium heat.

When the water starts to boil, drop half a glass of cold water to stop the boiling, this prevents the beans to break. Repeat this for 3-4 times and then let it boil slowly for 1,5-2h or as long as the package recommends.

When the beans are cooked place the vegetables, discarting the carrot and bay leaves, and blend it together with few broken beans, this will help thicken the sauce. Pour it back to the pot with the rest of the beans and mix gently, always with a wooden spoon.

Chop the parsley finely and pour it to the pot, as well add the white aspargus (you can chop them or put them whole), a bit of saffron and the white wine, let it boil for few minutes to evaporate the alcohol.

Serve with half boiled egg

If you have available, add few clams few minutes before serving.
Hope you like it!
Mr South

Butternut pumpkin cream

Hei guys! sorry for the long silence! During this christmas we have been in Spain, eating a lot, so we came back with few extra kilos!

So thought we could make a post of a light vegetable cream for those days after heavy xmas meals.

Ingredients

• Half butternut pumpkin
• 1 large leek
• 1 tbsp philadelphia cream cheese
• 1 tbsp cashew nuts
• olive oil, salt, pepper

Preparation

Easy preparation, clean and chop a large leek and saute in a casserole with a bit of oil. Meanwhile clean half a butternut pumpkin and chop in dices, when the leek is changing color, add the pumpkin. Saute it for few minutes and cover with water.

After 15 min, when the pumpkin gets soft, add the philadelphia and the cashew nuts and blend together.

For serving you can add a bit of salt flakes and sunflower seeds.

Hope you like it!
Mr South

Beetroot hummus, tzatziki and dried tomato pesto with arabic/asian salad

Today, I wanted to make hummus. I love beans, I love hummus and sometimes I buy it in supermarket, but today I decided to try myself, and I'm not kidding, is super fast!!

Beetroot season is almost over so wanted to use the last bits of fresh beetroot, and seemed a good idea to mix it with hummus, and it was!

So the idea was to make this three delicious side dish sauces and with a bit of leftovers I did an amazing salad! I have to confess that coriander and I weren't good friends, but I'm starting to appreciate the little spicy aromatic kick of this plant.

Ingredients

Beetroot hummus 

• 150g chickpeas
• 1 lime
• 1 small finely grated beetroot
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt
• pepper 
• 1 nail garlic

Dried tomato pesto

• 10 dried tomatoes
• 8-10 roasted hazelnut
• 100g grated parmesan cheese
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 1 nail garlic

Tzatziki

• half lime
• 2tbsp thick yogurt
• 200g finely and medium grated cucumber
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 nail garlic
• olive oil

Salad

• 50g green pepper
• 50 g chickpeas
• 180g kidney beans
• 20g couscous
• 20g sunflower seeds
• half small onion
• half thick grated carrot
• half thick grated cucumber
• coriander
• half lime
• olive oil

Preparation

Beetroot hummus

From a can of chickpeas, use 3/4, aprox 150g (dried weight) and rinse it with water, then pour them into the food processor or blender.

Grate finely a peeled beetroot and put it together with the chickpeas. Add 1 lime juice and olive oil.

I use lime because I like it much better than lemon, which I find too strong taste and somehow masks all other flavors.

Give it couple minutes in the blender and try it. Put black pepper and salt as desired as well as water if you prefer a less thick hummus.

Dried tomato pesto

Again, with a blender or food processor, add 10 dried tomatoes, 8-10 roasted hazelnuts (I didn't have pine nuts but roasted hazelnuts taste amazing) 100g finely grated parmesan cheese and a bit of garlic and olive oil.

Couple of minutes in the blender and it is ready. 

IF you want to freeze this for another occasion, like that is perfect, otherwise add more olive oil before serving.

Tzatziki

In a bowl, add 2 big table spoons of thick yogurt, juice of half a lime, grated cucumber (most of it finely and a bit quite thick) a crushed garlic, 1/2 tea spoon of sugar, 1 tea spoon of salt and stir it till it becomes homogeneous. Taste it and add more lime juice, salt or whatever you like best and in the end add the olive oil.

Asian/Arabic salad

Ok first of all, there is no name for the salad, I just started adding things I had and thought would go together.

In a serving bowl, add the leftovers of chickpeas, open a can and rinse it of kidney beans and pour it too. Grate in the thickest size, half a carrot and half cucumber. Chop really small half a small onion and green pepper and add it to the serving bowl.

For the couscous, a bit more boiling water than amount of couscous, 1:1,5 I use. In a bowl, add the couscous, a bit of salt, black pepper, olive oil and a bit roasted curry powder (careful it is strong stuff). Then add the boiling water, give it couple of stirs and place a dish on top of the bowl so the steam can't escape. Live it rest for 5 min. When ready pour it to the serving bowl.

For finishing, add the sunflower seeds, chopped coriander, olive oil and half lime juice. Mix it together and it is ready!

For serving we had pita bread; take it from the bag, splash some water in top, 30seconds microwave and good to go!

 

Hope you like it!

Mr South

Beetroot burgers

Hei!

we bring you today a vegetarian recipe, with a really typical Finnish style, beetroot burgers. We have done many experiments about vegetarian burgers, we have tried Jamie Oliver 15 min meals vegetarian burgers, we have tried the burgers from www.greenkitchenstories.com and in the end...we have picked an idea from here an there as to make our own recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 beetroots
• a can of kidney beans (aprox 200gr dried weight)
• 4-5 marinated garlic with olive oil
• half small onion
• 100 gr feta cheese
• parsley
• tsp whole grain mustard

Preparation

Peel, clean and grate the beetroot with a fine grater. Put in the blender the beans, the onion, parsley, the whole grain mustard and add a bit of salt and pepper, blend it as to achieve an homogeneous mix.

Mix it with the grated beetroot and and add the feta cheese which you will mince with your fingers. Stir it and it is ready.

Now the moment to get dirty!

With the proportions given above, you will get four nice hamburgers. Before putting them into the pan with a bit of olive oil, we have sprinkle a bit of flour, not to get sticked, but it is not mandatory. 

Fry them 5 min each side and place them into a tray as to put into the oven at 220°C for 10 minutes. That will get the outside crispy and the inner part cooked!

Then it is just matter of building your desired hamburger!! in the pictures I use a whole wheat bun with lettuce, red pepper, pickles, cheese and mustard, it was delicious!!

hope you try this recipe and if you have your own version we would love to hear it!